Professional SharePoint 2013 Administration

Chapter 20

Monitoring and Analytics

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Using the Unified Logging System
• Configuring the Usage and Health Data Collection service
• Monitoring the Search service application

As with any complex system, monitoring and maintenance are necessary to keep SharePoint running happily. SharePoint’s monitoring functions are comprised of four components: the Unified Logging Service (ULS), the Health Analyzer engine, the Usage and Health Analysis reporting system, and Timer Job monitoring. The ULS system provides active (and potentially extremely detailed) logging data of the various requests being processed, the Health Analyzer engine runs periodic checks of the environment against an established baseline, the Usage and Health Analysis reporting system collects data about usage patterns of various SharePoint resources, and Timer Job monitoring reports on the run history and success or failure of SharePoint Timer Jobs.

From an IT management perspective, these components can be roughly categorized as reactive (ULS, Timer Job monitoring), proactive (Health Analyzer), and predictive (Usage and Health Analysis). Proper monitoring of a SharePoint farm involves using all four forms of monitoring in concert.

CONFIGURING MONITORING IN CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION

Most of the monitoring configurations for SharePoint can be done via Central Admin under the aptly named Monitoring section, but some additional health and usage reports are provided as part of the Search Service Application ...