SharePoint 2013 : Health and Monitoring (part 2) - Correlation IDs, The Logging Database

Correlation IDs

Since the previous version of SharePoint, Microsoft has introduced Correlation IDs GUIDs (Global Unique Identifiers) that map an event in SharePoint with the error or warning in the ULS log (see Figure 3). Prior to SharePoint 2013, the administrator had to hunt and peck through the log files looking for the event that caused the error. Correlation IDs now allow a user experiencing a problem and an error page to send the ID to the administrator to find more details about the issue.

As well as using a text-editor-find action to find errors in the ULS log files, SharePoint includes a very nice PowerShell command to simplify finding the messages with a given Correlation ID:

Get-SPLogEvent | ?{$_.Correlation -eq "<ID>"}

The Logging Database

The logging database in SharePoint provides developers with a central data store to capture all events occurring in the platform. Microsoft introduced the logging database both to provide a transactional database of all events for easy query and to herd developers away from executing custom queries directly against content and configuration databases in the farm.

The logging database provides a central location to query all events occurring in the farm, whereas ULS logs only report information per the verbosity settings and spread across servers in the farm. The following steps demonstrate how to configure the logging database for your farm:

1. Open Central Administration.
2. Click the Monitoring heading link.
3. Click the Configure Usage and Health Data Collection link.
4. Figure 3 shows a page for configuring the health data collection events.

   

   Figure 3. Configure Health Data Collection

5. Ensure that the topmost check box is checked to enable usage data collection.
6. Select the events you wish SharePoint to capture.

    Note  In the Usage Data Collection Settings section, notice that the location defaults to the same folder as ULS logs; if you look into this folder you should see usage files as well as the familiar log files.

7. Check the box for the Health Data Collection setting to monitor SharePoint farm health, which is in addition to usage.
8. Click the Health Logging Schedule link if you wish to change the schedules that the health logging timer services run (several of them).
9. SharePoint populates the logging database using the various usage files on each SharePoint server.
10. A timer service collects data from these files and populates the database configured in the Logging Database Server section.
11. Click the link to configure the schedule of the log collection timer service.