Log Viewer

The log viewer allows multiple log files to be able to be combined and searched in a merged fashion. This has multiple uses including the ability to find out what an entire grid was doing at a particular point in time, or to find all instances of a particular word or phrase.

The viewer consists of four separate panels:

  • Files panel

    Use to add files either by clicking Add or by dragging and dropping them directly into the pane. You can select multiple files for adding by using Shift and Ctrl. Files can be either individual .log files or .zip files. If you add a .zip file, the tool recursively searched the .zip file directories and adds all .log files to the panel. This is useful for loading the contents of a Grid Status Report .zip file.

    For any files that do not have a .log extension, you will be prompted with the option to include them.

    Note: Adding files which do not have a .log extension may prevent the merging of the log files from occurring properly.

    The Files panel has several buttons:

    • Add: Adds files, either .log or .zip containing log files.
    • Remove: Removes the selected file or if no selection is made, removes all files.
    • Invert: Inverts the current selection of files in the panel.
    • Details: Toggles between showing all file details, including the name, size, modified date, and the file path, and showing only the name. The default is to show all details.
    • Sort: Sorts the list by the order in which the files were added, the file names, the size of the files, the date the files were last modified, from, and to.
  • Filter panel

    Use to set filter criteria for viewing the log files. After you set the criteria, you click Update and the results are displayed in the Output panel (right panel).

    There are several filter options:

    • Clear: Clears the filters
    • Include Entries: Case insensitive text search for word to include. It is possible to include OR as an operator by inserting a vertical bar (|) between the words to search for. For example, info OR system would be constructed as info|system.
    • Exclude Entries: Case insensitive text search for word to exclude. It is possible to include OR as an operator by inserting a vertical bar (|) between the words to search for. For example, info OR system would be constructed as info|system.
    • From: Specify a date and time from which the filtered merge should begin.
    • To: Specify a date and time at which the filtered merge should end.
    • Update: Update the merged log output pane based on the selected files and filter. If no files are selected in the file list pane, all files are included.
  • Logs Time Span panel

    Shows the time span at which the merged entity occurred in an included log file.

    To work with this panel:

    • Hold the mouse cursor over an area in the panel to see the date and time shown as a tool tip.

      Click in the window to position the merged output pane according to the date and time displayed in the tool tip.

    • Right-click in the window on a specific log file to position the merged output pane on the selected log file according to the date and time displayed in the tool tip.
  • Output panel

    This panel show the merged log output. The data is ordered in the following manner:

    • First, the merged sources (log files) are listed.
    • Second, the results of the merge, including applied filters, are displayed.

    The result lines contain identifying numbers showing which source they are from.