Windows client logging and tracing

This topic describes the logging and tracing capabilities available on SAN File System Windows® clients.

Logs

On Windows clients, log messages are written to the standard event log. To view the log, click Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer.

Log messages provide information, warnings, and errors of general interest to administrators and support personnel.

Log messages are written to the standard system logging interface, the Windows Event Log. In addition to the operating system messages, the Windows Event Log contains messages generated by SAN File System.

You can use the Event Viewer to list messages from the Event Log. Double-click a message from the Event Viewer to find more information about that message. You can also use the Event Viewer to filter messages by message type, source of the message, or by a specified range of time. You can also dump events to a text file, which is useful for sending problem determination data to remote support personnel.

Log messages

The following example messages show the format of the log messages:

4/21/2003 7:32:03 PM  Stfs  Error        None  9  N/A  WINCLIENT1  
   HSTCW0009E: Couldn't contact server at IP address <18.18.18.99:11190>
4/21/2003 7:32:36 PM  Stfs  Information  None  8  N/A  WINCLIENT1  
   HSTCW0008I: Contacted server at IP address <18.18.18.99:11190>.
4/21/2003 7:32:02 PM  Stfs  Information  None  1  N/A  
   WINCLIENT1  HSTCW0001I: SAN File System client started successfully.

Traces

Tracing is started automatically on Windows clients. To disable the automatic start, edit the Windows registry and remove the Stfs\Trace\Filename setting. If tracing is not started automatically, you can manually start it using the sanfstrace utility. Use the Event Viewer to determine if tracing was started automatically.

Important: Do not initiate a trace session if a session is active. Multiple trace sessions will interfere with each other. You can, however, use the sanfstrace utility from the command-line interface (CLI) or the Microsoft® Management Console (MMC) to set the trace levels or to list the trace classes while a trace session is active.

By default, Windows client tracing is written in the file \Program Files\IBM\Storage Tank\Client\log\sanfstrace.log. You can view the trace log using a standard text editor. To change the log file name, edit the Windows registry and modify the Stfs\Trace\Filename setting.

The automatic tracing feature on Windows now adds a date and time stamp to the filename specified in the registry. For example, the default filename, sanfs.log, now appears as sanfs.log.YYYYMMDDHHMM which indicates the complete date and time that the Windows client was last booted. Therefore, the filename sanfs.log.200409021926 indicates that sanfs.log was last generated on September 2, 2004 at 7:26 p.m. Each time the client is restarted, a new trace file starts and has the same base name, but different date and time stamps. This filename convention prevents individual files from becoming too large.

Enabling detailed tracing

By default, minimal tracing is enabled. Use the sanfstrace command from the command-line interface or use Microsoft Management Console to modify and control the level of tracing for a client. Remember, however, that full tracing can significantly impact the performance of the SAN File System. To enable detailed tracing, you must provide a path and filename to a file to use for the detailed trace log:
  1. Start the Windows registry editor.
  2. Navigate to the following registry key:

    \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Stfs\ Trace

  3. In this key, there is a string value named FileName that is set to \Program Files\IBM\Storage Tank\Client\log\sanfstrace.log. Within the registry key, the Categories value defaults to Errors which enables just minimal tracing capability. Change this value to the level of tracing you want from SAN File System.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Restart for the changes to take effect.

Trace messages

The sanfstrace.log file contains tracing output only for the SAN File System client. It does not contain information for the operating system or other applications.

The following example messages show the format of trace messages:

#E   8125026652|80BF9DA0 Reassert TStreamSocket::Disconnect:1911   
     84860B68 192.168.10.6:10290       CheckStatus failed:  
     STATUS_CONNECTION_ACTIVE (C000023B)
     8125026715|8122C9E0 ckground TBackground::Main:1301           
     F4A8EF88                Active count: 00000001
     8125026715|8122C9E0 ckground TBackground::Main:1305           
     F4A8EF88                Active work items: 00000000
     8125026715|8122C9E0 ckground TBackground::Main:1308           
     F4A8EF88                Active delayed work items: 00000000
     8125031715|8122C9E0 ckground TBackground::Main:1301           
     F4A8EF88                Active count: 00000001
     8125031715|8122C9E0 ckground TBackground::Main:1305           
     F4A8EF88                Active work items: 00000000
     8125031715|8122C9E0 ckground TBackground::Main:1308         
     F4A8EF88                Active delayed work items: 00000000
     8115545496|FE2D7020          TSc::Reference                   
     FE484008 Fil:<23456.3.1342760.0>  ReferenceCount 3, CsmHandle_Held

Parent topic: Client diagnostic tools

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