Enabling GPOADmin service diagnostics/tracing for troubleshooting (4320151)

When troubleshooting GPOADmin related technical issues, enabling diagnostics/tracing for the GPOADmin service can be useful. This should be used as a last resort and is generally not required.

To enable tracing, follow these steps:

1. Browse to the GPOADmin installation directory and create a copy of the "GPOADmin.Service.exe.config" file to have a backup.
2. Edit the original "GPOADmin.Service.exe.config" using Notepad or your favorite editor.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the file and find the following or similar section:

NOTE: The <!-- and --> strings at the front and back of each line represent a comment meaning these lines are ignored.

4. Remove both of the strings mentioned from each of these lines. You can use the replace functions in the text editor (press CTRL+H) as in this particular config file there are no further commented lines.
5. Change the *.svclog path in line number 5 to a path which exists.
   It may look like this: initializeData="C:\Temp\GPOADMin_trace.svclog" />
6. Verify you did everything correctly otherwise the GPOADmin Service might not start.
7. Save the file after editing and restart the GPOADmin Service (no need to restart Watcher and Dashboard if installed).
8. Verify the *.svclog file has been created. If the file has been created you will likely see a 0 KB file which is fine.

You can now reproduce the issue you are troubleshooting and collect the trace file.


NOTE: Disable the tracing after troubleshooting!

WARNING: Disable the tracing after troubleshooting! There is a risk with running out of space if tracing runs for several days/weeks.

To find out more about tracing and the service trace viewer, in general, see the following article from Microsoft:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/wcf/diagnostics/tracing/configuring-tracing

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/wcf/service-trace-viewer-tool-svctraceviewer-exe