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 alarms.store.db.type to rdbms. Moreover, as you want to maintain a history you should disable the webadmin.alarm.cleaner.enabled.

Create the alarms database.

[root] #
      createdb -U srmdcache alarms

Modify the /etc/dcache/dcache.conf file

alarms.store.db.type=rdbms
webadmin.alarm.cleaner.enabled=false

and restart dCache.

[root] # dcache restart