User trace

User trace is one of two types of optional trace that are available in IBM® Integration Bus and provides more information than that provided by the entries that are written to the Administration log. User trace is inactive by default; you must activate it explicitly by using a command, or by selecting options in the IBM Integration Toolkit.

For more information about logs, see Logs.

Typically, you use user trace for debugging your applications, as it can trace integration nodes, integration servers, and deployed message flows.

You can use the IBM Integration Toolkit to control most of the trace activity that you need. You can also use the IBM Integration Toolkit to start and stop tracing on remote systems.

When you activate user trace, you cause additional processing for every activity in the component that you are tracing. Large quantities of data are generated by the components. Expect to see some effect on performance while user trace is active. You can limit this additional processing by being selective about what you trace, and by restricting the time during which trace is active.

The user trace log files

When trace is active for any component, information is recorded in binary form.

The location of the trace logs depends on your environment:

Windows

If you set the work path by using the -w parameter of the mqsicreatebroker command, the location is workpath\log.

If you have not specified the integration node work path, the default location is C:\ProgramData\IBM\MQSI\Common\log.

Linux® and UNIX

If you set the work path by using the -w parameter of the mqsicreatebroker command, the location is workpath/log.

If you have not specified the integration node work path, the default location depends on the installation type:

Single-user installation: /home/userName/iibconfig/common/log
Shared installation: /var/mqsi/common/log

z/OS®

/component_filesystem/log

Note: For information about checking and changing the location of the work path; see Changing the location of the work path.

The file names reflect the component and subcomponent for which the trace is active. For example, the integration node name and unique integration server identifier form part of the file name when you are tracing activity within that integration server.

For example, if you created an integration node that is called IBNODE, you might see the following files in the log subdirectory:

IBNODE.682ec116-dc00-0000-0080-ce28a236e03d.userTrace.bin.1
IBNODE.682ec116-dc00-0000-0080-ce28a236e03d.userTrace.bin.2

You cannot view these files directly; use the commands that are provided to access the trace information and convert it to a viewable format. Use the mqsireadlog command to retrieve the trace log for the specified component. Issue the command on the computer on which the log was generated. You can specify the output to be directed to a file, which is independent of operating system, and can be transferred to other systems for browsing or formatting by using the mqsiformatlog command.

Using a Trace node

If you include a Trace node in your message flows when you are developing and testing them, this option not only gives you the ability to trace messages and activity in the flow, but also allows you to specify an alternate target file for the trace contents to isolate the detail in which you are interested. For details of how to use and configure a Trace node, see the Trace node topic.