Compression of log files on rotation

Since version 4.1.1.164

Both Payara Server and GlassFish 4.0 Open Source Edition provide an option to rotate logs files using a configurable interval (given either by the size of the log file or by time elapsed). On top of that, Payara Server Community can be configured to compress rotated files automatically. This is done transparently, so it is still possible to view log entries that are using the the log viewer in the Web Admin Console.

Using the Web Admin Console

When log rotation is configured, you can turn on compression of rotated files in the Logger Settings section, by ticking the Compress on Rotation checkbox:

Compress on Rotation enabled

Using an asadmin command

Use the following command to enable or disabled the automatic compression of log files on rotation:

asadmin> set-log-attributes com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.GFFileHandler.compressOnRotation='true'

View the log files in the Admin Console

The log files can be viewed in Admin Console in the same way as if they were uncompressed. The only difference is that the filename name ends with the .gz extension and it takes much longer to open them and display their contents.

This is an example how the Log Viewer may visualize 3 compressed log files:

Log Viewer with compressed log files