WebSphere Portal Express and Express Plus V5 for the IBM eServer iSeries Server

356 WebSphere Portal Express and Express Plus V5 for the IBM Eserver iSeries Server

9.3.3 Runtime logs

The runtime logs contain messages and trace information if tracing is enabled. The default

location for the runtime logs is /QIBM/UserData/WebAS5/Base/instance/PortalServer5/log,

where instance is the name of the WebSphere Application Server instance. The log files are

stamped with the date and time that the file is created. This means that, each time the

WebSphere Portal instance is started, a new log file is created.

By default, only messages are logged to the runtime log. Messages are informational,

warning, or error messages. This level of logging cannot be turned off. Trace messages are

only logged if tracing is enabled. Tracing is disabled by default since the trace slows down the

server and the log files grow quickly. Only enable tracing to help track down and isolate a

problem. You can learn more about how to turn on tracing in Chapter 10, “Logging and

tracing” on page 359.

Since runtime logs can be big, and since a new log file is created each time the instance is

started, you must develop a policy for dealing with old runtime log files. There are two obvious

runtime logs that you want to keep. First is the current or most recent log file. Second is any

runtime log file that is actively used to track down or isolate a problem.

You can delete other old log files on a periodic basis that is consistent with existing operations

cleanup, such as cleaning up QHST messages or OS/400 problem log entries. If you have the

room, you may want to keep the second most recent runtime log. During problem debug, the

previous log can be useful to determine when the problem was first seen by the system.

9.4 WebSphere Portal runtime code

A difference between WebSphere Portal and other WebSphere products is the location of the

runtime code. In the discussion about WebSphere Portal fixes, we hinted about the fact that

the actual runtime code for WebSphere Portal is located with each instance. When you create

a new WebSphere Portal instance, the runtime is copied from the product data to the user

data.

For the iSeries, this means that the WebSphere Portal (WebSphere Portal Server) runtime is

copied from /QIBM/ProdData/PortalServer5 to /QIBM/UserData/WebAS5/

Base/instance, where instance is the name of the WebSphere Application Server instance.

This means that the WebSphere Portal runtime is copied to multiple locations.

An advantage of having the runtime in each WebSphere Portal instance is that you can apply

a fix to a single instance without affecting all the instances. However, this does introduce a

few caveats of which you need to be aware.

First, when you apply a fix, either through the PTF process or the WebSphere Portal Update

Installer process, the fix is applied only to the instance or instances that you specify. The

update is not applied to the product data code. As shown in Figure 9-5, only the Portal1

instance is updated with fixes via WebSphere Portal Update Installer. The Portal2 instance

and any newly created instance does not have that level of fix installed.