First published on TECHNET on Jun 11, 2012
So who has recently looked at Diagnostic Logging in SharePoint 2010? And who has sat there and compared it to SharePoint 2007, it's getting more complex but so much more useful.
For those of you who are still learning. Diagnostic logging is where SharePoint logs it's actions, and will do with varying degrees based on the verbosity that you set for it.
So let's compare things:
In SharePoint 2007 we had a drop down list of items that you could manage, you could only manage one at a time or all at once and there where no subcategories.
In SharePoint 2010 we have lists that can be expanded so you can select all with one click or select a whole category with one click. And if you really want to be creative you can select any number of categories and subcategories and manage them all at once.
2. Management
In SharePoint 2007 we had several methods to manage the logging and several settings. You could manage the following settings:
There were some holes with these settings, things like there was no easy way to set the categories back to default. And the logs could very easily outgrow your size expectations and fill a drive. Methods to manage the logging:
In SharePoint 2010 they changed some of the settings, you can manage the following settings:
While it may not be perfect yet I do believe things are getting better, we now set the log duration to 30 mins automatically and let you decide how much disk space to restrict it to. Then as well we have got the logic in place to remove the noise from your logs so that it is easier to see the whole picture when reviewing them.
3. Correlation Id
Believe it or not the Correlation Id was available in SharePoint 2007 but it was not used.
In SharePoint 2010 when it comes to Diagnostic Logging I believe this is second only to one thing as being the most positive change. You can now filter on a Correlation Id and follow all the history up to the error that you received. As well an added bonus the Correlation Id is presented to the end user with most errors.
4. Viewing
Since the Diagnostic logs are just delimited files in SharePoint 2007 days the best way to view your logs was by importing into Excel, that way you could sort and filter.
And now while you can still use Excel there have been ULS Viewer tools released that will parse the ULS logs for you, and allow the viewing of live ULS logs and much more.
Best Practices
You must be a registered user to add a comment. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in.