Resolved by changing the system properties to the following: -Dorg.apache.commons.logging.Log="org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SimpleLog" -Dorg.apache.commons.logging.simplelog.showdatetime="true" -Dorg.apache.commons.logging.simplelog.defaultlog="debug"
this turned on full debug. also verified that CP contained dir in which 'commons-logging.properties' resides and that the file contains: org.apache.commons.logging.Log=org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SimpleLog
