You should examine the contents of the error log on a regular basis to determine if any serious errors have occurred. You can also use operating system scripts to scan the error log for particular messages and to notify the System Administrator when specific errors occur. Checking the error log regularly helps you determine whether there are continuing problems of the same nature or whether a particular database device is going bad. See Chapter 5, “Diagnosing System Problems,” for more information about error messages and their severity.
The error log file can grow large over time, since Adaptive Server appends informational and status messages to it each time it starts up. You can periodically “prune” the log file by opening the file and deleting old records. Keeping the log file to a manageable size saves disk space and makes it easier to locate current errors.
