How can I get Log4j2 to log to my log file, I've tried everything I can think of, could it be a configuration issue in linux?

Question

My log4j2.xml is exactly the same as the one I've written for another similar server - which works perfectly well. The only differences are the file/server names and paths. Log4j1 worked fine too, it's just log4j2 that's causing problems. I'm starting to think I might have missed something in the linux config at this point. Things I've tried:

• Including log4j2.xml in the root directory of the project
• Including log4j2.xml in the main.resources folder of my project
• Using -Dlog4j.configurationFile="PATH" when running the jar (via systemd)
• Verified the folder/log file are owned by the server user and server group
• Verified that the server has rw permissions for the file/folder
• Verified that the server user is a member of the correct group

Also, when I run systemctl status -l on the server, the resulting output shows the log data as I expect to see it in the firmwareserver.log file.
My other server uses the log4j2.xml file from main.resources in the project without any issues.

EDIT: I should add, I'm developing this in eclipse on a windows machine, and when I run it there the log file saves as expected, even using the linux path it still works.

EDIT 2: I found the following error when I ran the jar file directly instead of as a systemd service:

2016-03-11 14:06:39,601 ERROR Unable to locate appender RollingFile for logger

Here's my Log4j2.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="DEBUG" monitorInterval="30">
        <Properties>
                <Property name="windows-log-path">C:/log4j/</Property>
                <Property name="linux-log-path">/var/log/wsfirmwareserver</Property>
        </Properties>
        <Appenders>
                <RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="${linux-log-path}/firmwareserver.log"
                        filePattern="${linux-log-path}/$${date:yyyy-MM}/firmwareserver-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}-%i.log">
                        <PatternLayout>
                        <pattern>%d{dd/MMM/yyyy HH:mm:ss,SSS}{GMT+1} [%-5p] [%t] - %c{1}: %m%n</pattern>
                        </PatternLayout>
                                <SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="5MB" />
                        <DefaultRolloverStrategy max="30" />
                </RollingFile>
                <Console name="Console" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
                        <PatternLayout pattern="%d{HH:mm:ss.SSS} [%t] - %m%n" />
                </Console>
                <SMTP name="SMTPAppender"
                    smtpProtocol="smtps"
                    smtpPort="465"
                    subject="LOC SERVER:Error"
                    to="[email protected], [email protected]"
                    from="[email protected]"
                    smtpHost="smtp.gmail.com"
                    smtpUsername="[email protected]"
                    smtpPassword="thepassword"
                    bufferSize="512"> 

                        <PatternLayout>
                                <pattern>%d{dd/MMM/yyyy HH:mm:ss,SSS}{GMT+1} [%-5p] [%t] - %c{1}: %m%n</pattern>
                        </PatternLayout>
                </SMTP>
        </Appenders>
        <Loggers>
                <Logger name="root" level="info" additivity="false">
                        <appender-ref ref="RollingFile" level="info" />
                </Logger>

                <Root level="debug" additivity="false">
                        <AppenderRef ref="Console" level="debug"/>
                        <AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" level="debug"/>
                        <AppenderRef ref="SMTPAppender" level="error"/>
                </Root>
        </Loggers>
</Configuration>

Anybody got any suggestions? Ideally I'd like to have the config file located in the same folder as the server jar, but at this point I just want it to log to the file properly.

Answer 1

There was an error in the log4j2.xml file itself. I haven't located it, but replacing it with a copy from another server fixed the issue.