Skip to main content
Kofax

How to enable DEBUG logging for RoboServers

  1. Last updated
  2. Save as PDF
Article # 3035312 - Page views: 360

Issue

How to enable DEBUG logging for RoboServers? 

Kapow RoboServers create logs that are located in the Logs folder under the Application Data Folder.

  • In Windows, Application Data Folder is C:\Users\{UserRunningRoboServer}\AppData\Local\Kofax RPA\{version}
  • In Linux, it's under ~/.Kofax RPA/{version}

Solution

By default, the logs will not contain debug information, but this can be enabled following these steps:

1. Configure RoboServers to log events in Log4j:

  • Open the cluster settings (MC --> Admin --> Clusters)
  • Go to the "Logging" section
  • Select "Log to log4j", then click OK to save the changes

Note: You don't need to restart RoboServer for the new settings to be saved, but any changes done in Cluster Settings can be applied when no robots are running. After clicking OK, you can select to apply the settings immediately (and stop any robots currently running) or wait until the robots /schedules finish execution.

 

2. Configure log4j to log debug events.

This will require you to restart  RoboServer (the changes can be made at any time, but they will only be applied after the next RoboServer restart):

  • On the machine where RoboServer is running, go to Kapow (or Kofax RPA) Application Data folder
  • Go to the Configuration folder
  • Open log4j.properties with a text editor (Or log4j2.properties for versions higher or equal to 11.1)
  • There are multiple logs that can be configured to log debug information, by replacing the existing logging level (e.g. "INFO") with "DEBUG"
    log4j.logger.kapow.servermessagelog=INFO
    log4j.logger.kapow.robotrunlog=INFO
    log4j.logger.webkit=INFO
    log4j.logger.kapow.robotmessagelog=INFO
    log4j.logger.hub = WARN, file

Examples:

Enable DEBUG on specific components, depending on what you are troubleshooting.

Component What you are troubleshooting
servermessagelog a problem related to RoboServers only, that is not related to specific robots.
robotrunlog a problem related to starting/stopping/executing robots.
robotmessagelog issues with robot steps (in this case, enabling profiling - see above - would help too)
webkit problems with webkit robots. e.g. webkit (basic engine) robots crashing with "internal error"
hub issues with the local Desktop Automation. e.g.: DA robots crashing with events pointing to "cannot start local automation"
  • Additional (custom) components can be added to the log if needed with DEBUG level. For example:
     
    Component What are you troubleshooting
    logger.apache.name = org.apache
    logger.apache.level = TRACE    		 problems with robots HTTP(s) requests. For example, robots executing CallREST steps

     

  • Optional: increase the number of files that are kept before being overwritten, by changing the value on this property:
    log4j.appender.file.maxBackupIndex=3

    or the sizes of the files before rolling by setting this property:
    log4j.appender.file.maxFileSize=10MB

    E.g. Setting DEBUG on robotmessagelog will add a lot of entries in the logs (and even more if profiling is enabled) so more log files are needed.
  • Save the file.
  • Restart RoboServer (can be postponed, but the logs will only contain DEBUG information only after the restart).

 

Level of Complexity 

Easy

 

Applies to  

Product Version Build Environment Hardware
Kapow/Kofax RPA ALL      

References

 

 

Article # 3035312