Log4Net not writing to SQL Table

Question

Can someone off a 2nd set of eyes? I am clearly missing something.

I'm using Log4Net in a Web API app. Whenever I invoke a Log.Error() it executes, but nothing actually gets written to my dbo.Log table. I am running a local database. When I replaced the configuration with one that wrote to a file, the code worked perfectly.

Here is what my configuration and code looks like.

The Log4Net.config file contains the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net" />
  </configSections>

  <log4net>
    <appender name="AdoNetAppender" type="log4net.Appender.AdoNetAppender">
      <bufferSize value="100" />
      <connectionType value="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection, System.Data, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
      <connectionString value="Data Source=MUD-DAD\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=FitAchiever;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=sa;Password=asdadf334"/>
      <commandText value="INSERT INTO dbo.Log ([Date],[Thread],[Level],[Logger],[Message],[Exception]) VALUES (@log_date, @thread, @log_level, @logger, @message, @exception)" />
      <parameter>
        <parameterName value="@log_date" />
        <dbType value="DateTime" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.RawTimeStampLayout" />
      </parameter>
      <parameter>
        <parameterName value="@thread" />
        <dbType value="String" />
        <size value="255" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
          <conversionPattern value="%thread" />
        </layout>
      </parameter>
      <parameter>
        <parameterName value="@log_level" />
        <dbType value="String" />
        <size value="50" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
          <conversionPattern value="%level" />
        </layout>
      </parameter>
      <parameter>
        <parameterName value="@logger" />
        <dbType value="String" />
        <size value="255" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
          <conversionPattern value="%logger" />
        </layout>
      </parameter>
      <parameter>
        <parameterName value="@message" />
        <dbType value="String" />
        <size value="4000" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
          <conversionPattern value="%message" />
        </layout>
      </parameter>
      <parameter>
        <parameterName value="@exception" />
        <dbType value="String" />
        <size value="2000" />
        <layout type="log4net.Layout.ExceptionLayout" />
      </parameter>
    </appender>

    <root>
      <level value="DEBUG"/>
      <appender-ref ref="AdoNetAppender"/>
    </root>
  </log4net>
</configuration>

The Global.asax.cs file contains the following, note the call to the Log4Net.Config() method which specifies which config to use.

    public class WebApiApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
    private static readonly log4net.ILog Log = log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(WebApiApplication));
    protected void Application_Start()
    {

        log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator.Configure(new System.IO.FileInfo(Server.MapPath("Log4Net.config")));

        AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
        GlobalConfiguration.Configure(WebApiConfig.Register);
        FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
        RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
        BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
    }
}

}

The initialization of the logger in my Controller is:

   public class FitDashboardController : ApiController
{
    private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

    IFitDashboardService fitDashboardService = new FitDashboardService();

...

And the call is:

            catch (System.Exception ex)
        {
            log.Error("Error:" + MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().Name + " :: " + ex.Message);

        }

Again, the code works when writing to a file, but not the database. Any ideas?

Answer 1

This question has been answered here. The problem is your <bufferSize> tag, which according to the linked answer...

<bufferSize value="100" />

It is saying that it will keep 100 logs in memory until written into DB. Maybe that's why you don't see anything in DB?

Change your code to say <bufferSize value="1" /> and this should cause log4net to write to your database after keeping 1 log in memory. See Apache's documentation on buffersize for more details.