Search the log

1 The search filters

The filters are in the left menu. Set the ones you need, then click Search. Unlike other interfaces in SoftwareCentral, the log does not support autosuggest.

The Log filter panel with the controls numbered 1 to 9: Search, From, To, Severity set to All, User, Show debug log, Search, Clear Search and Export Log. — The filter panel on the **Log** page. The numbers match the table below. Click **Search** (7) to start.

No.	Filter	What it does
1	Search	Finds the log entries whose message contains this text. This can be helpful if you look for a specific program. The search reads the message only, so a computer is found only when its name is in the message.
2	From	The date and time from which to include log entries. It is set to one day before now. This is necessary to avoid loading millions of records. If your search does not return anything, set the From date further back in time.
3	To	The latest date and time to include. It is set to one hour after now. This can be helpful if you look for an event that you know happened in a given time period.
4	Severity	The importance of the entries to show. All shows every entry. Succeses, Warnings and Errors shows success entries and anything more serious. Warnings and Errors shows warnings and errors. Errors only shows critical errors. This can be helpful to find warnings and errors.
5	User	Filters the General log to one user. Start typing a name to narrow the list. The filter applies on the General log tab only. On the Personal Log tab the box is set to your own user name and cannot be changed.
6	Show debug log	Adds the debug entries to the result. They are left out by default. This is helpful if you need to report a bug to the SoftwareCentral team. The check box appears only for users who can see the General log tab.
7	Search	Starts the search with the filters above.
8	Clear Search	Clears all search filters. The page reloads with the default filters.
9	Export Log	Exports the log to a CSV file. This is helpful if you need to report a bug to the SoftwareCentral team. See Export the log.

Event Log tab On the Event Log tab only Search, From and To apply. Severity, User and Show debug log are ignored. The tab shows the entries from the Application event log on the server that were written by ASP.NET.

2 Start the search

Click Search (7). The matching entries appear in the grid, newest first.

A search loads at most 10,000 entries. If there are more, the log shows the message The latest 10.000 log entries were loaded. Please specify the search to load older log entries. Narrow the From and To dates, or choose a higher severity, to see the older entries.

To remove the filters and start again, click Clear Search (8).

3 Export the log

Click Export Log (9) to save the result as a CSV file.

The file is named SoftwareCentral_Log_ followed by the date and time of the export. The export contains the entries of the search, not only the page you see, and every column, including the columns that are hidden in the grid.

Personal data The export contains user names, computer names and messages. Treat the file as personal data.

4 Best practice

Start with a short time window. A narrow From and To range finds the entry faster and keeps the result below the 10,000 entry limit.
Use a severity to find problems. Warnings and Errors or Errors only hides the routine entries.
Leave Show debug log off unless the SoftwareCentral team asks for it. Debug entries are many, and they are hidden by default.
Export before the log is cleaned up. Entries older than the retention period are removed. See Log.

5 Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	What to do
Log searches does not return anything.	By default the From date is one day in the past. Entries older than that are not searched.	Set the From date further back, then click Search (7).
"No log entries match your criteria. Try to adjust your search with a longer timespan."	No entry matches all the filters together.	Widen the From and To dates, set Severity to All, and check the text in Search. The text is matched against the message only.
"The latest 10.000 log entries were loaded. Please specify the search to load older log entries."	The search matches more than 10,000 entries, so only the latest are loaded.	Narrow the From and To dates, or choose a higher severity.
"Failed to export the log."	The export failed. The error is written to the log.	Try a narrower search and export again. If it keeps failing, send the error entry to SoftwareCentral support.