Monitoring the Cisco IPICS System Status
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Table Of Contents

Monitoring the Cisco IPICS System Status

The System Status Window

Adjusting the Auto Update Setting

Purging Activity Logs from the Database

Downloading System Logs


Monitoring the Cisco IPICS System Status

Cisco IPICS provides the system administrator with the ability to view the status of the database and the latest database log information in the System Status window. The system administrator can download logs to view on screen or to save them to a file. If database files are no longer needed, the system administrator can purge them from the system.

This chapter includes the following sections:

•The System Status Window

•Adjusting the Auto Update Setting

•Purging Activity Logs from the Database

•Downloading System Logs

The System Status Window

The System Status window displays the state of the Cisco IPICS database and the percentage of the database capacity that has been consumed by activity logs. If the activity log percentage rises to a critical level (85% or more of the stated capacity), you should purge some or all of the activity logs, according to the date range you specify. For information about purging activity logs, see the "Purging Activity Logs from the Database" section.

Note The percentage of database capacity shown in the System Status window is only current as of the time you opened or last refreshed the window. To see the new current percentage, you must click Refresh Now or activate the Auto Update feature. For more information, see the "Adjusting the Auto Update Setting" section.

The System Status window displays the content of the latest ipics.log file in the Recent System Log Entries pane. If any serious errors (any that are designated as ERROR or FATAL) occur, those log entries display in red in the pane. Use the scroll bar to view all the entries in Recent System Log Entries pane. For information about downloading the system logs, see the "Downloading System Logs" section.

Table 3-1 describes the types of system log entries that can appear in the Recent System Log Entries pane.

Table 3-1 System Log Entry Types 

Log Entry Type
Purpose

TRACE

Fine-grained debug information (maximum detail) about the programmatic steps that Cisco IPICS performs to fulfill a request.

DEBUG

Debug information that is less detailed than TRACE information.

INFO

Informational message about noteworthy events, such as the starting of a scheduled policy.

WARN

Warning message about occurrences such as incorrect user input or requests that Cisco IPICS cannot fulfill.

ERROR

Message that is similar to a WARN message, but with higher severity, such as in the case of insufficient licenses. ERROR messages display in red in the Recent System Log Entries pane

FATAL

When a FATAL error occurs, Cisco IPICS generates an error notification message and displays the message prominently in the current window of any user with system administrator or All privilege. Also, FATAL messages display in red in the Recent System Log Entries pane.

A FATAL message concerns an unrecoverable error that requires your attention, such as a failed database connection or a router initialization failure. If you encounter a fatal error, see the [list of FATAL errors and how to troubleshoot].


Note By default the TRACE and DEBUG messages are not captured in the system logs. You would only activate these logging levels at the instruction of Cisco Support.

The System Status window displays by default when you log into the Administration Console or if you click the System Administrator tab from another user tab. To open the System Status window from another System Administrator window, click the System Status link.

Adjusting the Auto Update Setting

When you refresh the System Status window, Cisco IPICS refreshes the browser window and displays new information to the System Status indicators, such as the System Status field and the Database % Full field. The database status can be either Running or Offline. Refreshing the window also updates the Recent System Log Entries.

To monitor changes in these statuses, you can click Refresh Now at any time. You may also set the System Status window to refresh automatically at a specified interval by using the Auto Update setting.

Note The Auto Update setting is only active for the time that you are viewing the System Status window. When you close the browser or click another link in the Administration Console, the Auto Update feature resets to the None setting.

To modify the Auto Update setting, perform the following procedure:

Procedure

Step 1 In the System Status window of the Administration Console, choose the number of seconds for the interval between refreshes from the drop-down list box.

Step 2 Click Apply.

Cisco IPICS refreshes the window at the interval that you chose.

Step 3 To reset the Auto Update to the default setting (None), perform one of the following actions:

•Choose None from the drop-down list; then click Apply.

•Click another link or tab in the Administration Console.

When you return to the System Status window, Cisco IPICS resets the Auto Update setting to None.

Purging Activity Logs from the Database

Cisco IPICS collects activity log information so that you can search for and view specific activities that are related to the users, PTT channels and VTGs in your Cisco IPICS system. For information about using the activity logs, refer to the Cisco IPICS Server Administration Guide.

Caution Make sure that you closely monitor the activity logs to minimize the database consumption. If the activity logs are not monitored, they can fill up the Cisco IPICS dbspace, which is the database partition that Cisco IPICS allots to all records. If your database becomes completely filled by the activity logs, your system may become inoperable.

To help safeguard against total database consumption, Cisco IPICS includes the Database % Full indicator. This indicator allows you to view the percentage of allotted disk space that has been consumed by the activity logs. To see the most current usage, click Refresh Now.

Caution The Database % Full indicator does not control the size of the activity logs; it provides an indication of when you should purge the activity logs.

When the consumption percentage for the activity logs reaches 85%, the color of the indicator turns from blue to red to indicate that you are approaching a database full level. You can choose to purge logs at any time, however.

Before you purge the activity logs, you can download them from the Activities Log window. To open the Activities Log window, click the Download Activities Log link in the Manage System area of the System Status window.

When you purge the logs, you can choose to purge just a portion of the logs, according to a date range. To purge activity logs from the database, perform the following procedure:

Procedure

Step 1 To choose a date range for the purge, choose a starting date and time by using the drop-down lists that displays next to the From field.

Tip To ensure that you purge the oldest activity logs in the database, set the year in the starting date to 2005.

Step 2 Choose an ending date and time by using the drop-down lists that displays next to the To field.

Step 3 Click Purge.

Cisco IPICS refreshes the System Status window. If you entered a valid date range for the activity logs in your database, the Database % Full indicator should display a lower percentage than it did before you performed the purge operation. If the indicator does not display a lower percentage, check that you entered a valid date range or try a larger range.

If your Database % Full indicator fills up quickly and causes you to purge your activity logs on a frequent basis, you can modify the Maximum Activity Logs setting in the Options window. For more information, see "Managing Cisco IPICS Options."

Downloading System Logs

Cisco IPICS displays the most current system log information in the Recent System Log Entries pane and allows you to download all the system logs to your PC.

Cisco IPICS records system log information in the ipics.log file and continues to add data to it until the file reaches a size of approximately 5.2 MB. Then, Cisco IPICS renames the file with an incremental number (starting at 1) and creates a new ipics.log file to capture the most current log data. This process of filling and incrementing files continues until you have ten system log files that range from ipics.log.1 to ipics.log.10, plus the most recent ipics.log file. Cisco IPICS automatically purges the oldest file when you have accumulated ten files.

When you download your system logs, Cisco IPICS creates a zip file of all the ipics.log files.

The system logs are located in the following directory:

/opt/cisco/ipics/tomcat/current/logs

To download the system logs, perform the following procedure:

Procedure

Step 1 Below the Recent System Log Entries pane, click Download.

The Download dialog box displays.

Step 2 Take one of the following actions:

•To open the zip file, click Open.

The zip file opens and displays the list of ipics.log files. If you wish, you can double-click one of the files to view it in WordPad or in another text file viewer on your PC.

Note To view the log file, you must use a text file viewer that can understand UNIX newline characters, such as Wordpad. If you use Notepad, the file will not display properly.

•To save the zip file to your PC, click Save.

A Save As dialog displays, from which you can navigate to the location to save the zip file on your PC.

Step 3 If you chose to save the zip file, click Save.

Cisco IPICS saves the zipped log files to the specified location and closes the Save As window.