Lync Snooper: More Than Just Log Analysis (Reporting)

I recently ran across some great features in the Snooper tool that I not very aware about.  Snooper is part of the Resource Kit Tools and is primarily used to analyze logs generated from the Lync Server Logging Tool.

When Snooper is open, clicking on the “Reports” menu will expose options for querying the backend database for errors, user activity, conferencing statistics, etc.

Error Analysis…

When clicking on the “Error Analysis…” option, you will need to fill in the blanks for the Lync SQL instance that holds the Monitoring database.  This report will show errors generated by client programs.

Here you have the option of searching for errors by user or by error.  Also, selecting the “Generate Error Report” option will give a web view of the report.  Below are example outputs.

Conferencing and Presence…

The “Conferencing and Presence” option has several great reports to choose from.  Start by entering in the SQL instance name that contains the backend RTC database, then choose the report to run.  A few example report outputs follow.

User

The User report has a ton of information in it.  By searching on a user’s sip address, a few of the things that can be seen include:

• Pool information
• Contact information
• Conferencing data
• Certificates provisioned to user

Conference

I was really impressed by the Conference reports.  By searching on a conference ID, a few of the things that can be seen include:

• Conference scheduling time
• Access times
• Invitees and roles
• MCUs used
• Which attendee used which MCUs

I am not showing examples of the Resolve Conference, MCU Health, or Diagnostic reports.  Check them out, there is some great information.

Stored Procedure Error Analysis…

This report shows SQL stored procedure errors over a specified block of time.  Start by entering in the SQL instance name that contains the Lync databases, then choose a date range.  This will list and graph any errors found.

I know I will definitely be using Snopper then more than just log analysis.  Hope this helps.