How to Read the ABM Service Server Logs
ABM Service Server keeps a log for each company, one file per day, plus a log for the server manager and one for the setup. The quickest way to a company's logs is Open logs under the company in ABM Service Server Manager, which shows them in a window of its own and can save a copy to send to the software supplier.
How do I open a company's logs in the server manager?
Press Open logs under the company in ABM Service Server Manager. A window titled Logs - followed by the company's name opens over the manager, listing the company's log files on the left, newest day first, and showing the end of the chosen file on the right.
- Open ABM Service Server Manager.
- Press Open logs under the company. The button is there for every company, whatever its state.
- Choose a file in the list on the left. The first file of the newest day is chosen for you; within a day the child file is listed before the launcher file.
- Read the text on the right. It opens scrolled to the end, where the latest lines are.
- Press Refresh to read the files again while you watch the company start or update.
- Press Close when you are done.
The log window can stay open while you use the manager, and pressing Open logs again for the same company brings the same window forward rather than opening a second one.
The line beside the buttons says how much of the file you are seeing: the size and whole file, or, for a large file, the last 512 KB of its size with Save a copy for the whole file. A company that has never started has no files, and the window says There are no log files in its folder, A company that has never started writes none.
What are the launcher and child log files?
Each company writes two files a day. The launcher file, named launcher- followed by the date, records what the company's Windows service did: starting and stopping the web server, health checks, update checks, downloads, updates and going back to an earlier version. The child file, named child- followed by the date, is the web server's own output, including its errors.
- Start with the launcher file when a company will not start, keeps restarting or did not update: each line has the time, how serious it is, what part of the service it is about and what happened.
- Look in the child file when the company is running but people see errors, or the launcher file says the web server stopped by itself.
- A day with a very large log is split into several files, numbered after the date.
The launcher file names only the SQL Server and the database a company connects to, never the login or the password. The child file never shows a password either, but it can contain a login name: the web server's errors are written to it word for word, and when SQL Server refuses a login, its message names the login it tried.
How do I send a company's log to the software supplier?
Choose the file in the company's log window, press Save a copy..., and save it somewhere you can attach it to an email, such as the desktop. Save a copy... saves the whole file, not only the part on screen.
- Press Open logs under the company in ABM Service Server Manager.
- Choose the day's file in the list. Send the launcher file first, and the child file too if asked.
- Press Save a copy.... The save box starts on your desktop with the file's own name.
- Press Save. The window says Saved to and where.
Copy puts the text on screen on the clipboard instead, which is handy for pasting a few lines into an email. Files two or more days old are compressed, with a name ending in .gz; Save a copy... saves those compressed, and the software supplier can read them as they are.
Why can't I open the log folder in Windows Explorer?
The folder can be read only by administrators and the system, and Windows Explorer runs without administrator rights even when you are an administrator, so it is refused. That protection is deliberate: the same folder holds each company's database connections. The log window reads the files for you instead.
Press Folder path in the company's log window to see where the files are. The message Where the logs are gives the folder, explains why Explorer cannot open it, and puts the path on the clipboard, ready to paste into an elevated command prompt or an email. A company's logs are in its own folder: C:\ProgramData\ABM Service\Server\service\ followed by the company's name and \logs.
How long does ABM Service Server keep its logs, and how much disk do they use?
Each company on ABM Service Server keeps its logs for 30 days and then deletes them; files two or more days old are compressed, with a name ending in .gz, to save space. Today's and yesterday's files are always left as they are, so they can be read without any extra tool.
Each company writes two files a day, the launcher file and the child file, so the disk used is at most 30 days of those two files per company, mostly compressed. There is no overall size limit: a company that is working normally writes little, and a company that keeps crashing writes many lines quickly, so one day's file is split into numbered parts once it passes 64 MB, which keeps each file small enough to open. Files you put in the folder yourself are never deleted.
ABM Service Server Manager has no setting for how long logs are kept. To keep one company's logs longer than 30 days, change the number after RetentionDays, in the Logging part of that company's settings file, instance.json, in C:\ProgramData\ABM Service\Server\service\ followed by the company's name, with an editor started as administrator. Then restart the company's Windows service in the Services window straight away: the company reads the file only when its service starts, and pressing Apply at... before then writes the company's own copy of its settings back over your change. Keep a copy of the file first, because a file the company cannot read is ignored whole, and the company then starts with every setting at its default, its port included. Settings... and updates keep the change; removing the company deletes it.
When your software supplier asks for the whole log rather than what the log window shows, press Open logs under the company in ABM Service Server Manager, choose the day's file and press Save a copy.... It saves the whole file, even when the window shows only the last 512 KB of a large one, and the save box starts on your desktop, ready to attach to an email.
Where are the server manager's and the setup's own logs?
Both are in C:\ProgramData\ABM Service\Server\logs. The server manager writes manager.log: everything its command-line commands print, including the setup's move of every company onto new service software, and every operation that failed in the ABM Service Server Manager window, with the reason. A change the window made successfully is not written there. The setup writes install.log, and its completion page shows the path as Installer log.
Read manager.log when an add or an update of the service software failed, and install.log when the setup failed. These two are not shown in the log window; open them from an elevated command prompt or ask the setup for Details. They are removed only when ABM Service Server is uninstalled.