If you don’t know what ELMAH is, stop right now and go and read about it.
ELMAH (Error Logging Modules and Handlers) is an application-wide error logging facility that is completely pluggable. It can be dynamically added to a running ASP.NET web application, or even all ASP.NET web applications on a machine, without any need for re-compilation or re-deployment.
Then go and read Scott “TheHa” Hanselman’s post on it.
There is a Nuget package for it as well, to make things really super easy.
In fact, running Nuget, setting up SQL Azure and tweaking some config settings took me all of 20 minutes. No freaking kidding.
Now remember that this is being installed on an MVC site, so don’t let that put you off. Here we go:
Step One: Install from Nuget (making sure you have the latest build of Nuget in the process)
Step Two: Setup SQL Azure
Step Three configure web.config
And done 
So, lets go back and look at the details.
In step two, this is the SQL Azure script that the Migrate Assist wizard spat out:
--~Changing index [dbo].[ELMAH_Error].PK_ELMAH_Error to a clustered index. You may want to pick a different index to cluster on.
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[ELMAH_Error]') AND type in (N'U'))
BEGIN
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[ELMAH_Error](
[ErrorId] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL,
[Application] [nvarchar](60) NOT NULL,
[Host] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[Type] [nvarchar](100) NOT NULL,
[Source] [nvarchar](60) NOT NULL,
[Message] [nvarchar](500) NOT NULL,
[User] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[StatusCode] [int] NOT NULL,
[TimeUtc] [datetime] NOT NULL,
[Sequence] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[AllXml] [nvarchar](max) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT [PK_ELMAH_Error] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
[ErrorId] ASC
)WITH (STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF)
)
END
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.indexes WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[ELMAH_Error]') AND name = N'IX_ELMAH_Error_App_Time_Seq')
CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX_ELMAH_Error_App_Time_Seq] ON [dbo].[ELMAH_Error]
(
[Application] ASC,
[TimeUtc] DESC,
[Sequence] DESC
)WITH (STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, DROP_EXISTING = OFF, ONLINE = OFF)
GO
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM dbo.sysobjects WHERE id = OBJECT_ID(N'[DF_ELMAH_Error_ErrorId]') AND type = 'D')
BEGIN
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[ELMAH_Error] ADD CONSTRAINT [DF_ELMAH_Error_ErrorId] DEFAULT (newid()) FOR [ErrorId]
END
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[ELMAH_GetErrorsXml]') AND type in (N'P', N'PC'))
BEGIN
EXEC dbo.sp_executesql @statement = N'
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ELMAH_GetErrorsXml]
(
@Application NVARCHAR(60),
@PageIndex INT = 0,
@PageSize INT = 15,
@TotalCount INT OUTPUT
)
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE @FirstTimeUTC DATETIME
DECLARE @FirstSequence INT
DECLARE @StartRow INT
DECLARE @StartRowIndex INT
SELECT
@TotalCount = COUNT(1)
FROM
[ELMAH_Error]
WHERE
[Application] = @Application
-- Get the ID of the first error for the requested page
SET @StartRowIndex = @PageIndex * @PageSize + 1
IF @StartRowIndex <= @TotalCount
BEGIN
SET ROWCOUNT @StartRowIndex
SELECT
@FirstTimeUTC = [TimeUtc],
@FirstSequence = [Sequence]
FROM
[ELMAH_Error]
WHERE
[Application] = @Application
ORDER BY
[TimeUtc] DESC,
[Sequence] DESC
END
ELSE
BEGIN
SET @PageSize = 0
END
-- Now set the row count to the requested page size and get
-- all records below it for the pertaining application.
SET ROWCOUNT @PageSize
SELECT
errorId = [ErrorId],
application = [Application],
host = [Host],
type = [Type],
source = [Source],
message = [Message],
[user] = [User],
statusCode = [StatusCode],
time = CONVERT(VARCHAR(50), [TimeUtc], 126) + ''Z''
FROM
[ELMAH_Error] error
WHERE
[Application] = @Application
AND
[TimeUtc] <= @FirstTimeUTC
AND
[Sequence] <= @FirstSequence
ORDER BY
[TimeUtc] DESC,
[Sequence] DESC
FOR
XML AUTO
'
END
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[ELMAH_GetErrorXml]') AND type in (N'P', N'PC'))
BEGIN
EXEC dbo.sp_executesql @statement = N'
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ELMAH_GetErrorXml]
(
@Application NVARCHAR(60),
@ErrorId UNIQUEIDENTIFIER
)
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON
SELECT
[AllXml]
FROM
[ELMAH_Error]
WHERE
[ErrorId] = @ErrorId
AND
[Application] = @Application
'
END
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[ELMAH_LogError]') AND type in (N'P', N'PC'))
BEGIN
EXEC dbo.sp_executesql @statement = N'
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ELMAH_LogError]
(
@ErrorId UNIQUEIDENTIFIER,
@Application NVARCHAR(60),
@Host NVARCHAR(30),
@Type NVARCHAR(100),
@Source NVARCHAR(60),
@Message NVARCHAR(500),
@User NVARCHAR(50),
@AllXml NVARCHAR(MAX),
@StatusCode INT,
@TimeUtc DATETIME
)
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON
INSERT
INTO
[ELMAH_Error]
(
[ErrorId],
[Application],
[Host],
[Type],
[Source],
[Message],
[User],
[AllXml],
[StatusCode],
[TimeUtc]
)
VALUES
(
@ErrorId,
@Application,
@Host,
@Type,
@Source,
@Message,
@User,
@AllXml,
@StatusCode,
@TimeUtc
)
'
END
GO
Log in to SQL Management Studio and run that script against your chosen db and you’re good to go.
In step 3, there are 2 main things you want to do.
The first is obviously setting up ELMAH to talk to the db. We do it like so.
<elmah>
<errorLog type="Elmah.SqlErrorLog, Elmah" connectionStringName="ConnectionStringhere" />
<security allowRemoteAccess="yes" />
</elmah>
And the second is securing the actual elmah.axd page.
<location path="elmah.axd">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<deny users="?"/>
<allow roles="Administrator"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
And we’re done. Easiest thing I’ve ever done.
Random Musings 