Allow configuration of multiple seq servers

[schnitty]

If I want to write to two Seq servers I can do this in code by:

.WriteTo.Seq("http://localhost:5341")
.WriteTo.Seq("http://otherhost:5341")
.CreateLogger();

I'm not sure how I can do this in appSettings
If I configure like so:

<add key="serilog:using:Seq" value="Serilog.Sinks.Seq" />
<add key="serilog:write-to:Seq.serverUrl" value="http://localhost:5341" />
<add key="serilog:write-to:Seq.serverUrl" value="http://otherhost:5341"/>

It ends up only sending logs to otherhost as the key is the same so it overwrites the first one.
Is there away to make these settings unique so that it ends up sending logs to both servers?

[nblumhardt]

Hi! It's been a little while since I used this syntax, but this should be what you need:

<add key="serilog:using:FirstSeq" value="Serilog.Sinks.Seq" />
<add key="serilog:write-to:FirstSeq.serverUrl" value="http://localhost:5341" />
<add key="serilog:using:OtherSeq" value="Serilog.Sinks.Seq" />
<add key="serilog:write-to:OtherSeq.serverUrl" value="http://otherhost:5341"/>

[schnitty]

Thanks, that looks like it should work but it doesnt :(

[nblumhardt]

Sorry, that's me misremembering the features of Serilog.Settings.AppSettings. I think this is a limitation of the syntax. It's possible to use prefixes to work around it, i.e.:

<add key="serilog:using:Seq" value="Serilog.Sinks.Seq" />
<add key="serilog:write-to:Seq.serverUrl" value="http://localhost:5341" />
<add key="serilog-2:using:Seq" value="Serilog.Sinks.Seq" />
<add key="serilog-2:write-to:Seq.serverUrl" value="http://otherhost:5341"/>

but this requires an additional ReadFrom.AppSettings("serilog-2") in the application.

I'll give this a bit more thought, it'd be nice to support this cleanly.

[schnitty]

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.
Unfortunately I can't get the workaround you listed to work either. It only picks up the first Sink, doesn't add the second "serilog-2" even when I add ReadFrom.AppSettings("serilog-2") in code

The intent is to have the server addresses configurable so my fallback is to create my own appsettings that contain the server addresses and then just reference them from code.

I'd prefer the all config option but if not workable my fallback plan will at least achieve the outcome of a web administrator being able to change the servers in config without having to rebuild the code.

[nblumhardt]

I don't suppose there's any chance your test harness is missing a Log.CloseAndFlush() call? That often presents as missing events from one or more loggers. (If you're not using the static Log class, then this corresponds with disposing the root Logger.)

[schnitty]

Good for raising it, that has certainly tripped me up in the past but I don't think that is the issue.
When I create the logger and inspect its properties in the debugger it has only one Seq sink in its collection instead of two. So it doesn't seem to be picking up the separate non standard configuration.

web.config

...
    <add key="serilog:using:Seq" value="Serilog.Sinks.Seq" />
    <add key="serilog:write-to:Seq.serverUrl" value="http://localhost:5341" />
    <add key="serilog2:using:Seq" value="Serilog.Sinks.Seq" />
    <add key="serilog2:write-to:Seq.serverUrl" value="http://otherhost:5341"/>
...

In debugger, I would expect two rows for Seq sinks, I only see one

[schnitty]

I'm also using Autofac for DI and have registered the logger according to
https://github.com/nblumhardt/autofac-serilog-integration

[nblumhardt]

Sorry, my mistake again - just checked the role of settingPrefix - it's prepended in addition to serilog:, so the keys should be:

    <add key="serilog:using:Seq" value="Serilog.Sinks.Seq" />
    <add key="serilog:write-to:Seq.serverUrl" value="http://localhost:5341" />
    <add key="serilog2:serilog:using:Seq" value="Serilog.Sinks.Seq" />
    <add key="serilog2:serilog:write-to:Seq.serverUrl" value="http://otherhost:5341"/>

[schnitty]

Awesome, that works. Thanks so much.
Out of curiority where is the documenation that specified that? I haven't been able to find any.

[nblumhardt]

Great 👍 - it's mentioned in the intellisense docs for the parameter, I found it in: https://github.com/serilog/serilog-settings-appsettings/blob/dev/src/Serilog.Settings.AppSettings/AppSettingsLoggerConfigurationExtensions.cs#L62

Cheers,
Nick