Problem

How do you edit the trace level of a Node Manager?

Resolution

Usually you only edit the trace level of instances, which is easy to do because that trace level is exposed in Policy Studio and API Gateway Manager (8090). However, sometimes it is necessary to change the Node Manager's trace level to debug certain issues with deployments or authentication to API Gateway Manager and changing the log level here is more complex.

There are two ways to edit the trace level of a Node Manager. One only applies at startup and the other only applies to API traffic on the Node Manager. They are used for different purposes and take effect at different times. The second option is the one more commonly required.

Startup Trace Debugging

To change the Node Manager trace level during startup, open the file /apigateway/system/conf/nodemanager.xml and locate the tracelevel property of the SystemSettings tag which will look something like the part in bold text below:

<SystemSettings
domainID="2a7b0a06-69bb-4a04-b323-74ad72d7af28"
groupID="group-1" groupName="Node Manager Group"
homedir="$VINSTDIR" secret="" serviceID="nodemanager-1"
serviceName="Node Manager on Host"
serviceType="VordelNodeManager" title="Node Manager" tracelevel="INFO"/>

You can change the value of that property to the desired trace level: FATAL, ERROR, INFO, DEBUG or DATA. Then restart the Node Manager to apply the change. This is used when debugging startup issues, e.g. because the Node Manager won't start up.

Runtime Trace Debugging

This setting will apply after the Node Manager has loaded its configuration and is fully started. This setting is the one used most of the time. It is used to debug authentication issues, problems on 8090, or deployment issues.

Locate the PrimaryStore XML file in /apigateway/conf/fed/ which may look like PrimaryStore.xml or which may also contain a UUID (e.g. PrimaryStore_{UUID}.xml) and make a backup of this file outside of the /conf/fed/ directories, then edit the copy in /conf/fed/ and locate the line that looks like this:

<fval name="tracelevel"><value>INFO</value></fval>

This value may be changed from INFO to the desired trace level. Note that this is the third match for "tracelevel" in the file, do not edit the other two tracelevel mentions, only edit this fval value. Restart the Node Manager after this and it will take effect.