Summary: This article will give you information on how to enable debug logs on 5.1 and newer agents
    Symptoms: When logs need to be gathered to troubleshoot managed installation, scripting issues, replication, and patching
    Cause: Issues when deploying managed installations, scripting, patching, replication shares, etc
    Steps to resolve issue:

In addition to the standard logging, there are some additional debug logs that can be enabled on a K1000 client machine:

Version 5.3

Windows

In 5.3 agents (and up) enabling debugging is much easier. Here are the steps:
Method 1: If the agent is not connecting to the kbox or if you want to do it manually

•   Stop the Dell Kace Agent service
•   Edit the amp.conf file by adding a line debug=true
•   Start the service again

Method 2: If the agent is still connecting to the kbox then:

•   Locate the script called K1000 Agent Debug Log Enable(Windows)
•   Select specific machines as a target
•   Schedule the script or, for a small group of PCs, use Run Now

Method 3: At the agent

•   Open a command prompt to c:\program files\dell\kace  (note:32bit program files)
•   Run amptools.exe debug=true

Mac OSX

•   Edit  /Library/Application\ Support/Dell/KACE/data and add a new line: debug=true
•   Restart the service with:

                     sudo /Library/Application Support/Dell/KACE/bin stop
       and then
                     sudo /Library/Application Support/Dell/KACE/bin start

•   The log files at /Library/Application\Support/Dell/KACE/data will now have debug info

Version 5.1

In 5.1.31311 agents (and up) enabling debugging is much easier. Here are the steps:

Method 1: If the agent is not connecting to the kbox or if you want to do it

•   Stop the KBOX SMMP Management Service
•   Edit the smmp.conf file by adding a line debug=true
•   Start the KBOX SMMP Management Service

Method 2: If the agent is still connecting to the kbox then:

•   Locate the sript called KBOX Agent Debug Log Enable
•   Select specific machines as a target
•   Schedule the script or, for a small group of PCs, use Run Now

Method 3: If the agent is at 5.1.33668 and up then:

•    Open a command prompt to c:\program files\kace\kbox
•    Run ampreset.exe debug=true

Version 5.0 and lower

•  KBOX Management Service (Windows) - enable debug logging on the KBOX Management Service for detailed information on script execution and to troubleshoot script scheduling issues. (This service does not exist in 5.x and up)
•  KBOX Client - enable debug logging on the KBOX client to troubleshoot machine inventory, managed installs and file synchronizations
•  KBOX SMMP Service - Available in 4.0 only. enable debug logging on the windows KBOX client to troubleshoot the on-demand rrunning of Desktop Alerts, Run-Now scripts, and Patching. (Mac: Alerts and patching | Linux and Solaris: alerts only)

For Patching Debugging see this this FAQ

Windows Debugging

You should send all recently modified files to support.  If you're on 5.1 or lower the files are located in in the c:\program files\kace\kbox.  If you're on 5.3 and on a Windows Vista or 7 system the files will be in c:\programdata\dell\kace.  A 5.3 system that's on Windows XP will have the files in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Dell\KACE

Windows:

• KBOT_LOG.txt
• debug.log
• SMMP.log

        1. To enable debug logging for the KBOX Management Service, stop the KBOX management service and edit the file:

         C:\Program Files\KACE\KBOX\config.xml

        and change the value of the debugLoggingEnabled flag to read:

            <debugLoggingEnabled>true</debugLoggingEnabled>

Now restart the KBOX Management service. This will cause KBOXManagementService to log additional debugging information to the file KBOT_LOG.txt

2. To enable the K1000 Client debug log, create an empty file with the name

             C:\Program Files\KACE\KBOX\KBCLIENT_DEBUG

        This will cause K1000 Client to log debug information to a file in the same directory named

           debug.log

The K1000 Client debug log file documents the details of gathering machine inventory, executing custom inventory rules, and outputs the managed installs and file synchronizations to be run based on interaction with the KACE K1000 appliance. Should an installation fail, it is possible to duplicate the issue using the same command found in the debug.log file and run locally on the client machine. If there are any errors they can be tested and investigated on the client machine.

3. Logging on the SMMP Service

New to 4.x the SMMP service can be debugged by adding the following to the c:\program files\kace\kbox\SMMP.conf file

debug=true

This will generate more debugging information about patching, run now script, and alert messages in the SMMP.log file.

Tips:

•   If you cannot get to a machine directly then perhaps you can enable debugging through hidden admin shares (i.e. c$) and restart services remotely use sc.exe
•   If you still cannot get to the machine then you can try to enable debug logs remotely with this FAQ

OS X Debugging

Mac/Unix:

• debug_agent.log
• agent.log

1. Logging on the Management Service

•  Open Terminal from the Applications/Utilities folder.
•  Type sudo touch /var/kace/kagentd/debug_agent.tag, and then press ENTER
•  Type sudo /Library/KBOXAgent/Home/bin/kagentctl stop, and then press ENTER.
•  Type sudo /Library/KBOXAgent/Home/bin/kagentctl start, and then press ENTER. The debug_agent.log file contains debug logs.
•  To Turn off logging simply delete the deubg_agent.tag file

2. Logging on the SMMP Service

•  edit /var/kace/SMMP/SMMP.conf and add a new line: debug=true
•  Restart the service with:

sudo /Library/KBOXAgent/Home/bin/SMMPctl stop

and then

sudo /Library/KBOXAgent/Home/bin/SMMPctl start

        The agent.log file will now have debug info

Linux Debugging
1. Logging on the Management Service

•   Open the command line interface.
•    Type sudo touch /var/kace/kagentd/debug_agent.tag, and then press ENTER.
•    Type sudo /etc/rc.d/init.d/kagentctl stop, and then press ENTER.
•    Type sudo /etc/rc.d/init.d/kagentctl start, and then press ENTER. The debug_agent.log file contains debug logs.

2. Logging on the SMMP Service

•   edit /var/kace/SMMP/SMMP.conf and add a new line: debug=true
•   Restart the service with:

            sudo /Library/KBOXAgent/Home/bin/SMMPctl stop

and then

            sudo /Library/KBOXAgent/Home/bin/SMMPctl start

• The agent.log file will now have debug info

Solaris Debugging
1. Logging on the Management Service

•   Open the command line interface.
•   Type sudo touch /var/kace/kagentd/debug_agent.tag, and then press ENTER.
•   Type sudo /etc/init.d/kagentctl stop, and then press ENTER.
•   Type sudo /etc/init.d/kagentctl start, and then press ENTER. The debug_agent.log file contains debug logs.

2. Logging on the SMMP Service

•   edit /var/kace/SMMP/SMMP.conf and add a new line: debug=true
•   Restart the service with:

            sudo /Library/KBOXAgent/Home/bin/SMMPctl stop

and then

            sudo /Library/KBOXAgent/Home/bin/SMMPctl start

•   The agent.log file will now have debug info