How To Generate Cluster Log In SQL Server

What is SQL Server Cluster log? How can it be generated? Many of the users are unaware of it. Here, let us have a discussion regarding it. In this informative page you will come to know about cluster logs in SQL Server and how it is been created. The session starts with a small introduction to Cluster Log.

Cluster Log

Cluster log stores the entire information of the cluster that includes SQL nodes, storage details as well as management. Apart from these, it also contains information about statistics, startup, errors etc. So, it is clear that information contained in this file is more important and these log files are situated in the data directory of the Server.
While troubleshooting the problems occurred in the cluster, data in the cluster.log file is important. To know about the problems in cluster, it is better to check out the details by creating a cluster log file. Then, the query that arises will be how to create cluster.log file.

Steps To Generate Cluster Log Files

One point to be noted while generating the cluster log file is that, the command for creating the log file is different since it depends on the operating systems. When you check out on different servers, you will get to know that, in Server 2003 the log files were generated automatically. However, from the later versions it has to be created separately. It is created with the help or support of cluster.exe command.

• From the nodes of cluster, open Command Prompt. Right click it and Run As Administrator.
• Type the command cluster log/g, where ‘g’ stands for ‘Generate’.
• cluster.log file will get generated and you can see it in C:\Windows\Cluster\Report

One of the advantage of cluster log method is, users can specify the level in the generated file by /level option. The adverse effect is that, cannot mention the destination directory for the files. Another way to generate is to use PowerShell, command is; Get-ClusterLog. In this methods the merits and demerits is just the opposite of the previously mentioned method. In this PowerShell method, users cannot mention the level but, can create log file from all the nodes and store in one directory.
Let us see some other commands related to the generation of cluster.log files.
/Copy:< directory >
This command is used for copying the logs generated to single destination. This makes collection of logs much easier. Suppose, if you want to save the files at c:\archive\logs then, you need to type command as, c:\archive and then only you can execute the command ‘cluster log /g /copy:logs’.
/Span:< minutes >
It is to mention the minutes to go back for log collection. If you do not use this, you will get the history of several days. This helps to limit the contents of log and only includes the last few.
/Node:< node name >
It enables the stipulation of specific node. When this is done, logs for other nodes will not be created. If the option is not mentioned, all the nodes in cluster will have cluster.log file.
/Level:<0-5>
This is used to change the logging level and in Server 2008, the default level is 3. If the level is changed, more information will get logged, but there will be some effect on the performance of the system. If it is less than 3, less information will be present. Though in Server 2008, you can set the level from 0 to 10, the maximum is 5.
If you have come across with the situation to generate cluster.log files, hope this session will be helpful.





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