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News (26/09/2022):

  • Version 3.1.1 is now available. It can be downloaded from the link below
  • This adds the functionality to load files from subfolders, as well as fixing some parsing errors that caused the tool to crash
  • See the release notes for full details of the updates

News (04/06/2018):

  • Version 3.1.0 is now available.  It can be downloaded from the link below.
  • This fixed an issue with 4.2 Web Intelligence logs that cause the tool to crash
  • See the Release Notes for full details of the updates.

News (11/07/2016):

  • Version 3.0.3 was released today.  It can be downloaded from the link below.
  • The new version includes 18 updates/new features, 19 bug fixes and 4 updates to the BI Plugin.  Check out the new performance chart for finding areas of slow performance in the logs!
  • New documentation was added to this scn page

SAP's Preferred Log Reading Tool

This is the official page for the SAP Flexible Log Reader (FLR).

  • Reader for SAP BI Platform trace logs (GLFs) and any other text format
  • Very powerful search and filtering options
  • Read long chains of multiple logs at once with light memory footprint

  • Use pre-built tags to easily identify common SAP BI log messages

FLR is a log reading application which has been designed to read and analyse text log file, no matter which application has generated it. FLR is used to open large logs in any text format and can easily scan and find information within them. Typically, it is possible to open logs which total around 4.5x the available memory on the machine - e.g. a 4Gb machine can load 18Gb of logs.

FLR is one of the tools used by SAP Support Engineers to open and analyse logs in order to find further information regarding error output from SAP Products. It is more user-friendly and intuitive than other applications used to perform the same task (e.g. notepad, notepad++). Plugins and configuration files created by experts automatically analyse and tag documents for a user, flagging potential root-cause errors and other important information for ease of access. Filters and tags allow users to only scan for information relevant to the problem they are having, removing much of the need to scroll through an entire log in order to search for relevant information.

Newest ReleaseVersionRelease DateLinkHow to installDocumentation

Flexible Log Reader

Created by:
Graham Sturmy, SAP 

3.1.1

Release Notes

June 04, 2018Download
  1. Extract the executable and any associated files to the directory of choice
  2. Run the executable.

Available for Windows and Linux (via Wine)

Tool overview 

F LR Documentation

Screenshots

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45 Comments

  1. Former Member

    Any news on this? The announced release date (July 2014) has passed, so I was hoping that the software would be available by now.

    Thanks.

    – Kristof

  2. Former Member

        

  3. Graham Sturmy

    Hi,
      We are still working on one or two things to ensure that it's ready for release.

      Watch this space!

    Regards,
    Graham 

  4. Former Member

    Any news on this tool availability?

     

  5. Michael Hamm

    Flexible Log reader is mentioned in many presentations or wiki/blog entries. But still not released? Any news regarding a release date?

  6. Graham Sturmy

    Hi,
      Thank you all for your patience.  Were in the latter stages of getting this released on SCN as its taken longer than we expected to go through the process.  The good news is that we've also been improving it further in the meantime!  I don't want to give a specific release date because I'll probably be proved wrong but were certainly getting there!

    Regards,
    Graham

  7. Chris James

    What is the status on this tool?  I have been looking forward to it for a while 

  8. Former Member

    HI

    What is the main benefit over glf viewer?We can still open multiple files using glf viewer..

    When can we expect this tool and will it require any user access?

    Thanks

    Biswajit

  9. Former Member

    is this tool available now?

  10. Michael Hamm

    SAP Note 2203047 provides a hyperlink to download the software, but this link expired. I opened a SAP incident..

    http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2203047

  11. Former Member

    hi

    i checked now.it shows no shared software.

    Michael please keep us updated..

    Thanks

  12. Michael Hamm

    https://mdocs.sap.com/mcm/public/v1/open?shr=AX-UoEc6bWloagWrvUmjzJu3B7fof-CLC107kTHXnLQ new link valid until 26th Nov.

  13. Graham Sturmy

    The version at this new link has many (around 60) improvements over the previously version, from new features to stability improvements.

    The GLF plugin now also include automatically highlighting entries highlighted as warning, errors and exceptions and, if you have a BI 4 webi log also has a section which automatically identifies specific user sessions within it so you can easily filter just the one you are interested in.  If you use the BI Support Tool (SAP BI Platform Support Tool) you can extract the rights from the system you are tracing (Tools->Export Right ID's) and put the file (call it BISupportTool<number>.csv) into the same directory as the logs, and if you have CMS tracing enabled, all the Rights checks (IsAllowed) will be enhanced with the name of the right it is checked - e.g.
       Security::IsAllowed( U=3434,R=8,Ob=8754,Own=12,T=0 ) : IsAllowed=true (from normal right)
    becomes:
      Security::IsAllowed( U=3434,R=8 (Modify the rights users have to objects),Ob=8743,Own=12,T=0 ) : IsAllowed=true (from normal right)

    Note: Right IDs can be different on different systems (see: Identifying friendly CMC Security right from a log entry complaining lack of rights) for more details

    If you are analysing an End to End trace (https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1861180) you should place the BusinessTransaction.xml file in the same directory as the logs and then the GLF plugin will automatically filter the logs to just show the parts of the logs that are relevant to the End to End trace.  Previously you would be asked where it is.

    There are plenty of other things you can do with the tool, there is a plugin for Sybase ASE, java stack traces (for easily identifying which java thread is blocking other threads) etc.  There is also a configuration file for highlighting items of interest in the Business Objects Install Logs (setupengine.log)

    Hope you all find it useful!

