Importing a log file
To import a log file so that you can analyze and correlate it with other log
files:
- Select File > Import.... The Import wizard opens to the Select page.
- From the list of import source types, select Log File. Click Next.
The Import Log File page opens.
- Add log files to be imported by clicking Add.
- Select the type of log. Click the Host tab.
- Select either the local host or a remote host from the Default
Hosts list.
- If you choose to import a log file from a remote host, ensure
that the Agent Controller is running and appropriately configured on the
remote host.
- If the required host is not in the list, type either its name or IP address in
the appropriate field and click Add.
Click the Details tab.
- Type the path of the file being imported.
Note 1: This path is case sensitive on all platforms, including
Windows. Use the browse button to locate the desired file to avoid case
problems.
Note 2: You can import multiple log files of the same type located in a single
directory at once by specifying a regular expression in double quotes in the
log file path field. For example, to import all the logs in the d:\temp
directory, enter d:\temp\".*" in the field. Follow the regular expression rules
of java.util.regex.Pattern.
- Select the version details of the program that created the log.
- Click the Destination tab.
- Input the destination project in the Project field and the name for
the grouping logical unit in the Monitor field.
- Specify whether the destination is an existing log file.
If it replaces an existing file or appends to one, follow these
steps:
- Select the check box Merge the log file with an existing log file in
the workspace.
- Select the log file that will be replaced or appended. Click Next.
- Choose whether to Replace or Append. Click OK.
- Click the Filter tab. Filtering lets you reduce the number of log
records imported from the log file by specifying filtering criteria. If you
specify nothing on this tab, all log records are imported from the selected log
file.
- Optional: Select an already-defined filter, or create a new filter
for this file. To create a filter so that only certain log records are imported,
follow these steps:
- Click New.
- Select the Import Log type. Click OK.
- In the Edit Filter dialog, specify a Filter name. This name will
appear on the Filter tab's selection list so that you can apply this
filter to any log file you import.
- Define your filter by using one or both of the Filter mechanisms on the two
tabs: Standard or Advanced. The Standard tab lets you
quickly set some simple, common filters. The Advanced tab lets you create
highly customized filters.
- To define a standard filter:
- Click the Filter by events check box if you want to import a certain
number or timeframe of events at the start or end of the log file. Then, in the
first field, select if you want to import events from the start (first)
or end (last) of the log file. In the third field, select if you want to
import a certain number of seconds or a certain number of events.
In the second field, enter the number of seconds or events you want to import.
For example, if you want to import 400 events from the start of the log
file, the Show line would read: first 400 events. If you want
to import events during the last 10 seconds of the log file, the Show
line would read: last 10 seconds.
- Click the Show events by severity check box if you want to import log
records of certain severities. Then click the check boxes next to Errors,
Warnings, and Information to indicate which types to import.
- To define an advanced filter:
- Click the Advanced tab. The Advanced filtering table shows all the
filter criteria defined, if any. Log records that match one or more of the criteria will
be imported.
- To add an entry in the table, click Add. Select the attribute you
want to filter on from the list of primary Common Base Event attributes. Select
the operator (like performs a pattern match). Enter a value that log
records must have for that attribute in order to be imported:
- Use an asterisk (*) to represent any string.
- Use a bar (|) to represent a non-exclusive "or".
- Time values must be in the ISO format of yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.sTZD, where:
- yyyy is a four-digit year value
- mm is a two digit month value
- dd is a two digit day value
- hh is a two digit hour value on a 24-hour clock
- mm is a two digit minute value
- ss.s is a two digit seconds value, with optional fractional seconds
after the decimal
- TZD is a time zone designator, either an 6-character time relative to
Coordinated Univeral Time (UTC) such as +05:00 or -07:00; or a time zone
abbreviation such as EST or GMT. See
http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime for information about the format, and
http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/ for a
listing of time zone abbreviations.
Click OK.
- To edit an existing entry, select it, click Edit and modify the
fields.
- To remove an entry, select it and click Remove.
- Click OK.
- Click Finish to import the log file.
Depending on the size of the log file, it may take some time to import it. To
view the status of the import, click the Progress button
in the bottom right-hand corner of the workbench window. This will open the
Progress view where you can see the progress of all active jobs. If you want
to stop the import of a log, click the red Stop button next to the log
name; all records will be imported up to the point where you stop it.
When the import has completed (or stopped), the imported file is opened in the Log view.

By default, all the imported log files will be serialized in a Default Log Set
preference, which allows you to easily re-import the files.
Note: Ensure the version of the log you are importing matches
the application version selected in the Details tab. A mismatched
version number will cause the wrong parser to be used when the log is imported.
The Log Navigator view will list the log, but the Log view will be empty.
If you have imported a log file that includes an internal correlation (for
example, some application server trace logs), a correlation object will be
added to the Correlations list, with a generated name starting with the name of the
association engine.
Related concepts
Determining problems in distributed
applications using the Log and Trace Analyzer
Related tasks
Importing and using a symptom database
Working with a log file
Working with log sets
Exporting a log or correlation to a CBE XML file
Related references
Supported log file types
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