What Is New In IIS 8.5 ?

1.    Enhanced Logging for IIS 8.5:  In IIS 8.5, the administrator has the option of logging additional custom fields from request or response headers, or from server variables. Enhanced logging for IIS 8.5 is only available in IIS 8.5. IIS on Windows Server 2012 provides limited logging capabilities for a fixed set of standard fields, without options for extensibility or customizability for logging. Administrators who need to log fields beyond this standard set must create a custom logging module.

Open IIS Manager àSelect the site à Double-click Logging à Enhanced logging is available only for site-level logging à if you select the server in the Connections pane à Then the Custom Fields section of the W3C Logging Fields dialog will be disabled. àIn the Format field under Log File à Select W3C and à click Select Fields.... à In the W3C Logging Fields dialog à click Add Field àin the Add Custom Field dialog à Enter a Field Name to identify the custom field within the log file. Please note that the field name cannot contain spaces à Select the Source Type à You can select Request Header, Response Header, or Server Variable à Enhanced logging cannot log a server variable with a name that contains lower-case characters à To include a server variable in the event log à Its name consists of all upper-case characters. à Select Source à which is the name of the HTTP header or server variable à depending on the Source Type you selected à that contains a value that you want to log à you also can enter your own custom source string à Click Ok à Click Add Field... for each additional custom field you want to add à You also can click Remove Field to remove a custom field you added or click Edit Field... to edit it à Click OK à Click Apply in the Actions pane to apply the new configuration à Once the custom fields have been configured, IIS will create new text log files with "_x" appended to the file name to indicate that the file contains custom fields à Total size of data collected from all custom fields cannot exceed 65,536 bytes. à If the total exceeds 65,536 bytes à IIS will truncate the data.

2.    Logging to Event Tracing for Windows in IIS 8.5:

It is a new in IIS 8.5. IIS administrator has the option of sending logging information to Event Tracing for Windows (ETW). Logging to ETW is only available in IIS 8.5. Internet Information Services (IIS) on Windows Server 2012 provides basic logging capabilities. Administrator does not have access to logging information in real time because IIS takes some time to flush logs to disk. It is also known fact that a text-based log files can be difficult and time-consuming to process.

3.    ETW Logging Configuration procedure for web application or web site

Open IIS Manager à Select the server or site in the Connections pane à and then double click Logging à If you configure logging for a site, then it will be applies to the site regardless how you configure logging at the server level. à If you configure logging for the server, then the configuration will be applied to all newly-created sites on the server and any sites for which you have not configured site-level logging à Go to the Format field under Log File à Select W3C. à Under Log Event Destination à select ETW event only. à If you want the log information sent to both ETW and the log files à then select both log file and ETW event. à Use any of the publicly available tools to query ETW for events.