PVWA-Vault logger

This topic describes the PVWA-Vault logger (Logic Container logger).

Overview

The Logic Container is a service in the Vault that is responsible for running application logic for reading/writing to the Vault database. This logic is part of any API request (initiated by an action in the PVWA UI or directly by a script).

Logging enables you to track all the activities carried out by the Logic container and to identify problems, if they occur.

The log file contains the appropriate correlation ID of the request initiated from the PVWA, running through the Logic Container, and eventually reaching the Vault database.

The following log file contains the activities of the Logic container:

• BLServiceApp.log

The log file is created by the Logic Container and stored in the Vault. The log file is located in the $InstallationDirectory$\Logs folder, by default. You can set the location of the log file in the LogFolder parameter in the BLServiceApp.exe.config file.

A new log file is created when the Logic Container is started. The BLServiceApp.log file provides the ability to track business flows in the log file. It is built on top of a standard logging library, and has a clear log structure that enables troubleshooting failures without enabling debug mode.

File structure

Each line in the log has the following format:

<Date> <Severity> [<ThreadID>] <username> <CorrelationID> <Message> <Exception Details> [<Source>]

The following table describes the log fields.

Log file example:

2021-05-23 21:49:28,448 INFO [7] AdminUser2 86edf03f-f11d-4d9f-8d21-8ee3a167b574 RunService | Logic container finished running service GetAllActivePlatforms from suite PIM | End [InfraBLService.BLService]

Log file rotation

The log file is rotated when reaching a maximum size defined in the logger configuration. For details, see Configure the logger.

When rotated, the closed file is renamed to Arc-{yyyyMMdd-HHmmss}.LC.log and archived, and a new BLServiceApp.log file is created.

Correlate log entries

You can correlate different log entries created from the same context between the PVWA and the Logic Container to distinguish between the different requests handled by the server.

When a new request arrives, a new context is created and is attached to the thread handling the request. This context contains a CorrelationID (GUID), and from that point it will be assigned to each log entry created on this thread.

Queue log entries

The BLServiceApp.log file queues all log entries created in a context (based on a Correlation ID), and flushes them to the file only when the execution of the request ends.

You can disable this feature in the configuration file, as described in Configure the logger. When disabled, each log entry is written to the file immediately.

When queuing is enabled and is combined with log entry severity, you can configure the logger to flush entries only when there is an entry that is equal to or higher than the one configured.

This is useful when troubleshooting failed requests because the log file contains all log entries created in that request's context, even without enabling a higher debug level.

Configure the logger

You can change the logger functionality by modifying the following values in the BLServiceApp.exe.config file.