CRM 2011 On Premise – Tracing

Issue: no tracing logs or logs at the wrong/default location.

I was looking at some point for the tracing logs, and I could not find anything on the system. First off, the default location for tracing logs is at

C:\crmdrop\logs

but hey, that folder does not exist.

You can use PowerShell to enable tracing, as described in the following MSDN KB article:

How to enable tracing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

basically, I’ll save you the read, it boils down to the following commands:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Crm.PowerShell

Get-CrmSetting TraceSettings

This will give you the status. If the results shows Enabled:False go ahead and execute:

$setting = Get-CrmSetting TraceSettings

$setting.Enabled=”True”

Set-CrmSetting $setting

Get-CrmSetting TraceSettings

The result should show now Enabled:True

But now, why use the default directory? You might want to shoot the logs on a different drive. And also, make sure the path exists, as just enabling tracing will not actually create the path for you. Where is this path defined, anyway?

You have to fire up regedit (with the proper disclaimer that any changes you make here could potentially render your server unusable, and you might have to reinstall windows, etc…).

The setting is in:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM]

you will find there “TraceDirectory” defined with the default value. If you decide to change that, make sure that the path exists, and that the Workflow service account has permissions to this location.

Oh, and by the way, turn off tracing when not needed, as it has an impact on performance.

Enjoy!