--- title: Log settings description: To help you resolve problems, you can use the Log settings window to temporarily enable detailed, or verbose, message logging for specific server log categories. component: pingfederate version: 13.1 page_id: pingfederate:administrators_reference_guide:help_logsettingstasklet_logsettingsstate canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingfederate/13.1/administrators_reference_guide/help_logsettingstasklet_logsettingsstate.html llms_txt: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingfederate/llms.txt docs_for_agents: https://developer.pingidentity.com/build-with-ai/docs-for-agents.md revdate: September 15, 2025 section_ids: about-this-task: About this task steps: Steps related-links: Related links creating-a-log-category: Creating a log category about-this-task-2: About this task steps-2: Steps example: Example: example-2: Example: removing-the-log-settings-window: Removing the Log Settings window about-this-task-3: About this task steps-3: Steps enabling_verbose_logging_lifetime_expiration: Enabling verbose logging lifetime expiration about-this-task-4: About this task steps-4: Steps result: Result: --- # Log settings To help you resolve problems, you can use the **Log settings** window to temporarily enable detailed, or verbose, message logging for specific server log categories. ## About this task PingFederate records runtime and administrative server activities in `/pingfederate/log/server.log`. Enabling verbose logging changes the log level from `INFO` to `DEBUG` or `TRACE`, depending on the log category. | | | | - | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Verbose messages in some categories can include sensitive information. Also, logging verbose messages can decrease server performance. Therefore, when you finish troubleshooting, disable verbose logging. | | | | | - | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | You can customize the log categories by editing the configuration file, `/pingfederate/server/default/conf/log4j-categories.xml`. Changes to this file affect both the **Log Settings** window and the `/serverSettings/logSettings` in the administrative API. For more information, see the comments in `log4j-categories.xml`. | ## Steps 1. Go to **System > Server > Log Settings**. 2. Enable **Verbose** logging for one or more categories. By default, no categories have verbose logging enabled. | Log category | Description | | ------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Core** | Debug logging for core components. | | **Protocol Requests and Responses** | Debug logging for protocol requests and responses. Enabling this category ensures that details of protocol requests and responses are included in the log. | | **Policy Tree** | Debug logging for policy trees. | | **Data Store Response Times** | Log response times for data store requests. | | **Trusted CAs** | Log PingFederate and JRE trusted CAs when they are loaded. | | **XML Signatures** | Debug logging for XML signature operations. | | **HTTP Request Headers** | Log HTTP request headers. PingFederate might log sensitive information, such as passwords, when you enable verbose message logging for this category. | | **HTTP Request Parameters** | Log HTTP GET request parameters. PingFederate might log sensitive information, such as passwords, when you enable verbose message logging for this category. | | **REST Data Store Requests and Responses** | Log REST datastore requests and responses. PingFederate might log sensitive information, such as passwords, when you enable verbose message logging for this category. | 3. Click **Save**. If PingFederate is deployed in a cluster, log settings automatically replicate to engine nodes by default. Learn more in [Cluster management](pf_cluster_management.html). ## Related links * [PingFederate log files](pf_log_files.html) ## Creating a log category Create a custom log category to help you report specific troubleshooting information in PingFederate. ### About this task Starting with version 11.2, PingFederate allows you to create custom logging categories. These categories allow you to track activities that are available but aren't logged by default. ### Steps 1. Open the `/pingfederate/server/default/conf/log4j-categories.xml` file and add a category entry. ### Example: ``` ``` **Category entry parameters** | Parameter | Description | | ------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `id` | The reference name for the logger.Must be a unique alphanumeric string. | | `name` | The friendly name for the logger.The name will appear in the admin console, so it should be descriptive of the logger. | | `offLevel` | The default level of logging and verbosity for when the category is disabled.Valid values are:- `FATAL` - `ERROR` - `WARN` - `INFO` (recommended) - `DEBUG` - `TRACE`For more information, see [Log4j 2 logging service and configuration](pf_log4j_2_loggin_service_and_config.html). | | `onLevel` | The increased level of verbosity for when the category is active. Used to troubleshoot issues.Valid values are:- `FATAL` - `ERROR` - `WARN` - `INFO` - `DEBUG`(Recommended) - `TRACE`For more information, see [Log4j 2 logging service and configuration](pf_log4j_2_loggin_service_and_config.html). | | `description` | A friendly description for the logger.The description will appear in the admin console. | 2. Save and close the `log4j-categories.xml` file. 3. Open the `/pingfederate/server/default/conf/log4j2.xml` and, under the `Loggers` section, add a logger entry. ### Example: ``` ``` For the example logger entry `sys:pf.log.level.formAdapter:-INFO`, the syntax is as follows: * `sys:pf.log.level` This is a constant value for all logger entries. * `formAdapter` The `id` value from the category entry. Case sensitive. * `:-INFO` The default starting logging level. Should match the `offLevel` value in the category entry. 4. Save and close the `log4j2.xml` file. 5. Copy both files to each PingFederate instance in the cluster that you want the settings to apply to. 6. Restart PingFederate. ## Removing the Log Settings window ### About this task You can remove the **Log Settings** window from the administrative console, requiring administrators to use only the administrative API for enabling verbose messaging. The log settings are located in the administrative API at `/serverSettings/logSettings`. ### Steps 1. Go to the `/pingfederate/server/default/data/config-store` directory. 2. Open the `org.sourceid.saml20.domain.mgmt.impl.LogSettingsManagerImpl.xml` file in a text editor. 3. Change the value of the `ShowLogSettingsPage` parameter to `false`. 4. Save your changes. ## Enabling verbose logging lifetime expiration ### About this task You can optionally configure verbose logging lifetime expiration, which automatically disables verbose logging after a specified time. This feature helps reduce the cost of processing and storing a large volume of verbose logs over time. This feature is disabled by default. ### Steps 1. Open the `/pingfederate/server/default/conf/log4j-categories-settings.conf` file in a text editor. 2. Change the value of the `verbose.logging.max.lifetime` property to a positive integer. This value specifies the maximum duration, in minutes, that verbose logging remains active before it's automatically disabled. 3. Change the value of the `verbose.logging.lifetime.default` property to a value less than or equal to the value of `verbose.logging.max.lifetime`. 4. Restart PingFederate to apply your changes. ### Result: The **Verbose Logging Lifetime (Minutes)** list is added to the **Log Settings** configuration page. | | | | - | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | After making changes to `log4j-categories-settings.conf`, you must manually replicate the changes to all nodes in the cluster. The configuration replication process doesn't push these files across the cluster. Restarting PingFederate applies these changes. |