Remote-access Guide

elmah mvc remote access

by Dr. Hassan Jacobson V Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago
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How do I allow remote access to ELMAH?

The security element located beneath the elmah element provides a single attribute named allowRemoteAccess: As default, remote access to /elmah.axd isn't allowed meaning that requesting that URL on everything else than localhost, returns af HTTP status code 403.

How to implement ELMAH with both web API and MVC?

I have been working on a web application which has both Web API and MVC and required exception logging on both platforms and since both Web API and MVC have different pipelines, ELMAH implementation required specific changes for each platform. Firstly, ELMAH nuget package is to be installed. Then, add an mdf database file in App_Start folder.

How does ELMAH handle errors?

ELMAH includes HTTP Handlers that render error details as a web page, as an RSS feed, or as a comma-delimited file (CSV). Error Log Sources - out of the box ELMAH can log errors to memory, to a Microsoft SQL Server database, to a Microsoft Access database, to an Oracle database, to an XML file, to a SQLite database, or to a Vista DB database.

How do I add ELMAH to my website?

In a nutshell, it involves four simple steps: Download ELMAH and add the Elmah.dll assembly to your web application, Register ELMAH's HTTP Modules and Handler in Web.config, Specify ELMAH's configuration options, and Create the error log source infrastructure, if needed.

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Who is the founder of Elmah?

Even though there's lots of info out there around ELMAH, Thomas Ardal (founder of elmah.io) believes there's room for some extended documentation. In his words, this post is his attempt to demystify ELMAH security.

What About ASP.NET MVC?

ELMAH was originally created for ASP.NET. Different features available in ASP.NET MVC have been causing a lot of head-scratching since it was introduced back in 2007. Some of you may have struggled with MVC's HandleErrorAttribute, as well as getting custom errors and ELMAH working at the same time. In 2011, Alexander Beletsky created the Elmah.MVC package to help MVC developers using ELMAH. We highly recommend MVC projects use this package since it removes a lot of the frustrations that people are having with MVC and ELMAH.

Where is ELMAH configuration?

ELMAH looks for its configuration options in the website's Web.config file in a custom configuration section named <elmah>. In order to use a custom section in Web.config it must first be defined in the <configSections> element. Open the Web.config file and add the following markup to the <configSections>:

What is elmah.dll?

While the Elmah.dll file contains the HTTP Modules and Handler needed to automatically log unhandled exceptions and to display error details from a web page , these must be explicitly registered in the web application's configuration. The ErrorLogModule HTTP Module, once registered, subscribes to the HttpApplication 's Error event. Whenever this event is raised the ErrorLogModule logs the details of the exception to a specified log source. We'll see how to define the log source provider in the next section, "Configuring ELMAH." The ErrorLogPageFactory HTTP Handler factory is responsible for generating the markup when viewing the error log from a web page.

What is ELMAH in production?

Error Logging Modules And Handlers (ELMAH) offers another approach to logging runtime errors in a production environment. ELMAH is a free, open source error logging library that includes features like error filtering and the ability to view the error log from a web page, as an RSS feed, or to download it as a comma-delimited file. This tutorial walks through downloading and configuring ELMAH.

What is ELMAH 1.0 beta 3?

ELMAH 1.0 BETA 3 (Build 10617), the most recent version at the time of writing, is included in the download available with this tutorial. Alternatively, you may visit the ELMAH website to get the most recent version or to download the source code. Extract the ELMAH download to a folder on your desktop and locate the ELMAH assembly file ( Elmah.dll ).

How long does it take to integrate Elmah?

Integrating ELMAH into a new or existing ASP.NET application is an easy and straightforward process that takes under five minutes. In a nutshell, it involves four simple steps:

What is ASP.NET health monitoring?

The preceding tutorial examined ASP.NET's health monitoring system, which offers an out of the box library for recording a wide array of Web events. Many developers use health monitoring to log and email the details of unhandled exceptions. However, there are a few pain points with this system. First and foremost is the lack any sort of user interface for viewing information about the logged events. If you want to see a summary of the 10 last errors, or view the details of an error that happened last week, you must either poke through the database, scan through your email Inbox, or build a web page that displays information from the aspnet_WebEvent_Events table.

How to add elmah.dll to Visual Studio?

Next, open Visual Studio and add the assembly to your project by right-clicking on the website name in the Solution Explorer and choosing Add Reference from the context menu. This brings up the Add Reference dialog box. Navigate to the Browse tab and choose the Elmah.dll file. This action adds the Elmah.dll file to the web application's Bin folder.

What is elmah in NET?

