Add logging and tracing to your application

You can add logging and tracing to applications to help analyze performance and diagnose problems in WebSphere Application Server.

Overview

Deprecation: The JRas framework that is described in this information center is deprecated. However, you can achieve the same results using Java logging.

Designers and developers of applications that run with or under WebSphere Application Server, such as servlets, JavaServer Pages files, enterprise beans, client applications, and their supporting classes, might find it useful to use Java logging for generating their application logging. This approach has advantages over adding System.out.println statements to your code:

• Your messages are displayed in the WebSphere Application Server standard log files, using a standard message format with additional data, such as a date and time stamp that are added automatically.

• You can more easily correlate problems and events in your own application to problems and events that are associated with WebSphere Application Server components.

• You can take advantage of the WebSphere Application Server log file management features.

Procedure

1. Enable and configure one of the supported types of logging. Use one of the following methods:

   • Configuring Java logging using the administrative console

   • Configuring applications to use Jakarta Commons Logging

   • Logging Common Base Events in WebSphere Application Server.

2. Customize the properties to meet your logging needs. For example, enable or disable a particular log, specify the number of logs to be kept, and specify a format for log output.

3. Restart the application server after making static configuration changes.

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