Logging
After reading this, you can configure and use logging to get information about your Middleware instance.
Introduction
Logging is a crucial part of debugging issues when the Middleware is not working as expected. It can provide you and fiskaltrust.Support with the relevant information to determine the reason for any unexpected behavior.
The Middleware supports two types of logging, a default one for standard output when the Middleware is running in test mode and a second one for traditional file-based logging. The latter requires manual log file configuration and works in both execution modes, test and service.
The following sections provide you with more insight on which log levels are available and how to configure logging in detail.
Depending on the log level and your number of transactions, the Middleware may log much information, which may unnecessarily occupy disk storage on your system. Therefore, it is generally advised not to exceed a warning-level for regular production use for performance and storage reasons. Set a higher log level only when you want to reproduce or analyze issues or when advised by fiskaltrust.Support.
Log file rotation is only supported as of version 2.0 of the Launcher.
Log levels
The Middleware distinguishes between seven different log levels.
| Priority | Level | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | none | Nothing is logged |
 | critical | Only critical errors are logged |
 | error | General errors are logged |
 | warning | Warning messages are logged |
 | information | General technical information is logged |
 | debug | Debug messages are logged |
 | trace | The most detailed log level, with additional trace information |
Each log level builds upon the previous ones and includes all their information. So, for example, if you configure warning, the log will also include the information for the levels critical and error.
Configuring the log level and log file
You define the log level and file in the Middleware's configuration file fiskaltrust.exe.config. Both are configured with an <add> entry under the appSettings section and have a key attribute indicating the respective parameter (logfile and loglevel), as well as a value attribute specifying the actual value (either the desired log level or the full path to the log file).
The following example shows a configuration where we set the log level to debug and a log file configured under the given file system path.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="loglevel" value="Debug" />
<add key="logfile" value="C:\log\fiskaltrust\middleware.log" />
[ .. other configuration values .. ]
</appSettings>
[ .. other configuration settings .. ]
</configuration>
The entries can be set manually by editing fiskaltrust.exe.config or by calling the Launcher with the -verbosity/logfile parameters. The following example illustrates how you would configure the settings from the above instance via the command line.
C:\>fiskaltrust.exe -verbosity=debug -logfile="C:\log\fiskaltrust\middleware.log"
Please note that any changes to the configuration will only take effect after a restart of the Middleware service.
Avoid adding your configuration parameters directly to any of the included launch scripts (test.[cmd/sh] and install-service.[cmd/sh]). Doing so will overwrite your configuration whenever you launch one of the scripts, resetting any changes you possibly made to the configuration in the meantime.
Providing logs to fiskaltrust.Support
When providing support with a log file or log excerpt, please ensure you enabled file logging and configured the adequate log level (typically debug, support may provide you with more details on that).
Please also try to limit the logging to the point when you reproduce the issue. It dramatically helps the support team analyze the case when the log file only contains relevant information. If a log file is too large to send via email, please try compressing it first. Should that still not work, please get in touch with support for further upload options.
Log format
The following log excerpt is an example from when the Launcher just started and encountered a file system permission issue.
1970-01-01 00:00:00 [INF] fiskaltrust.Launcher-X.X.X
1970-01-01 00:00:00 [INF] CashBoxId set to "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
1970-01-01 00:00:00 [INF] AccessToken set
1970-01-01 00:00:00 [INF] Sandbox set to "True"
1970-01-01 00:00:00 [ERR] Cannot set ACL to ServiceFolder
System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation.
at System.Security.AccessControl.Win32.SetSecurityInfo(ResourceType type, String name, SafeHandle handle, SecurityInfos securityInformation, SecurityIdentifier owner, SecurityIdentifier group, GenericAcl sacl, GenericAcl dacl)
at System.Security.AccessControl.NativeObjectSecurity.Persist(String name, SafeHandle handle, AccessControlSections includeSections, Object exceptionContext)
at System.Security.AccessControl.NativeObjectSecurity.Persist(String name, AccessControlSections includeSections, Object exceptionContext)
at System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemSecurity.Persist(String fullPath)
at fiskaltrust.service.launcher.Configuration.get_ServiceFolder()
1970-01-01 00:00:02 [INF] Starting Middleware with configuration timestamp: 0 (SHA256: 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000)
1970-01-01 00:00:02 [INF] Save configuration to C:\ProgramData\fiskaltrust\service\Configuration-00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.json
1970-01-01 00:00:02 [INF] Starting ft.Middleware at C:\ProgramData\fiskaltrust\service\00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
1970-01-01 00:00:02 [INF] fiskaltrust.Middleware started. Press a button to stop...
A log entry consists of four elements.
- The local date
- The local time
- The log level under which the message was logged (
CRI,ERR,WRN,INF,DBG, andVRB) - The log message
The given example provides us with the following clues:
- in line 1, the Middleware started with the Launcher version X.X.X
- lines 2 to 4, configuration parameters for the mentioned settings were provided
- line 5 indicates an error (, in this case, missing permissions for the file system), the respective exception message is appended in lines 6 to 11
- lines 12 to 14 are general information messages during the start
- line 15 points out that, in test mode, you can exit the Middleware by pressing any key