32.2.4 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.

You can generate core dumps in the following two ways:

  1. Start /etc/init.d/novell-apache2 in debug mode. When there is a crash, the core file is created in /var/cache/novell-apache2/core.

  2. Without starting novell-apache2 in the debug mode, perform the following:

    1. Set the ulimit -c unlimited in /etc/init.d/novell-apache2 startup script.

    2. You can create the core directory under /tmp. Choose the file path based on the availability of disk space. Give the following command to create a directory in Access Gateway component:

      # mkdir -p /tmp/apache2-gdb-dump

    3. Set permission as follows:

      # chown novlwww:www /tmp/apache2-gdb-dump

      # chmod 0777 /tmp/apache2-gdb-dump

    4. Add the following advanced option in Access Gateway configuration as follows:

      CoreDumpDirectory /tmp/apache2-gdb-dump

    5. Apply changes to Access Gateway.

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

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

This section describes the following tasks: