Dynamic setting of Log4j level across multiple JVMs

Question

I am working in an application has a number of plain vanilla Java components, each of which runs in a separate JVM. All these components use Log4j and there is no option to change to another logging library.

As the title implies, I am looking for an "easy" way to dynamically apply a Log4j logging level across all components/JVMs. By "easy", I mean without rewriting the source code (otherwise, one can use, for instance, an interface to get/set the logging level, and have all classes implement that interface).

There are articles on the web about using JMX (for instance, via the LoggerDynamicBean class (http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/apidocs/org/apache/log4j/jmx/LoggerDynamicMBean.html) of the Log4j distribution.

An interesting such article describes how to implement this using an application server (Tomcat): http://www.devx.com/Java/Article/32359/1954. The application server seems necessary as an implementation of the MBeanServer class, to which all the loggers will be registered by Log4j as MBeans.

Is there any implementation that does this dynamic logging level setting, across multiple JVMs, either via JMX, or via any other means?

Answer 1

Keep it simple. Point all the JVMs to the same log4j configuration file use this to have them reload occasionally.

PropertyConfigurator.configureAndWatch( yourConfigFile, yourReloadInterval);