Turn on application debugging for SAM

10/10/2018 1:27 PM

10/17/2025 10:46 PM

The following will outline the procedure for gathering Debug Logging for SAM Applications to troubleshoot issues with Component Monitors.

Server Application Monitor

The sections below are as follows:

1. Enable Debug Logging.
2. Determine Where to look for the Logs.
3. Viewing and Gathering the Logs.
   1. View or gather logs from an Application polling via a Primary or Additional Polling Engine.
   2. View or gather logs from an Application polling via an Agent.
   3. View or gather logs directly on a Windows Agent Machine.
   4. View or gather logs directly on a Linux Agent Machine.

1. Enable Debug Logging  

1. Open the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.
2. Open the SAM Summary tab.
3. Expand the Application > Server and click the Application Monitor as highlighted below.
   
4. Take note of the Application ID which can be located in the URL bar of the page.
   
5. Click "Edit Application Monitor", located in the "Management" Section or at the top-right of the page.
   
   NOTE: If the "Edit Application Monitor" option is not appearing please ensure your account has SAM Admin rights
   • You must be a SAM Administrator to access the page
6. Expand Advanced > Override Template next to "Debug Logging" section and change to "On".
   
7. Save the changes using the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page.
8. Poll the application 3 times, 1 minute apart.
9. The next poll of the Application will now generate Debug Logs.

 

2. Determine Where to look for the logs  

NOTE: Windows Agents were introduced in SAM 6.2. Linux Agents were introduced in SAM 6.3. If the release of SAM is older than these versions then ignore any information or section pertaining to Agents.

When looking for the logs it depends on how and where the device is polled from. To determine this use the following steps:

NOTE: In the "Edit Application Monitor" Details page, if Preferred Polling Method is set to "Agentless" (in same section as above screenshot) then the logs WILL reside on one of the SolarWinds Platform Servers.

1. On the Application Details page click the Node object at the top of the page.
   
2. On the Node Details page click "Edit Node".
   
3. Check the section under "Polling Method". If this is set to "Agent" and you have confirmed the application monitor is preferring "Agent" polling then please skip to the "Viewing and Gathering the Logs" section, sections b,c and d.
   
4. If the Polling Method above is set to "No Status", "ICMP", "SNMP and ICMP" or "WMI and ICMP" then determine which polling engine it's polling by via the "Polling" section.

3. Viewing and Gathering the Logs  

a. View or gather logs from an Application polling via a Primary or Additional Polling Engine  

1. Open a Remote Desktop Session to the Polling Engine.
2. Navigate to:
   C:\ProgramData\Solarwinds\Logs\APM\ApplicationLogs
3. The folder will be named "AppIdxxx". The ID will the same as gathered from the URL bar previously on the Application Details page.

 

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b. View or gather logs from an Application polling via an Agent  

1. Open the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.
2. Navigate to the "Settings" page.
3. Go to "Manage Agents" page.
4. Find the Agent in question.
5. Select the checkbox next to it.
6. Click "Edit Settings".
7. Expand "Troubleshooting".
8. Click "Collect new diagnostics".
9. When complete, click "Download".
10. In the resulting ZIP navigate to:
    1. For Windows Agents
       • \APM\ApplicationLogs
       • The folder will be named "AppIdxxx". The ID will the same as gathered from the URL bar previously on the Application Details page.
    2. For Linux Agents
       • \agent
       • Linux Agent Application Debug logging will be written to separate files in this directory.
         NOTE: In SAM 6.3 the Linux Agent writes all the Debug logs to the same directory

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c. View or gather logs directly on a Windows Agent Machine  

1. Open a Remote Desktop Session to the Agent Machine

2. Navigate to:
   C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds\Logs_Agent\APM\ApplicationLogs

3. The folder will be named "AppIdxxx". The ID will the same as gathered from the URL bar previously on the Application Details page.
   NOTE: If sending logs to Support it's best to archive the whole C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds directory.

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d. View or gather logs directly on a Linux Agent Machine  

1. Open an SSH Session or a Terminal on the Linux Machine.
2. Change the directory to:
   /opt/SolarWinds/Agent/bin/appdata/Logs

Extra consideration

If logging a ticket with support for SAM Application/Component Issues it may be beneficial to attach the Debug Logs to the ticket.

If the Application Logs are on the Primary or Additional Polling Engine then they will be gathered with a set of diagnostics. Providing these logs can speed up the resolution of tickets.

• How to gather and send a diagnostics file to SolarWinds Support