Agent messages: format
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Agent messages: format

An agent log message consists of five fields. The format of the message is:

<Timestamp> <Mnemonic> <Severity> <UMI> <MessageText>

The following is an example message, of severity ERROR, generated by the FileOnOff agent's online entry point. The message is generated when the agent attempts to bring online a resource, a file named "MyFile":

Jun 26 2003 11:32:56 VCS ERROR V-16-2001-14001 FileOnOff:MyFile:online:Resource could not be brought up

because,the attempt to create the file (filename) failed

with error (Is a Directory)

The first four fields of the message above consists of the timestamp, an uppercase mnemonic that represents the product (VCS, in this case), the severity, and the UMI (unique message ID). The subsequent lines contain the message text.

Timestamp

The timestamp indicates when the message was generated. It is formatted according to the locale.

Mnemonic

The mnemonic field is used to indicate the product.

The mnemonic, must use all capital letters. All VCS bundled agents, enterprise agents, and custom agents use the mnemonic: "VCS"

Severity

The severity of each message displays in the third field of the message (Critical, Error, Warning, Notice, or Information for normal messages; 1-21 for debug messages). All C++ logging macros and script-based logging functions provide a means to define the severity of messages, both normal and debugging.

UMI

The UMI (unique message identifier) includes an originator ID, a category ID, and a message ID.

• The originator ID is a decimal number preceded by a "V-" that defines the product that the message comes from. This ID is assigned by Symantec.
• The category ID is a number in the range of 0 to 65536 assigned by Symantec. The category ID indicates the agent that message came from. For each custom agent, you must contact Symantec so that a unique category ID can be registered for the agent.
  • For C++ messages, the category ID is defined in the VCSAgStartup entry point.

    See Log category.

  • For script-based entry points, the category is set within the VCSAG_SET_ENVS function

    See VCSAG_SET_ENVS.

  • For debug messages, the category ID, which is 50 by default, need not be defined within logging functions.
• Message IDs can range from 0 to 65536 for a category ID. Each normal message (that is, non-debug message) generated by an agent must be assigned a message ID. For C++ entry points, the msgid is set as part of the VCSAG_LOG_MSG and VCSAG_CONSOLE_LOG_MSG macros. For script-based entry points, the msgid is set using the VCSAG_LOG_MSG function. The msgid field is not used by debug functions or required in debug messages.

  See VCSAG_LOG_MSG.

Message text

The message text is a formatted message string preceded by a dynamically generated header consisting of three colon-separated fields. namely, <name of the agent>:<resource>:<name of the entry point>:<message>. For example:

FileOnOff:MyFile:online:Resource could not be brought up

because,the attempt to create the file (MyFile) failed

with error (Is a Directory)

• In the case of C++ entry points, the header information is generated.
• In the case of script-based entry points, the header information is set within the VCSAG_SET_ENVS function (see VCSAG_SET_ENVS).