Set SMP 7 agent logging level to a high state

Action Description

Setting the logging level to "ff" (in hex) ensures that all messages which can possibly be generated by the SMP agent and plug-in agents will be put in the logs.  However note this - initially start with the "f" level of logging as the "ff" can cause too much processing and affect ACS operation.  Normally some of the messages are not logged as they are generally repetitive.  But when troubleshooting a harder problem they can be quite valuable.  "f" level is know as "trace" and "ff" level is known as "super trace" or "verbose".  Initially use "trace" as per the recommendation above.

Action Process and Details

The logging level is set in the registry at - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Event Logging\LogFile.  Add a DWord called 'severity' (no quotes) and set the value to "f" (in hex).

The Log files will be found in the location specified in the value File Path on the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Event Logging\LogFile (as shown below).  The logs are in different locations depending on the OS version on the client machine.  We generally need all of the SMP/NS agent logs (Agentxx.log) and the ACS logs (ACSxx.log) in the directory.

Then after getting the failure and gathering the log files set the value back to "7" (hex or decimal is the same).  This is the normal setting (assumed by the agent) even when the Registry value doesn't exist.

See the screen shot below if there are any questions.