Is it safe to Delete all the Log files On TS serve

Hi,

Is it safe to delete all the Log files (teamsite/iw-home/local/logs/) such as iwtace.log, iwserver.log, iwevents.log and worflow (dir) related files. ect ect..from TS Server hosted on SUN platform? These logs files captured more than 5 GB of disc space and it's causing the low disc space problem on TS.

I know it's safe to delete the log files but I want to make sure by double checking with you experts.

Would appreciate a quick response..

Thanks in Advance...
GaamChai

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Comments

Jeremy

I think you'd have to stop the Teamsite Service as they have probably got a handle on the file.
After that I think it is fine to delete/backup the log files.

Jeremy

Maninder_IBM

We have the same problem garam. We had to delete ours by stopping the service.

Do any of you know if it is possible to set a limit on the file sizes. This is so that older data in the logs get deleted? If there isn't I think there should be a feature to do this.. I feel an enhancement request coming on!

Bubas_IWOV

Hi,

I think some changes into this should be done, because i think is fair to say that we all fight with space problems, and this log files can come to stupdly big sizes.

But as well, one thing i would call to the attention is that if files, like iwtrace.log keep on growing is because or you are outping too much info to it you may still have a lot of bugs going on.

To delete them, yes stop the Teamsite service and delete them and then start the service again.

But you are all right, there should a function in Temaiste to monitor the size of the logs.

Bruno

Migrateduser

There is a feature request - 46053 that relates to this post. The Feature Request says: We need to ship a log rotation system. Some customers are ending up with 3 gig iwevents log files. We also have to make it so the server does not have to be shut down to change a log file.

If you would like to have your company listed against this Feature Request, please contact tech support.

lissa

StuFox

I have developed a solution to rotated logs without needing to stop the IW services, we are using Windows 2000. However the concept behind it may be handy for SUN users.

I basically wrote a script that copies the current log file to another location for backup (dating it), then copies a blank text file over the top of the active log file.

This works for us - hope it helps.

-Stu

Ottawa_IWOV

Any chance of posting this script? I could write it, but would like to see how you achieved it.

Thanks,

Lucas.

Lucas Cochrane
lcochrane@dc.com

msrich

You say stop then start the TS service. We have found in practice that it is not possible to simply restart the TS service; the server must be rebooted. My understanding was that for Windows 2000 TeamSite, such a reboot is still required.

msrich

Lissa: Do you think StuFox is onto something when he says he copies a zero-byte file overtop of in-use log files? Do you think it's possible to truncate all logs this way without taking down the TeamSite service?
Thanks.

Adam Stoller

For truncation - yes:

[Unix] cp /dev/null /var/adm/iwtrace.log

would work.

For rotation, copying then truncating would work, but it leaves a window in time in which it is possible that data will be written to the log file after the copy but before the truncation, and thus lost completely.

It's generally a good idea to figure out what kinds of messages are showing up in the logfiles and finding out if there are ways to resolve any of it.

For Windows, by the way, I believe 5.5.2 SP3 was the first release officially supported to allow restarting the TeamSite server [on Winows] without requiring a reboot -- however I suggest getting confirmation as I could be wrong about that.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

File.pdf

Migrateduser

please put my company (Federated Investors) down for this feature request. thanks!

---------------------
Eric B.
Federated Investors
AOL IM: arthas76

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hisuri23

Here are the few lines of the shell script I am using for log rotation

Log rotation

cp /var/adm/iwtrace.log /var/adm/archive/iwtrace.log
cat /dev/null > /var/adm/iwtrace.log
gzip /var/adm/archive/iwtrace.log

Log removal - remove the log files if they are older than 30 days

find /var/adm/archive -name "*.Z" -mtime +30 -exec rm {$1} \;

Bob_B

We are having an issue with the log rotation w/o stopping the server (using TS 4.5).

After "#cat /dev/null > /var/adm/iwtrace.log", the service still writes to the file, but retains some "counter" to append to the file (rather than a system call), which inserts enough empty lines to fill up to the previous file size, then appends the new input.

The methodology appears to have been changed in later versions of TS, as the rotation method works for those versions.

Am I on the right track with this analysis? And, if so, is there a way to "reset" this value (is it stored in a lockfile or variable)?

Thanks
Bob

kish2

Actually I had created a script that does log rotation but oin a windows machine - The script copies the logs to a backup location and just writes to the file without deleting the file but overwritting the content - I have had it running on the production after a month of testing on development and it working fine.
Open the log fies , copy content to new files in back up location, zip them and then write a line to the file - Generally done at middle of night when no one is on using a scheduled task
Let me know if i have commited a fau prau

--- nothing ventured - nothing breaks Smiley Happy

nipper

>We are having an issue with the log rotation w/o stopping the server (using TS 4.5).

You that the yaer 2000 has come and gone. That is when 4.5 was release

>After "#cat /dev/null > /var/adm/iwtrace.log", the service still writes to the file, but retains some "counter" to append to the file (rather than a system call), which >inserts enough empty lines to fill up to the previous file size, then appends the new input.

yes some log files are kept open by iwserver. The only way in 5.5.X to remove is to shut down TS.

I have not tried on 6.X

Andy

Migrateduser

Bob_B:
If you are still on 4.5 you should *seriously* consider an upgrade plan.

4.5 is at end-of-life. I realize the upgrade is non-trivial, as it requires a backing store conversion, but if you run into any difficulties it will be extremely diffiult for you you get support.

Best Regards,

lissa

Bob_B

We are upgrading to TS6, but were trying to resolve the log rotation on the legacy TS4.5 system, and encountered this issue.

I was curious as to the mechanism, and if I was correct in my analysis.

Thanks,
Bob

Migrateduser

whew! glad to hear it !

lissa

Adam Stoller

Our servers get taken down at night for backups - so we do our logrotation then while the server is down.
Haven't really tried doing it too much while the server is up - but usually copying /dev/null into the log file is sufficient. Haven't notice the blank line syndrome you mentioned - but haven't looked for it either (sorry)

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Bob_B

Well, in TS6, the method works fine (we aren't really concerned about the second or so of log loss during the rotation).

Just to clarify-
It's in TS4.5 (the system being eventually replaced), on a Solaris 7 box, and it appears to only be with the iwtrace.log file (iwevents and iwserver appear to be unaffected). Very strange.

Thanks,
Bob