Windows Azure Trace Log not working

Question

I'm sure I have missed something simple but I can't get simple Trace.WriteLine to work on Azure.

Steps I have taken:

Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString has been set up to our Azure storage account

Import Module Diagnostics to service definition file.

Web config:

  <system.diagnostics>
    <switches>
      <add name="logLevel" value="4" />
    </switches>
    <trace autoflush="false" indentsize="4">
      <listeners>
        <add type="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics.DiagnosticMonitorTraceListener, Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
          name="AzureDiagnostics">
        </add>
      </listeners>
    </trace>

  </system.diagnostics>

WebRole.cs

public class WebRole : RoleEntryPoint
{
    public override bool OnStart()
    {


        String wadConnectionString = "Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString";

        CloudStorageAccount cloudStorageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue(wadConnectionString));

        RoleInstanceDiagnosticManager roleInstanceDiagnosticManager =
                cloudStorageAccount.CreateRoleInstanceDiagnosticManager(
                RoleEnvironment.DeploymentId,
                RoleEnvironment.CurrentRoleInstance.Role.Name,
                RoleEnvironment.CurrentRoleInstance.Id);

        DiagnosticMonitorConfiguration diagnosticMonitorConfiguration =
            roleInstanceDiagnosticManager.GetCurrentConfiguration();

        diagnosticMonitorConfiguration.Directories.ScheduledTransferPeriod =
               TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5d);

        diagnosticMonitorConfiguration.Logs.ScheduledTransferPeriod =
               TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1d);

        diagnosticMonitorConfiguration.Logs.ScheduledTransferLogLevelFilter = LogLevel.Verbose;

        roleInstanceDiagnosticManager.SetCurrentConfiguration
              (diagnosticMonitorConfiguration);

        Trace.WriteLine("This is the message");
        Debug.Write("This is the debug message");
        System.Diagnostics.Trace.TraceError("message2");
        System.Diagnostics.Trace.TraceWarning("message warning");
        System.Diagnostics.Trace.TraceInformation("message warning");
        Trace.Flush();
        return base.OnStart();

    }
}

Solution is compiled as release.

When I view the objects in the storage account I can see a Table called WADDirectoriesTable and three blobs created called vsdeploy, wad-control-container and was-iis-logfiles.

Nothing that looks like my Trace information.

Many thanks

Answer 1

I had this same problem. I was using the solution here. I believe the piece you are missing is the location where logs are scheduled to be transferred (in this case, using a LocalResource path):

public override bool OnStart()
{
    Trace.WriteLine("Entering OnStart...");

    var traceResource = RoleEnvironment.GetLocalResource("TraceFiles");
    var config = DiagnosticMonitor.GetDefaultInitialConfiguration();

    // *** this part specifies where transfers should be stored ***
    config.Directories.DataSources.Add(
        new DirectoryConfiguration
        {
            Path = traceResource.RootPath,
            Container = "traces",
            DirectoryQuotaInMB = 100
        });
    config.Directories.ScheduledTransferPeriod = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10);

    DiagnosticMonitor.Start("DiagnosticsConnectionString", config);

    return base.OnStart();
}  

In order for this to work, you have to create a LocalStorage node to store these files in your ServiceDefinition.csdef:

<LocalStorage name="TraceFiles" sizeInMB="100" cleanOnRoleRecycle="true" />

and you need to have a way to transfer these files to some place where you can get to them, because they are not available in the storage account, but on a local resource folder on the VM itself. I accomplish that with a webpage that allows me to download local resource files.