Joe Strazzere - All Things Quality - A New Tool in My Tester's Tool Box

Joe Strazzere - All Things Quality

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February 17, 2008 - A New Tool in My Tester's Tool Box - LogParser

Posted in Tools

While is was originally designed for parsing web server log files, I've been experimenting with using LogParser to query some large XML files.

It gives us a nice way to assess the contents of these XML files, in a fairly easy, flexible, and fast manner.

From the web sites:

Log parser is a powerful, versatile tool that provides universal query access to text-based data such as log files, XML files and CSV files, as well as key data sources on the Windows® operating system such as the Event Log, the Registry, the file system, and Active Directory®.

You tell Log Parser what information you need and how you want it processed. The results of your query can be custom-formatted in text based output, or they can be persisted to more specialty targets like SQL, SYSLOG, or a chart.

The world is your database with Log Parser.

Most software is designed to accomplish a limited number of specific tasks. Log Parser is different... the number of ways it can be used is limited only by the needs and imagination of the user.

One of the most valuable and popular tools available for Microsoft customers, Log Parser 2.2 is the swiss-Army knife for valuable server information. The first place to start in troubleshooting IIS (and Windows) failures is to review and analyze the log files for failures and unusual behavior and Log Parser 2.2 makes this process painless. Using typical T-Sql syntax familiar to many administrators, Log Parser 2.2 will quickly rip through log files and return any matching criteria in a multitude of output formats. Beyond supporting simple commands, Log Parser 2.2 includes support for functions to allow mathematical anlaysis before outputting the data. It also offers a easy-to-use conversion process to move data from one log type to another for analysis in enterprise monitoring software and much, much more.

The input types supported by Log Parser 2.2 include all IIS log types, event viewer, network trace output files, and much more. For output, Log Parser will use the default screen output but also supports creation of simple to use charts and graphs (requires Microsoft Office) as well as native support for log storage in SQL Server.

Log Parser 2.2 is available as a stand-alone executable (LogParser.exe) and a COM interface (logparser.dll) and both are available in the Log Parser installation.

It seems to be a rather flexible tool that should come in handy for a number of projects.

You can download a copy at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=890cd06b-abf8-4c25-91b2-f8d975cf8c07&displaylang=en

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