Summary

This Knowledgebase article provides information about how to retrieve the logs and other information required for troubleshooting. The logs will commonly be requested by Neverfail Support when submitting a Support Request and should contain the relevant log information related to a Support Request.

More Information 

Important: 

VBS files: Please do not send any files with a .vbs extension, as they will be blocked by our mail system. If a VBS script is attached to a Support email, the mail will not be delivered to the Neverfail Support team.

BAT files (such as stop/start scripts): Please rename from .bat to .txt before attaching to email. If a batch script is attached to a Support email, the mail will not be delivered to the Neverfail Support team.

Procedure - How to Use the Neverfail Log Collector

1. On the Continuity Engine server, go to C:\Program Files\Neverfail\R2\bin 
2. Run the LogCollector.exe 
3. Follow the on screen prompts.
   
4. Collect logs from the location specified on screen by the Log Collector. This is typically %installdir%\Neverfail\SupportLogs\Log_%DateAndTimeRun%\*.cab
   

Email this CAB file to the person addressing your Support Request. If you already have a Support Request reference number, this should be included in the Subject line of the email. E.g. Subject: SR 1000 - Company Name.

Note: If the Log Collector is used to gather logs, the following section can be disregarded or used for information only. If you would like to gather information manually, this section contains details of which logs are required and how to gather them.

Exceptions: Windows Server 2008 and Neverfail for File Server 

When Neverfail for File Server is installed or when running on the Windows Server 2008 platform, the LogCollector might experience problems while collecting the logs from the passive server. To workaround the issue, if Neverfail for File Server is installed, follow the steps in A or B below. If running on the Windows Server 2008 platform, follow the steps in B below.

1. Set Neverfail Continuity Engine to Maintenance Mode during the log collection by following these steps:
   
   
   1. Open the Neverfail Engine Management Service UI.
      
   2. Go to the Summary page.
      
   3. Open the Configure button.
      
   4. Select the option Unprotect services and stop monitoring all applications option.
      
   
   Once the logs are collected, the configuration above should be reverted to the default.
   
2. Run the LogCollector separately on each server and collect the logs locally following these steps:
   
   1. Open a command prompt and go to the Neverfail installation folder \R2\bin
      
   2. run LogCollector -remote
      

Neverfail Support Requires the Following Information When a Support Request is Opened.

• Information collected by default using the Neverfail Log Collector, or
  
• If the Log Collector is not used then the following information should be gathered:
  

1. Hardware ID
   
2. All NF values in the registry: 
   "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\JavaSoft\Prefs\Neverfail" 
   "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Neverfail" 
   "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HookRegistryDriver"
   "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\nfdrv" 
   "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\nfpktfltr"
   "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NFServerR2"
3. Installation logs from the new setup.exe and from the old nfconfig tool.
   
4. Application scripts E.g. Start.bat, Stop.bat 
   
5. %installdir%\R2\bin\*.xml
   
6. %installdir%\R2\logs\*.*
   
7. %installdir%\R2\scripts\*.*
   
8. %systemroot%\nfinstalltemp\*.*
   
9. %installdir%\R2\Support\*.*
   
10. ScopeLogs in default locations, %systemroot%\Documents and Settings\USER\ApplicationData\Neverfail\scopeLogs and %NFInstallPath%\ScopeLogs if /scope or –scope arguments are used, it will search on all local drives for scopelogs. 
    
11. %systemroot%\hs_err_pid*.*
    
12. %systemroot%\system32\hs_err_pid*.*
    
13. %systemroot%\Documents and Settings\*\nfsetupauditlog.txt
    
14. The Windows Event Viewer Application and System logs exported to .CSV format files. See below for instructions on how to gather these.
    
15. If you have SCOPE Enterprise Data Collector or SCOPE Data Collector service installed, collect all the logs from the directory specified by Settings -> Output Files in the SCOPE MMC snap-in.
    

• If SRMXtender is installed, the following additional information is required:
  
  Note: The paths to the folders in italics are the default installation paths. If you installed in a non-default location, these paths should help you identify the actual location of the folders. 
  • From the physical server pair you were attempting to switch with SRM:
    • Collect the folder c:\program files\Neverfail\r2\logs which contains nflog.txt from the Primary and Secondary servers.
      
    • Collect the folder c:\program files\Neverfail\hblogs which contains the hbwblog.txt from the Primary and Secondary servers.
      
  • From the vCenter and SRM Server:
    • Collect the folder c:\program Files\Neverfail\tomcat\hblogs which contains HBWSLog.txt
      
    • SRM’s Recovery Plan Reports.
      
    • The SRMXtender recovery script executed from the recovery plan. 
      

How to Gather Information in the Correct Format: 

1. The Windows Event Viewer Application and System logs exported to .csv format files. You can do this by opening Windows Event Viewer, selecting Action > Save log file as and then changing the save as type option to CSV (Comma Delimited) .csv. 
   
2. Any FSI information held on the servers. If Neverfail Continuity Engine is installed, the data is stored in the Neverfail Continuity Engine directory under SCOPELogs. If Neverfail Engine is not installed, the data will be stored in C:\SCOPELogs.
   
3. Any SCOPE information held on the servers. Again, if Neverfail Continuity Engine is installed, the data is stored in the Neverfail Continuity Engine directory under SCOPELogs. If Neverfail Continuity Engine is not installed, the data will be in C:\SCOPELogs.
   

Retrieving Logs from the Passive Server.

This section details how to retrieve Neverfail Continuity Engine logs from the passive server when there are no management (backdoor) IP addresses configured. This need only be done when the logs have been requested by support.

Note: If you do not know the Neverfail Channel IP address currently being used, you can check this via the Engine Management Service screen.

Follow these steps:

1. At the console of the active server run the following commands, substituting the relevant directories where appropriate.
   

C:\net use \\passive.channel.ip.address /user:administrator 

copy \\passive.channel.ip.address\NFInstallDrive$\NeverfailInstallDir\R2\logs\*.* 
c:\temp\neverfail\passive

copy \\passive.channel.ip.address\NFInstallDrive$\NeverfailInstallDir\R2\scripts\*.*
c:\temp\neverfail\passive

When a management (backdoor) IP address exists on the passive server, the logs can be simply copied from the passive server to a remote client via explorer.

    2.  Other useful information to collect.

Run the following commands from a command prompt on either server with Neverfail Continuity Engine installed:

1. Current Configuration can be obtained by:
   

cd c:\neverfail\r2\bin\ and run exportconfig.exe c:\temp\neverfail\config.xml

1. Registry Information including current File Filters can be obtained by:
   

reg export HKLM\Software\JavaSoft\Prefs\neverfail\current\/Interceptor\/Filters c:\temp\neverfail\file-filters.txt and email file-filters.txt to support.

1. To list all folders on a drive:
   
2. cd\ 
   dir /a:d /b /s >>c:\temp\neverfail\folders.txt
3. This should be completed for each drive.
   

     3.  Sending the information to Neverfail Support.

As before, the information gathered should be zipped and labeled clearly as Primary and Secondary. See step 6 from "Using the Neverfail Log Collector" for details on where to send log information. 

All the above information must be supplied in order for Neverfail Support to provide effectively assistance.

Applies To

All Versions

Related Information

None