How to get logs from the Node agent

  • Updated

Objective

 In rare scenarios, bad instrumentation causes a web server process to crash or a specific page to error out. If you ever encounter a crash or error caused by Contrast, please report the error via the Submit a Request link at the bottom of this page.

If possible, follow the steps below to gather agent logs; this additional information is vital to reproducing and fixing these types of bugs.

Process

You can ask Contrast to log verbose information by doing one of the following.

  • Contrast_security.yaml file: (more information can be found here in our docs)
agent:
logger:
   path: /path/to/trace_contrast_agent.log
   level: TRACE
  • Environment Variables:
CONTRAST__AGENT__LOGGER__PATH=/path/to/trace_contrast_agent.log
CONTRAST__AGENT__LOGGER__LEVEL=TRACE

 

If your application is running in an SaaS/CaaS environment where the logs are not easily accessible, logging can be sent to STDOUT instead by one of the following methods:

For the Node.js agent you must manually configure DEBUG. INFO-level statements aren't logged to the console unless the environment variable DEBUG is set to include the Contrast namespace: DEBUG=contrast:*. This could be useful in environments where you don't have access to the file system (like Docker or ECS).

  • Contrast_security.yaml file: (more information can be found here in our docs)
agent: 
logger:
path: /dev/stdout
level: TRACE
  • Environment Variables:
CONTRAST__AGENT__LOGGER__LEVEL=TRACE
CONTRAST__AGENT__LOGGER__PATH=/dev/stdout

 

 These options will put Contrast into debug mode and log all output to the log file specified as the system property value. It will also prevent the log from rolling over into multiple files. The log file will start with some messages that look similar to this:

mceclip1.png

These verbose logs will allow our support team to diagnose any issues you may encounter. To contact the Contrast Support Team, please submit a ticket to our online support portal. 

 

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