Often, when an error occurs, you, as the administrator, will need to examine the JIRA log files to pinpoint the exact problem. Normally, in order to get access to the logs, you will need to either SSH into the server or download the file using an FTP client. In a locked-down environment, you will have to request this via your IT team, which could lead to a long turnaround time.
In this recipe, we will look at how you can access your JIRA log files from the JIRA UI, trail its contents online, and download them directly.
For this recipe, we need to have the JIRA Home Directory and DB Browser add-on installed. You can download it from the following link and install it with the UPM:
Perform the following steps to access the JIRA log files from the JIRA UI:
- Navigate to Administration | Add-ons | Home Directory Browser.
- Select the log directory link to view its contents.
- Click the Live View link for the log file that you want to view. JIRA's log file is called
atlassian-jira.log:
The JIRA Home Directory Browser add-on works by displaying the actual content of your JIRA_HOME directory inside your web browser. You can actually get access to more than just the log files. For example, you can look at JIRA's database configuration from the dbconfig.xml file, and download data exports from the export directory.