Logging in .NET Framework applications using Serilog

Michael — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 18:42:53 +0000

The purpose of this article is to provide a step-by-step guide about how configure Serilog library in a .NET Framework 4.6.2 (or above) application.

What is Serilog?

Serilog is a diagnostic logging library for .NET applications. This library provides a huge collection of new logging related features that are not available in the .NET built-in logging framework. Serilog uses what are called sinks. This feature allows developers to log in different destinations, such as console, file, log servers, etc. Also, Serilog provides enrichments, a way to inject data to enrich logs.
In this article we'll work with both, sinks and enrichments, to provide an example as complete as posible.

Setup

Create an ASP.NET Web Application (.NET Framework)
Install the following packages:

Common.Logging/3.4.1 // introduces a simple abstraction to allow you to select a specific logging implementation at runtime
Common.Logging.Serilog/4.4.0 // allows to adapt Common.Logging to Serilog
Serilog/3.1.1 
Serilog.Enrichers.Environment/2.3.0 // provides information from the environment, such as machine name, environment name, etc.
Serilog.Enrichers.Thread/3.1.0 //provides properties from the current thread
Serilog.Settings.AppSettings/2.2.2 // allows to read serilog settings written in the appSettings section from the app.config/web.config file.
Serilog.Sinks.File/5.0.0 // allows to log into the file system.

Configure logging with `Serilog` library

Configure the adapter from the old Common.Logging to a Serilog structured logging in the Web.config file.

<configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="common">
        <section name="logging" type="Common.Logging.ConfigurationSectionHandler, Common.Logging" />
    </sectionGroup>
</configSections>
<common>
    <logging>
        <factoryAdapter type="Common.Logging.Serilog.SerilogFactoryAdapter, Common.Logging.Serilog" />
    </logging>
</common>

Configure Serilog in appSettings section in the Web.config file

<add key="serilog:minimum-level" value="Information" />
<add key="serilog:using:Thread" value="Serilog.Enrichers.Thread" />
<add key="serilog:enrich:WithThreadId" />

<add key="serilog:using:Environment" value=" Serilog.Enrichers.Environment" />
<add key="serilog:enrich:WithMachineName" />
<add key="serilog:enrich:WithEnvironmentName" />

<add key="serilog:using:File" value="Serilog.Sinks.File" />
<add key="serilog:write-to:File.path" value="C:\logs\WebApplication.That_Works_With_Serilog..log" />
<add key="serilog:write-to:File.outputTemplate" value="{Timestamp:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} [{Level:u3}] {Message:lj} {Properties:j}{NewLine}{Exception}" />

Build global logger for application

In Global.asax.cs file write the below method.

private void BuildLogging()
{
    LoggerConfiguration loggerConfiguration = new LoggerConfiguration();
    loggerConfiguration.ReadFrom.AppSettings();
    Serilog.Core.Logger logger = loggerConfiguration.CreateLogger();
    Log.Logger = logger;
}

Now, you must invoke BuildLogging method when the Application_Start event be raised.

Time to log

ILog logger = LogManager.GetLogger<MvcApplication>();
logger.Info("This is my first log");

Summary

You can downland and review the example here

DEV Community: Michael