Adding Default Custom Fields to a Log File <add>

Overview

The <add> element under the <customFields> element specifies the configuration settings for adding default custom fields in a W3C log.

IIS 8.5 enables you to log custom fields in addition to the standard logged set. These custom fields can include data from request headers, response headers, or server variables. To log these fields, you can simply set configuration properties rather than creating a custom logging module. This feature is available only at the site level. The log file format must be W3C to add custom fields.

When a custom field has been added to the standard set, "_x" will be appended to the file name to show that the log file contains a custom field. The total amount of data added in custom fields cannot exceed 65,536 bytes. IIS will truncate the data if the custom logged data exceeds that amount. The maximum amount of data that can be added to a log file in any one custom field is specified by the maxCustomFieldLength attribute.

To configure a custom field, specify the field name, the source name, and the source type. You can put custom information into a server variable, and log the server variable. Once you have selected the source type, you can either select an existing source name or enter a new source name.

Custom fields enable you to collect useful data about the process and aggregate it to the IIS logs. In a system containing a load balancer, you might see the load balancer's IP address in the log, but you could log the X-Forwarded-For header in a custom field, so you can know the original requester. You could log process uptime to see how many times the process restarted during the day. If memory starts being used excessively, you can determine at which time it started to consume memory, which page was requested, and what was the ID of the client (which would be especially useful if they were doing something malicious).

Compatibility

Version Notes
IIS 10.0 The <add> element was not modified in IIS 10.0.
IIS 8.5 The <add> element was introduced in IIS 8.5.
IIS 8.0 N/A
IIS 7.5 N/A
IIS 7.0 N/A
IIS 6.0 N/A

Setup

The <add> element is included in the default installation of IIS 8.5.

How To

How to add default custom fields

  1. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager:

    • If you are using Windows Server 2012 R2:

      • On the taskbar, click Server Manager, click Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
    • If you are using Windows 8.1:

      • Hold down the Windows key, press the letter X, and then click Control Panel.
      • Click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
  2. In the Connections pane, select the server.

  3. Double-click Logging in the IIS section.

  4. In the Logging home page, for Format, select W3C.

  5. Click Select Fields.

  6. In the W3C Logging Fields dialog box, click Add Field.

  7. In the Add Custom Field dialog box, enter a name in Field name (without spaces), and select one of the following for the Source Type: Request Header, Response Header, or Server Variable.

  8. In Source, select a source from the list, or enter the name of a custom source.

  9. Click OK, then click OK again.

  10. In the Action pane, click Apply.

    Screenshot of the Add Custom Field dialog with the default options.

How to configure the default maximum custom field length

  1. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager:

    • If you are using Windows Server 2012 R2:

      • On the taskbar, click Server Manager, click Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
    • If you are using Windows 8.1:

      • Hold down the Windows key, press the letter X, and then click Control Panel.
      • Click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
  2. In the Connections pane, select the server, and then in the Management area, double-click Configuration Editor.

  3. In the Configuration Editor, for the section, select system.applicationHost, and then select sites.

  4. Click siteDefaults.

  5. Select the site, expand logFile, expand customFields, and then click maxCustomFieldLength.

  6. For maxCustomFieldLength, enter the maximum amount of data that can be added to a log file in any one custom field, in bytes.

  7. Close the Collection Editor, and then in the Action pane, click Apply.

    Screenshot of the custom Fields section of the log File Properties. Max Custom Field Length is set to 4095.

Configuration

The <add> element is configured at the server level.

Attributes

Attribute Description
logFieldName Required string attribute.

Specifies the default custom field to be added to the log file. The field name cannot contain spaces.
sourceName Required string attribute.

Specifies the name of the HTTP header or server variable that contains values to be added to a default custom field of the log. The name can be a custom source string.
sourceType Required enum attribute.

The type of source for the data to be added to a default custom field in the log. Can be RequestHeader (value = 0), ResponseHeader (value = 1), or ServerVariable (value = 2).

Child Elements

None.

Configuration Sample

The following configuration example uses the customFields element and its add child element to specify the default custom field settings for W3C logs.

<siteDefaults>
    <logFile logFormat="W3C" directory="%SystemDrive%\inetpub\logs\LogFiles" flushByEntryCountW3CLog="0">
        <customFields>
            <clear />
            <add logFieldName="ContosoField" sourceName="ContosoSource" sourceType="ServerVariable" />
        </customFields>
    </logFile>
</siteDefaults>

Sample Code

The following examples configure default custom fields for a W3C log.

