Options: Logging/Trace Logging

You can use this page to specify parameters for logging protocol traces. Protocol traces are available for the SMTP, FTP and HTTP protocols because they are all telnet-based (text-based). Protocol traces will be written to the following files: http.log, smtp.log and ftp.log. These files will be created in the log directory you can specify on the Logging Options page.

Using

Logging protocol traces was developed as a debug feature to help you determine the cause of your check problems. That is why we recommend you the following strategy of using this feature:

Stop all your checks and remove the existing http.log, smtp.log, ftp.log files from the log directory.
Enable the trace logging feature in the options.
Select and start the check you want to view protocol traces for.
After the check finishes its work, you can go to the log directory and analyze protocol traces logged for this check to determine the problem.

Notes

Traces of all checks will be logged to one file in the log directory and, therefore, for example, if many checks of the FTP type are started, all the protocol activity of these checks will be written to the corresponding log file simultaneously.

Also, you should bear in mind that your passwords and other security information can be written to these files in plain text (if you use something like the automatic HTTP page login feature or an FTP check without anonymous authentication).