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title description services documentationcenter author manager ms.assetid ms.service ms.workload ms.tgt_pltfrm ms.topic ms.date ms.author
Explore .NET trace logs in Application Insights
Search logs generated with Trace, NLog, or Log4Net.
application-insights
.net
mrbullwinkle
carmonm
0c2a084f-6e71-467b-a6aa-4ab222f17153
application-insights
tbd
ibiza
conceptual
05/03/2017
mbullwin

Explore .NET trace logs in Application Insights

If you use NLog, log4Net or System.Diagnostics.Trace for diagnostic tracing in your ASP.NET application, you can have your logs sent to Azure Application Insights, where you can explore and search them. Your logs will be merged with the other telemetry coming from your application, so that you can identify the traces associated with servicing each user request, and correlate them with other events and exception reports.

Note

Do you need the log capture module? It's a useful adapter for 3rd-party loggers, but if you aren't already using NLog, log4Net or System.Diagnostics.Trace, consider just calling Application Insights TrackTrace() directly.

Install logging on your app

Install your chosen logging framework in your project. This should result in an entry in app.config or web.config.

If you're using System.Diagnostics.Trace, you need to add an entry to web.config:

    <configuration>
     <system.diagnostics>
       <trace autoflush="false" indentsize="4">
         <listeners>
           <add name="myListener"
             type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener"
             initializeData="TextWriterOutput.log" />
           <remove name="Default" />
         </listeners>
       </trace>
     </system.diagnostics>
   </configuration>

Configure Application Insights to collect logs

Add Application Insights to your project if you haven't done that yet. You'll see an option to include the log collector.

Or Configure Application Insights by right-clicking your project in Solution Explorer. Select the option to Configure trace collection.

No Application Insights menu or log collector option? Try Troubleshooting.

Manual installation

Use this method if your project type isn't supported by the Application Insights installer (for example a Windows desktop project).

  1. If you plan to use log4Net or NLog, install it in your project.

  2. In Solution Explorer, right-click your project and choose Manage NuGet Packages.

  3. Search for "Application Insights"

  4. Select the appropriate package - one of:

    • Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.TraceListener (to capture System.Diagnostics.Trace calls)
    • Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.EventSourceListener (to capture EventSource events)
    • Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.EtwCollector (to capture ETW events)
    • Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.NLogTarget
    • Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Log4NetAppender

The NuGet package installs the necessary assemblies, and also modifies web.config or app.config.

Insert diagnostic log calls

If you use System.Diagnostics.Trace, a typical call would be:

System.Diagnostics.Trace.TraceWarning("Slow response - database01");

If you prefer log4net or NLog:

logger.Warn("Slow response - database01");

Using EventSource events

You can configure System.Diagnostics.Tracing.EventSource events to be sent to Application Insights as traces. First, install the Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.EventSourceListener NuGet package. Then edit TelemetryModules section of the ApplicationInsights.config file.

    <Add Type="Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.EventSourceListener.EventSourceTelemetryModule, Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.EventSourceListener">
      <Sources>
        <Add Name="MyCompany" Level="Verbose" />
      </Sources>
    </Add>

For each source, you can set the following parameters:

  • Name specifies the name of the EventSource to collect.
  • Level specifies the logging level to collect. Can be one of Critical, Error, Informational, LogAlways, Verbose, Warning.
  • Keywords (Optional) specifies the integer value of keywords combinations to use.

Using DiagnosticSource events

You can configure System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource events to be sent to Application Insights as traces. First, install the Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.DiagnosticSourceListener NuGet package. Then edit the TelemetryModules section of the ApplicationInsights.config file.

    <Add Type="Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.DiagnosticSourceListener.DiagnosticSourceTelemetryModule, Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.DiagnosticSourceListener">
      <Sources>
        <Add Name="MyDiagnosticSourceName" />
      </Sources>
    </Add>

For each DiagnosticSource you want to trace, add an entry with the Name attribute set to the name of your DiagnosticSource.

Using ETW events

You can configure ETW events to be sent to Application Insights as traces. First, install the Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.EtwCollector NuGet package. Then edit TelemetryModules section of the ApplicationInsights.config file.

Note

ETW events can only be collected if the process hosting the SDK is running under an identity that is a member of "Performance Log Users" or Administrators.

    <Add Type="Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.EtwCollector.EtwCollectorTelemetryModule, Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.EtwCollector">
      <Sources>
        <Add ProviderName="MyCompanyEventSourceName" Level="Verbose" />
      </Sources>
    </Add>

For each source, you can set the following parameters:

  • ProviderName is the name of the ETW provider to collect.
  • ProviderGuid specifies the GUID of the ETW provider to collect, can be used instead of ProviderName.
  • Level sets the logging level to collect. Can be one of Critical, Error, Informational, LogAlways, Verbose, Warning.
  • Keywords (Optional) sets the integer value of keyword combinations to use.

Using the Trace API directly

You can call the Application Insights trace API directly. The logging adapters use this API.

For example:

var telemetry = new Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.TelemetryClient();
telemetry.TrackTrace("Slow response - database01");

An advantage of TrackTrace is that you can put relatively long data in the message. For example, you could encode POST data there.

In addition, you can add a severity level to your message. And, like other telemetry, you can add property values that you can use to help filter or search for different sets of traces. For example:

var telemetry = new Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.TelemetryClient();
telemetry.TrackTrace("Slow database response",
               SeverityLevel.Warning,
               new Dictionary<string,string> { {"database", db.ID} });

This would enable you, in Search, to easily filter out all the messages of a particular severity level relating to a particular database.

Explore your logs

Run your app, either in debug mode or deploy it live.

In your app's overview blade in the Application Insights portal, choose Search.

In Application Insights, choose Search

Search

You can, for example:

  • Filter on log traces, or on items with specific properties
  • Inspect a specific item in detail.
  • Find other telemetry relating to the same user request (that is, with the same OperationId)
  • Save the configuration of this page as a Favorite

Note

Sampling. If your application sends a lot of data and you are using the Application Insights SDK for ASP.NET version 2.0.0-beta3 or later, the adaptive sampling feature may operate and send only a percentage of your telemetry. Learn more about sampling.

Next steps

Diagnose failures and exceptions in ASP.NET

Learn more about Search.

Troubleshooting

How do I do this for Java?

Use the Java log adapters.

There's no Application Insights option on the project context menu

  • Check Application Insights tools is installed on this development machine. In Visual Studio menu Tools, Extensions and Updates, look for Application Insights Tools. If it isn't in the Installed tab, open the Online tab and install it.
  • This might be a type of project not supported by Application Insights tools. Use manual installation.

No log adapter option in the configuration tool

  • You need to install the logging framework first.
  • If you're using System.Diagnostics.Trace, make sure you configured it in web.config.
  • Have you got the latest version of Application Insights? In Visual Studio Tools menu, choose Extensions and Updates, and open the Updates tab. If Developer Analytics tools is there, click to update it.

I get an error "Instrumentation key cannot be empty"

Looks like you installed the logging adapter Nuget package without installing Application Insights.

In Solution Explorer, right-click ApplicationInsights.config and choose Update Application Insights. You'll get a dialog that invites you to sign in to Azure and either create an Application Insights resource, or re-use an existing one. That should fix it.

I can see traces in diagnostic search, but not the other events

It can sometimes take a while for all the events and requests to get through the pipeline.

How much data is retained?

Several factors impact the amount of data retained. See the limits section of the customer event metrics page for more information.

I'm not seeing some of the log entries that I expect

If your application sends a lot of data and you are using the Application Insights SDK for ASP.NET version 2.0.0-beta3 or later, the adaptive sampling feature may operate and send only a percentage of your telemetry. Learn more about sampling.

Next steps