AppCmd.exe

appcmd.exe set config  -section:system.applicationHost/sites /+"siteDefaults.logFile.customFields.[logFieldName='ContosoField',sourceName='ContosoSource',sourceType='ServerVariable']" /commit:apphost

Note

You must be sure to set the commit parameter to apphost when you use AppCmd.exe to configure these settings. This commits the configuration settings to the appropriate location section in the ApplicationHost.config file.

C#

using System;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Web.Administration;

internal static class Sample 
{
    private static void Main()
    {
        using(ServerManager serverManager = new ServerManager())
        {
            Configuration config = serverManager.GetApplicationHostConfiguration();
            ConfigurationSection sitesSection = config.GetSection("system.applicationHost/sites");
            ConfigurationElement siteDefaultsElement = sitesSection.GetChildElement("siteDefaults");
            ConfigurationElement logFileElement = siteDefaultsElement.GetChildElement("logFile");
            ConfigurationElement customFieldsElement = logFileElement.GetChildElement("customFields");
            ConfigurationElementCollection customFieldsCollection = customFieldsElement.GetCollection();
            
            ConfigurationElement addElement = customFieldsCollection.CreateElement("add");
            addElement["logFieldName"] = @"ContosoField";
            addElement["sourceName"] = @"ContosoSource";
            addElement["sourceType"] = @"ServerVariable";
            customFieldsCollection.Add(addElement);
            
            serverManager.CommitChanges();
        }
    }
}

VB.NET

Imports System
Imports System.Text
Imports Microsoft.Web.Administration

Module Sample

    Sub Main()
        Dim serverManager As ServerManager = New ServerManager
        Dim config As Configuration =       serverManager.GetApplicationHostConfiguration
        Dim sitesSection As ConfigurationSection =  config.GetSection("system.applicationHost/sites")
        Dim siteDefaultsElement As ConfigurationElement =  sitesSection.GetChildElement("siteDefaults")
        Dim logFileElement As ConfigurationElement =  siteDefaultsElement.GetChildElement("logFile")
        Dim customFieldsElement As ConfigurationElement =  logFileElement.GetChildElement("customFields")
        Dim customFieldsCollection As ConfigurationElementCollection =  customFieldsElement.GetCollection
        Dim addElement As ConfigurationElement =  customFieldsCollection.CreateElement("add")
        addElement("logFieldName") = "ContosoField"
        addElement("sourceName") = "ContosoSource"
        addElement("sourceType") = "ServerVariable"
        customFieldsCollection.Add(addElement)
        serverManager.CommitChanges
    End Sub
End Module

JavaScript

var adminManager = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.ApplicationHost.WritableAdminManager');
adminManager.CommitPath = "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST";

var sitesSection = adminManager.GetAdminSection("system.applicationHost/sites", "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST");
var siteDefaultsElement = sitesSection.ChildElements.Item("siteDefaults");
var logFileElement = siteDefaultsElement.ChildElements.Item("logFile");
var customFieldsElement = logFileElement.ChildElements.Item("customFields");

var customFieldsCollection = customFieldsElement.Collection;

var addElement = customFieldsCollection.CreateNewElement("add");
addElement.Properties.Item("logFieldName").Value = "ContosoField";
addElement.Properties.Item("sourceName").Value = "ContosoSource";
addElement.Properties.Item("sourceType").Value = "ServerVariable";
customFieldsCollection.AddElement(addElement);

adminManager.CommitChanges();

VBScript

Set adminManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.ApplicationHost.WritableAdminManager")
adminManager.CommitPath = "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST"

Set sitesSection = adminManager.GetAdminSection("system.applicationHost/sites", "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST")
Set siteDefaultsElement = sitesSection.ChildElements.Item("siteDefaults")
Set logFileElement = siteDefaultsElement.ChildElements.Item("logFile")
Set customFieldsElement = logFileElement.ChildElements.Item("customFields")

Set customFieldsCollection = customFieldsElement.Collection

Set addElement = customFieldsCollection.CreateNewElement("add")
addElement.Properties.Item("logFieldName").Value = "ContosoField"
addElement.Properties.Item("sourceName").Value = "ContosoSource"
addElement.Properties.Item("sourceType").Value = "ServerVariable"
customFieldsCollection.AddElement(addElement)

adminManager.CommitChanges()

PowerShell

Add-WebConfigurationProperty -pspath 'MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST'  -filter "system.applicationHost/sites/siteDefaults/logFile/customFields" -name "." -value @{logFieldName='ContosoField';sourceName='ContosoSource';sourceType='ServerVariable'}