View system log

View system log shows information about who has been using your RefTracker system, and processes run by it. Parameter 0.0 determines how many day’s worth of information are retained for viewing here.

There are two system logs that you can view – Session information, and Background processing.Select the one you want in the top right corner of the screen.

This screen may have a lot of information to display and so is presented in a paged format. Use the page controls to move from page to page or to change the number of records shown in each page.

The Session information log:

The Session information log presents the following information about who has been accessing your RefTracker system (see example screen print above).

Event is a description of the action being undertaking accessing or exiting the system. When staff access the system using “Remember me” the event is recorded as “Staff login – automatic”, as opposed to “Staff login – manual” where the staff member typed their user id and password in the login screen.

• “Start session” can be the start of a staff or client session – look for a following staff or client logon entry for the same Session ID to be able to determine what sort of session was started. 
• “Staff logon” indicates that the staff member shown in the staff name column has logged on. 
• “Staff logoff” indicates that the staff member shown in the staff name column has logged off. RefTracker will then attempt to release the session.
• “Session abandoned” indicates that RefTracker has released the session. 
• “Session timed-out” indicates that either a staff or client sessions has been concluded by the system after expiry of the system time out period. Staff sessions that are not “logged out”, and all client sessions will time out after no activity has occurred for the system time out value period of time set by parameter 2.3.

Staff name displays the name of the Staff member accessing the system, when the access is by a staff member.

Note provides a helpful summary of the start and end time for each session that times out. It also shows the RefTracker page number at which the user entered the system – for example reft100 is a client interface request form.

Unique ID is the Unique ID for each RefTracker login. It is important in diagnosing logon issues. “

Session ID is the ASP.net session ID which is allocated to the session as the user logs in. The allocation of the session ID at login in shown in this System log, as is the de-allocation of it when the user exits the system. It is likely to be the same for all connections to RefTracker from a given instance of a browser, even if you log in and out.

IP address is captured for client access. You may also see a cookie ID in this column. This is used to be able to identify subsequent sessions from the same browser session. If your browser allows it the RefTracker staff logon process installs a cookie as you log into a Browser for the first time in a day. If you log into a different browser (e.g. IE versus Firefox) on the same computer, that browser will have a separate cookie installed. The system log cannot log these cookies on first entry to a browser as they do not exist at that time, but subsequent use of the same browser will have the cookie number recorded here and will be able to be used to identify that an action is occurring in a browser previously used for a RefTracker session. This information is useful to Altarama for diagnostic purposes.

The Background processing log:

The Background processing log lists all occasions on which the Background process ran (Note that the background process checks for work every minute, but entries are only included in this log if work was actually done), and the processes that were run by it, if any. It provides a quick overview that confirms that the background process is being triggered as it should. For a log of actions performed by each process go to System>Batch process menu>Background processing, and the log tab for each individual process. Here is an example of the Background processing log.

Exercise

Click the “Utilities menu” link in the top left of the screen and then click on View time zones.