In the world of microservices and distributed systems it is very important to relate logging and diagnostic information of multiple services in the context of an operation to quickly diagnose issues.
What is CorrelatorSharp?
CorrelatorSharp is a .NET library that enables context-aware logging and correlation with no code changes or minimal such.
CorrelatorSharp is async/await aware and the current activity flows across tasks and threads automatically.
CorrelatorSharp supports out of the box (at the time of writing this post):
- ASP.NET MVC 5
- ASP.NET Web API
- RestSharp
- NLog
- Application Insights
Support for the following is also planned: WCF server/client, Azure Service Bus, Azure Storage Queue, CoreCLR.
Using CorrelatorSharp in 5 minutes
1. Enable in Web API in Service “B”
Use the CorrelatorSharp.WebApi package:
config.Filters.Add(new CorrelationIdActionFilter());
2. Log the current correlation id
You can do it manually (or through one of the CorrelatorSharp packages such as CorrelatorSharp.NLog or CorrelatorSharp.ApplicationInsights):
Console.WriteLine("Current Activity Id: " + ActivityScope.Current.Id);
Console.WriteLine("Current Activity Name: " + ActivityScope.Current.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Current Activity ParentId: " + ActivityScope.Current.ParentId);
3. Pass the correlation id from Service “A” to Service “B”
If you are using RestSharp you can use the CorrelatorSharp.RestSharp or just add a X-Correlation-Id header to your requests:
RestRequest request;
request.AddCorrelationHeader();
4. Manage activity scopes
using (ActivityScope scope = new ActivityScope("Operation")) {
Console.WriteLine("Current Activity Id: " + ActivityScope.Current.Id);
Console.WriteLine("Current Activity Name: " + ActivityScope.Current.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Current Activity ParentId: " + ActivityScope.Current.ParentId);
using (ActivityScope nestedScope = new ActivityScope("Nested Operation")) {
Console.WriteLine("Current Activity Id: " + ActivityScope.Current.Id);
Console.WriteLine("Current Activity Name: " + ActivityScope.Current.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Current Activity ParentId: " + ActivityScope.Current.ParentId);
}
}
Example output:
Current Activity Id: 4050a075-51db-4e62-8a92-17720a73045e
Current Activity Name: Operation
Current Activity ParentId:
Current Activity Id: 2d7aa66d-62b4-406d-91e4-ea3305690675
Current Activity Name: Nested Operation
Current Activity ParentId: 4050a075-51db-4e62-8a92-17720a73045e