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Logging with OCS 2007

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Well, the OCS 2007 Public Beta was released this week and it appears that downloads have been very strong. If you are interested in downloading the Public Beta, go to https://www.microsoft.com/uc and you can register for it there. For those that are verterans of Live Communications Server, you may be familiar with flat file logging. This was a standard request from Microsoft Support Engineers just about everytime someone opened a case to troubleshoot LCS. Well, with OCS 2007, flat file logging is gone. What!?!?! No logging!?!?! No, that's not what I said. It is gone and has been replaced with ETL logging. The problem with ETL logging is that it cannot natively be read by humans. Generally speaking, you'd hav eto send the ETL to Microsoft to allow them convert the file and diagnose the problem. Well, let me tell you that the OCS product group (thanks Amay and your team) has done an excellent job of creating a tool that will facilitate getting the logs you want, but also converting them to text files so you can read them. This tool is called OCSLogger.exe and every OCS admin needs to become very familiar with this tool.

In the pervious Beta 3 release of OCS 2007, OCSLogger was part of the Resource Kit. However, everyone agreed that this tool was so vital that in the Public Beta it has been made part of the admin tools. So, starting with the Public Beta you can find OCSLogger in \Program Files\Common Files\Office Communications Server 2007\Tracing. When you launch OCSLogger you'll see two main areas: Logging Options and Global Options. Under Logging Option there are three parts: Components, Level and Flags. This is where you set what kind of logging you want to retrieve.The Components section will vary depending on the type of OCS server you are running it against. In other words, the component list will be different if you are running it against a front end server as compared to an Edge Server (new name for the LCS Access Server role). So, you can see right off the bat that we have access to very detailed logging.

This is usually the point where someone wans to know, "How do I get the equivilant to Level 4 flat file logging like we had with LCS?" The answer to that is that you need to choose the SipStack from Components. The Level needs to be set to All and the Flags needs to be set to All Flags. Once you have tat set, check the location of the Log File Folder at the bottom. This is where the ETL files are going to be created. You can change this location if you like. To start the logging, at the top select Start Logging. Once you have reproduce whatever issue you are trying to troubleshoot, click Stop Logging. You can now click View Log Files and you be presented with a list of ETL files that are present in the Log File Folder location. Check the files you want to view and click the View button. This will convert the ETL file to a text file and open it up in Notepad. If you click on the Analyze Log Files option atthe top, OCSLogger will again present you with a list of potential files. Check the one you want to analyze and click Analyze. This will launch another new tool call Snooper. Snooper is similar to SipView with some variations. It should be noted that not all log files can currently be used with Snooper. Snooper currently parses SIPStack, Client UCCP, S4, MCUInfra C3P, Focus C3P, PSOM/LDM and error reports from the archiving database. All other files will need tobe viewed using Notepad.

The Global Options in OCSLogger let you set different logging options like Circular or Sequential files, the size of the log files, Real Time Monitoring, and various filter option.

The current Microsoft Office Communicator (MOC build 2.0.6090) also has the ability to turn on its own logging. If you go into Tool>Options, you;ll see a General tab. From there you can enable logging in Communicator and turn on Windows Events for Communicator. Clicking the logging in Communicator checkbox creates Communicator.etl and Communicator-uccp.log files with out having to go into regedit and restart MOC. For those still interested in the registry keys:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\UcClient\Communicator\EnableTracing = 1

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\uccp\Communicator\EnableTracing = 1

Also, as an FYI, Live Meeting console tracing is also here:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\uccp\ConfAPI\EnableTracing = 1

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Tracing\uccp\LiveMeeting\EnableTracing = 1

By default all of these logs are stored in %USERPROFILE%\Tracing. There is one more log file that is very useful when debugging a Live Meeting problem and that is the pwconsole-debug log. That one is automatically generated and stored in the %TEMP% directory.

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