It might be useful to have a history of alarms. The XML file that is (in the default setup) used to store the alarms is cleaned on a regular basis as it would grow too big otherwise. You can configure to use a database instead of the XML file to obtain a history. Another advantage of the use of a database is that it is easier to search through a database than through a series of log files.

To use a database instead of the XML file you need to modify the /etc/dcache/dcache.conf file. Set the property httpd.alarms.db.type to rdbms. Moreover, as you want to maintain a history you should disable the httpd.enable.alarm-cleaner.

Create the alarms database.

[root] #
      createdb -U srmdcache alarms

Modify the /etc/dcache/dcache.conf file

httpd.alarms.db.type=rdbms
httpd.enable.alarm-cleaner=false

and restart dCache.

[root] # dcache restart