LogTools for SoftGrid Client

Summary

SoftGrid Client LogTools is a collection of tools (presently 2) that gather and analyze logfile created by SoftGrid Client.

Current tools:

  • logloader - tool to convert logfile to xml-format for further processing (application launch/shutdown events)
  • logxml2csv - tool to convert xml-formatted file to csv-file for easy viewing and processing in for example Microsoft Excel

    LogTools are meant for doing a more use of the data provided by SoftGrid client than is usually possible with just plainly looking through the logfile. This includes such possibilities as identifying individual workstations from which applications are launched, plotting average launching times on client (and finding inconsistencies) or other similiar things that are not currently achieved with normal SoftGrid built-in reporting. Also one thing that reporting is not so good at is offline-clients (laptops) so I figured out that some alternative means were needed for us control-freaks.

    Currently these tools include ability to convert raw-logfile to xml-format for easy further processing and tool to convert data from that xml-file to csv-file for human viewing and processing. Especially spreadsheet features such as Quick Filtering in Excel makes it very easy to spot unusual things from mass of launch-data.

    Tool for converting SoftGrid Client's logfile to xml-file (logloader) includes following capabilities:

  • Converting logfile from local host
  • Converting logfile from remote host
  • Converting logfiles from multiple remote hosts using listfile containing hosts as input (great for e.g. scheduled centralized data collection)
  • Writing output to arbitrary path+file (great for running tool periodically from each target machine using system management tool [SMS,WISDOM etc.] and writing results to central share or such)

    Planned improvements are:

  • inclusion of data about launch errors (or other client errors) to xml-output file
  • tool(s) to analyze those errors and/or application usage
  • tool to combine multiple xml-output files to one bigger one for processing
  • .NET Framework 1.1 based build of the tools

    Note: you need to set SoftGrid Client's loglevel to be at least Information (LogMinSeverity = 4) to have anything about launch-events logged!

    This tool is provided as freeware and as-is with no warranty. All rights reserved.

    Requirements

  • Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (Redistributable Package)
  • Minimum log-level for SoftGrid Client(s) set to 4 - Information

    Download

    Download latest release:

  • Client LogTools, version 1.0 - As ZIP package

    Installation

    Install LogTools to the machine by extracting program binaries and settings file to desired directory.

    Usage - logloader

    Usage is very straightforward; when running without parameters, local machine's logfile is analyzed and output file of default name is created. Additional commands are available through command-line parameters; use /? -parameter to see those with short explanation.

    Usage - logxml2csv

    Usage is very straightforward; when running without parameters, file named log.xml is opened if it exists and file called log.csv is created based on that. Additional commands for specifying input and output files are available through command-line parameters; use /? -parameter to see those with short explanation.

    Examples (logloader):

    logloader

    logloader -out \\server\share$\clientABC.xml

    logloader -host wks001

    logloader -listfile hoststoscan.list

    Examples (logxml2csv):

    logxml2csv

    logloader

    logloader -xmlfile clientABC.xml -out clientABC.csv

    © 2006 Kalle Saunamäki (kalle.saunamaki@cdgeurope.fi); all comments, suggestions and feedback in general is greatly appreciated.

    Back