Report server service trace log
The Reporting Services report server trace logs are an ASCII text file that contains detailed information for Report Server service operations. The information in the files includes operations performed by the Report Server Web service, the web portal, and background processing. The trace log file includes redundant information that is recorded in other log files, plus additional information that isn't otherwise available. Trace log information is useful if you're debugging an application that includes a report server. The information is also helpful if you're investigating a specific problem that was written to the event log or execution log. For example, when trouble shooting issues with subscriptions.
Where are the report server log files?
The trace log files are ReportServerService_<timestamp>.log and Microsoft.ReportingServices.Portal.WebHost_<timestamp>.log and are located in the following folder:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\LogFiles
The trace logs are created daily, starting with the first entry that occurs after midnight (local time), and whenever the service is restarted. The timestamp is based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The file is in EN-US format. By default, trace logs are limited to 32 megabytes and by default they're deleted after 14 days.
Trace configuration settings
Trace log behavior is managed in the configuration file ReportingServicesService.exe.config. The configuration file is found in the following folder path:
\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.<instance name>\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin.
The following example illustrates the XML structure of the RStrace settings. The value for DefaultTraceSwitch determines the kind of information that is added to the log. Except for the Components attribute, the values for RStrace are the same across the configuration files.
\<system.diagnostics>
<switches>
<add name="DefaultTraceSwitch" value="3" />
</switches>
\</system.diagnostics>
<RStrace>
<add name="FileName" value="ReportServerService_" />
<add name="FileSizeLimitMb" value="32" />
<add name="KeepFilesForDays" value="14" />
<add name="Prefix" value="appdomain, tid, time" />
<add name="TraceListeners" value="file" />
<add name="TraceFileMode" value="unique" />
<add name="Components" value="all:3" />
</RStrace>
The following table provides information about each setting.
| Setting | Description | Values |
|---|---|---|
| RStrace | Specifies namespaces used for errors and tracing. | |
| DefaultTraceSwitch | Specifies the level of information that is reported to the ReportServerService trace log. Each level includes the information reported by all lower-numbered levels. Disabling tracing isn't recommended. |
Valid values are: 0= Disables tracing. The ReportServerService log file is enabled by default. To turn it off, set trace level to 0.1= Exceptions and restarts2= Exceptions, restarts, warnings3= Exceptions, restarts, warnings, status messages (default)4= Verbose mode |
| FileName | Specifies the first part of the log file name. The value specified by Prefix completes the rest of the name. | |
| FileSizeLimitMb | Specifies an upper limit on trace log size. The file is measured in megabytes. You can control file size by setting tracing levels (0 through 4) to control how much content is recorded. You can also specify which components get traced. If the log file maximum is reached before the 14-day expiration date, older entries are replaced with newer entries. |
Valid values are 0 to a maximum integer. The default value is 32. If you specify 0 or a negative number, the report server treats the value as 1. |
| KeepFilesForDays | Specifies the number of days after which a trace log file is deleted. | Valid values are 0 to a maximum integer. The default value is 14. If you specify 0 or a negative number, the report server treats the value as 1. |
| Prefix | Specifies a generated value that distinguishes one-log instance from another. | By default, timestamp values are appended to trace log file names. This value is set to appdomain, tid, time. Don't modify this setting. |
| TraceListeners | Specifies a target for outputting trace log content. You can specify multiple targets using a comma to separate each one. | Valid values are:DebugWindowFile (default)StdOut |
| TraceFileMode | Specifies whether trace logs contain data for a 24-hour period. You should have one unique trace log for each component on each day. | This value is set to Unique (default). Don't modify this value. |
| Component Category | Specifies the components for which trace log information is generated and the trace level in this format:\<component category>:\<tracelevel>You can specify all or some of the components (all, RunningJobs, SemanticQueryEngine, SemanticModelGenerator). If you don't want to generate information for a specific component, you can disable tracing for it (for example, "SemanticModelGenerator:0"). Don't disable tracing for all. You can set "SemanticQueryEngine:4" if you want to view the Transact-SQL statements that are generated for each semantic query. The Transact-SQL statements are recorded in the trace log. The following example illustrates the configuration setting that adds Transact-SQL statements to the log: <add name="Components" value="all,SemanticQueryEngine:4" /> |
Component categories can be set to: All is used to trace general report server activity for all processes that aren't broken out into the specific categories. RunningJobs is used to trace an in-progress report or subscription operation. SemanticQueryEngine is used to trace a semantic query that is processed when a user performs unplanned data exploration in a model-based report. SemanticModelGenerator is used to trace model generation. http is used to enable the Report Server HTTP Log file. For more information, see Report Server HTTP Log. |
| trace level value for component categories | <component category>:<tracelevel> If you don't append a trace level to the component, the value specified for DefaultTraceSwitch is used. For example, if you specify all,RunningJobs,SemanticQueryEngine,SemanticModelGenerator, all components use the default trace level. |
Trace level valid values are:0= Disables tracing1= Exceptions and restarts2= Exceptions, restarts, warnings3= Exceptions, restarts, warnings, status messages (default)4= Verbose modeThe default value for Report Server is: all:3. |
Add custom configuration setting to specify a dump file location
You can add a custom setting to set the location that the Dr. Watson for Windows tool uses to store dump files. The custom setting is Directory. The following example provides an illustration of how this configuration setting is specified in the RStrace section:
<add name="Directory" value="U:\logs\" />
For more information, see Knowledge base article 913046 on the Microsoft Web site.
Log file fields
The following fields can be found in a trace log:
System information, including operating system, version, number of processors, and memory.
Reporting Services component and version information.
Events logged the Application log.
Exceptions generated by the report server.
Low resource warnings logged by a report server.
Inbound SOAP envelopes and summarized outbound SOAP envelopes.
HTTP header, stack trace, and debug trace information.
You can review trace log information to determine whether a report delivery occurred, who received the report, and how many delivery attempts were made. Trace logs also record report execution activity and the environment variables that are in effect during report processing. Errors and exceptions are also entered into trace logs. For example, you might find report time-out errors, indicated as a ThreadAbortExceptions entry.
Previous versions
In previous releases of Reporting Services, there were multiple trace log files, one for each application. The following files are obsolete and are no longer created in SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) and later versions:
+ ReportServerWebApp_\<timestamp>.log
+ ReportServer_\<timestamp>.log
+ ReportServerService_main_\<timestamp>.log