3 Quick Ways that TIC LogWatch Can Enhance Your NonStop Application Logs
TIC LogWatch
Are you looking for ways to make better use of your NonStop Application logs?
TIC LogWatch is a Guardian program that watches different log files, looks for error patterns, and generates alerts when an anomaly is detected.
Here are some quick out-of-the-box ways that TIC LogWatch can be used to enhance your NonStop logs.
1. Add a timestamp to an OSS log record 
Have you ever come across some log files which have no timestamp associated with each entry? Of course, you have! This is especially common in some Java or Spring application log files like the example below. Don’t you get really frustrated trying to guess which entry is the one that you really want to look at, especially when you are under the gun trying to troubleshoot a production problem?
Solution: LogWatch can monitor the original log file, extracts its contents, adds some new content, such as a timestamp, and writes to another file. Now the new file contains the relevant data of the original log, plus a timestamp!
2. Unburden your EMS logs
Do you route many of your application logs to EMS, just because you thought that was the only way to detect error patterns in the logs? If you do, then you probably had to set up many EMS collectors and associated filters. Also, let me guess: Your EMS probably consumes a lot of system resources, especially when it tries to keep up with the high volume application logging. Right?
Solution: Send your application logs to disk files, and let LogWatch do the filtering for you. When LogWatch finds an anomaly in the log, it will only send the relevant messages to EMS like in the above diagram. That cuts down on a lot of the overhead and operation effort in maintaning the EMS filters.
3. Catch errors in your VHS logs
VHS is great because it enables you to route all your HOMETERM output to it without having to worry about the terminal not in PAUSE or a log file running out of extents. But quite often errors such as program abends or a stack dump are missed in the VHS logs (like the message below) because they are not being monitored.
Solution: LogWatch understands VHS log formats and can monitor for error patterns that you want to catch, including multi-line stack dump messages. LogWatch can raise an alert via email or message to EMS as soon as it detects the VHS error.
There are many other features in LogWatch that add “Operational Intelligence”
to you NonStop environment. You can learn more about LogWatch and log monitoring
by accessing the following resources:
Phil Ly is the president and founder of TIC Software, a New York-based company specializing in software and services that integrate NonStop with the latest technologies, including Web Services, .NET and Java. Prior to founding TIC in 1983, Phil worked for Tandem Computer in technical support and software development.