ELMAH is basically a NuGet package for .NET web applications, logging every exception occurring on one or more websites to some storage of your choosing. Unlike other logging frameworks ELMAH will, when configured in its most simple form, log every exception automatically.

How to secure elmah.axd?

To secure access to elmah.axd, ELMAH supports authorization through the authorization feature in ASP.NET. To allow only a single role to access elmah.axd, locate the configuration section for elmah.axd and deny all users except users with the admin role (role name may vary from your setup):

How many error logs can you have in Elmah?

In line 2 a new element has been added. Every error logger in ELMAH is configured using this element. You can only have one error logger per project. The type attribute tells ELMAH what error logger to use. In this case we use the SqlErrorLog class from the Elmah assembly, which we already added through NuGet. Other error loggers may require you to add additional packages. The SqlErrorLog logger requires another attribute named connectionStringName. Again, different error loggers require different configuration to run. The connectionStringName should point to a SQL connection string name ErrorLog:

What does ELMAH.AXD mean?

This means that you're only allowed to access elmah.axd when running on localhost. Like mentioned previously, it's not recommended to set this to true.

What does it mean to store errors on Elmah.io?

Storing errors on elmah.io means that you won't need to host a database yourself and you can make use of elmah.io's rich set of apps and integrations.

Does Elmah.io support logging?

elmah.io supports logging errors from ELMAH too. To start logging errors, you will need to sign up for a free elmah.io trial at https://app.elmah.io/signup/. When signing up, you will be guided through creating an organization and your first error log. During those steps, an API key and a log ID are generated. Make sure to keep a copy these.

Introduction

Once a web application is live, it is very difficult to monitor it round the clock and there can be magnitude of reasons behind any exception / error occurring in application.

Background

I have been working on a web application which has both Web API and MVC and required exception logging on both platforms and since both Web API and MVC have different pipelines, ELMAH implementation required specific changes for each platform.

Implementation in MVC

Create a class inherited by System.Web.Mvc.HandleErrorAttribute and overriding OnException method to log error occurring in MVC application.

Implementation in WebAPI

Create a class inherited by System.Web.Http.Filters.ExceptionFilterAttribute and overriding OnException method to log error occurring in WebAPI.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

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Access Through ASP.NET Authorization

  • So, if the default setting is not being able to access /elmah.axd how do you browse your error logs? Well in fact, combining remote access with ASP.NET authorization rules is your friend. When installing ELMAH, configuration for the elmah.axdURL where added to your web.config file…
See more on blog.elmah.io

What About ASP.NET MVC?

  • ELMAH were originally created for ASP.NET. Different features available in ASP.NET MVC have been causing a lot of head-scratching since introduced back in 2007. Some of you may have struggled with MVC's HandleErrorAttribute as well as getting custom errors and ELMAH working at the same time. In 2011, Alexander Beletsky created the Elmah.MVCpackage to help MVC dev…
See more on blog.elmah.io

Configure Remote Access Using Elmah.Io

  • When using elmah.io, the problem with securing access to /elmah.axd goes away. Even though browsing your log through elmah.axd is fully supported when using elmah.io, we recommend you to access your logs through the elmah.io UI. This is secured behind a login of your choice. If you still want to control access to elmah.axdwhen using elmah.io, the solutions explained above is s…
See more on blog.elmah.io

The Security Element

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The security element located beneath the elmah element provides a single attribute namedallowRemoteAccess: By default, remote access to /elmah.axd isn't allowed, meaning that requesting that URL on everything else other than localhost returns an HTTP status code 403. It is not recommended to open up remote acce…
See more on dzone.com

Access Through ASP.NET Authorization

  • So, if the default setting is not able to access /elmah.axd, how do you browse your error logs? Well, in fact, combining remote access with ASP.NET authorization rules is your friend. When installing ELMAH, configuration for the elmah.axdURL where added to your web.config file: By default, the authorization-element is commented out. If you remove the comment around that el…
See more on dzone.com

What About ASP.NET MVC?

  • ELMAH was originally created for ASP.NET. Different features available in ASP.NET MVC have been causing a lot of head-scratching since it was introduced back in 2007. Some of you may have struggled with MVC's HandleErrorAttribute, as well as getting custom errors and ELMAH working at the same time. In 2011, Alexander Beletsky created the Elmah.MVCpackage to help …
See more on dzone.com

Would Your Users Appreciate Fewer Errors?

  • elmah.io is the easy error logging and uptime monitoring service for .NET. Take back control of your errors with support for all .NET web and logging frameworks. This article first appeared on the elmah.io blog at https://blog.elmah.io/elmah-security-and-allowremoteaccess-explained/
See more on dzone.com

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