AVEVA™ Plant SCADA

Configure Logging

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Configure Logging

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Last UpdatedJul 18, 2023
2 minute read

You can make adjustments to the way Plant SCADA logs data using Citect.ini parameters. This includes the ability to filter logs according to priority, category or severity.

Configure syslog.dat

The syslog.dat file is the primary log file for Plant SCADA (see Log Files). The following list represents the basic set of parameters you can use to configure logging to syslog.dat.

[Alarm]EnableErrorLogging — Enables or disables the logging of operational errors to syslog.dat.
[Alarm]EnableStateLogging — Enables or disables the logging of major alarm system state changes to syslog.dat.
[General]Verbose — enables a startup dialog box which shows the opening runtime databases and other information.
[General]VerboseToSysLog — sends additional startup information generated by [General]Verbose to syslog.dat.

The syslog.dat file is restricted in size (to 2000 kb by default). When it reaches its size limit, Plant SCADA renames it "syslog.bak", and starts a new syslog.dat.

You can make this size restriction larger or smaller by using the [Debug]SysLogSize parameter. For example, the following lines in the Citect.ini will set the syslog.dat size to 30 Mb:

[DEBUG]
SysLogSize=30000

If you want to archive unlimited system log files, you can set [Debug]SysLogArchive to 1. This adds a time stamp to the file name.

Configure tracelog.dat

The tracelog.dat file contains managed code logging, mainly in relation to data subscriptions and updates (see Log Files).

The following list represents the basic set of parameters you can use to configure logging to tracelog.dat.

[Debug]EnableLogging — enables or disables logging to the tracelog.dat file.
[Debug]Priority — allows you to filter messages logged to the tracelog.dat file according to their priority.
[Debug]SeverityFilter — allows you to filter messages logged to the tracelog.dat file according to their severity.
[Debug]SeverityFilterMode — indicates whether messages declared by [Debug]SeverityFilter will be included or excluded from the log.
[Debug]CategoryFilter — allows you to filter messages logged to the tracelog.dat file by component category.
[Debug]CategoryFilterMode — indicates whether messages declared by [Debug]CategoryFilter will be included or excluded from the log.

Note: By default, the setting for [Debug]CategoryFilterMode will exclude the categories specified by [Debug]CategoryFilter. Be aware that this behavior is different to [Debug]SeverityFilterMode, which includes the declared severities by default.

Archiving of the tracelog.dat file is enabled or disabled by the parameter [Debug]ArchiveFiles. Archiving occurs once the maximum size specified by [Debug]MaximumFileSize is reached.

A full list of available parameters are listed on the Logging Parameters page of the Computer Setup Editor. From here, you can learn how each parameter will impact system logging, and make adjustments directly into the local Citect.ini file.

Some of the available logging parameters can be updated while your Plant SCADA system is running. For more information, see Adjust Logging During Runtime.

Note: Logging can cause a strain on system resources. When configuring logging, be aware of the potential impact on normal operation. For example, a large number of traces can affect CPU performance, while log file archiving may use up disk space.

AVEVA™ Plant SCADA