Separate logging across different EE components (REST / EJB)

Question

My purpose is to separate log4j configuration between REST and EJB in a JEE 5 web application (JBoss 5.1).

For REST module, I use the ServletContextListener interface:

public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent sce) {
     PropertyConfigurator.configure("logfile");
}

for EJB module, I'm using the StartupBeanManagement interface:

@Override
public void start() throws Exception {
    logger.info("starting configuration bean");
    final String env = System.getProperty("env");
    configureLog(logFilePrefix.replace("{0}", env));
}

However, if both modules are deployed on the same container, I can see log only only on dedicated REST log.

How I can separate logging between modules?

Answer 1

Log4J holds its configuration at the classloader level. If two JEE modules share a classloader, they will have a single Log4J configuration at runtime.

In order to separate logging between modules, you need to:

• Configure your application server to use separate classloaders for separate modules (not all application servers allow this); and
• Provide a separate Log4J configuration for every classloader.