Log File Formats

Each log file is a simple listing of logged messages. Operations Sentinel logging creates one file per day for each log:  host log, application log, and standard log.

Typical Message Format

Message are typically shown in a format similar to one of the following:

source^msgtype> 12:01:00.147  12:05:00  message-text
source^qualifier: msgtype> 12:01:00.147  12:05:00  message-text

Notes:

  • A consolidated log file has a different message format.

  • In some rare cases the time in the log may not be updated automatically. This might require a restart of Operations Sentinel services.

source

is one of the following log sources:

^

is a delimiter.

 

qualifier

further qualifies the log source. Where there are multiple instances or subparts of a log source, this field identifies the instance or subpart. This corresponds to the application qualifier in an event report.

 

:

is the optional delimiter that indicates that a qualifier or session is present.

msgtype

is the type of the logged message. See Message Types for a list of the message types. Other values can be defined by site applications or by log event reports generated from SP-AMS database specifications.

 

>

is a delimiter.

 

12:01:00.147

is the time (to millisecond granularity) the message was logged by Operations Sentinel, the Operations Sentinel server timestamp

12:05:00

is the time (to second granularity) the message was generated by the sender, the host local timestamp. The time reflects the time zone of the sender. The host local time is present only if it or a synchronizing time is received from the sender.

The host local time is generated as follows for various system types and applications:

message-text

is the text as it appears on the console if the log corresponds to a configured host and the log source is a console.

Consolidated Log

The message format of a consolidated log file varies. The consolidated log file is always sorted by the Operations Sentinel time. Some log file messages may also include the local host time.

The first field of a consolidated log file contains the log name of where the information came from. The file also contains information regarding the start time, end time, start date, and the log message.