Configuring Notification Services Event Logging

Most logging for Notification Services is controlled at the instance level. Each instance has a file named NSservice.exe.config. Within this file are XML elements that control logging levels for various areas of Notification Services operation. Each of these areas is represented by one XML element.

To configure logging levels for these areas of Notification Services, edit the value attribute of the XML elements in this file and then restart your instances of Notification Services If your instances are scaled out across multiple computers, you can configure the logging level per computer.

Editing the NSService.exe.config File

The default installation folder is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Notification Services\n.n.n\bin. You can edit the NSservice.exe.config file with any text or XML editor.

To edit the NSservice.exe.config file

  1. Open the Bin folder of the Notification Services installation.

    The default installation folder is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\NotificationServices\n.n.nnn\bin.

  2. Open the NSservice.exe.config file.

  3. For each of the items in the <switches> node, set the logging level by changing the value attribute.

    In the following example, the LogAdministrative logging level is set to 3, which turns on logging for error, warning, and informational events for the administrative components:

    <add name="LogAdministrative" value="3"/>
    

    Initially, each logging option is set to 2, which turns on logging for error and warning messages only.

  4. To apply the logging changes, save the file and restart the instance of Notification Services.

NSservice.exe.config Logging Elements

The NSservice.exe.config file contains elements that control event logging from various components of Notification Services; they are listed in the following table.

Element name Logging category

LogAdministrative

SQL Server Management Studio and nscontrol utility events

LogService

NS$instanceName Microsoft Windows service events

LogEventProvider

Event provider events

LogEventCollector

EventCollector object events

LogGenerator

Generator events

LogDistributor

Distributor events

LogVacuumer

Vacuumer events

LogPerformanceMonitor

Performance monitor events

LogOther

Events for all other components, such as the standard content formatter and delivery protocols

Logging Level Values

Logging levels determine which types of events are written to the Application log. You can control the logging level by setting the value attribute to one of the following values.

Value Description

0

Off

1

Error messages only

2

Error and warning messages

3

Error, warning, and informational messages

4

Verbose logging, which writes all messages to the Application log

See Also

Tasks

Using Event Messages

Concepts

Monitoring Notification Services Performance and Activity

Other Resources

Notification Services Errors and Events

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance