Logging in .NET with Exceptionless

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There are plenty of options when it comes to logging in .NET.  NLog, log4net, Serilog are a few of the names you have likely heard.   One that I recently stumbled upon was Exceptionless.

Complexity

Logging shouldn’t be difficult.  But sometimes it sure feels that way. Generally, all I want to do is record various log messages through my application.  These could be handled or unhandled exceptions, debug logs with unstructured data, or just general informational logs such as feature usage.

Exceptionless

Exceptionless provides the means to persist all the types of logs that I mentioned above to a remote server. A central location for persisting all application logs in a distributed environment. It does so with a very simple API and provides a lot of extensions to hook into many of the existing logging libraries you may already be using.

UI

I have a soft spot for nice UI’s.  Call me superficial but it’s often one of the first things I notice when looking at any new service. The Exeptionless UI is good.  It provides a simple way to view the various log entries along with all kinds of a additional data.

Additional Data

Logging messages as strings.  Those days are over. Exceptionless provides the ability to tag your logs with additional data.  This is incredibly helpful for troubleshooting various issues.  I will log the IRequest command sent to MediatR when a handler fails.

Event Types

There are many different types of events you can log.  General log messages, feature usage, 404’s and custom events.

Service or Self Host

Exceptionless is OSS.  If you want to self host, you can do so fairly easily.  It requires Elasticsearch and then the web app to be installed behind IIS. If you prefer to have it hosted as a managed service, they do offer this on exceptionless.io and I would highly recommend checking out this option if that fits your requirements.

Check it out

If you are looking for a new logging library or unhappy with what you are currently using, I highly recommend giving Exceptionless a try.  With their free hosted solution, its really easy to get a feel for how the service works and if it fits your requirements.

Comments

Let me know if you are using Exceptionless or another logging library.  Please share in the comments below or on twitter.

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