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LiteSpeed for SQL Server 8.9.5 - User Guide

About Backing Up/Restoring with LiteSpeed LiteSpeed User Interface Configure LiteSpeed for First Use Cloud Back Up Databases Automate Maintenance Tasks Restore Databases Restore Objects View Activity and History Use Command-Line Interface Use Extended Stored Procedures Troubleshoot LiteSpeed Review Additional Resources

Troubleshoot Performance-Related Issues

LiteSpeed uses Virtual Device Interface (VDI) to generate its backups. This operates in a single contiguous region of addresses within the SQL Server process space known as MemToLeave memory area. It is set aside at startup and is left unallocated by SQL Server for the use by components in the SQL Server process space, such as extended procedures, COM/OLE Automation objects, and linked server queries. Memory allocations by SQL Server larger than 8 KB are also made from the MemToLeave area.

SQL Server's MemToLeave area becoming fragmented so that there is insufficient contiguous space to allocate the buffers required for the backups. Rebooting SQL Server will free the memory, but the underlying cause of memory fragmentation should be addressed for long-term resolution.

Factors that can drain this memory area:

  • Number of databases on each server
  • Number of Servers on physical machine
  • Number of concurrent users
  • Amount of data
  • Number of data/log files
  • Running 3rd party software

To check the available contiguous memory, do one of the following:

Troubleshoot Previous Versions of LiteSpeed

If you experience issues with the previous versions of LiteSpeed and they are not discussed in the documentation set delivered with your LiteSpeed version, please visit https://www.quest.com/products/litespeed-for-sql-server/ to access support documentation and search the extensive Knowledgebase for published solutions and case data.

Note that for most cases the best is to upgrade all of your servers to the latest LiteSpeed version.

  

Configure LiteSpeed Logging

Logging is available for the following areas in LiteSpeed:

  • Core Engine
  • Installation and Remote Deploy
  • Maintenance Plans
  • Log Shipping
  • Object Level Recovery
  • LiteSpeed UI Console Activity

NOTE: Log shipping plans activity is also logged and displayed in the History tab of the Log Shipping pane (CTRL+2). See the Configure Log Shipping guide for more information.

Installer Logging

Installer log files are created in the default output directory. When you use the Remote Deploy Configuration wizard to deploy LiteSpeed on SQL Server instances, this creates a 'RemoteDeploy'-prefixed log file on the machine where you run the remote deploy from and 'SLSInstall'-prefixed log files on all target servers. For more information, see Log File Naming and Location.

Backup/Restore Logging

Using the following instructions you can enable logging for a particular backup or restore activity. To log all backup/restore activity on the server, see Instance-Wide LiteSpeed Logging.

To enable backup/restore logging, do one of the following:

Instance-Wide LiteSpeed Logging

LiteSpeed's advanced tracing facility allows for even more granular control over the major LiteSpeed features at the server level.

To enable/disable advanced logging

  1. Right-click an instance in the server tree, select Support and then LiteSpeed Logging.

  2. Select one or more of the following options:

    • Core Engine—To log all backup/restore activity on the server, including log shipping and Fast Compression backups, but not Maintenance Plans backup tasks. For more information, see Reporting and Logging in Maintenance Plans. about logging options in Maintenance Plans.
    • Object Level Recovery (OLR)—To log read operations and object-level recovery.
    • Log Ship—To log backup/copy/restore Log Shipping jobs, but not transaction log backups and restores.
    • Fast Compression—To log Fast Compression jobs and Fast Compression backups.
    • Smart Cleanup Policies—To log Smart Cleanup Policies activity.
    • SLSMedia—To log SLSMedia activity.

    Clear one or more checkboxes to disable advanced logging for those options.

  3. Complete the dialog. Review the following for additional information:

    Option Description
    Log file path

    This parameter specifies a path to a default output directory into which the log files are written. For more information, see Log File Naming and Location.

    Flush output to log file after every write (slower) LiteSpeed will perform a disk flush after each record. Select this parameter if you experience program exceptions resulting in a process abort.
    Delete log file on success A log file is only saved if an error has occurred during execution.
    Log rollover size This will limit the size of the log file, so that only the last records that fit within the specified size will be kept. Use this option in the case of a long running application, when the log file becomes overly large, or when an error happens near the end of execution. Otherwise, set the rollover size value to zero.

NOTES:

  • Enabling Core Engine advanced logging will not override the logging level specified in wizards and procedures.
  • Be sure to disable advanced logging after it is no longer needed.

