Desktop Analytics Log Files for Troubleshooting

This short post covers the log files related to Desktop Analytics. While troubleshooting desktop analytics related issues, the log files play a very important. Let’s see what files do you need to refer when you are working with Desktop Analytics.

First of all let me cover what is Desktop Analytics. By definition Desktop Analytics is a cloud-based service. Using the insights provided by Desktop Analytics service, you can easily find the update readiness of your Windows clients.

You might have heard of Windows Analytics. The Desktop Analytics is same as Windows Analytics with the advantage that it integrates tightly with Configuration Manager.

To understand the benefits of using Desktop Analytics and the process to set it up, read this post. If you want integrate Configuration Manager with Desktop Analytics, check this post. To know about connection health dashboard read this post.

Have you noticed that when you first setup Desktop Analytics the DA portal may not show the data for first few days. The console shows that it can take 2-3 days to process the data.

So what exactly happens during these first 72 hours.

• The devices (Active devices) in your setup send diagnostic data to the Desktop Analytics service.
• Once the data is sent, the Desktop Analytics service processes the data.
• If you have connected ConfigMgr with Desktop Analytics, the service synchronizes with your Configuration Manager site.

List of Desktop Analytics Log Files

The Desktop Analytics log files are located under %ProgramFiles%\Configuration Manager\Logs\. The log files on the Configuration Manager client are in the following directory – %WinDir%\CCM\logs.

Altogether there are five log files out of which, four of them are located on server that hosts service connection point role. On the client machine there is only one log file.

Here are the list of DA log files along with description and location of log files.