Duet Log Viewer Tool
Log Viewer Overview
If you have been working with Duet you have probably seen the Duet support resources request the client log files to analyze the client activity. You too can look at these log files with the help of the Duet Log viewer utility. The Duet client logs activity to local log files, with the use of the Duet client log viewer tool you can leverage these logs to gain insight to potential issues.
The tool is available for download from the Microsoft Duet Community site. This utility provides a convenient method for reviewing the Duet log files on the client system. The following sections will point out some of the basic features of the tool which you can use to investigate issues. This tool is only intended for use by skilled administrators who have the need to gain insight into actions and/or issues or just want to find out if everything is working fine on the Duet client computer.
Log Viewer Download from Duet Community
Installing and Using the Log Viewer
After you download the tool from the link above you simply need to extract the contents to the local computer. You do not install the tool, simply run the “LogViewer.exe” file to start the tool. You can use the tool on your own computer or temporarily copy and run the tool on the Duet client computer. The Log Viewer must to have access to the log files, ideally it is used on the Duet client computer to ease access to log files, but we can gather the files and review the files centrally as well. The following figure shows the initial view of the log viewer after it has been started
Log Files
Several log files are created by the Duet client and the log viewer directs you towards the key log files from the “Open Log” menu option. Log files are stored in the user temp directory on the client machine. The following outlines the key log files and use:
|
Name |
Log File Name |
Use |
|
System Tray |
Microsoft.OBA.SystemTray.Duet.log |
Records deployment activities, sweeper actions, & synch activity |
|
Outlook |
OUTLOOK.Duet.log |
Records Duet item processing in Outlook including processing of control messages |
|
Word |
NA |
NA |
|
Excel |
Excel.Duet.log |
Records Duet item processing in Excel – i.e. demand planning |
|
InfoPath |
InfoPath.Duet.log |
Records Duet item processing in InfoPath – i.e. budget monitoring |
|
Client Repair |
Microsoft.OBA.Tools.ClientRepair.Duet.log |
Records activities carried out with client repair tool, such as during a client repair to remove cache |
You can readily open local log files from the log viewer menu or open files copied from remote computers using the “Open Log” option in the log viewer utility.
Duet Log File Control
The size and level of logs collected on the client is controlled by the Duet group policy object for Duet Logging Settings. Maintain this group policy object to influence the level of detail being logged. You should only use the verbose logging option for test systems and when researching issues as it could have impacts on performance. The default log level is Information. When a log file reaches the defined size limit the existing file is deleted and a new file is started. See the Microsoft Admin guide section on Group Policy Settings for additional details.
Duet Log Examples
The following example shows an example System Tray log for a typical user for initial deployment.
The sequence of events are traced for the initial deployment , each step can be opened to see the details of the step. This can be a very useful set of information to determine the cause of a failure during deployment by filtering to view errors and warnings. The details of the message can lead to the root of the problem, such as missing master data.
After deployment is complete the tool can be used to look at the application log, such as the Outlook log and also combine the logs together to easy determine if items have been synchronized with SAP.
This tool is often the starting point for identifying issues when beginning research from the client machine. You will still require access to Duet server logs, SAP systems, Web Service tests, etc. to complete the research of issues. This tool provides a convenient method to review the client logs and enables you an efficient way to see issues on the client machine.
