Diagnostic doesn't work properly

Question

Hi all,
we have a problem with the diagnostic. Both locally and remotely the diagnostic tool seems to write the diagnostic information only when "it wants" (sometime it does it, sometimes doesn't).
Here our configuration file:
ServiceDefinition.csdef
<ServiceDefinition name="Cryptobrand_compress" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition" schemaVersion="2014-01.2.3">
  <WebRole name="Compression" vmsize="ExtraSmall">
    <Sites>
      <Site name="Web">
        <Bindings>
          <Binding name="Endpoint1" endpointName="Endpoint1" />
        </Bindings>
      </Site>
    </Sites>
    <Endpoints>
      <InputEndpoint name="Endpoint1" protocol="http" port="80" />
    </Endpoints>
    <Imports>
      <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" />
    </Imports>
    <LocalResources>
      <LocalStorage name="Compression.svclog" sizeInMB="1000" cleanOnRoleRecycle="false" />
    </LocalResources>
  </WebRole>
</ServiceDefinition>
ServiceConfiguration.Local.cscfg
<ServiceConfiguration serviceName="Cryptobrand_compress" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="4" osVersion="*" schemaVersion="2014-01.2.3">
  <Role name="Compression">
    <Instances count="1" />
    <ConfigurationSettings>
      <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" />
    </ConfigurationSettings>
  </Role>
</ServiceConfiguration>
ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg
<ServiceConfiguration serviceName="Cryptobrand_compress" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="4" osVersion="*" schemaVersion="2014-01.2.3">
  <Role name="Compression">
    <Instances count="1" />
    <ConfigurationSettings>
      <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=betatwo;AccountKey=OUR_ACCOUNT_KEY==" />
    </ConfigurationSettings>
  </Role>
</ServiceConfiguration>
Web.config
<configuration>
  <!--  To collect diagnostic traces, uncomment the section below or merge with existing system.diagnostics section.
        To persist the traces to storage, update the DiagnosticsConnectionString setting with your storage credentials.
        To avoid performance degradation, remember to disable tracing on production deployments.  -->
  <system.diagnostics>     
    <sharedListeners>
      <add name="AzureLocalStorage" type="Compression.AzureLocalStorageTraceListener, Compression"/>
    </sharedListeners>
    <sources>
      <source name="System.ServiceModel" switchValue="Verbose, ActivityTracing">
        <listeners>
          <add name="AzureLocalStorage"/>
        </listeners>
      </source>
      <source name="System.ServiceModel.MessageLogging" switchValue="Verbose">
        <listeners>
          <add name="AzureLocalStorage"/>
        </listeners>
      </source>
    </sources> 
    <trace>
      <listeners>
        <add type="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics.DiagnosticMonitorTraceListener, Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics, Version=2.3.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
          name="AzureDiagnostics">
          <filter type="" />
        </add>
      </listeners>
    </trace>
  </system.diagnostics>
  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5.1" />
  </system.web>
  <system.serviceModel>
    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior>
          <!-- To avoid disclosing metadata information, set the value below to false before deployment -->
          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/>
          <!-- To receive exception details in faults for debugging purposes, set the value below to true.  Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing exception information -->
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false"/>
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
    <serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
  </system.serviceModel>
  <system.webServer>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
    <!--
        To browse web app root directory during debugging, set the value below to true.
        Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing web app folder information.
    -->
    <directoryBrowse enabled="true"/>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>
Note: if we try to "View/Update Diagnostic Data" from Server Explorer, we receive the following exception:
Could not retrieve the current diagnostic configuration or this role instance.
Thank you for your support.
Attilio Gelosa

Answer 1

Hi Attilio,
Thanks for posting!
From your description, I suggest you could try those approaches:
1.enable and configure the setting:
then, your projects could auto create a new file: diagnostics.wadcfg.
2. you could add this configuration setting into your code, like this:
var config = DiagnosticMonitor.GetDefaultInitialConfiguration();
CloudStorageAccount cloudStorageAccount =
CloudStorageAccount.Parse(
RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue(
"Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString"));
// Get the perf counters
config.PerformanceCounters.ScheduledTransferPeriod = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1);
// Add the perf counters
config.PerformanceCounters.DataSources.Add(
new PerformanceCounterConfiguration
CounterSpecifier = @"\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time",
SampleRate = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30)
config.PerformanceCounters.DataSources.Add(
new PerformanceCounterConfiguration
CounterSpecifier = @"\Memory\Available MBytes",
SampleRate = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30)
DiagnosticMonitor diagMonitor = DiagnosticMonitor.Start("Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString", config);
You could add those code into your onstart() method.
Please see this tutorials:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/dn186185.aspx
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/windowsazure/Windows-AzureConf-2013/Debugging-and-Monitoring-Windows-Azure-Cloud-Services
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff714589.aspx
Regards,
Will
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