Configuring Pharos Logging Settings - Pharos Log Setter

By default Pharos Server and client software doesn't do much in they way of logging.  Thats the bad news, the good news is it can log nearly everything we need to trouble shoot stuff if enabled them. This post should give you enough information to enable and disable the Pharos Print Server logs. This really hasn't changed since version 5 through version 8.1 of Pharos.

However for starters we want to be organized as to where we want Pharos to store its log files. This will make our life much easier later rather than looking all over for them. Create a logs folder in which we'll point any logging files we have Pharos generate. Create folder  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Pharos\Logs" if it doesn't exist.

Also A piece of house keeping, any changes to the logging settings requires a reboot of the pharos service associated with that log.

We have two ways of configuring Pharos Logging.

Method 1 - Using Pharos Log Setter

On the Pharos Installation CD there is a folder "<CD Root>\tools\utils\Logsetter"

Copy the entire logsetter folder to the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Pharos\Logs\" folder we created. This is just so we don't need the CD again (most of use have it as ISO and never burned it but anyway) and the next time it will be easier to get to. Launch logsetter.exe from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Pharos\Logs\Logsetter" and enable the logging you require.

All this app does is set the same keys in the registry that we would of set manually. I use the registry myself but really up to you. Also notice you can set logging levels for "Pharos Database Server", "Pharos License Server", "Pharos Print Server", "Pharos LPD Server", "Pharos Popup Server" and "Pharos Administrator".

Pharos Log Setter

After any Changes a server restart is require for the logging level and enabling or disable to take affect.

Method 2 - Modifying the registry

Then there is always the method of just modifying the registry directly to set the logging options we want.

For example set the following key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Pharos\Print Server\Log = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Pharos\Logs\PrintServerLog.txt"

In that same registry location we call also change the logging level.

Don't forget to restart the services for Logging settings to take effect.

Important Note: Since these log files can get so large I find it useful to stop the service after i make a logging level change or just trouble shooting a problem. Delete the log file and then restart the service. This prevents me from having to know where at in the log this service started logging.

Links
http://pharos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/626/~/pharos-logsetter-utility