Find error messages with a Correlation ID token in SharePoint 2010

Using PowerShell to lookup a log message based on Correlation ID token

One of the quick-n-awesome ways to do this is to simply hook up a PowerShell console (SharePoint 2010 Management Shell) and then just write the following command (replace the <GUID> with the Correlation Id):

get-splogevent | ?{$_Correlation -eq "<GUID>" }

This will give you the details about your specific error like this in the console:

You might want to be more precise and get more specific details out of your query, then you can try something like this:

get-splogevent | ?{$_.Correlation -eq "<GUID>"} | select Area, Category, Level, EventID, Message | Format-List

This will give you the details about your specific error like this with some juicy details:

Finally if you would want these messages to be put into a text or log file instead, you could just add the classic “> C:Awesome.log” after the command like this:

get-splogevent | ?{$_.Correlation -eq "<GUID>"} | select Area, Category, Level, EventID, Message | Format-List > C:Awesome.log

On MSDN they have an overvoew of using SP-GetLogEvent which I would recommend!

Using SQL queries to find log message based on Correlation ID token

You can utilize the SQL logs database to fetch the specific error message based on Correlation id as well. In your logging DB (usually called WSS_Logging, but can be called something else if you’ve changed it) there is a view called ULSTraceLogwhich you can query with a simple SQL query and fetch the results.

I’ve created a query to fetch the items from the logging database like this:

 select 	[RowCreatedTime],  [ProcessName],  [Area], 

 		[Category],  EventID,  [Message] 

 from  [WSS_UsageApplication].[dbo].[ULSTraceLog] 

 where  CorrelationId=< pre>'B4BBAC41-27C7-4B3A-AE33-4192B6C1E2C5'

This will render your results in the SQL Query window like this:

This can of course be implemented in a Web Part for your convenience as well (I’ve created a bunch of diag. and logging web parts that I’ve got deployed to Central Admin) that could look like this (this way you don’t need physical access to the ULS logs all the time, but can do a quick lookup from the web part):

Get the current Correlation ID by using code

I got this piece of code from my good friend Wictor’s blog post. Thanks Wictor – this made my Logging-project more satisfying!

With the following code you can fetch the current Correlation Id of a request.

Create a method (in my case called GetCurrentCorrelationToken()) to wrap up the functionality of returning the current token like this:

 public  class  CorrelationId 

 {

     [DllImport ("advapi32.dll")]

     public  static  extern  uint  EventActivityIdControl(uint  controlCode,ref Guid activityId);

     public  const  uint  EVENT_ACTIVITY_CTRL_GET_ID = 1;

     public  static  Guid  GetCurrentCorrelationToken()

     {

         Guid  g = Guid .Empty;

         EventActivityIdControl(EVENT_ACTIVITY_CTRL_GET_ID, ref  g);

         return  g;

     }

 }

Then from wherever in your code you can simply call it by using this approach:

 protected  void  Button1_Click(object  sender, EventArgs  e)

 {

     Label1.Text = CorrelationId .GetCurrentCorrelationToken().ToString();

 }

(Normally you might want this in a try/catch statement or something like that)