NLog ActivityTraceLayoutRenderer for Microsoft Activity Trace

NLog DiagnosticListenerTarget for Microsoft DiagnosticSource

Version AppVeyor

1. Install the package

   Install-Package NLog.DiagnosticSource or in your csproj:

   <PackageReference Include="NLog.DiagnosticSource" Version="6.*" />

2. Add to your nlog.config:

   <extensions>
    <add assembly="NLog.DiagnosticSource"/>
   </extensions>

   Alternative register from code using fluent configuration API:

   LogManager.Setup().SetupExtensions(ext => {
    ext.RegisterTarget<NLog.Targets.DiagnosticListenerTarget>();
    ext.RegisterLayoutRenderer<NLog.LayoutRenderers.ActivityTraceLayoutRenderer>();
   });

The System.Diagnostics.Activity.Current from Microsoft allows one to create OpenTelemetry spans.

Example of NLog.config file that outputs span-details together with LogEvent by using ${activity}:

<nlog>
<extensions>
 <add assembly="NLog.DiagnosticSource"/>
</extensions>
<targets>
 <target name="console" xsi:type="console" layout="${message}|ActivityId=${activity:property=TraceId}" />
</targets>
<rules>
 <logger minLevel="Info" writeTo="console" />
</rules>
</nlog>

Property Enum Values

• Id : Hierarchical structure identifier that is concatenation of ParentIds
• SpanId : Identifier for the current activity (Ex. database activity within current request)
• ParentId : Identifier for the parent activity
• TraceId : Identifier for the root activity (Request Trace Identifier)
• OperationName : Operation name of the current activity
• DisplayName : Explicit assigned Activity DisplayName (with fallback to OperationName)
• StartTimeUtc : Time when the operation started
• Duration : Duration of the operation (formatted as TimeSpan)
• DurationMs : Duration of the operation (formatted as TimeSpan.TotalMilliseconds)
• Baggage : Collection of key/value pairs that are passed to children of this Activity (Use Format="@" for json-dictionary)
• Tags : Collection of key/value pairs that are NOT passed to children of this Activity (Use Format="@" for json-dictionary)
• CustomProperty : Custom property assigned to this activity. Must be used together with Item-option
• Events : Events attached to this activity (Use Format="@" for json-array)
• TraceState : W3C tracestate header
• TraceFlags : See System.Diagnostics.ActivityTraceFlags for activity (defined by the W3C ID specification). For int-value combine with format="d"
• SourceName : Name of the activity source associated with this activity
• SourceVersion : Version of the activity source associated with this activity
• ActivityKind : Relationship kind between the activity, its parents, and its children. For int-value combine with format="d"
• TraceStateString : W3C 'tracestate' header as a string
• Status : Status code of the current activity (Ok or Error). For int-value combine with format="d"
• StatusDescription : Status description of the current activity
• IsAllDataRequested : Activity span has been marked to be sampled / recorded (0 or 1)

Formatting

• Format: Format for rendering the property.
• Culture: CultureInfo for rendering the property (Default Invariant Culture)
• Item: Lookup a single item from property-collection (Baggage, Tags, CustomProperty)
  • ${activity:property=Baggage:item=BaggageKey}
  • ${activity:property=Tags:item=TagKey}
  • ${activity:property=CustomProperty:item=PropertyKey}

Extract property values from parent or root

It is possible to specify that the above property should be extracted from either root- or parent-activity.

${activity:property=OperationName:parent=true}

${activity:property=OperationName:root=true}

Manually configure ActivityTrackingOptions

When using the default HostBuilder then it will automatically setup the following ActivityTrackingOptions:

builder.ConfigureLogging((hostingContext, loggingBuilder) =>
{
 loggingBuilder.Configure(options =>
 {
 options.ActivityTrackingOptions = ActivityTrackingOptions.SpanId
 | ActivityTrackingOptions.TraceId
 | ActivityTrackingOptions.ParentId;
 });
}).

If creating a custom HostBuilder, then one have to manually setup the ActivityTrackingOptions like shown above.

Example of NLog.config file that uses the diagnosticListener target:

<nlog>
<extensions>
 <add assembly="NLog.DiagnosticSource"/>
</extensions>
<targets>
 <target name="diagSource" xsi:type="diagnosticListener" layout="${message}" sourceName="nlog" eventName="${logger}" />
</targets>
<rules>
 <logger minLevel="Info" writeTo="diagSource" />
</rules>
</nlog>

NLog v5.3.4 introduced support for Layout.FromMethod that returns typed NLog Layout<T>. This allows custom NLog Targets to resolve SpanId / TraceId with support for AsyncWrapper, without having to parse from string or depend on NLog.DiagnosticSource nuget-package:

public class MyCustomTarget : TargetWithContext
{
 private static readonly string EmptyTraceIdToHexString = default(System.Diagnostics.ActivityTraceId).ToHexString();
 private static readonly string EmptySpanIdToHexString = default(System.Diagnostics.ActivitySpanId).ToHexString();
 public Layout<System.Diagnostics.ActivityTraceId?> TraceId { get; set; } = Layout<System.Diagnostics.ActivityTraceId?>.FromMethod(static evt => System.Diagnostics.Activity.Current?.TraceId is System.Diagnostics.ActivityTraceId activityTraceId && !ReferenceEquals(EmptyTraceIdToHexString, activityTraceId.ToHexString()) ? activityTraceId : null);
 public Layout<System.Diagnostics.ActivitySpanId?> SpanId { get; set; } = Layout<System.Diagnostics.ActivitySpanId?>.FromMethod(static evt => System.Diagnostics.Activity.Current?.SpanId is System.Diagnostics.ActivitySpanId activitySpanId && !ReferenceEquals(EmptySpanIdToHexString, activitySpanId.ToHexString()) ? activitySpanId : null);
 protected override void Write(LogEventInfo logEvent)
 {
 var spanId = RenderLogEvent(SpanId, logEvent);
 if (spanId.HasValue)
 data.SpanId = spanId.Value;
 var traceId = RenderLogEvent(TraceId, logEvent);
 if (traceId.HasValue)
 data.TraceId = traceId.Value;
 }
}