Knowledge Base

How to Use the Debug Log Parser Script

For analysis of the Neo4j debug.log, read this guide for using the debugInfo.sh parser script.

What is the this script?

The debug.log is quite verbose and contains a lot of useful information for understanding the health and behavior of a Neo4j server instance or cluster. To assist in enabling support teams to more quickly and efficiently understand if the Neo4j server is health or not, Neo4j Support has produced debugInfo.sh script to parse a debug.log file into a condensed, usable summary of information.

How do I use it?

First, download the script and helper files here.

To run the debugInfo.sh script on Linux systems, follow these steps:

As the neo4j user:

  1. Copy the debugInfo.sh script and the debugLogErrorsFile.neo4j and debugLogExcludeFile.neo4j files to $NEO4J_HOME/logs

  2. Review and modify the script User variables as required.

  3. The default log location is the working directory where the script is run from. The default output file is called debugInfo.txt.

  4. Run chmod 750 debugInfo.sh to set execute permissions on the script.

  5. Script usage:

  $ ./debugInfo.sh debug.log

NOTE 1: The debugInfo.sh script will accept one input, which is the name of the Neo4j debug log to process.

NOTE 2: The debugLogErrorsFile.neo4j file is used to parse specific error values in the debug log. This file can be modified as required. The debugLogExcludeFile.neo4j file is used to exclude specific error values from the debug log error parsing. This file can be modified as required.

NOTE 3: The debugInfo.sh script will output results to the screen and also to the default output file called debugInfo.txt in the working directory.

To run the script from an alternative location, just provide the full path to the debug.log to analyze:

$ pwd
/home/neo4j

$ ls -la
total 40
drwxrwxr-x   2 neo4j neo4j   112 Dec 19 13:23 .
drwx------. 13 neo4j neo4j  4096 Dec 13 17:01 ..
-rwx------   1 neo4j neo4j 17521 Dec 13 17:04 debugInfo.sh
-rw-rw-r--   1 neo4j neo4j   427 Dec 13 16:47 debugLogErrorsFile.neo4j
-rw-rw-r--   1 neo4j neo4j  1671 Dec 13 16:51 debugLogExcludeFile.neo4j

$ ./debugInfo.sh debug.log $NEO4J_HOME/logs/debug.log

NOTE 1: The script will parse the debug.log from the location provided and output results to the screen and also to the default output file called debugInfo.txt in the working directory.