Log4Net - Logging to the Database and Troubleshooting logging Issues

There are a three parts to log4net. There is the configuration, the setup, and the call

There are seven logging levels, five of which can be called in your code.

OFF - nothing gets logged (cannot be called)
FATAL
ERROR
WARN
INFO
DEBUG
ALL - everything gets logged (cannot be called)

1) Setting up log for net in your project

Select Tools menu > NuGet package manager > Manage NuGet packages for the solution

Once the NuGet is installed you get the log4net dll under the References list.

2) Add the below line to the AssemblyInfo.cs file

[assembly: log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator(Watch = true)]

Configurations

•  In The App.config file add the log4net configurations

<configuration>

  <configSections>
    <section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net"></section>
  </configSections>

• Adding the appender and the logger details.

  <log4net>
    <appender name="AdoNetAppender" type="log4net.Appender.AdoNetAppender">
            <bufferSize value="1" />
            <connectionType value="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection, System.Data, Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
            <connectionString value="data source=MyDatabaseServer;initial catalog=MyDatabaseName;integrated security=false;persist security info=True;User ID=sa;Password=****" />
            <commandText value="INSERT INTO Log ([logdate],[message]) VALUES (@logdate, @message)" />
            <parameter>
              <parameterName value="@logdate" />
              <dbType value="DateTime" />
              <layout type="log4net.Layout.RawTimeStampLayout" />
            </parameter>
          <parameter>
          <parameterName value="@message" />
          <dbType value="String" />
          <size value="255" />
          <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
            <conversionPattern value="%message" />
          </layout>
        </parameter>
    </appender>
    <logger name="AdoNetAppender">
      <level value="INFO" />
      <appender-ref ref="AdoNetAppender" />
    </logger>
  </log4net>

In the code, declare the logger

private static ILog myLog = LogManager.GetLogger("AdoNetAppender");

In the code add logging

myLog.Info(string.Format("{0}\t{1}\t{2}", DateTime.Now, "Before do work", i));

The logger pushes logging info to the DB in batches. So maker sure to push each log by using the <bufferSize value="1" /> as configured in the app.config above.

Trouble shooting Logger issues

Example 1 : Logger does not log anything to the database

To troubleshoot logger issues add the below configurations to the app.config file.

     <appSettings>
      <add key="log4net.Internal.Debug" value="true"/>
   </appSettings>

  <system.diagnostics>
        <trace autoflush="true">
        <listeners>
            <add
                name="textWriterTraceListener"
                type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener"
                initializeData="C:\tmp\log4net.txt" />
        </listeners>
    </trace>
  </system.diagnostics>

This will log issues in the mentioned text file.

Example 2 : After the DB goes offline or losing DB connectivity and comes back online, the logger does not Log anymore.

to solve this add the tag  <reconnectonerror value="true" />

Example:

    <appender name="AdoNetAppender" type="log4net.Appender.AdoNetAppender">
            <bufferSize value="1" />
            <reconnectonerror value="true" />

Adding this might slow down the app performance since, log4net trys to reconnect to the server till the connection attempt time outs.

To overcome that you need to set a connection timeout in the connection string as shown below:

 <connectionString value="data source=MyDatabaseServer;initial catalog=MyDatabaseName;integrated security=false;persist security info=True;User ID=sa;Password=****;Connect Timeout=1" />

If you had the troubleshooting configurations as shown in an above step, then you would get an output similar to this:

Install Uninstall Windows Service

From start menu select the "Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio". right click on the menu item and run as administrator.

In the command prompt change the working directory to the bin/Debug folder of the Windows service Solution. Then give the command to install.

To install:

 installutil.exe MyWindowsService.exe

To uninstall:

installutil.exe /u MyWindowsService.exe