    Graham

     

  14. Michael Hamm

    Hi Graham,

    thanks for the update. How to contact you if the link will be expired again? Will this tool be an official SAP application in the SAP marketplace? Will it be integrated in the SAP BI Support Tool?

    BR,

    Michael

     

    1. Graham Sturmy

      This will be put on the SCN as an official download from there.  Its gone through the legal verification but not the last stages of the SCN process.  If needed we will renew the link.

      Graham

      1. Anonymous

        http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2203047 point to this wiki to get FlexiLogReader, but it expired again.

        Could someone please upload it ?

        Thanks

        1. Graham Sturmy

          Hi,
            Thanks for letting me know.  It is available again at the link at the top of the page.

          Regards,
          Graham

  15. Sergio Cayuqueo

    Hello,

    It is a great idea to have a tool that helps to see the logs of SAP, usually I dont use GUI tools to view logfiles but I prefer something open source  , for example you can modify  tools, like this http://lnav.org/  (open source)

     

    Sergio

    1. Graham Sturmy

      Hi,
        Yes, I would always recommend using whichever tool best suits the way you work.  That way you can be the most productive and get to the information you need the quickest.

      Regards,
      Graham

  16. Guruprasad Iyer

    Finally!!!!

    I am a big fan of this tool..... reading BO logs with Flexi log reader is like a Visiongasm.

    Its a must have for BO admins and Developers who like to follow E2E analysis for issue troubleshooting.

     

    Thanks a lot Graham

     

    -Guru

  17. Dan Cristian MARINESCU

    Nice tool thanks!!!!

  18. Former Member

    Is there a 32 bit version available?

    1. Graham Sturmy

      There is not currently a 32 bit version but if there is enough demand I can create one.

      1. Ilias Fytrakis

        Dear Graham,

        It would be really handy to provide a 32-bit version of the tool. I do not want to install Java in my workstations, in order to open GLF Reader and your tool is the ideal solution.

        Thanks for your efforts. 

        Regards,

        Ilias

      2. Fabrice VAN-HAELUWYN

        Dear Graham,

        I can only see log files on my 32-bit workstation, i haven't access to the 64-bit server to use FLR...
        It would be very useful to have a 32-bit version ! It is possible ?
        Thank you in advance for you help !

         

  19. Jörg Jonuleit

    Link seems to be down (sad)

    1. Graham Sturmy

      Link is back up again.

  20. Atul Divekar

    Link is down again.

    1. Former Member

      Link is valid until the 9th of January 2017. I just accessed it successfully. Can you try again?
      Edit: use the "download" link at the top in the table with various links such as the documentation, not the mdocs available in the comments

  21. Michael Hamm

    Hi Graham,

    great tool! Espacially the new performance chart. I generated an E2E trace to analyze the performance of a WebI report. i found the times for HTTP, DataSources, but how to check how long WebI took to process local variables and generating the charts? Could you please give me a hint where to look or how to filter?

    Thanks in advance.

    BR,

    Michael

  22. András Tóth

    I'm trying to view a NetweaverDefault trace log, but all I see is a bulk text after loaded, not formatted at all to make it easier to read. Like with Timestamps and so on.

    Any suggestion is appreciated.

    Regards,

    Andras

  23. Graham Sturmy

    Hi Andras,
      You are correct that the NetWeaver default trace configuration file is very simple - it is designed simply to load multiple default trace files into a single view and put them in chronological order.  When they are loaded there is no special ordering.  I'll look into improving this for the next version.

    Regards,
    Graham 

    1. András Tóth

      Thanks Graham.

      How often is this getting an update? The time between 3.0.2 and 3.0.3 (8 months) is not very promising (smile)

  24. Michael Hamm

    Any plan to support Analysis for Office log files? When i try to analyze them most of the time FLR 3.0.3 crashes.

    Regards,

    Michael

  25. Graham Sturmy

    I'll try to get some examples to test..

  26. Former Member

    The link to download the file has expired , can someone please upload it again , thanks.

    https://mdocs.sap.com/mcm/public/v1/open?shr=AX-UoEc6bWloagWrvUmjzJu3B7fof-CLC107kTHXnLQ

  27. Graham Sturmy

    Hi,

      The correct download link is at the top of the page: https://mdocs.sap.com/mcm/public/v1/open?shr=1nEgh04owRl7yTBKXFNemC6AYo8kGc5y_EKu3w8dLlY

    Regards,
    Graham

    1. Former Member

      thanks

  28. Shannon Mitchell

    Just wondering, is it possible to set a date/time period outside of which to exclude log entries, to help narrow down searches?

  29. Shannon Mitchell

    Never mind.  Just figured out how to do it.

     

  30. Roberto Wrembel

    Dear SAP/Developer,

    I am in love with this tool. Good Job.

    Is there in the near future an update planned? Regardless version 3.0.2 or 3.0.3 or Windows Version the tool crashes sometimes.

     

    Cheers

    1. Roberto Wrembel

      Update: Tool version 3.1 fixes wont crash

      1. Michael Hamm

        Where did you get FLR 3.1? I cannot find it.

        1. Roberto Wrembel

          Dear Michael,

          I got this via an opened Incident regarding the crashes.

          I recommended that this space needs an update.

          Cheers

        2. Graham Sturmy

          Hi,

            I've made this new version available to all now.  See the download link near the top of the page

          Thanks,

          Graham