ASP.NET application not logging to the windows event log

Question

I have two ASP.NET MVC web applications. One of them logs unhandled exceptions to the windows event log. The other doesn't.

Is there a setting in IIS or the web.config to enable event log logging?

Apologies for the broad question, I'm really looking for avenues for investigation.

Do you get the standard Yellow Screen of Death in both apps? What version of IIS/Windows? — Dave Swersky
– Dave Swersky, Commented Mar 17, 2010 at 13:40
No ysod - friendly error message displayed. I see the same behavior on win2k3/iis6(?) and server2k8/iis7 — Ben Aston
– Ben Aston, Commented Mar 17, 2010 at 13:48
@Ben Aston - Do you have an unhandled exceptions handler? What does it look like? — Oded
– Oded, Commented Mar 17, 2010 at 14:11

Oded · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-17 13:43:38Z

3

This is normally due to the account running the web application not having the right permissions to write to the event log.

In IIS 7, check the identity the application pool is running under.

answered Mar 17, 2010 at 13:43

Oded

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4 Comments

Ben Aston Over a year ago

Have ruled this out by setting the app pool for the site no logging, to the same pool as the site that is.

myroslav Over a year ago

@Oded does NetworkService built-in account has permissions to write to event log?

Oded Over a year ago

@myroslav - it can, so long as it uses existing event sources. It doesn't have enough registry permissions to create new even sources.

myroslav Over a year ago

@Oded sorry about that. Thank you for the answer. This was helpful, my website was running under NetworkService account and therefore no events were written to the log when 500 error occurred.

lance · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-17 13:51:10Z

1

If the user running the webapp (the IIS user) isn't an admin, make sure that the event source is registered with the OS.

answered Mar 17, 2010 at 13:51

lance

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1 Comment

Peter Oehlert Over a year ago

This is correct, you need special permissions to create an event source (what ends up being a reg key) but to write to an event log (except security) you can be just about anyone. You probably need to create it with elevated privileges first.

Ben Aston · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-17 14:39:31Z

0

Turning CustomErrors on started stuff being added to error log.

Final solution was to add

<add name="ErrorLog" type="Elmah.ErrorLogModule, Elmah"/>

to the

 <system.webServer>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
...

Section of the web.config. This enabled Elmah in IIS7.

Loose understanding - exceptions were being intercepted by elmah, which was mal-configured for the above reason, causing swallowing of errors. Turning custom errors on, seemed to bypass elmah and enable errors to push through to event log.

answered Mar 17, 2010 at 14:39

Ben Aston

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