PingDirectory

Debug log

The debug log provides a means of obtaining information that can be used for troubleshooting problems but is not necessary or desirable to have available while the server is functioning normally. As a result, the debug log is disabled by default, but it can be enabled and configured at any time.

Some of the most notable configuration properties for the debug log publisher include:

  • enabled – Indicates whether debug logging is enabled. By default, it is disabled.

  • log-file – Specifies the path to the file to be written. By default, debug messages are written to the logs/debug file.

  • default-debug-level – Specifies the minimum log level for debug messages that should be written. The default value is “error,” which only provides information about errors that occur during processing (for example, exception stack traces). Other supported debug levels include warning, info, and verbose. Note that unlike error log severities, the debug log levels are hierarchical. Configuring a specified debug level enables any debugging at any higher levels. For example, configuring the info debug level automatically enables the warning and error levels.

  • default-debug-category – Specifies the categories for debug messages that should be written. Some of the most useful categories include caught (provides information and stack traces for any exceptions caught during processing), database-access (provides information about operations performed in the underlying database), protocol (provides information about ASN.1 and LDAP communication performed by the server), and data (provides information about raw data read from or written to clients).

As with the error and access logs, multiple debug loggers can be active in the server at any time with different configurations and log files to help isolate information that might be relevant to a particular problem.

Enabling one or more debug loggers can have a significant impact on server performance. We recommend that debug loggers be enabled only when necessary, and then be scoped so that only pertinent debug information is recorded.

Debug targets can be used to further pare down the set of messages generated. For example, you can specify that the debug logs be generated only within a specific class or package. If you need to enable the debug logger, you should work with your authorized support provider to best configure the debug target and interpret the output.