Collect custom logs

You can use Milestone Diagnostics Tool to collect logs and additional site information for all VMS components from a single place. You can choose what information to extract, depending on your specific need.

If you want to collect a predefined set of logs, see Collect default logs.

From the Collect logs menu, you can collect:

• Logs from all VMS components

• Site analysis report

• Windows event logs

• Product Minidumps (process captures generated by the VMS components)

• Process dumps (Windows process captures)

• SQL Server data

Milestone Diagnostics Tool saves the report into a ZIP file.

You can include additional files in the report file such as screenshots, topology diagrams and more.

You can:

• Collect logs

• Collect logs using command line arguments

Collect logs

You can use the user interface to create and export logs. If you want to use the Command prompt instead, see Collect logs using command line arguments.

1. On a relevant server that is connected to an XProtect server, for example the management server, open the Diagnostics Tool.exe from the relevant file location.

2. From the main screen of Milestone Diagnostics Tool, select Logs & Diagnostics. Then, select Collect logs to start the wizard.

3. Enter your Case Number (example: MSCxxxxxx).

4. Select the Save to location.

5. (Optional) Check the Collect site analysis box to include a diagnostics report.

6. Select the time range for the logs. You can choose between one day, one week, two weeks, one month or custom.

7. (Optional) If you want to include Product Minidumps, select this check box.

8. (Optional) If you want to include Windows Event logs, select one or more of the check boxes under Event Viewer. You can choose to include logs from the following areas:

   • Application - shows events logged by the software installed on your computer

   • Security - contains events related to the security of your computer

   • Setup - refers to domain control events

   • System - collects events logged by the operating system

   • All Files - includes Application, Security, Setup and System logs

9. (Optional) If you want to include Process dumps, select the Process dump type and Processes name.

   Some process dumps types can take a lot of memory and slow the report generating process. Use this feature only if the technical support representative has instructed you so.

10. Select if you want to backup a SQL Server database:

    • SQL data not included

    • Full SQL database backup. You can optionally select to include the log server backup.

    • SQL table export. You can select different tables from different databases and schemes. After selecting the database and the schema, you can check the boxes of the tables that you want to include. Once you are done with a database, you can switch to another one. The previous selection will be saved.

11. (Optional) If you want to add additional files, such as screenshots, topology diagrams or other, click Browse in the Additional files field.

12. Click Collect. Milestone Diagnostics Tool starts preparing the files.

13. A message informs you when the process is completed. The report is saved as a ZIP file on your desktop. You can close the window by selecting OK.

Collect logs using command line arguments

The Milestone Diagnostics Tool also supports command line arguments.

To create logs using command line arguments:

1. Open Windows Command Prompt. The easiest way to do this is to click on Windows Start menu and type cmd.

2. Navigate to the Milestone Diagnostics Tool directory and press Enter. Example:

   cd "C:\Program Files\Milestone\XProtect Management Server\Tools\DiagnosticsTool"

3. Type "Diagnostics Tool.exe" to open the program.

4. Add the commands and associated arguments for the types of logs. You can use some or all commands to generate a report. To find an overview of available commands and arguments, see Milestone Diagnostics Tool commands (explained).

   The example below will collect logs from the past four weeks, minidumps, Event Viewer logs from Application, Security, Setup and System, and a copy of the Surveillance database.

   C:\Program Files\Milestone\XProtect Management Server\Tools\DiagnosticsTool>"Diagnostics Tool.exe" /logs:4w /includeminidumps:yes /eventviewer:all /db:yes

5. Press Enter to run the program with the selected parameters. A message is displayed when the file is ready. The logs are saved as a ZIP file on your desktop.

Milestone Diagnostics Tool commands (explained)

Milestone Diagnostics Tool supports the following Command Prompt commands:

Command	Description	Arguments
/logs	Collects logs for a specified time period (in days, weeks or months).	1d, 1w, 1m
/includeminidumps	Collects process minidumps.	true, false
/eventviewer	Collects Windows Event Viewer logs. Select the Event Viewer logs, separated by commas with no spaces or choose all to include all logs.	application, security, setup, system, all
/db	Collects a copy of the Surveillance database.	yes, no
/includelist	Specifies the path to a plain text document containing file or folder paths that should be included in the collection.	location of the TXT file
/?	Displays the Milestone Diagnostics Tool command line help in a pop-up window.	none