Depending on what collection you are running, you are asked for additional information to
complete the data collection activities. A script might require more configuration information,
information about the sequence of events leading up to the problem you are dealing with, or for your
preferences regarding how it completes the collection.
At each step, the choices are presented as
numbered lists and you input the number of your selection and press the enter key. When input is
required, prompts are displayed at which you enter your response and press the enter key. You can
find collection details for each WebSphere Application
Server problem type in their corresponding MustGather documents.
The tool has a silent
collection capability for recording your responses from a console mode session in a file and uses
the file to drive subsequent instances of the same collection script. When run in this mode, you are
taken to an ordinary interactive session, where you supply the responses to the script prompts. In
addition to influencing the current collection, however, your responses are also saved in the file
that you named. When the interactive session completes, you can use this response file to start the
same script in the future without the need for explicit user input.
The response file is a plain text file, so you can edit it to change the responses as
needed. The file looks very much like a Java properties file,
with comments that start with #, and a series of key-value pairs. You can add pauses to a response
file using one of the following two keys:
- PauseScriptTime=X, where X is a positive integer representing the number of
seconds a script pauses. If anything other than a positive integer is found, an error message is
written to both the console and the log, followed by a message telling the user to hit the enter key
when they are ready for the script to proceed.
- PauseScript=user-defined message - this string is printed to the console,
along with a message to hit the enter key you are ready for the script to proceed.
When using response files, remember that sensitive information, such as user names and
passwords, might be stored in these files. It is important that you manage these files in a manner
that prevents unauthorized access to sensitive information. Note that passwords are not
encrypted.
Tip: If you are not able to provide root or administrator access to the
user to run the collection scripts, make sure that the user ID has administrator privileges for your
WebSphere Server, for example,
startServer, stopServer, and wsadmin
commands.
By default, the version of the tool (and the various subcomponents) is printed to
the console from which it was launched.