Error message formatting

A log file is created in the BASEDIR/smarts/local/logs directory for each VMware Smart Assurance application started with the --output option. (Any VMware Smart Assurance application installed as a service automatically has --output in its invocation.) The log file is the primary tool for tracking the startup and progression of an VMware Smart Assurance application, and for resolving application and discovery errors.

VMware Smart Assurance exception message formatting shows through example the formatting structure of error (exception) messages that are written to an VMware Smart Assurance log file.

Figure 1. VMware Smart Assurance exception message formatting

The first line of an error message identifies the following information:

• VMware Smart Assurance software subsystem that reported the error

• Severity level of the error:

  • F for Fatal

  • E for Error

  • W for Warning

  • N for Notice

  • I for Informational

  • D for Debug

• Name of the error table from which the VMware Smart Assurance subsystem took the error

• Name of the error

  In the example error message, the reporting subsystem is ASL, for Adapter Scripting Language, the message severity level is Warning, the error table name is ERROR_RULE_SOURCE, and the error name is “While executing rule set.” The combination of an error table name and an error name uniquely identifies a particular error.

  The remaining lines in an error message, referred to as chained exceptions, provide more detail about the exception appearing in the top line. The last chained exception identifies the root cause of the error. In VMware Smart Assurance exception message formatting, the root cause of the error is that the code was instructed to access a class that the code could not find.

  Some VMware Smart Assurance subsystems and their descriptions identifies and briefly defines some of the VMware Smart Assurance subsystems.

Table 1. Some VMware Smart Assurance subsystems and their descriptions

VMware Smart Assurance subsystem	Description
ASL	Adapter scripting language subsystem. (Most VMware Smart Assurance Adapters are implemented in ASL code.) Generates errors detected by ASL code.
DNS	Network name translation subsystem.
DVST	Device status polling subsystem.
DX	Correlator subsystem.
ICF	VMware Smart Assurance framework subsystem.
ICS	VMware Smart Assurance service assurance subsystem.
MR	Repository manager. Throws generic Repository errors; the Repository is the database that stores the discovered topology (inventory).
OSA	Operating system accessor.
RTLD	Module loading. Throws errors due to configuration problems that cause the code to be unable to locate parts of itself.
TOPO	Topology subsystem.
<SYS>	Not an VMware Smart Assurance subsystem; represents an operating system component that generated an error.