Diagnose and resolve common logging problems in Itential Platform.
Choose the appropriate collection method based on whether you need JSON formatting preserved.
First, identify your service name:
Check the running service:
Collect all logs:
Collect from a time range:
Collect files directly from the filesystem to preserve JSON formatting:
Before sharing logs with third parties, review them for sensitive data from third-party systems. Itential Platform excludes AAA sensitive data but does not modify third-party payloads.
If expected log messages don’t appear, verify your logging configuration and directory permissions.
Each log level excludes lower-severity messages. Setting log_level to info excludes debug messages.
Platform 6: Navigate to Admin Essentials → Configuration → Logging and check log_level.
Platform 2023.2 and earlier: Navigate to Admin Essentials → Profiles → [your profile] → Configure → loggerProps and check log_level.
To minimize performance impact, enable debug logging on individual adapters rather than globally:
Individual components may override global logging settings.
Navigate to Admin Essentials → Applications, Adapters, or Integrations and select the component.
Ensure the log directory exists with proper permissions.
Check the directory:
The directory should be owned by itential with 755 permissions. If it is missing, create it:
Restart Platform after creating the directory.
Check the system journal for logging initialization errors or permission issues:
Look for permission problems, configuration errors, or disk space constraints.
If logs from a specific time period are missing, rotation may have deleted them before you could retrieve them.
Platform 6: Admin Essentials → Configuration → Logging — check log_max_file_size and log_max_files.
Platform 2023.2 and earlier: Admin Essentials → Profiles → [your profile] → Configure → loggerProps — check log_max_file_size and log_max_files.
Use this formula to estimate how many days of logs your current settings retain:
Example:
log_max_file_size: 10485760 (10 MB)log_max_files: 10Adjust log_max_file_size or log_max_files before data loss occurs.
Production recommendations:
log_max_file_size: 52428800 (50 MB)log_max_files: 50 to 100
This provides approximately seven to 30 days of retention depending on log volume.Alternative: Reduce log verbosity instead of increasing file limits — set log_level to info or warn and disable debug on individual components. This extends retention without increasing disk usage.
If logs rotate too quickly or consume excessive disk space, reduce verbosity and adjust rotation settings.
Production systems should use info or warn. Never use trace or spam in production.
Navigate to your logging configuration (see Check the log level above) and set:
log_level: info or warnconsole_level: warn or error
Save and restart Platform.Console logging has a higher performance impact than file logging.
Total disk usage = log_max_file_size × log_max_files
Production recommendation:
log_max_file_size: 52428800 (50 MB)log_max_files: 50 to 100Structured logging reduces log volume compared to the standard format. Platform 2023.2 and 6.2 and later support structured logging. See Configure logging.
Check disk usage:
Archive old rotated logs:
Delete rotated logs beyond index five:
Restart Platform after freeing space, then reduce log_max_files in your logging configuration to prevent recurrence.
If Platform performance decreases after a logging change:
During structured logging migration, log files may contain both formats. Configure your parser to check for the message field (structured), fall back to @message (standard), and handle context.legacy_args arrays.
journalctl does not preserve JSON structure. Collect log files directly to maintain formatting:
Test that log entries are valid JSON:
If errors appear, contact support with examples and your Platform version.