Log File Naming and Location

By default, log files are written to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Quest Software\LiteSpeed\SQL Server\Logs (or C:\ProgramData\Quest Software\LiteSpeed\SQL Server\Logs). This location is specified by the logpath value in the LiteSpeedSettings.ini file. (Usually, C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Quest Software\LiteSpeed\SQL Server\LiteSpeedSettings.ini.)

To change the default output directory

  1. Right-click an instance in the server tree, select Support and then LiteSpeed Logging.

  2. Enter a new location in the Log file path field.

Log files will have one of the following formats:

  • Source YYYY-MM-DD hh-mm-ss PPPP.Log
  • Source YYYY-MM-DD hh-mm-ss PPPP TTTT.Log
  • SLSInstaller - YYYYMMDD hh-mm-ss-xxx.txt

Where source components are the following:

  • SLS (Backup or restore operations)
  • OLR
  • LogShip
  • FastComp
  • SCleanup

Other components of the log file name are as follows:

  • YYYY—4-digit year
  • MM—2-digit month
  • DD— 2-digit day of the month
  • hh— 2-digit hour using the local 24-hour clock
  • mm—2-digit minute
  • ss— 2-digit second
  • xxx—3-digit millisecond
  • PPPP—4-digit process id
  • TTTT— 4-digit thread id

When you use the Remote Deploy Configuration wizard to deploy LiteSpeed on SQL Server instances, this creates a 'RemoteDeploy'-prefixed log file on the machine where you run the remote deploy from and 'SLSInstall'-prefixed log files on all target servers.

LiteSpeed UI Console Activity Logging

The LiteSpeed UI Console activity is logged in the Windows Application event log.

To set the LiteSpeed UI Console logging level

  1. Select Application button | Options.
  2. On the General tab, select logging level.

 

Related Topic

Reporting and Logging in Maintenance Plans

Reporting and Logging

With your maintenance plan open in the Design tab, click to configure reports about execution of the entire maintenance plan and set the reporting and logging options. A report contains information about each task within one subplan: task name, duration, results.

Review the following for information about logging in Maintenance Plans:

Option Description
Write a text file report in directory

Select a directory in which to write a text file report. Alternately select to browse and locate a directory

  • Delete text files older than - Select to delete files based on their age in number of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years.
Write an html file report in directory

Select a directory in which to write an html file report. Alternately select to browse and locate a directory.

  • Delete html files older than - Select to delete files based on their age in number of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years.
Send report to an email recipient

Select to send an email report to a designated recipient.

  • Agent operator - Use the drop-down to select an agent operator to receive reports by email.
Log extended information

Logs plan details in msdb.dbo.sysmaintplan_logdetail for both LiteSpeed and native SQL Server SSIS maintenance plans, for all tasks. This additional information is task-specific and is displayed in the Extended Log Information pane of the History tab.

For the native SQL Server plans, this information also becomes a part of the native reporting and may increase the size of the stored maintenance plan history.

Log to remote Server Writes the plan history to the remote server. Select the connection drop-down to choose the server. Alternately assign a new server.
Debug Logging

Logs LiteSpeed maintenance plan utility activity.

Quest Software support may ask you to enable debug logging in maintenance plans to help troubleshoot product issues. Make sure LiteSpeed is installed on the server where you have a problem with maintenance plans.

When a subplan is executed, the Maintenance Plan engine saves the archived <plan_name>_<subplan_name>[<GUID>].zip file in the default output directory.Configure Logging in LiteSpeed about the default output directory.

Each archive has:

  • one or more files for all LiteSpeed tasks in a subplan, including the Reporting task
  • one file containing -Gather command-line command to collect statistics
  • one file containing -CollectStats command-line command for the process that starts collecting statistics to repositories (only created for SSIS plans)

LiteSpeed's debug logging is not supported for the native SQL Server tasks. If the Use LiteSpeed option is cleared for a task, then that task is handled by the native SQL Server components.

  • Delete log files older than the following - sets period of time to keep logs on disk. (1 week by default)

Note: Since 8.9.5 logging option set by default to "Verbose. Log file is removed on success" with activated "Delete log files older than the following" = 1 week.

Backup activity: Additionally, you can configure logging in the Backup Database and Fast Compression Backup tasks to log LiteSpeed backup activity. Back Up Databases Using Maintenance Plans

 

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