Send system information to support

Overview

Our Technical Support Engineers commonly request log files when diagnosing and resolving issues with your Code42 agent. Occasionally, after reviewing your logs, we may request additional system logs to identity the cause of the issue. For example, system information can help our Technical Support Engineers identify the following issues:

  • Application compatibility issues
  • Errors with operating system components (for example, Spotlight indexing issues)
  • Failing hardware

While the Code42 agent cannot cause these issues, they may serve as a symptom of these broader problems.

Windows

Windows includes tools that capture information about your system as it is running. Follow the instructions below to use Microsoft System Information and Event Viewer to gather your logs, and create a zip file that you can attach to a support ticket.

System Information

System Information (MSINFO32) is a program designed to give a comprehensive listing of your computer hardware, resources, software, and Internet settings.

  1. Open System Information.
    Windows 8 or 10: Press the Windows logo key‌ and enter System Information, and press Enter.
  2. Choose File > Save.
  3. From Save As, navigate to the Desktop and click New folder.
    Name the folder: cplogs
  4. Name the file msinfo32 and Save it to the cplogs folder.

Event Viewer

Windows Event Viewer creates system logs that record system events on your computer, such as when the computer goes to sleep, or when a program encounters an error.

  1. Open Event Viewer.
    Windows 8 or 10: Press the Windows logo key‌ and enter eventvwr.exe, and press Enter.
  2. Expand Windows Logs on the left window.
  3. Right-click Application and choose Save All Events As.
  4. Name the file Application and save the file to the cplogs folder on your desktop.
  5. Right-click System and choose Save All Events As.
  6. Name the file System and save the file to the cplogs folder on your desktop.
Both Application and System event viewer logs are needed to provide an accurate snapshot of your machine. Technical Support Engineer may not be able to properly diagnose or or resolve your issue with an incomplete set of log files.

Hosts file

The hosts file contains information on how hostnames are mapped to IP addresses for your computer.

  1. Open a file browser.
  2. Navigate to the following location: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
  3. Right-click on hosts and select Copy.
  4. Navigate to the cplogs folder on your desktop.
  5. Right-click inside the cplogs folder and select Paste.

Compress the logs

  1. From the desktop, right-click the cplogs folder.
  2. Select Send To > Compressed (zipped) folder.
    A compressed folder named cplogs.zip is created on your desktop.
  3. Follow the instructions below to send the cplogs.zip file to the Technical Support Engineer team.

MacOS and OS X

MacOS and OS X include terminal tools that capture information about your system as it is running. Follow the instructions below to gather logs from your computer, and create a zip file that you can attach to a support ticket.

Terminal commands

  1. From Applications, select Utilities > Terminal.
  2. Copy and paste each of the commands below into the Terminal window one at a time. Press Return after each command and wait for the command to complete.
    If prompted, enter your password, then press Return. Your password does not appear as you type.
Command Description
mkdir ~/Desktop/cpdata Creates a folder named "cpdata" on your desktop.
system_profiler -xml -detailLevel full > ~/Desktop/cpdata/system_info_report.spx Creates a report of your system information.
zip -r ~/Desktop/cpdata/system-logs.zip /var/log/system.log* Creates a file containing all of the system logs.
sudo launchctl list > ~/Desktop/cpdata/launchctl-listing.txt Creates a list of all daemons controlled by launchctl.
ls -alhOe@ /Library/LaunchDaemons > ~/Desktop/cpdata/launch-daemons-list.txt Creates a list of all launch daemons configured to start on boot.
ls -alhOe@ /Library/LaunchAgents > ~/Desktop/cpdata/launch-agents-list.txt Creates a list of all launch agents configured to start on boot.
cat /etc/hosts > ~/Desktop/cpdata/etc-hosts-file.txt Creates a copy of the operating system's hosts file.
cat /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.code42.service.plist > ~/Desktop/cpdata/crashplan-plist-copy.txt Creates a copy of the launch daemon entry for the Code42 service.
ps auxww > ~/Desktop/cpdata/process-list.txt Creates a file detailing all currently running processes.
set > ~/Desktop/cpdata/environment-vars.txt Creates a file containing all shell environment variables.
ifconfig > ~/Desktop/cpdata/ifconfig-output.txt Creates a file with details on all network adapters.
netstat -v > ~/Desktop/cpdata/netstat-output.txt Creates a file containing the output of the netstat command.
sudo ls -alOeh@R /Library/Application\ Support/CrashPlan > ~/Desktop/cpdata/ls-output-appsupport.txt Creates a list of files in the CrashPlan folder.
lsof > ~/Desktop/cpdata/lsof-output.txt Creates a list of currently open files.
sudo tar czvf ~/Desktop/cpdata/cp-crash-logs.tgz ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/; Collects relevant crash logs for the Code42 agent

