Change default log language for Websphere application server

If you are running a Websphere application server (e.g. Lotus Sametime 8.5 or Lotus Connections servers) on a Windows server with regional settings set to a non-English language you end up with log files written in that language. This is something you might not want to have as most of the error messages you find in the Lotus Knowledgebase or in the Internet are in English.

To change the log language to English you need to do the following steps:

• Open the Websphere Integrated Solution Console for the server (or the deployment manager)
• Go to “Servers->Server Types -> Websphere application servers
• Click on the server you want to change
• Under “Server Infrastructure” expand “Java and Process Management”  and choose “Process definition”
• Under “Additional properties” click “Java Virtual Machine”
• Add the following string at the end of “Generic JVM arguments”:  “-Duser.language=en -Duser.region=GB”
• Choose “OK” and “Save”.
• If needed synchronize your nodes.

If the server starts the next time the log file language will be set to “English” and the date / time format to “English (GB)”. You will find more  info about the language and region parameters here.