Comments on: Verbose logging will disturb your sleep http://johannesbrodwall.com/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/ Johannes Brodwall's Musings on Software Architecture and Programming Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:37:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Johannes Brodwall http://johannesbrodwall.com/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/comment-page-1/#comment-127605 Johannes Brodwall Sat, 01 Nov 2008 19:29:02 +0000 http://brodwall.com/johannes/blog/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/#comment-127605 Cool. 'Nuff said. Cool. 'Nuff said.

]]> By: jhannes http://johannesbrodwall.com/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/comment-page-1/#comment-97842 jhannes Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:29:02 +0000 http://brodwall.com/johannes/blog/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/#comment-97842 Cool. 'Nuff said. Cool. 'Nuff said.

]]> By: tfnico http://johannesbrodwall.com/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/comment-page-1/#comment-97821 tfnico Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:19:56 +0000 http://brodwall.com/johannes/blog/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/#comment-97821 Well, it is an alternative for us to use SEVERE for waking us up in the night. I feel FATAL is like the last thing that might get logged before a java.lang.Error gets thrown and the JVM dies.<br><br>All in all it's very important that every team decides how they are going to use the log levels, and follow these conventions throughout project and maintenance. Well, it is an alternative for us to use SEVERE for waking us up in the night. I feel FATAL is like the last thing that might get logged before a java.lang.Error gets thrown and the JVM dies.

All in all it's very important that every team decides how they are going to use the log levels, and follow these conventions throughout project and maintenance.

]]> By: jhannes http://johannesbrodwall.com/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/comment-page-1/#comment-97807 jhannes Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:12:53 +0000 http://brodwall.com/johannes/blog/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/#comment-97807 I'm starting to wonder: Is it just me, or are we all neglecting the "SEVERE/FATAL" error category. Should we use it more? I'm starting to wonder: Is it just me, or are we all neglecting the “SEVERE/FATAL” error category. Should we use it more?

]]> By: tfnico http://johannesbrodwall.com/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/comment-page-1/#comment-97805 tfnico Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:18:51 +0000 http://brodwall.com/johannes/blog/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/#comment-97805 Good idea. I'll try to get something like that in. Currently our use of WARN is more or less the same as DEBUG :)<br><br>New record yesterday, only 17 errors in the log! o/ Good idea. I'll try to get something like that in. Currently our use of WARN is more or less the same as DEBUG :)

New record yesterday, only 17 errors in the log! o/

]]> By: jhannes http://johannesbrodwall.com/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/comment-page-1/#comment-97775 jhannes Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:17:29 +0000 http://brodwall.com/johannes/blog/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/#comment-97775 Very cool case. Another nail in the SOA coffin. ;-)<br><br>What is the consequence of one such hiccup? If there is some chance that manual intervention is needed, I would log this as ERROR. If there is a sufficient compensation (a retry algorithm, say), I would log this as INFO, and log a permanent failure as ERROR.<br><br>If it's in between (e.g. the user got an error message, but no manual intervention is needed) I would log as WARN and collect errors like you do. Knowing me, I would perhaps even keep track of this in the application database, but that's probably gold plating. Very cool case. Another nail in the SOA coffin. ;-)

What is the consequence of one such hiccup? If there is some chance that manual intervention is needed, I would log this as ERROR. If there is a sufficient compensation (a retry algorithm, say), I would log this as INFO, and log a permanent failure as ERROR.

If it's in between (e.g. the user got an error message, but no manual intervention is needed) I would log as WARN and collect errors like you do. Knowing me, I would perhaps even keep track of this in the application database, but that's probably gold plating.

]]> By: tfnico http://johannesbrodwall.com/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/comment-page-1/#comment-97759 tfnico Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:39:20 +0000 http://brodwall.com/johannes/blog/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/#comment-97759 My problem is that I have many different kind of errors. Since I'm lucky enough to live in a SOA world, I'm using 10 different service providers that each have a handful of hickups per day, and therefore my log-file has about 25-50 new lines each day (still small enough to manage with tail, I think). <br><br>What I do today is manually count number of errors from each service and store them in an excel sheet. Over time I judge which error is critical enough to do something about. Since <a href="http://tfnico.blogspot.com/2008/03/wrapping-scrum-in-evolutionary-methods.html>we started doing this</a> we've gone from 500 log-errors/day to 50/day.<br><br>It would be nice to have some better reporting based on exception type and cron-jobs that could fill in the excel sheet for me, but cost/value (I'm a lousy scripter and our exception structure is kind of chaotic) still makes excel/manual counting the best choice. What you think I should do? My problem is that I have many different kind of errors. Since I'm lucky enough to live in a SOA world, I'm using 10 different service providers that each have a handful of hickups per day, and therefore my log-file has about 25-50 new lines each day (still small enough to manage with tail, I think).

What I do today is manually count number of errors from each service and store them in an excel sheet. Over time I judge which error is critical enough to do something about. Since http://brodwall.com/johannes/blog/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/#comment-97684 I'm not watching the logs. I'm having them sent via mail. That is: if they only contain pertinent info.<br><br>I think we agree that sed/grep etc on logs is not good. I would add that if I want stats, I don't think the debug-logs in where I'd get it. I'm not watching the logs. I'm having them sent via mail. That is: if they only contain pertinent info.

I think we agree that sed/grep etc on logs is not good. I would add that if I want stats, I don't think the debug-logs in where I'd get it.

]]> By: jsorensen http://johannesbrodwall.com/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/comment-page-1/#comment-97683 jsorensen Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:13:45 +0000 http://brodwall.com/johannes/blog/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/#comment-97683 :)<br><br>And my point is that actually sitting there watching those logs feels like an anti-pattern in the first place (information overload is just the symptom/consequence of that), when you really should be collecting and filtering that data from a bigger perspective in order to find correlations and causes, just like you would with any other system related data (performance graphs over time being a good example). :)

And my point is that actually sitting there watching those logs feels like an anti-pattern in the first place (information overload is just the symptom/consequence of that), when you really should be collecting and filtering that data from a bigger perspective in order to find correlations and causes, just like you would with any other system related data (performance graphs over time being a good example).

]]> By: jhannes http://johannesbrodwall.com/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/comment-page-1/#comment-97681 jhannes Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:58:30 +0000 http://brodwall.com/johannes/blog/2008/10/28/verbose-logging-will-disturb-your-sleep/#comment-97681 My whole point is that logs scrolling by with lots of little things you don't care about is an anti-pattern whether you watch those logs or not. My whole point is that logs scrolling by with lots of little things you don't care about is an anti-pattern whether you watch those logs or not.

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