tcServer Logging with Logback & SLF4J

Logback and SLF4J provide better logging for java applications. To configure VMware vFabric tcServer to take advantage of the speed and flexibility of Logback use the following steps as a starting point.

Download the tcServer Developer Edition free: http://www.springsource.com/developer/tcserver
This comes with Spring Insight: http://www.springsource.org/insight an awesome tool for inspecting application performance, see those expensive sql queries, etc.

1. Add JMX options

File: <appname>/bin/setenv.sh

CATALINA_OPTS="-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote"
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false"
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false"

2. Enable JMX

File: <appname>/conf/server.xml

# In the <service> section:

<Connector port="8050"
  handler.list="mx"
  mx.enabled="true"
  mx.httpHost="localhost"
  mx.httpPort="8082"
  protocol="AJP/1.3" />

3. If using JNDI, add JNDI Configuration support for Logback

File: <appname>/bin/setenv.sh

JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Dlogback.ContextSelector=JNDI"

4. Add Server Logging using Logback

File: <appname>/conf/server.xml

#In the <Hosts> Section:

<Valve className="ch.qos.logback.access.tomcat.LogbackValve" />

5. Create logback-access.xml file in <appname>/conf/ directory

<configuration>
  <statusListener class="ch.qos.logback.core.status.OnConsoleStatusListener" />
 
  <appender name="STDOUT" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
    <encoder>
      <pattern>combined</pattern>
    </encoder>
  </appender>
 
  <appender name="FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
    <file>myApp.log</file>
    <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy">
      <fileNamePattern>myApp-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}.%i.txt</fileNamePattern>
      <timeBasedFileNamingAndTriggeringPolicy
            class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeAndTimeBasedFNATP">
        <maxFileSize>5MB</maxFileSize>
      </timeBasedFileNamingAndTriggeringPolicy>
    </rollingPolicy>
    <encoder>
      <pattern>combined</pattern>
    </encoder>
  </appender>
 
  <logger name="com.MYAPP.MYPKG" level="debug" />
  <logger name="org.springframework.web" level="debug" />
  <logger name="org.springframework.beans" level="debug" />
  <logger name="org.springframework.orm" level="debug" />
  <logger name="org.springframework.web" level="debug" />
  <logger name="net.sf.ehcache" level="error" />
  <logger name="org.hibernate.cache" level="error" />
 
  <root level="info">
    <appender-ref ref="FILE" />
    <appender-ref ref="STDOUT" />
  </root>
</configuration>

6. In the <tomcatdir>/lib directory, add the following jars

By including JCL-over-SLF4J, we handle Apache Commons Logging through SLF4J (JCL = Jakarta Commons Logging)
By including JUL-to-SLF4J, we handle Java Util Logging through SLF4J

• jcl-over-slf4j-1.6.1.jar
• jul-to-slf4j-1.6.1.jar
• logback-access-0.9.29.jar
• logback-classic-0.9.29.jar
• logback-core-0.9.29.jar
• slf4j-api-1.6.1.jar

7. Configure the application for Logging Separation

See: http://logback.qos.ch/manual/loggingSeparation.html

<env-entry>
  <description>JNDI logging context for this app</description>
  <env-entry-name>logback/context-name</env-entry-name>
  <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type>
  <env-entry-value>yourAppHere</env-entry-value>
</env-entry>
 
<env-entry>
  <description>URL for configuring logback context</description>
  <env-entry-name>logback/configuration-resource</env-entry-name>
  <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type>
  <env-entry-value>logback.xml</env-entry-value>
</env-entry>
 
<listener>
  <listener-class>ch.qos.logback.classic.selector.servlet.ContextDetachingSCL</listener-class>
</listener>
 
<filter>
  <filter-name>LoggerContextFilter</filter-name>
  <filter-class>ch.qos.logback.classic.selector.servlet.LoggerContextFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
 
<filter-mapping>
  <filter-name>LoggerContextFilter</filter-name>
  <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

8. Optional – To add a servlet to view the logback events

File: <application>/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml
See: http://logback.qos.ch/manual/configuration.html
Status Messages will be available: http://yourWebapp/lbClassicStatus

	
<servlet>
  <servlet-name>ViewStatusMessages</servlet-name>
  <servlet-class>ch.qos.logback.classic.ViewStatusMessagesServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
 
<servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-name>ViewStatusMessages</servlet-name>
  <url-pattern>/lbClassicStatus</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Summary

Using tcServer with Insight provides us developers with a valuable resource for code inspection at runtime. Logback and SLF4J provides us with fast, flexible logging configuration and the logging separation for our application instances.

From http://gordondickens.com/wordpress/2011/08/16/tcserver-logging-with-logback-slf4j/