Logging is the means by which CentraSite provides you with time-stamped and labeled information about the design/change-time and run-time events. Logging provides both a current snapshot of the event as well as a historical view.
By understanding and using Messaging Server log files, you can:
Run-time performance data posted by a target (i.e., a policy enforcement point (PEP) or a run-time monitoring component such as Insight).
Run-time event data (transaction events, policy violation events, etc.) posted by a target.
Approval history data.
Design/change-time policy data.
Audit data.
Federation job queue data.
Consumer Registration data.
For example, if your CentraSite needs to add more disk storage due to an increase in the number of assets, you can use Audit log files to see what percentage the asset activities has increased by and plan for the amount of new disk storage you need.
CentraSite can maintain five types of system logs:
The Policy Log contains information about the design/change-time policies that CentraSite has executed. By default, CentraSite only logs information about policies that fail. However, you can optionally configure CentraSite to log information about policies that resulted in success, informational, warning, and failure alerts (see Configuring Logs).
In addition, if you purge the policy log, CentraSite makes an entry in the policy log to indicate that entries have been purged.
To view the Policy Log, you must belong to a role that includes the "View Policy Log" permission. To see the list of predefined roles that include this permission, see the section About Roles and Permissions in the document Users, Groups, Roles and Permissions.
For the procedure to view the Policy Log, see the topic Viewing the Policy Log in the section Functional Scope in the document Working with Design/Change-Time Policies.
The Approval History Log contains a record of all approval requests that have been triggered by a policy with an approval workflow action. This log shows the status of each approval request that has been submitted to CentraSite.
To view the Approval History Log, you must belong to a role that includes the "View Approval History" permission. To see the list of predefined roles that include this permission, see the section About Roles and Permissions in the document Users, Groups, Roles and Permissions.
To view the Approval History Log, perform the following steps:
To view the Approval History Log
In CentraSite Control, go to Administration > Logs > Approval History.
Filter your search for approval log information by completing the following fields and clicking :
| In this field... | Do the following... |
|---|---|
| Object Name | The object that was submitted for approval. |
| Approval Flow Name | The name assigned to the approval workflow. |
| Requestor | Click and select the user who requested the approval. |
| Approver | Click and select the user(s) who approved the request. |
| Request Date From/To | Use the calendar to specify a date range for the requests. |
| Approval Date From/To | Use the calendar to specify a date range for the approvals. |
| Status | Select a status of the approval request (e.g., In Progress, Approved, etc.). |
To view details of a particular approval workflow, click the hyperlinked value in the Approval Flow Name column.
The Approval Flow Information panel provides the following information about the approval workflow.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Approval Flow Name | Name of the approval workflow. |
| Mode | Mode of the approval workflow (e.g., Anyone or Everyone). |
| Status | Status of the approval policy (e.g., In Progress, Approved, New, No Action, Pending or Rejected). |
| Creation Date | Date when the approval workflow was created. |
The Requestor Summary panel provides the following information about the requestor of the approval workflow.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Requestor Name | User who triggered the approval workflow. |
| Approval Type | Name of the approval action (for example, Initiate Approval or Initiate Group-dependent Approval) |
| Entity | Name of the entity on which the approval was triggered. |
| Reason for Request | Additional comments or descriptive information stating the reason for the approval request. |
The Approver Summary panel provides the following information about the approver(s) of the approval workflow.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Approver | User who approved or rejected the approval workflow. |
| Action | Action of the approver (e.g., Approved or Rejected). |
| Comments | Additional comments or descriptive information stating the reason for approval or rejection. |
An audit log reports on the creation/update activities of a particular asset (including changes in an asset's lifecycle state).
You can view the audit logs of any asset that you can view. For more information about asset permissions, see the section Setting Permissions on an Asset in the document Using the Asset Catalog.
To view an asset's audit log, perform the following steps:
To view an asset's audit log
Display the asset's detail page and select the Audit Log profile as described in the section Viewing Details for an Asset in the document Using the Asset Catalog.
The Audit Log profile displays the following information:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Event Type | The type of event that was executed on the asset (e.g., created or updated). |
| Date/Time | The date and time that the event was executed. |
| User | The user who executed the event. |
| Comment | Descriptive information about the event executed on the asset. |
The run-time event log contains information about run-time events that have occurred in a target (i.e., a policy-enforcement point (PEP) or a run-time monitoring component).
The target publishes to CentraSite the run-time events that have occurred (assuming that the target type contains a MIB file in its target type definition file, as described in the section Creating and Managing Target Types in the document Managing Targets and Run-Time Events). CentraSite provides predefined event types for use with webMethods Mediator or any third-party PEP that is integrated with CentraSite (or more information, see the section Run-Time Events in the document Managing Targets and Run-Time Events).
Each asset has its own run-time event log, which is located on the Events profile on its detail page. (To view an asset's detail page, see the section Viewing Details for an Asset in the document Using the Asset Catalog.) For a description of the Events profile of a virtual service, see the topic The Events Profile in the section Viewing or Editing the Profiles of Virtualized Services in the document Working with Virtualized Services. The Events profile is similar for all assets.
By default, all the predefined event types are logged, but you may disable any type (see Configuring Logs).
Users with the proper permissions can perform these additional tasks:
View a log of all run-time events that have occurred in a particular target or in all targets system-wide.
Create and manage custom run-time event types for use with webMethods Mediator or any third-party PEP that is integrated with CentraSite.
For more information about these additional tasks, see the section Run-Time Events in the document Managing Targets and Run-Time Events.
Targets capture run-time metrics for assets. If you are using the Mediator target, Mediator's data collector captures Key Performance Indicator (KPI) metrics for each virtual service and publishes them to CentraSite at regular intervals. If you are using a run-time monitoring component such as Insight, the monitoring component captures the KPI metrics of all rogue assets and publishes them to CentraSite at regular intervals.
Each asset has its own performance log, which is located on the Performance profile on its detail page. (To view an asset's detail page, see the section Viewing Details for an Asset in the document Using the Asset Catalog.) For a description of the performance metrics of a virtual service, see the section Run-Time Events in the document Managing Targets and Run-Time Events. The Performance profile is similar for all assets.
By default this log is enabled, but you may disable it as described in Configuring Logs.
