Set up logging
Updated: May 13, 2016
Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager
DPM logs activity in log files (*.errlog) located as follows:
| Activity | Computer | Log location |
|---|---|---|
| DPM installation | DPM server | C:\DPMLogs %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\DPM\DPMLogs – for DPM 2012 R2 |
| D PM activity | DPM server | %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft DPM\DPM\Temp %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\DPM\DPM\Temp – for DPM 2012 R2. |
| Client-side activity | Client computer | %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\Temp Logs for client-initiated activities such as self-service recovery are logged on the client computer based on the user (%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2012\) |
Log files are tab delimited and can be opened in Excel for easy viewing. You can filter with specific levels and task IDs in order to find events that interest you. Every log entry has a log task ID generated by DPM as a unique GUID for every task in the DPM enging. This helps you to track down log entries for specific jobs.
Configure log settings
You can modify a number of log settings with the registry. Note the following:
The root path for the registry keys is HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager.
You won’t need to restart after making these changes but it might take 15 minutes or so for the changes to take effect.
The values TraceLogLevel and TraceLogLocation are global across all DPM services. The other values can be set at the service/process (binary) level. You can see the binary levels at Binary and service mapping.
| Value name | Value type | Allow values | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| TraceLogLevel | DWORD | TRACE_ERROR—Logs all errors and failures – default setting TRACE_DBG_ACTIVITY—Logs all activities such as start, cancel, end TRACE_DBG_NORMAL—Logs activities considered important TRACE_DBG_CRITICAL—Logs critical errors only. TRACE_DBG_FATAL—Logs fatal errors such as task or job failures |
Specifies the logging level. Can be overridden per binary. A valid bitmask of allowed values is: enum TRACE_FLAG{ TRACE_ERROR = 0x2, TRACE_DBG_ACTIVITY = 0x4, TRACE_DBG_ = 0x8, TRACE_PERF = 0x20, TRACE_DBG_FATAL = 0x200, TRACE_DBG_CRITICAL = 0x400 };You can also enable full Verbose logging but note that this affects performance. If you need this for a limited time do the following: 1. In the registry, at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager add a DWORD value TraceLogLevel and set it to 0x43e. 2. To apply immediately stop the DPM services for which you want to enable verbose logging and delete the old logs. 3. After you reproduce the issue and finish troubleshooting, delete the registry entry you created and restart the stopped services so that non-verbose logging works again. |
| TraceLogPath | REG_SZ | Specifies the log location. Requires a valid NTFS volume path with 3 GB of compressed space on DPM server (no quotation marks required in the name for paths that contain spaces). Can be overridden per binary. |
|
| <binary> TraceLogMaxSize | DWORD | Specifies the size of the log file 5 MB by default A file size (total disk space consumed for this binary’s log = size * number of files to retain) |
|
| <binary>TraceLogMaxNum | Maximum number of log files to retain 30 by default The current number of log files is tracked in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager: <binary>TraceLogNextNum (DWORD). This is an internal registry key and we recommend that you don’t modify it. |
Binary and service mapping
Mappings between some of the binary names and services are summarized in the following table.
| Service/Process | Binary name | Details |
|---|---|---|
| DPM Engine (MSDPM) | MSDPM | MSDPM engine logs contain info about engine API calls, jobs and task triggers, housekeeping jobs etc |
| DPM Replication Agent (DPMRA) | DPMRA | Logs information about tape backups, disk replication, restore, secondary DPM replications. On DPM server and protected client. |
| DPM Library Agent (DPMLA) | LAAgent | Logs library related activities. On DPM server and shared library server. |
| DPM UI | DPMUI | Logs UI activity such as monitoring, protection, recovery, etc. |
| DPM PowerShell CLI | DPMCLI | Logs all cmdlet actions |
| DPM Access Manager | DPMMAC | Logs automatic behavior such as grow, rerun jobs, and Access Control Manager information. |
| Exchange Cmdlet Wrapper E14 Cmdlet Wrapper |
ExchangeCmdletsWrapper | Logs for variouscmdlets run by DPMRA on Exchange client side |
| Agent Coordinator | AgentBootStrapper | Logs during agent installation and upgrade |
| DPM Client Service | DPMClientProtection | Logs by DPM client installed on laptops. Used on laptop-side only. |
| DPM Backup Tool | DpmBackup | Logs for tool doing DPM backup |
| Install SQL Prep (Remote SQL) | SQL Prep Bootstrapper | Logs during installation of remote SQL Server before Setup. |
| DPM Backup | DpmBackup | Logs for DPM backup tool |
| DPM Writer | DPMWriter | Logs during third party tape backups and secondary server backup. On DPM server only. |
| WSS Cmdlet wrapper | WssCmdletsWrapper | Logs when running WSS cmdlets on SharePoint WFE. On protected client only. Logs at: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Data ProtectionManager 2012\ |
| SQL EUR Client | EurClient | Installed on machines where SQL EUR client is installed. Logs information about connecting to DPMserver, triggering and canceling recovery etc. Logs at: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Data ProtectionManager 2012\ |
| Laptop Client UI | DPMClientUI | Logs about various actions triggered from DPM client UI and failures. Logs at: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Data ProtectionManager 2012\ |