Compress the logs

  1. From Terminal, copy and paste the following command to compress your log files.
    zip -r9 ~/Desktop/cpdata.zip ~/Desktop/cpdata/*
    A compressed folder named cpdata.zip is created on your desktop.
  2. Follow the instructions below to send the cpdata.zip file to the Technical Support Engineer team.

Linux

Linux includes terminal tools that capture information about your system as it is running. Follow the instructions below to gather logs from your computer, and create a zip file that you can attach to a support ticket.

Terminal commands

These commands must be typed precisely as they're shown – some with trailing slashes, some without.

  1. Open a Terminal.
  2. Type or copy/paste each of the commands below exactly as shown into the Terminal window one at a time. Press Enter after each command and wait for the command to complete.
    If prompted, enter your password, then press Enter. Your password does not appear as you type.
    Command Description

    mkdir ~/cpdata

    Creates the /cpdata folder within your user folder.

    tar -zvcf ~/cpdata/java-var-logs.tar.gz /var/log/java/*.log

    Compresses /var/log/java/*.log and moves the compressed file to ~/cpdata.


    This directory does not exist in all environments. If this command fails with a "No such file or directory" error, you can ignore the error and continue to the next command.

    tar -zvcf ~/cpdata/java-cpdir-logs.tar.gz /usr/local/crashplan/log/*.log

    Compresses /usr/local/crashplan/*.log and moves the compressed file to ~/cpdata.

    tar -zvcf ~/cpdata/cplogs.tar.gz /usr/local/crashplan/log/

    Compresses /usr/local/crashplan/log and moves the compressed file to ~/cpdata.

    tar -zvcf ~/cpdata/cpconf.tar.gz /usr/local/crashplan/conf/

    Compresses /usr/local/crashplan/conf and moves the compressed file to ~/cpdata.

    journalctl -a > ~/cpdata/journal.txt


    if journalctl returns an error, use these two commands:

    cp /var/log/syslog* ~/cpdata/

    cp /var/log/kern* ~/cpdata/

    For systems running systemd, copies the journal file.

    Copies the contents of /var/log/syslog and /var/log/kern to ~/cpdata/.

    cp /var/log/dmesg* ~/cpdata/

    Copies the contents of /var/log/dmesg to ~/cpdata/.

    cp /usr/local/crashplan/install.vars ~/cpdata/

    Copies install.vars to ~/cpdata/.

    whereis java > ~/cpdata/java-os-whereis.txt

    Copies the location of Java to ~/cpdata/.

    java -version > ~/cpdata/java-os-version.txt

    Copies the version of Java to ~/cpdata/.

    uname -a > ~/cpdata/uname-all.txt

    Copies system information to ~/cpdata/.

    ps auxww > ~/cpdata/ps-list.txt

    Copies a list of currently running processes to ~/cpdata/.

    lsof > ~/cpdata/lsof-list.txt

    Copies a list of currently open files to ~/cpdata/.

    ls -l /proc/*/fd/* 2> /dev/null | grep inotify > ~/cpdata/inotify-list.txt

    Copies a list of file system events to ~/cpdata/.

Compress the logs

  1. From Terminal, copy and paste the following command to compress your log files.
    tar -zvcf ~/cpdata.tar.gz ~/cpdata/
    A compressed folder named cpdata.tar.gz is created in your user folder.
  2. Follow the instructions below to send the cpdata.tar.gz file to the Technical Support Engineer team.

Send log files to a Technical Support Engineer

After you have the zip file containing your logs, attach the zip file to an email to your Technical Support Engineer. The steps for attaching logs to an email vary. Commonly-used email providers include:

Your email provider may limit the size of your attachments. If you cannot attach your logs to an email, use an alternative method of sending logs.