C#•2y ago

❔ Serilog file sink from multiple servers has interleaved messages

I have a web app deployed across 10 web servers. They are all configured as such (note, the path below is a shared network path. So they are all pointing to the same log file):

  "Serilog": {
    "Using": [ "Serilog.Sinks.Console", "Serilog.Sinks.File" ],
    "MinimumLevel": "Debug",
    "WriteTo": [
      {
        "Name": "Console"
      },
      {
        "Name": "File",
        "Args": {
          "shared": true,
          "path": "logs/foo_.log",
          "rollingInterval": "Day",
          "retainedFileCountLimit": 7
        }
      }
    ],
    "Enrich": [ "FromLogContext", "WithMachineName", "WithThreadId" ]
  },

  "Serilog": {
    "Using": [ "Serilog.Sinks.Console", "Serilog.Sinks.File" ],
    "MinimumLevel": "Debug",
    "WriteTo": [
      {
        "Name": "Console"
      },
      {
        "Name": "File",
        "Args": {
          "shared": true,
          "path": "logs/foo_.log",
          "rollingInterval": "Day",
          "retainedFileCountLimit": 7
        }
      }
    ],
    "Enrich": [ "FromLogContext", "WithMachineName", "WithThreadId" ]
  },

However I'm noticing the log file has interleaved messages:

2023-02-28 00:03:16.105 -06:00 [DBG] Execution plan of result filters (in the following order): ["Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.C2023-02-28 00:03:16.054 -06:00 [INF] Requ2023-02-28 00:03:16.130 -06:00 [DBG] Execution plan of result filters (in the following order):

Notice the [DBG] and [INF] log levels in the same message, and this here here specifically:

Infrastructure.C2023-02-28 00:03:16.054 -06:00 [INF] Requ2023-02-28 00:03:16.13

How can I prevent this from happening? I thought shared: true was the support Serilog needed to handle this situation?

7 Replies

toddlahakbar•2y ago

So from what I can see, the SharedFileSink is only really applicable for multiple processes on the same server as it utilizes an os mutex. Are these servers on windows or Linux?

fenixbladesOP•2y ago

windows, app is running in IIS. the log file is at a network shared path that all apps are pointing to

toddlahakbar•2y ago

Yeah, from everything I can see the shared functionality is implemented either by a lock or by a mutex, either of which is only going to work for multiple processes on the same box.

fenixbladesOP•2y ago

seems like a common use case, im pretty sure i use nlog on other apps and do the same thing without issue i figured serilog would asynchronously try to log the message, such as building up a buffer, and then dump to the file as it is able to

toddlahakbar•2y ago

I mean, it's kind of a common use case. At the point where you're running 10 servers logging to the same sink, I think the assumption is you're using a more mature log aggregation than a shared file

fenixbladesOP•2y ago

true maybe time to switch to seq or something

Accord•2y ago

Was this issue resolved? If so, run /close - otherwise I will mark this as stale and this post will be archived until there is new activity.

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❔ Serilog file sink from multiple servers has interleaved messages