MSP: Logging available in the MSP new driver

Products

• Clarity PPM SaaS
• Clarity PPM On Premise

Issue/Introduction

What are the various types of logging available in the Microsoft Project (MSP) New Driver?

Resolution

Table of Contents

• How to enable Debugging
• Log types
  • mspxml_http.log
  • mspxml_general.log
  • mspxml_timing.log
  • xml for the file being exported from Clarity

There is enhanced logging available in the MSP New Driver, some additional configuration may need to be setup to use the various logs fully in troubleshooting. Some of the information in the logs may be more complex and may need to be sent to Broadcom Support to review to analyze root cause of issues. 

Location: The logs and logger.properties file are found in the Documents\logs folder on the workstation. 

How to enable Debugging

For troubleshooting, make the below changes to the logger.properties file found in the logs folder. To edit the logger.properties file, open the file in a text editor such as Notepad or Microsoft Word. By default, each of the options should be set to 'error'.

• http=warning
• general=debug
• xml=debug
• timing=error
• archive=error (Note, this option is not yet available, this can be left to the default)

Log types

The different types of logs currently available are:

mspxml_http.log

• http field in the logger.properties generates this log

• Shows messages regarding mapped fields, and data mismatches

mspxml_general.log

• general field in the logger.properties file generates this log

• Shows server communication messages and errors

• Will also log any data discrepancies (set to debug in logger.properties to get this)

• This will also show assertion failures and errors encountered with the client driver

• This can also help point to any mapping issues. mspxml_general.log will include: Assertion fails in ..\caMsputil\MSPAttributeEnum.cpp.

mspxml_timing.log

• Timing field in the logger generates this log

• This will generate timings on the export and import including number of objects and the timing of the write and open of the xml. (Some items included for the project are:

  • # of Baselines

  • # of Assignments

  • # of Tasks.
    
    If there are none of the object type available for the project, the object won't show up in the timing log.  (Example, if there are no Baselines, than Baselines won't show up as a line item in the timing log for that project.)

• If you need Broadcom Support's assistance in troubleshooting performance issues,  be sure to include this file as well as the mpp and xml for the project if available.

xml for the file being exported from Clarity

Found in the default MSP Save directory, typically the \Documents folder on the workstation.

• Set general (not xml) to debug in the logger.properties file to keep the .xml file in the MSP save directory from being removed. This is good to use for troubleshooting, but can also take up a lot of space, so make sure to set general back to error when not in use for troubleshooting.
• XML is used to review the data being exported from Clarity for use in troubleshooting. Example, if you are facing a data issue, and the data is correct in the XML, but when you open the XML in MSP, the data is incorrect, this can indicate the issue most likely is a MSP issue versus Clarity (though not always).