Skype for Business, previously called Lync, caches files locally on a PC or Mac to pull information quickly and efficiently. However, sometimes this information can get corrupted, and there are times where it is necessary or helpful to delete those files and force Skype for Business to get a new set from the server. Sep 18, 2016 Skype downloads folder, where is it? September 18, 2016 Dimitris Tonias Software Someone sent you a file on Skype (eg. Photo, video,.mp3, etc.) right now and you’re already looking where they are saved.
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Summary: Learn about the service components and configuration settings for the Centralized Logging Service in Skype for Business Server 2015.
The Centralized Logging Service can:
The Centralized Logging Service is a powerful troubleshooting tool for problems large or small, from root cause analysis to performance problems. All examples are shown using the Skype for Business Server Management Shell. Help is provided for the command-line tool through the tool itself, but there is a limited set of functions that you can execute from the command line. By using Skype for Business Server Management Shell, you have access to a much larger and much more configurable set of features, so that should always be your first choice.
Logging service components
The Centralized Logging Service runs on all servers in your deployment, and is made up of the following agents and services:
ClsController communications to ClsAgent
You issue commands using the Windows Server command-line interface or using the Skype for Business Server Management Shell. The commands are executed on the computer you are logged in to and sent to the ClsAgent locally or to the other computers and pools in your deployment.
ClsAgent maintains an index file of all .CACHE files that it has on the local machine. ClsAgent allocates them so that they are evenly distributed across volumes defined by the option CacheFileLocalFolders, never consuming more than 80% of each volume (that is, the local cache location and the percentage is configurable using the Set-CsClsConfiguration cmdlet). ClsAgent is also responsible for aging old cached event trace log (.etl) files off the local machine. After two weeks (that is, the timeframe is configurable using the Set-CsClsConfiguration cmdlet) these files are copied to a file share and deleted from the local computer. For details, see Set-CsClsConfiguration. When a search request is received, the search criteria is used to select the set of cached .etl files to perform the search based on the values in the index maintained by the agent.
Note
Files that are moved to the file share from the local computer can be searched by ClsAgent. Once ClsAgent moves the files to the file share, the aging and removal of files is not maintained by ClsAgent. You should define an administrative task to monitor the size of the files in the file share and delete them or archive them.
The resulting log files can be read and analyzed using a variety of tools, including Snooper.exe and any tool that can read a text file, such as Notepad.exe. Snooper.exe is part of the Skype for Business Server 2015 Debug Tools and is available as a Web download.
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Like OCSLogger, the Centralized Logging Service has several components to trace against, and provides options to select flags, such as TF_COMPONENT and TF_DIAG. Centralized Logging Service also retains the logging level options of OCSLogger.
The most important advantage to using the Skype for Business Server Management Shell over the command-line ClsController is that you can configure and define new scenarios using selected providers that target the problem space, custom flags, and logging levels. The scenarios available to ClsController are limited to those that are defined for the executable.
In previous versions, OCSLogger.exe was provided to enable administrators and support personnel to collect trace files from computers in the deployment. OCSLogger, for all of its strengths, had a shortcoming. You could only collect logs on one computer at a given time. You could log on to multiple computers by using separate copies of OCSLogger, but you ended up with multiple logs and no easy way to aggregate the results.
When a user requests a log search, the ClsController determines which machines to send the request to (that is, based on the scenarios selected). It also determines whether the search needs to be sent to the file share where the saved .etl files are located. When the search results are returned to the ClsController, the controller merges the results into a single time-ordered result set that is presented to the user. Users can save the search results to their local machine for further analysis.
When you start a logging session, you specify scenarios that are relative to the problem that you are trying to resolve. You can have two scenarios running at any time. One of these two scenarios should be the AlwaysOn scenario. As the name implies, it should always be running in your deployment, collecting information on all computers, pools, and components.
Important
By default, the AlwaysOn scenario is not running in your deployment. You must explicitly start the scenario. Once started, it will continue to run until explicitly stopped, and the running state will persist through reboots of the computers. For details on starting and stopping scenarios, see Start or stop CLS log capture in Skype for Business Server 2015.
When a problem occurs, start a second scenario that relates to the problem reported. Reproduce the problem, and stop the logging for the second scenario. Begin your log searches relative to the problem reported. The aggregated collection of logs produces a log file that contains trace messages from all computers in your site or global scope of your deployment. If the search returns more data than you can feasibly analyze (typically known as a signal-to-noise ratio, where the noise is too high), you run another search with narrower parameters. At this point, you can begin to notice patterns that show up and can help you get a clearer focus on the problem. Ultimately, after you perform a couple of refined searches you can find data that is relevant to the problem and figure out the root cause.
Tip
When presented with a problem scenario in Skype for Business Server, start by asking yourself 'What do I already know about the problem?' If you quantify the problem boundaries, you can eliminate a large part of the operational entities in Skype for Business Server.
Consider an example scenario where you know that users are not getting current results when looking for a contact. There is no point in looking for problems in the media components, Enterprise Voice, conferencing, and a number of other components. What you may not know is where the problem actually is: on the client, or is this a server-side problem? Contacts are collected from Active Directory by the User Replicator and delivered to the client by way of the Address Book Server (ABServer). The ABServer gets its updates from the RTC database (where User Replicator wrote them) and collects them into address book files, by default - 1:30 AM. The Skype for Business Server clients retrieve the new address book on a randomized schedule. Because you know how the process works, you can reduce your search for the potential cause to an issue related to data being collected from Active Directory by the User Replicator, the ABServer not retrieving and creating the address book files, or the clients not downloading the address book file.
Current configuration
The Centralized Logging Service is configured to define what the logging service is intended to collect, how it collects, where it will collect from, and what the log settings are. You define these settings globally (that is, for the entire deployment) or for a site (that is, a named site in your deployment). Any logging that you define will use the settings that are appropriate for the identity that you use for commands to start, stop, flush, and search logs.
To display the current Centralized Logging Service configuration
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