How to View Oracle Alert Log XML Using ADRCI (KBA6740)
KBA
KBA# 6740Background
In some instances, Oracle alert logs may be provided in .xml format. Although legible, manually parsing XML formatted diagnostic data may be inefficient. Fortunately, Oracle provides a method for viewing alert log detail in 'plain text' without XML formatting using the Automatic Diagnostic Repository Command Interpreter (ADRCI) utility. This utility can be used to review an existing installation, but can also be used to review log files in an arbitrary location.
Prerequisites
The alert log XML file must be transferred to a host with a functional Oracle installation (Oracle processes do not need to be running). Generally, the install version should not need to match the version of Oracle that generated the log file.
How to View an Alert Log
By altering the ADR base, the ADRCI utility can parse the XML log file output in an arbitrary location; however, the utility will still look for an expected directory structure under the ADR base:
<ADR BASE>/diag/rdbms/<some name>/<some name>/alert
<some name> is referenced, as the path ultimately does not matter (it is not required to be aligned with the customer database name, et cetera). In this example, using the /tmp directory for the ADR base, the directory structure can be created and .xml file relocated via:
$ mkdir -p /tmp/diag/rdbms/d/d/alert $ cp log.xml /tmp/diag/rdbms/d/d/alert
Following the alert log relocation, ADRCI can be launched. Change the ADRCI base to /tmp using the set base command (if the command is successful, no return output is provided):
$ adrci ADRCI: Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production on Wed Nov 18 12:16:20 2020 Copyright (c) 1982, 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. ADR base = "/u01/app/oracle" adrci> set base /tmp
The show alert command can now be used to review the output with XML formatting removed.
adrci> show alert
The ADRCI utility also offers advance search and other functionality. The extent of options available for this use case can be reviewed using the help command:
adrci> help show alert Usage: SHOW ALERT [-p <predicate_string>] [-term] [ [-tail [num] [-f]] | [-file <alert_file_name>] ] Purpose: Show alert messages. Options: [-p <predicate_string>]: The predicate string must be double-quoted. The fields in the predicate are the fields: ORIGINATING_TIMESTAMP timestamp NORMALIZED_TIMESTAMP timestamp ORGANIZATION_ID text(65) COMPONENT_ID text(65) HOST_ID text(65) HOST_ADDRESS text(47) MESSAGE_TYPE number MESSAGE_LEVEL number MESSAGE_ID text(65) MESSAGE_GROUP text(65) CLIENT_ID text(65) MODULE_ID text(65) PROCESS_ID text(33) THREAD_ID text(65) USER_ID text(65) INSTANCE_ID text(65) DETAILED_LOCATION text(161) UPSTREAM_COMP_ID text(101) DOWNSTREAM_COMP_ID text(101) EXECUTION_CONTEXT_ID text(101) EXECUTION_CONTEXT_SEQUENCE number ERROR_INSTANCE_ID number ERROR_INSTANCE_SEQUENCE number MESSAGE_TEXT text(2049) MESSAGE_ARGUMENTS text(513) SUPPLEMENTAL_ATTRIBUTES text(513) SUPPLEMENTAL_DETAILS text(4000) PROBLEM_KEY text(551) CON_UID number CONTAINER_ID number CONTAINER_NAME text(31) [-tail [num] [-f]]: Output last part of the alert messages and output latest messages as the alert log grows. If num is not specified, the last 10 messages are displayed. If "-f" is specified, new data will append at the end as new alert messages are generated. [-term]: Direct results to terminal. If this option is not specified, the results will be open in an editor. By default, it will open in vi on Linux, but "set editor" can be used to set other editors. [-file <alert_file_name>]: Allow users to specify an alert file which may not be in ADR. <alert_file_name> must be specified with full path. Note that this option cannot be used with the -tail option Examples: show alert show alert -p "message_text like '%incident%'" show alert -tail 20
Related Articles
The following articles may provide more information or related information to this article: