Communications Logging

Communications log files provide a record of communications between the drivers and the outstations and modems. They provide diagnostic information that can be useful when investigating the possible cause of unexpected communications problems. If you experience communications problems on your system, Schneider Electric support staff may request that you enable communications logging and provide the resultant log file.

There are several types of communications log file:

• Comms Log files—These provide a log of only the 'good' communications between a driver and the outstations or modem, filtering out any data that was discarded by the driver. The driver will discard data that is not a modem response or does not have the correct structure and checksum for the protocol.

  Be aware that, on channels on which TLS is in use, Comms log files will show the unencrypted data, so it is important to handle the files appropriately.

• IO Log files—These provide a log of the raw protocol (such as DNP3) data transmissions between a driver and the outstations or modem, including data that was discarded by the driver.

  Be aware that, on channels on which TLS is in use, IO log files will show the unencrypted data, so it is important to handle the files appropriately.

• TLS Log files—These log the raw encrypted data and TLS handshake information, including any TLS-related data that was discarded by the driver. TLS log files can prove very useful when diagnosing TLS issues (rather than general communications issues).

Advanced drivers support IO and Comms log files. Those advanced drivers that support network or TCP/IP communications also support TLS log files.

Simple drivers have a hybrid type of log file that is a combination of IO and communications—these hybrid types of log file are also referred to as 'Comms logs'.

There are separate log files for each channel. The names of the log files use the following format:

Driver<name> <port> <type>_<nnn>.log

Where:

• Driver<name> is the name of the driver with which the channel is associated
• <port> is the name of the port

  The <port> details vary, depending on the type of connection.

  With a network-connected channel, the <port> details comprise:
  <channel name> #<Id>
  where:

  • <channel name> is the name that has been given to the channel in the database
  • <Id> is the unique identifier number that Geo SCADA Expert assigned to the Channel database item when it was created. This matches the Id that you can see in other displays, such as the Status display of the Channel database item (providing that your user account has the relevant permissions to view such information).
• <type> is the type of log file (Comms, IO, or TLS)
• <nnn> is a sequence number, such as 003.

As with other types of log file that are generated by Geo SCADA Expert:

• If the amount of information that is being logged extends beyond the maximum size that is specified for a log file, the content will be stored in multiple log files, each assigned a different sequence number. The sequence increments to indicate the order in which you should view the files.

• Older sets of log files get appended with an underscore and number when more than one set of log files of the same type exist for a channel.

For more information, see Define the Server Logging Settings.

Communications logging can impact system performance, so you should only enable communications logging on a channel when required. You should leave communications logging disabled at other times.

The rest of this section provides more information about working with communications log files. For more information, see the topics that are listed in the gray footer section at the bottom of this topic. Select the relevant entry to display the topic that you require.