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BriefCam Installation Guide

Log Collector Tool

Last Updated: 2 minute read
Version2025r1
LanguageEnglish

The Log Collector is a tool for collecting relevant logs from a BriefCam deployed system. Once you run the tool, you’ll have a compressed file for each machine in an output directory.

Logs related to the following are collected:

  • BriefCam services

  • IIS

  • db-config

  • db-tool

The Log Collector tool (collect-logs) can be found at: {BriefCam Server installation folder}\tools\log_collector_tool.

To run the tool from an all-in-one machine:

  1. Extract the collect-logs.zip file.

  2. Open PowerShell as administrator.

  3. Run the utility from within the directory where you extracted the tool.

To run the tool from a remote machine:

  1. Extract the collect-logs.zip file.

  2. Update the config.json file with your hosts and credentials.

  3. Enable and allow WINRM and ICMP in the firewall administrator-level credentials of the remote machines.

  4. On every machine, enable the running of PowerShell remote-signed scripts. For additional information, see High Security Environment with Customized Policy Settings.

  5. Open PowerShell as administrator.

  6. Run the utility from within the directory where you extracted the tool. 

The following are the parameters that can be used:

Parameter 

Type 

Description 

Required/Optional 

Comment 

-config

string

path to configuration file

required when running from a remote machine

default: './config.json'

-start

string

start date

optional

Format: 'yyyy-MM-dd'. If omitted, no start date is assumed.

-end

string

end date

optional

Format: 'yyyy-MM-dd'. If omitted, today's date is assumed (inclusive).

-local

flag

required in case of local collection only

-o

string

compressed archived output directory

optional

default: current working directory. If the given path does not exist, it will be created.

Here are a number of examples:

For local collection:  

PS> ./collect-logs.ps1 -local -start 2021-08-01 -end 2021-10-23 

For remote collection: 

PS> ./collect-logs.ps1 -config "./config.json" -start 2022-01-01 -o "c:\path\to\keep\logs" 

There are a number of log files available for troubleshooting the Log Collector:

  • c:/windows/temp/_collect.log – on every remote collected machine

  • <UTILITY-DIRECTORY>/_collect.log – when running the tool locally

  • <UTILITY-DIRECTORY>/deploy.log, <UTILITY-DIRECTORY>/deploy-trace.log – on the machine the utility runs from