The stuff we server guys usually create does not have a graphical user interface. For SwyxWare v6.12 there is an exception. It will ship with Swyx Trace Tool. That's a small application installed with SwyxServer which allows enabling logging globally for all services. In addition to that you can use it to collect and upload trace files to your Swyx Partner or to Swyx. I've already written about it. Swyx Trace Tool is currently being implemented by Marcus Mucks, one of my team members. Here's an overview with some screenshots.

Main Window

The first one is the main user interface you see when you start it (Click on the picture to see it in original size):

Use the navigation bar on the left to switch to the different functions. First the trace level setting:

Here level Default is selected. This is roughly the same as using all the .reg files from the tools\tracing\on folder on the SwyxWare CD. Alternatively you can load a custom trace level file to enable specific tracing.

In the Cleanup section you define how much log files to you want to keep:

During SwyxWare installation a scheduled task is created which periodically runs Swyx Trace Tool in the background with a special command-line parameter to check the trace folder and remove old files according to your configuration.

The most interesting function probably is trace file collection and upload.

Trace file collection

Swyx Trace Tool collects trace file from an arbitrary date range you define plus event logs, system information, SwyxWare version information, process crash dumps (mini dumps only). Optionally it creates a backup of your SwyxWare database and includes that in the uploads, too. The main upload dialog looks like this:

To collect files you click Add Default Files... The data collection wizard starts and asks for a problem description,the date interval for the log files.You can choose to add SwyxWare version information, Microsoft system information and event logs. Microsoft System Information is an .nfo file created by msinfo32.exe. Swyx Trace Tool automatically starts msinfo32.exe for you when you check that option. Last, but not least you'll be asked if you would like to include a SwyxWare database backup. That option is off per default.

When the data collection is complete, the main dialog shows all collected files for you to review:

You can remove file you do not want to upload or you can add additional files. Adding is possible either by clicking Add or by selecting them in Windows Explorer and use the mouse to drag them on the Swyx Trace Tool window.

Upload

After collecting files you start upload by clicking Submit. There are three options:

• Upload files to Swyx
  To use this option you need a valid Swyx Support ticket ID which is checked online before files are uploaded.
• Upload files to another upload server
  This option is meant for Swyx Partner or distributors which have set up an own upload server. You need to enter an upload URL. The URL can be configured during deployment. A ticket ID has to be entered, too. Online validation of the ticket is optional in this case.
• Save files as ZIP file
  If there's no Internet connection you can instruct Swyx Trace Tool to just save the collected files as ZIP. That is the same ZIP file which would have been uploaded when you had chosen one of the other options.

Here's a screenshot:

When you click Next a ticket validation web service is called to check the entered support ticket. If it is valid, the collected files will be compressed into a ZIP files and uploaded.

What happens after the upload?

When the Swyx upload server detects a successful upload three things happen.

• First, the ticket ID which is part of the zip file name is extracted and validated once more against the Swyx support ticket database. If it is invalid, the upload will be deleted and Swyx Trace Tool gets an error message back.
• If the ticket check was successful the uploaded file will be moved to another server, an email notification will be automatically send to Swyx Support and the corresponding support ticket record in the Swyx Support Ticket system will be updated with the information about the new upload.
• Swyx trace tool gets a response message which is shown in the upload window to confirm the upload.

That way nobody needs to monitor the upload server manually for new uploads. If you upload traces it is not necessary to additionally send an email to inform us about the upload. The server will do that automatically.

Upload mechanism

Swyx Trace Tool uses Microsoft Background Intelligent Transfer Service to perform the upload. This is a Windows service installed with every modern Windows version. Microsoft uses it to download Windows Updates to your system or to upload error reports. It has a documented API for third-party applications to use. We use that instead of FTP because it has several advantages:

• Upload via HTTP to arbitrary servers
• Works with most HTTP proxy servers.
• Automatic resume after failures, e.g. when your network connection is interrupted
• Easy mechanism on the server side to get notified about successful uploads.

On the upload server side you just need IIS 6 or 7 plus BITS Server extensions which are part of IIS, but not enabled per default.

in case you're interested about setting up an own Swyx Trace Tool upload server, here's a document describing how to do this.