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Performing Data Retrieval

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This section describes the methods that you can use to retrieve input data to load into Message Analyzer. This includes the quickest methods for doing so, such as the Open feature.

Retrieving Data Quickly

There are several methods that you can use to get data into Message Analyzer quickly. You can use these methods to find, load, and immediately display the contents of traces, logs, and other data file types that are described in Locating Supported Input Data File Types. These methods consist of the following:

  • Open feature — the fastest way to retrieve saved data with Message Analyzer is to use the Open feature that is located on the global Message Analyzer toolbar as a folder icon that contains a drop-down list, or you can use the Open command that is accessible from the Message Analyzer File menu. From either of these locations, you can select the From File Explorer command from the Open drop-down list to display the Open dialog, from where you can navigate to and select the files that contain the data of interest.

Note

If you use the Open feature, you can load data from multiple files simultaneously.

Tip

You can also select the From Other File Sources command from the Open drop-down list, to display the File Selector dialog, from where you can target Azure logs as input to Message Analyzer.

  • Drag-and-drop method — you can retrieve saved data quickly by dragging-and-dropping one or more saved trace or log files onto various Message Analyzer locations, for example, the Files tab of a Data Retrieval Session, the Session Explorer Tool Window, or the Start Page.

Important

If you elect to run Message Analyzer in Administrator mode, it can result in varying security contexts between applications. This means that you will be unable to use the drag-and-drop feature to open saved trace and log files in this mode.

  • Windows Explorer method — you can use Windows Explorer application to navigate to and select the saved files from which you want to retrieve data.

  • Recent Files feature — the global Message Analyzer File menu contains a Recent Files list that enables you to quickly display data and resume your work from earlier sessions that you saved. You can quickly open one of the files in the list by clicking it and Message Analyzer will then display its data in the current default viewer.

  • Ctrl+O keyboard shortcut — you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+O to display the Open dialog.

When you use these features to load data into Message Analyzer, the data loading process is immediately invoked in the background and the results quickly begin to display in the default data viewer, for example, the Analysis Grid. For this to occur, Message Analyzer automatically creates a new Data Retrieval Session that is implicitly named based on a default session name, which you can edit to customize as you wish. However, when using the previously described input methods, you can only edit the session name if you click the Edit Session icon on the global Message Analyzer toolbar after the data has loaded into Message Analyzer. The only exception to the automatic startup of a Data Retrieval Session using the previously described input methods is if you have selected a .log file for input to Message Analyzer. In this case, you will need to provide some additional configuration, as described in the next section.

Specifying a Text Log Configuration File

If you are loading data from a .log file, Message Analyzer opens the New Session dialog so that you can specify a built-in Text Log Configuration file to parse the log. However, if you have previously specified a particular configuration file as the default on the General tab of the Options dialog (accessible from the global Message Analyzer Tools menu), this does not occur. Rather, Message Analyzer immediately proceeds to load your log data without opening the New Session dialog. In addition, if you cannot find a built-in configuration file that will successfully parse your log file, you may need to create one, as described in Opening Text Log Files.

Loading Data with a Specified Session Configuration

You can also navigate to trace files or logs that contain the data you want to work with in a Data Retrieval Session, by clicking the Add Files button on the Files tab of the New Session dialog to display the Open dialog. After you select files and click Open to exit this dialog, the files display in the files list on the Files tab of the New Session dialog. At this point, no data is loaded into Message Analyzer, as the files list is only a set of pointers to the files that contain the data you are targeting.

To continue with Data Retrieval Session configuration prior to loading data, you have the option to select specific files in the files list to create a unique collection of messages that you want to analyze, as described in Selecting Input Files for Data Retrieval. Prior to starting your Data Retrieval Session, you also have the option to select a different data viewer from the Start With drop-down list in the New Session dialog; otherwise, your data will be displayed in the data viewer that is set as the default in the Session Viewer section on the General tab of the global Options dialog that is accessible from the global Message Analyzer Tools menu. In addition, if you want to filter the data you are loading to retrieve specific information to focus on, you can do so by specifying a Session Filter or a Time Filter, as described in Selecting Data to Retrieve.

Selecting Input Files for Data Retrieval

When configuring a Data Retrieval Session, you can specify the files containing the target data that will display in a Message Analyzer viewer, by placing a check mark in the check box next to the file names in the files list on the Files tab of the New Session dialog. Message Analyzer keeps track of the Message Count for each file that you add, the number of files available for data retrieval, the number of files you actually selected, and the total number of aggregated messages from all the files selected in the list. Other file attributes are also displayed for each file, such as the Name, Size, File Type, Start Time, and End Time. The current exceptions to this are .etl and .pcap files, for which message count and time ranges may not be displayed in the Data Retrieval Session configuration.

Caution

Loading data from very large input files can impact the performance of the data loading process, especially on 32-bit computers.

Note

If Message Analyzer detects that an input file from which you are loading data was processed with an out-of-date parser, you will be prompted to reparse that data with an updated parser. If you choose not to reparse, Message Analyzer will not open the file. If you do reparse, note that any Bookmarks and Comments in the file will be preserved, but in some cases they might be relocated to the lowest stack message due to OPN revisions that might have impacted the origins tree (messages underlying top-level).

Starting a Configured Data Retrieval Session

When you are ready to load the data into Message Analyzer from a configured Data Retrieval Session and to display it in the default data viewer, click the Start button in the New Session dialog.

More Information
To learn more about using the File Selector and loading data from Azure logs, see Retrieving Azure Storage Blob Data.