Useful log files in Jira
Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.
Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Purpose
As an administrator of Jira Server / Data Center, it can be helpful to see a list of log files Jira creates and their locations, particularly for ingress into a log monitoring solution such as Splunk.
Solution
The following table lists the log files Jira creates and their default location and filename.
Logging is written by default to two locations: “logs” directory in the Jira installation directory and “log” directory in the Jira Home directory.
Location | Log Filename | Log Purpose | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
JIRA_INSTALL/ | access_log.YYYY-mm-dd | HTTP access log (tomcat) | A list of each request that Jira node receives and completes processing |
atlassian-jira-gc-YYYY | Garbage collection log | Written by the JVM to describe how memory management takes place, and what memory is in use | |
catalina.out | Tomcat application server stdout | The stdout of the tomcat application server process | |
localhost.YYYY-mm-dd | Other | Other | |
manager-YYYY-mm-dd | Other | Other | |
JIRA_HOME/ | atlassian-jira.log* | Primary Jira log file | Contains logging for most of Jira, including logs that aren’t specifically written elsewhere |
atlassian-greenhopper.log | Jira Software Agile Board log | Logging written by the Jira Software plugin | |
atlassian-servicedesk.log* | Jira Service Management log | Logging written by the Jira Service Management plugin | |
atlassian-jira-security.log* | Security Log | Records login success/failure transactions, session creation and destruction, along with certain authentication related debug logging if enabled | |
atlassian-jira-apdex.log* | Apdex log | Apdex performance statistics | |
atlassian-jira-http-access.log* | HTTP access log (Jira) | Secondary HTTP access log, written by Jira as opposed to Tomcat. Only written if HTTP access log debug is enabled | |
atlassian-jira-http-dump.log* | HTTP dump log (Jira) | HTTP dump log, written by Jira. A more verbose HTTP access log. Only written if HTTP dump logging is enabled | |
atlassian-jira-incoming-mail.log* | Incoming mail | Incoming mail debug log. Only written to if Incoming Mail Debug is enabled. | |
atlassian-jira-outgoing-mail.log* | Outgoing mail | Outgoing mail debug log. Only written to if Outgoing Mail Debug is enabled. | |
atlassian-jira-perf.log* | Performance statistics | Writes performance statistics about the running Jira process | |
atlassian-jira-querydsl-sql.log* | QueryDSL debug log | QueryDSL debug log, a SQL abstraction layer used by some Jira functions/plugins | |
atlassian-jira-slow-queries.log* | Slow JQL log | Records JQL query and their source for executions over the threshold of 400ms | |
atlassian-jira-slow-querydsl-queries.log* | Slow QueryDSL log | Slow QueryDSL query log | |
atlassian-jira-sql.log* | SQL Debug Log | SQL debug and trace logging, if enabled | |
atlassian-remoteapps-security.log* | Other | Other | |
| atlassian-jira-app-monitoring.log* | Diagnostic Metrics | Logging written by Diagnostics plugin JMX logger (Jira 9+) | |
| atlassian-jira-ipd-monitoring.log* | In-product-diagnostics DB | Logging written by Diagnostics plugin JMX logger for DB stats (Jira 9.3+) | |
jira-diagnostics.log | Diagnostic Alerts | Diagnostic Alerts | |
| JIRA_HOME/ log/audit | YYYYmmdd.00000.audit.log | Audit logging | Filesystem historical logging of audit data |
| JIRA_HOME/ log/jfr | atst_in_product_diagnostic_ YYYY_MM_DD_HH_mm_ss.jfr | Java Flight Recorder | JFR data logging |
| atst_in_product_diagnostic_ dump_on_exit_YYYY_ MM_DD_HH_mm_ss.jfr | Java Flight Recorder | JFR data logging (auto-generated on exit) | |
| active_configuration.jfc | Java Flight Recorder | Current JFR configuration | |
| atst_in_product_diagnostic.settings | ATST | Settings for JFR functionalities | |
| JIRA_INSTALL/.install4j | installation.log | Jira installation logs | Jira installation logs. Records all the steps done as part of Jira installation. |
The log files with a star "*" in the end indicate that the logs roll over. For example, the latest file is atlassian-jira.log, then atlassian-jira.log.1, then atlassian-jira.log.2 and so on.
The number of log files is defined in the log4j.properties file (if you're using Jira 9.4.x or older) or the log4j2.xml file (if you're using Jira 9.5.x or newer). Both files are located in the Jira application installation directory.