Websphere: Purging first failure data capture log files

The first failure data capture (FFDC) feature preserves the information that is generated from a processing failure and returns control to the affected engines. The captured data is saved in a log file for analyzing the problem. FFDC is intended primarily for use by IBM Service.

Use following steps to configure number of days between FFDC log file purges. The value is in days.

The FFDC file management function removes the FFDC log files that have reached the maximum age and generates a message in the SystemOut.log file.

Procedure :

1. Open the ffdcRun.properties file. The file is located in the $WAS_ROOT/properties  directory
2. Change the value for the ExceptionFileMaximumAge property to the number of days between the FFDC log file purges. The value of the ExceptionFileMaximumAge property must be a positive number. The default is seven days. For example, ExceptionFileMaximumAge = 3 sets the default time to three days. The FFDC log file is purged after three days
3. Save the ffdcRun.properties file and exit
4. Repeat the previous steps to modify the ffdcStart.properties and ffdcStop.properties files