AppDNA has a few different logging mechanisms for its various operations and subsystems. This article provides instructions on how to activate them, or where the log files are stored and what insights they can provide.  It will allow users to more easily gather the information required to troubleshoot issues.

Types of Logs

AppDNA has separate mechanisms for creating and managing the following types of logs:

• Verbose logs
  • On the client
  • On the server
• QueueProcessor Verbose logs
• Event logs
• Application Import logs
• Other miscellaneous logs

The table serves as a handy summary of the above in terms of what you can expect to get from a log file, where to find it and how to turn it on. For details on each term, refer to their brief definitions below the table.

Verbose Logs

This is the main logging mechanism which both the AppDNA WebServer process and the client process use to record trace information and diagnostics on the internal processing of the application.

Toggling on and off of the verbose logging is controlled by a registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\AppDNA\appTitude\Common\VerboseLogging.

Set the value of this key to 1 to enable verbose logging and 0 to disable it. Note also that running the AppDNA installer (i.e. on an upgrade) will reset the value to 0.

Setting this key will cause AppDNA to create a text file named AppDNAVerboseLog.log into which, trace information and error messages will be recorded. The location of the file will be the standard temporary directory for the account running the process. This means that the location is different for the server processes and the client application.

On the Server

When the IIS application pool (AppDNAAppPool) is running with the default configured account (ApplicationPoolIdentity) this will be the same as the default window temp directory: C:\Windows\Temp. However; if the AppDNAAppPool has been given a different account to run under, the log will be in the default temp directory for that user: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp

On the Client

The AppDNA client will log to a file in the temporary directory of the user running the application: %temp% or C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp.

Configuration Wizard

The AppDNA Configuration wizard follows the same rules as the AppDNA client.

QueueProcessor Logs

The Citrix AppDNA Service (AKA the Queue Processor) controls the serialisation on the WebServer of operations that can be started by more than one client, but which cannot run at the same time on the Server. For example, application imports and analysis runs. It does its own logging which is separate and distinct from the verbose logs discussed above, but is controlled by a similar registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\AppDNA\appTitude\Common\QueueProcssorVerboseLogging. Again setting the value to 1 will enable logging and 0 will disable it. This key is not created by default and you may need to manually add it if it does not already exist.

Diagnostic and trace information from the Queue Processor are not logged to a file but are sent to the windows event log Application And Service logs > AppDNA (AppDNA Service)

Event Logs

In addition to the verbose logging, the WebServer and the configuration wizard will also write error and some information messages to the Windows event log Application And Service logs > AppDNA with the sources AppDNA Service and AppDNA Configuration Wizard respectively.

It is also possible to send the same level of detail as the Verbose logs to the Windows event log from the server by adjusting settings in the web.config file

• Browse to the directory where the AppDNA Web server is installed (C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\AppDNA\Server)
• Locate and open the Web.config file in your favourite text or xml editing program
• Locate the Section named <appSettings> in the file and add a new setting to the end. <add key="MaxEventLogType" value="Information" />. Possible values for this key are: Error, Warning & Information.

Application Import Logs

When unpacking an application installer to assess the DNA, AppDNA will log the results of the file analysis and upload to the server in a log file under %Temp%\AppDNA_output.

During the import these logs are available to view from the import screen by clicking on the ‘log’ icon, or by navigating to the directory itself.

In this directory, each file will be named with the following format <date>__i<Item # in import List>__<installer name>.txt. There is also another file named results_<date>__<import Session Id>.log that gives details of the results of uploading the DNA to the server.

During the extraction of the DNA from the installer, AppDNA also temporarily stores 2 files containing the DNA payload in this folder. Ordinarily these files are removed once the upload is complete but if necessary, you can preserve them by selecting Edit -> Settings from the main menu, selecting Import and Analyze and checking the Preserve log files box.

Other miscellaneous Logs

There are also some other miscellaneous processes that produce various type of logs which might be of interest. The place where these are stored can be configured for each individual user and is modifiable through the main menu Edit -> Settings -> Files -> log file location.

A few examples of the processes which will store their log files here are:

• Self provisioning
• Web Capture
• Application profiling
• Application Stub Imports