Viewing the Alert Log

You can view the alert log with a text editor, with Enterprise Manager, or with the ADRCI utility.

To view the alert log with Enterprise Manager:

1. Access the Database Home page in Enterprise Manager.
   For Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control, see Oracle Database 2 Day DBA for instructions. For Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control, go to the desired database target.
2. Under Related Links, click Alert Log Contents.
   The View Alert Log Contents page appears.
3. Select the number of entries to view, and then click Go.

To view the alert log with a text editor:

1. Connect to the database with SQL*Plus or another query tool, such as SQL Developer.
2. Query the V$DIAG_INFO view as shown in "Viewing ADR Locations with the V$DIAG_INFO View".
3. To view the text-only alert log, without the XML tags, complete these steps:
   
   1. In the V$DIAG_INFO query results, note the path that corresponds to the Diag Trace entry, and change directory to that path.
   2. Open file alert_SID.log with a text editor.
4. To view the XML-formatted alert log, complete these steps:
   
   1. In the V$DIAG_INFO query results, note the path that corresponds to the Diag Alert entry, and change directory to that path.
   2. Open the file log.xml with a text editor.