there is posibility to have log4j.properties in the external /etc/minerva/log4j.properties file

web/src/main/java/lcsb/mapviewer/bean/utils/StartupBean.java

 package lcsb.mapviewer.bean.utils;
 
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.util.Properties;
 
 import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;
 import javax.faces.bean.ApplicationScoped;
@@ -10,6 +14,7 @@ import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
 import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
 
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
+import org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator;
 
 import lcsb.mapviewer.common.Configuration;
 import lcsb.mapviewer.common.IProgressUpdater;
@@ -69,6 +74,7 @@ public class StartupBean {
    */
   @PostConstruct
   public void init() {
+    loadCustomLog4jProperties();
     logger.debug("Application startup script starts");
     ServletContext servletContext = (ServletContext) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext()
         .getContext();
@@ -81,6 +87,24 @@ public class StartupBean {
     logger.debug("Application startup script ends");
   }
 
+  private void loadCustomLog4jProperties() {
+    String filename = "/etc/minerva/log4j.properties";
+    File file = new File(filename);
+    if (file.exists()) {
+      try {
+        Properties props = new Properties();
+        InputStream configStream = new FileInputStream(file);
+        props.load(configStream);
+        configStream.close();
+        PropertyConfigurator.configure(props);
+        logger.info("log4j  configuration loaded from: " + filename);
+      } catch (Exception e) {
+        logger.error("Problem with loading log4j configuration: " + filename);
+      }
+    }
+
+  }
+
   private void setSessionLength() {
     try {
       String sessionLength = configurationService.getConfigurationValue(ConfigurationElementType.SESSION_LENGTH);