Microsoft KB Archive/942864

= How to use diagnostic tracing in System Center Operations Manager 2007 and in System Center Essentials 2007 =

Article ID: 942864

Article Last Modified on 10/10/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007
 * Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007

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INTRODUCTION
This article describes how to use diagnostic tracing in Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 and in Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007.

Important We recommend that you perform diagnostic tracing only in association with a Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) representative. We recommend this because the generated traces contain no human-readable text. After the traces are converted by a Microsoft CSS representative, human-readable text is available. However, this text contains only low-level information such as source-code file names, locations, source-code functions, and return codes. This information may be helpful if you have to troubleshoot a complex issue.



MORE INFORMATION
System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Essentials 2007 implement a diagnostic tracing method that differs from earlier versions of Microsoft Operations Manager. This new tracing method creates binary files in which to store tracing information. Because this new tracing method is implemented at the Windows kernel level, it is highly efficient, and it can log tens of thousands of trace messages per second.

Trace information contains information about the context of a text-based trace message. However, this trace information is not in a human-readable format. The traces must be sent to Microsoft CSS for conversion. This article discusses the tools that are available to start and to stop tracing if you are asked to do this by a Microsoft CSS representative.

Tracing tools location
The installation folder for each role, such as the Agent role, the Management Server role, or the Gateway role, contains a folder that is named Tools. The following files are located in the Tools folder:
 * StartTracing.cmd
 * StopTracing.cmd
 * TracelogSM.exe
 * TracingGuidsBid.txt
 * TracingGuidsUI.txt
 * TracingGuidsNative.txt
 * TracingReadMe.txt

To start tracing
To start diagnostic tracing, follow these steps:  On the computer on which you want to start tracing, click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK. At the command prompt, use the cd command to change to the Tools directory. For example, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

cd\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\Tools

 Type StartTracing, and then press ENTER. In this command, replace  with the tracing level that you want. You must use uppercase characters to specify the tracing level. The following levels are available :  ERR WRN INF VER</li></ul>

For example, type StartTracing WRN .</li></ol>

When you start tracing, the trace output is written to the following binary files:
 * MOMTraceNative.etl
 * MOMTraceBID.etl
 * MOMTraceUI.etl

These files are located in the %WINDIR%\Temp folder.

To stop tracing
To stop diagnostic tracing, follow these steps: <ol> Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.</li> At the command prompt, use the cd command to change to the Tools directory. For example, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

cd\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\Tools

</li> Type StopTracing.cmd, and then press ENTER.</li></ol>

After you stop diagnostic tracing, you can send the .etl files from the %WINDIR%\Temp folder to the Microsoft CSS representative with whom you are working.

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