5 1 0:About Logging
Overview
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Logging in SEP sesam is an important component of managing and troubleshooting backup environment, and provides insights into system operations. Logging is a powerful tool for monitoring, diagnosing issues, and ensuring the smooth operation of your backup environment. Properly configured logs and interfaces contribute to a proactive approach to system management and disaster recovery.
Key features
The logging functionality provides the following features:
- Different log types are available to help you track daily operations, troubleshoot and identify issues in the environment or processes.
- Adjustable log levels enable tailoring the depth and detail of captured information for analysis of a specific issue, or for collecting debugging information in case of troubleshooting.
- Audit logging records user-triggered actions in the GUI and Web UI, enhancing data integrity, security, and compliance.
- Configurable interfaces provide logs for SEP sesam error alerts, license violations, and disaster recovery.
- Real-time current messages view enables live tracking of drives, associated sessions, and drive status.
Available log types
In Web UI, you can access the logs by clicking on System Logs in the navigation menu (available in Advanced view). Logs can be selected in the drop-down menu in the content pane.
Screenshots
The default SEP sesam directory for logs is <SESAM_VAR> (/var/opt/sesam/var). For more information, see Directory Layout.
Current messages
In Web UI, the Current Messages view displays drives, associated sessions, and drive status in real-time and enables live tracking of SEP sesam operations. Log information can be downloaded or refreshed as needed.
System logs
For each backup day, SEP sesam creates three essential log files:
- State Log with filename <date>.status, displays the status of the SEP sesam backup day, with one line for each backup in chronological order. Helpful for tracking the status of each backup task.
- Day Log with filename <date>.prt, collects messages from all SEP sesam modules for each backup day, categorized by type (I=information, W=warning, E=error). The primary source for detailed information about daily operations.
- Error Log with filename <date>.prt.err, is a subset of the day log and contains critical errors recorded during the backup day. Useful for isolating and addressing specific issues.
- REST Server Log (available to superuser only) with filename sm_gui_server.log, logs activities on SEP sesam GUI Server and user-triggered actions in the GUI and Web UI.
- Configuration File sm.ini (available to superuser only) displays the contents of the sm.ini configuration file, which contains the SEP sesam configuration, specifically the paths for the binaries and the SEP sesam
vararea.
Interface logs
SEP sesam offers configurable interfaces, intended for system administrators who can use them to create their own commands. For each interface a log file is available:
- Notify Log: When the notify interface is enabled, the notify log displays the report of successfully finished events, such as backup, restore, start/finish of a NEWDAY event, etc., depending on the configuration of sm_notify. For details, see Configuring interfaces.
- Alarm Log: When the alarm interface is enabled, the alarm log displays functional errors, license violations and other alarm messages, such as a backup failure or a denied connection. This interface can be programmed to filter desired messages and forward them to an authorized person. For details, see Alarm interface.
- Disaster Log: When the disaster interface is enabled, it sends an email with a description of the disaster recovery process and the SEP sesam bootstrap database. The disaster log contains the information for the SEP sesam disaster recovery. For details, see SEP sesam Server Disaster Recovery.
Status logs
To help monitor and health-check SEP sesam operations, the following log files are provided:
- Process Status: Displays the status of SEP sesam processes on the SEP sesam Server. Note that you can also use the command sm_main status in the command line to display all processes and daemons.
- Drive Status: Displays the status of drive queues managed by a queue manager (QM) for all configured drives. The display can be modified to display information only for a selected drive (enter drive number in the Drive field, then press Enter key or click Refresh button). Enter * (asterisk) to display information for all drives.
Audit logs
SEP sesam offers audit logs to record user-triggered actions in the GUI and Web UI, enhancing data integrity, security, and compliance. For more information about audit logs, see Audit Logging.
Adjusting log levels
To gather more detailed information or troubleshoot specific problems, events or modules, or if you are asked by SEP sesam Support to diagnose your specific problem, you can run SEP sesam with a higher log level than the default (0 for backup and restore). Note that increasing the log level increases the amount of information being logged and may negatively impact SEP sesam's performance. For details, see Setting Log Level.
See also
Audit Logging - Setting Log Level - Analyzing SEP sesam Log Files - Error Messages Guide - Directory Layout