log4net-appender-azurefilestorage

Log4net appender to write log entries to Azure Cloud File Storage.

Usage

First, make sure you're familiar with log4net and how to configure it. There is a great tutorial by Tim Corey that'll get you up to speed.

To use the Azure cloud file storage appender, simply follow these steps:

1. Add a reference to log4net.Appender.AzureFileStorage.dll nuget package.

2. Setup your config file to configure log4net and the appender.

   Here's an example:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
   <configuration>
     <configSections>
       <section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net"/>
     </configSections>
     <log4net>
       <appender name="AzureFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.AzureFileStorage.AzureFileAppender, log4net.Appender.AzureFileStorage">
         <AzureStorageConnectionString value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=mystorageaccountname;AccountKey=secretkeyxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx==" />
         <ShareName value="mylogs" />
         <Path value="thisapp" />
         <File value="log_{yyyy-MM-dd}.txt" />
         <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
           <ConversionPattern value="%date %-5level %logger %message%newline"/>
         </layout>
       </appender>
       <root>
         <level value="ALL" />
         <appender-ref ref="AzureFileAppender"/>
       </root>
     </log4net>
   </configuration>

3. Add the line that hooks up your assembly with log4net to the top of one of your classes outside of a namespace:

   [assembly: log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator(Watch = true)]
   

4. Add a line that sets up the logger inside each class you want to perform logging in:

   private static readonly log4net.ILog log = log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);
   

5. Pepper your code with log writing statements, such as:

   log.Fatal("A fatal log entry.");
   log.Error("An error log entry.");
   log.Warn("A warning log entry.");
   log.Info("An informational log entry.");
   log.Debug("A debug log entry.");

Specifics

Configuration parameters for the Azure cloud file appender are as follows:

• AzureStorageConnectionString set this to the connection string from your Azure account for the storage you want to use.

• ShareName set this to the name of the share to create within the storage account.

• Path set this to the path within the share.

• File set this to the log filename. You can embed a date within this parameter by specifying curly braces.

  For example, setting the File parameter to log_{yyyy-MM-dd}.txt

  Will generate files like this:

  • log_2016-05-19.txt
  • log_2016-05-20.txt