DB2 10.5 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

Administration notification log

The administration notification log (instance_name.nfy) is the repository from which information about numerous database administration and maintenance activities can be obtained. A database administrator can use this information to diagnose problems, tune the database, or simply monitor the database.

The DB2® database manager writes the following kinds of information to the administration notification log on UNIX and Linux operating system platforms (on Windows operating system platforms, the event log is used to record administration notification events):

Status of DB2 utilities such REORG and BACKUP
Client application errors
Service class changes
Licensing activity
File paths
Storage problems
Monitoring activities
Indexing activities
Table space problems

Administration notification log messages are also logged to the db2diag log files using a standardized message format.

Notification messages provide additional information to supplement the SQLCODE that is provided.

The administration notification log file can exist in two different forms:

Single administration notification log file: One active administration notification log file, named instance_name.nfy, that grows in size indefinitely. This is the default form and it exists whenever the diagsize database manager configuration parameter has the value of 0 (the default value for this parameter is 0).
Rotating administration notification log files: A single active log file (named instance_name.N.nfy, where N is the file name index that is a continuously growing number starting from 0), although a series of administration notification log files can be found in the location defined by the diagpath configuration parameter, each growing until reaching a limited size, at which time the log file is closed and a new one is created and opened for logging with an incremented file name index (instance_name.N+1.nfy). It exists whenever the diagsize database manager configuration parameter has a nonzero value.
Note: Neither single nor rotating administration notification log files are available on the Windows operating system platform.

You can choose which of these two forms exist on your system by appropriately setting the diagsize database manager configuration parameter.

Configuration

The administration notification log files can be configured in size, location, and the types of events and level of detail recorded, by setting the following database manager configuration parameters:

diagsize: The value of diagsize decides what form of administration notification log file will be adopted. If the value is 0, a single administration notification log file will be adopted. If the value is not 0, rotating administration notification log files will be adopted, and this nonzero value also specifies the total size of all rotating diagnostic log files and all rotating administration notification log files. The instance must be restarted for the new value of the diagsize parameter to take effect. See the "diagsize - Diagnostic log file size configuration parameter" topic for complete details.
diagpath: Diagnostic information can be specified to be written to administration notification log files in the location defined by the diagpath configuration parameter. See the "diagpath - Diagnostic data directory path configuration parameter" topic for complete details.
notifylevel: The types of events and the level of detail written to the administration notification log files can be specified with the notifylevel configuration parameter. See the "notifylevel - Notify level configuration parameter" topic for complete details.

Note: If the diagsize configuration parameter is set to a non-zero value, that value specifies the total size of the combination of all rotating administration notification log files and all rotating diagnostic log files contained within the diagnostic data directory. For example, if a system with 4 database partitions has diagsize set to 1 GB, the maximum total size of the combined notification and diagnostic logs can reach is 4 GB (4 x 1 GB).