Advanced Logging Readme

by Dave Nelson

IIS Advanced Logging is an extension for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 that provides enhanced data collection and real-time server and client-side logging capabilities. It supports complex Web and media delivery scenarios that demand flexibility and control. These scenarios may require custom logging fields, real-time access to data, greater control over what gets logged and when, extensibility for new sources of data, the ability to consolidate log data posted by clients and correlate it to server data, the option of sharing data from various sources and storing it in multiple logs, capturing system-state information, inclusion of canceled requests in logs, and even logging multiple times per request.

You can use Advanced Logging to extend logging functionality for logging user requests and client data in the following ways:

  • Custom logging. Include custom logging fields generated by your applications in log files.
  • Request filtering. Collect only the information that is relevant to specific purposes by creating filters that process requests and record the relevant data to log files.
  • Real-time logging. Publish the information in client requests as events that can be consumed, in real time, by log analysis tools.
  • Client logging. Collect client-side metrics in logging fields that provide important user-engagement information.

Installation Notes

The IS Advanced Logging is an extension for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 is no longer available. We recommend Enhanced Logging for IIS 8.5.

This section describes the installation requirements for IIS Advanced Logging.

Requirements

The following prerequisites must be fulfilled to install IIS Advanced Logging:

  • You must use IIS 7 running on one of the following operating systems:

    • Windows Server 2008
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • Windows Vista with SP1
    • Windows 7
  • To manage the Advanced Logging feature using the IIS Manager user interface, the IIS Management Console for IIS must be installed.

  • You must be an administrator on the computer. This can be accomplished by logging on to the computer using either the Administrator account or an account with administrative privileges.

Note

Advanced Logging cannot be installed if the previous version of the software (IIS Advanced Logging 1.0 – Beta) is installed on your computer. When you uninstall the Beta Advanced Logging software, your log definitions and any log files that have been created will be retained; however, other program settings may not be retained.

To uninstall the software, in Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features, under Uninstall or change a program, click IIS Advanced Logging, and then click Uninstall.

Downloading and Installing

The IS Advanced Logging is an extension for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 is no longer available. We recommend Enhanced Logging for IIS 8.5.

Install Using Web PI

  1. Go to the Microsoft Web Platform Installer Web Page and click Download It Now to download and run Web PI.
  2. At the bottom of the Web Platform Installer dialog box, click Options.
  3. In the Change Options dialog box, in Select your preferred language for software installations, select the language that you want, and then click OK.
  4. Back in the Web Platform Installer dialog box, at the top of the dialog box, click Products in the Spotlight - Products - Applications row of options.
  5. In the Contents pane, click either All or Server.
  6. In the list of products that is displayed, click the Add button for Advanced Logging, and then click Install.

Install Using Windows Installer

The IS Advanced Logging is an extension for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 is no longer available. We recommend Enhanced Logging for IIS 8.5.

Uninstalling

To remove the Advanced Logging feature, in Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features, under Uninstall or change a program, click IIS Advanced Logging 1.0, and then click Uninstall.

Known Issues

This section describes the known issues for IIS Advanced Logging.

  • Applying configuration changes in IIS Manager. If you change an Advanced Logging setting in IIS Manager and the change does not take effect, you may need to restart the Web server:

    1. In IIS Manager, in the Connections pane, click the server name.
    2. In the Actions pane, click Restart.

    This issue may occur if you change Advanced Logging settings while the feature is actively logging requests.

  • Enabling and disabling logging for Web sites. The Advanced Logging feature can be enabled or disabled at the server level in IIS Manager, which also enables or disables logging at lower levels (matching the server-level setting). If you want to disable logging for certain Web sites or directories, while enabling logging for others, enable the Advanced Logging feature at the server level, and then disable the log definition files for the Web sites/directories for which you want to disable logging. To disable a log definition, do the following:

    1. In the Connections pane, click the Web site or directory for which you want to disable logging.
    2. In the Web site or directory Home page, double-click the Advanced Logging icon.
    3. In the Advanced Logging feature page, click the log definition, and then in the Actions pane, click Edit Log Definition.
    4. In the Log Definition page, clear the Enabled check box.
    5. In the Actions pane, click Apply.
    6. Repeat steps (3) through (5) for additional log definitions, if desired.
  • Specifying the source name for custom logging fields. If you specify the same Source name for two or more custom logging fields that you add to the Available fields list, and then add all of them to a log definition, Advanced Logging will only parse the data for the last logging field displayed in the log definition's Selected logging fields list and write its data to log file. The data for the preceding logging fields that use the same source name will not be parsed and the information for these logging fields in the log file will contain a hyphen (-) character. Note that this occurs even if two logging field source names are written in a different case (for example, SOURCENAME vs. sourcename).

  • Logging string values with quotation marks. You can specify the maximum size for logging fields that record string values. Strings that are larger than this value will be truncated to the maximum size that you specify, which allows applications that have string size limits consume the data. Advanced Logging follows the W3C Extended Log File Format and surrounds string values with quotation marks, which causes further truncation of the strings that are consumed by these applications, reducing the amount of usable data.

  • Unsupported logging fields for filtering. The filtering feature cannot be used to filter logging fields that have the following log data types: TypeDate, TypeTime, TypeDateTime, TypeLPCGuid. In Advanced Logging, the following built-in logging fields are affected:

    • BeginRequest-UTC
    • Date-Local
    • Date-UTC
    • EndRequest-UTC
    • Time-Local
    • Time-UTC

    Custom logging fields that you create with these log data types cannot be filtered.

  • Creating disabled log definitions. If you create a new log definition, clear the Enabled check box to disable it, and then click Apply in the Actions pane to save the changes, the Enabled setting is reselected. Clear the Enabled check box and click Apply again to save the log definition in a disabled state.

Product Support

You can obtain support for IIS Advanced Logging by using the following resources:

Self Support

Microsoft Support

To obtain support from Microsoft, go to Microsoft Help and Support.

For More Information

To keep up-to-date with the latest Advanced Logging news and feature developments, go to the IIS Advanced Logging Home page.