33.2.5 Enabling Debug Mode and Core Dumps

If the log files do not contain enough information to identify the cause of a problem, run Access Gateway Service in the debug mode. Use the debug mode only when you try to isolate a problem because running Access Gateway Service in the debug mode can have the following effects:

  • Debug mode increases the size of log files quickly. The size can increase enough to consume all available disk space and crash the system. When running in the debug mode, monitor the available disk space and the size of the log files.

  • In a highly loaded system, debug mode can lead to request or connection timeout and can slow down the response time.

IMPORTANT:Enabling logging in the debug mode enables most of the log levels, which might not be required for troubleshooting. Hence, during high load period, perform the following steps to reduce the impact on Access Gateway’s performance:

  1. Click Devices > Access Gateways > Edit > Advanced Options.

  2. Add the following options:

    LogLevel error
LogLevel novell_ag_module:debug
LogLevel ssl:warn mpm_worker:warn core:warn
LogLevel proxy:warn proxy_balancer:warn proxy_ajp:warn proxy_http:warn

  3. Click OK.

Adding these options enable only error, debug, and warn levels for specific components.

Debug mode enables core dumps, X-Mag headers in LAN traces, and increases log levels by enabling advanced option in Access Gateway configuration. For example, LogLevel debug. This sets apache log level to debug in the error_log file.

Perform the following steps to obtain the system core dump:

  1. Disable the limit for the maximum size of a core dump file. Add LimitCORE=infinity in /etc/systemd/system/novell-apache2.service.

    [Service]
Type=oneshot 
EnvironmentFile=/etc/opt/novell/apache2/conf/.arg_file
Environment="LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/novell/ssllib:/opt/novell/openssl/lib"
ExecStart=/opt/novell/apache2/sbin/httpd $ARGL
ExecStop=/opt/novell/apache2/sbin/httpd -k stop
ExecReload=/opt/novell/apache2/sbin/httpd -k graceful
RemainAfterExit=yes
TasksMax=28000
LimitCORE=infinity

  2. Configure a location for storing core dumps. You can create the core directory under /local. Run the following command to create a directory in Access Gateway:

    install -m 1777 -d /var/local/dumps

    echo "/var/local/dumps/core.%e.%p"> /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern

  3. Disable AppArmor by running the rcapparmor stop command.

  4. Add a line “kernel.suid_dumpable=2” to the /etc/sysctl.conf configuration file.

  5. Add the CoreDumpDirectory /var/local/dumps advanced option in Access Gateway.

  6. Run the following commands:

    systemctl daemon-reload

    systemctl restart novell-apache2.service

  7. Apply changes to Access Gateway.

If a crash occurs, the core file is created in /local/apache2-gdb-dump/core.

For some crashes, the /local/debug000.log file is created. For more information, see TID 7011804.

This section describes the following tasks: