PingFederate records runtime and administrative server activities in <pf_install>/pingfederate/log/server.log. Enabling verbose logging changes the log level from INFO to DEBUG or TRACE, depending on the log category.

Important:

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.

The following table describes the log categories.

Log category Description

Core

Debug logging for core components.

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.

Note:

You can customize the log categories by editing the configuration file, <pf_install>/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.

To enable verbose logging:

  1. Go to System > Server > Log Settings.
  2. Enable Verbose logging for one or more categories.

    By default, no categories have verbose logging enabled.

  3. Click Save.
  4. If PingFederate is deployed in a cluster, replicate the changes to the other servers in the cluster.

    For more information, see Cluster management.