Collecting Diagnostic Information

About Logging in TA

The Logs pane in TA shows basis auditing information and some error gathering from normal operation. This is enough to tell us that there is a problem, but it is usually not enough to explain why there is a problem.

The term, logging, generally refers to an auditing level of information that is always available without special configuration. Diagnostic logging refers to information that is gathered only for troubleshooting purposes and is not normally turned on.

When trying to troubleshoot an issue with the Master, client, or agent components of TA , the diagnostic and logging tools that come standard with the application can narrow down and pinpoint where the existing problem might be.

Other systems that TA is working with such as SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle Applications and various operating systems provide their own diagnostic and logging information. This diagnostic information may be needed to get to the root of any given problem, so working with the appropriate system administrators is crucial to troubleshooting success. Anything from a database trace or a network sniffer to the operating system’s own internal logging can be helpful.

Diagnostic Logging

When a problem occurs that prevents TA from running correctly, diagnostic logging collects information about the various processes that are running on the system as the problem occurs. You collect information to find clues in the various system messages about the cause of the problem.

Often the error messages displayed in the client console that are generated by a problem, provide an indication of the source of the problem revealing which component should be monitored. If no source is indicated in the error message, check the messages in the system log for clues to the source of the problem. Once the source of the problem is identified, you can enable diagnostic logging for that system component. Select the level of logging detail for the system components being monitored from the Logging tab of the System Configuration dialog.

Be careful when using the diagnostic logging function as logging messages can consume a large amount of disk space very quickly. Carefully monitor the size of the log file being created as excessive logging consumes system resources as well as disk space. Try to repeat the scenario that produced the problem, so system activity can be recorded for the Tidal Support Center to interpret. Once the problem occurs again, contact the Tidal Support Center and send them the logging file that is generated.

It is recommended that anti-virus software either be disabled during diagnostic logging or configured to not check the diagnostic files that are created during diagnostic logging. The constant writing of diagnostic information to these files will consume too much attention from the anti-virus software and consume an extensive amount of system resources. The default location for diagnostic logs on the Master machine is C:\Program Files\Tidal\Scheduler\Master\logs.

Performance Issues and Your TA Database

Be sure to check that your TA database is up, running efficiently, and is not overloaded.