Where does ELMAH save its data?

Question

I just installed ELMAH.MVC (more info here) and was wondering where its data is saved. I read that you can choose to set up database for storage but seems that the default install uses "in memory"? How does it work? If I recycle the app pool or IIS website do I loose all the data? Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes, by default it uses memory storage. When your application pool is restarted, you loose elmah data. If I remember well, old versions of elmah used App_Data folder for storing xml files...If you want to use database to store logs, just specify connection string in your elmah config section:

<elmah>
...
<errorLog type="Elmah.SqlErrorLog, Elmah" connectionStringName="ElmahConnectionString"/> 

...
</elmah>

You should have ElmahConnectionString in your connectionStrings section, something like this:

<connectionStrings>
    <add name="ElmahConnectionString "
         connectionString="Initial Catalog=my_database;data source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Integrated Security=SSPI;"
         providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
...
</connectionStrings>

Here you can find example web.config file.

Answer 2

Read in "Examining the ErrorLog Class" topic, and you will find your answer

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