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This page is for administrators who need to monitor events on the PhixFlow system. 

Overview

The areas of logging you can use to monitor PhixFlow activity are:

  1. User activity and tasks within PhixFlow: in the  System Console.
  2. The PhixFlow Webapp activity on the server and network: see the server log files
  3. Tomcat servlet activity related to PhixFlow; see the Tomcat access log.

These are described in more details below.

Activity Within PhixFlow

Where to Look

To find the information about user activity and tasks within PhixFlow, use the  System Console; see System Console. Use the:

  • Task Logs tab to monitor processes that are running on PhixFlow
  • Archive Log tab to monitor the archiving of stream sets; see pages in the Tasks, Task Plans and Archiving topic for details.

Configuration

You can configure system logging options in the System Logging Configuration properties. In the top right of the console, right-click  Logging.

In some cases you may need to investigate problems not covered by the information in the console. In this a case, refer to the server log files that record PhixFlow and Tomcat activity and network traffic. In particular, the phixflow.log files include information to help you track down problems.

See also Logs for Third-Party Systems.

Sections on this page

  1. You can get Tomcat to Log stuff about PhixFlow
  2. Create log for activity on the server: log files in the ?? logs directory
  3. Detailed activity within PhixFlow, 

Server Log Files

Where to Look

To find the information about PhixFlow Webapp activity on the server and network, use the log files saved in the <path>logs directory. You can also download a zip file of all or selected log files; see Downloading Server Log Files, below.

Configuration

During the PhixFlow webapp installation, the administrator configures the level of server logging in:

When investigating problems, you can change the logging level for PhixFlow. If you are working with the PhixFlow support team, they can provide advice on what to change.

logback.xml

Use logback.xml to configure:

  • to change the level of event or error logging recorded when you are troubleshooting
  • the name of the log files generated, if you have multiple PhixFlow instances; see Renaming the Log File.

detailed event/error logging on the server. Changes to logback.xml take effect within a minute or so, without having to restart the Tomcat server.

Edit and save the logback.xml file, which is in:

[tomcat installation base]/webapps/[instance name]/WEB-INF/classes/logback.xml

For example:

/usr/local/tomcat/webapps/phixflow/WEB-INF/classes/logback.xml

Some options can generate huge amounts of extra logging, and these will create very large log files.

PhixFlow will automatically pick up the change, so you can continue investigating, for example repeating the activity that has the problem. After repeating the problem, check your phixflow.log file to see the additional logging details. 

Remember to reset logback.xml to the standard logging options once your investigation is finished.

If you want to integrate PhixFlow server logs into other logging frameworks, such as Google Cloud's stackdriver, please contact support@phixflow.com.

phixflow-logging.xml

phixflow-logging.xml file contains a list of directories that contain log files, and is used when you download log files from the GUI. You only need to change this file as requested by PhixFlow Support.


Downloading Server Log Files

In addition to viewing the log files in the logs directory you can download a zip file of all or selected log files.

In the bottom right, click  Administration to open the Administration menu.

Select Other Options → Download Log Files. PhixFlow opens a window prompting you to enter file names.

Enter file names, optionally using an asterisk * as a wildcard.

Click  to start the download process. PhixFlow zips the specified log files into a single zipped archive. Depending on your system configuration, downloading all log files may take some time and will produce a large (several GB) zip file.

When the download is finished, a blue notification box reports that the file is ready. Click the notification to download the zip file.

The server log files generated by PhixFlow and Tomcat, are:

  • phixflow.log and phixflow.log.<date>
    phixflow.log is the default name. The name and recorded data can be configured in logback.xml.
  • security.log
  • manager.<date>.log
  • localhost_access_log.<date>.txt
  • localhost.<date>.log
  • host-manager.<date>.log
  • catalina.out and catalina.<date>.log

The main log files are phixflow.log and phixflow.log.<date>. This is the default name. The name and recorded data can be configured in logback.xml.

Security.log contains a record of all login attempts and logouts. Successful login attempts and logouts are logged with the username, session and IP address of the user. Logouts also record if the logout was the result of a user action or session timeout. Failed attempts to login are also logged with the username, IP address and reason for the failure.

If you have multiple instances of PhixFlow hosted under the same Tomcat instance, each PhixFlow instance will have a different log file name. Check logback.xml file to find out the main log file names.

Tomcat

Where to look

To find information about Tomcat servlet activity related to PhixFlow, look in the Tomcat access log. This records requests to the server.

Configuration

You can configure the Tomcat access log in $TOMCAT/conf/server.xml (this is the default location). To configure the log to record the PhixFlow user making a request, specify %{username}s in the log file configuration message pattern.

For more information about configuring the Tomcat access log, see Tomcat Configuration Reference → Attributes.

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