The database server message log is an operating-system file. The messages contained in the database server message log do not usually require immediate action. To report situations that require your immediate attention, the database server uses the event-alarm feature. See Event Alarm. To specify the message-log pathname, set the MSGPATH configuration parameter. For more information about MSGPATH, see the chapter on configuration parameters in the IBM Informix: Administrator's Reference.
It is recommended that you monitor the message log once or twice a day to ensure that processing is proceeding normally and that events are being logged as expected. Use the onstat -m command to obtain the name of the message log and the 20 most-recent entries. Use a text editor to read the complete message log. Use an operating-system command (such as the UNIX command tail -f) to see the messages as they occur. For a list of these messages, see the chapter on message-log messages in the IBM Informix: Administrator's Reference.
Monitor the message-log size as well because the database server appends new entries to this file. Edit the log as needed, or back it up to tape and delete it.
If the database server experiences a failure, the message log serves as an audit trail for retracing the events that develop later into an unanticipated problem. Often the database server provides the exact nature of the problem and the suggested corrective action in the message log.
You can read the database server message log for a minute-by-minute account of database server processing in order to catch events before a problem develops. However, you are not expected to perform this kind of monitoring.
You can change the value of MSGPATH while the database server is in online mode, but the changes do not take effect until you reinitialize shared memory.
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