How to Enable Diagnostic Event Logging for Active Directory Services

ID: Q220940

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SUMMARY

You can enable enhanced event logging for certain Windows 2000 services. This may be useful for debugging purposes. This logging is set to disabled by default because the amount of data that can be logged can quickly fill the event log.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

You may want to enable enhanced event logging if an Active Directory server is experiencing problems related to any of the following services:

Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC)
Performance Counters
Inialization/Termination
Service Control
Name Resolution
Backup
Field Engineering
LDAP Interface Events
Setup
Global Catalog
Inter-site Messaging
Security Events
ExDS Interface Events
MAPI Interface Events
Replication Events
Garbage Collection
Internal Configuration
Directory Access
Internal Processing

To enable event logging, use Registry Editor to change the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Diagnostics

Valid parameters are:

0=None (default)
1=Minimum
3=Medium
5=Maximum

Additional query words: kbfaqw2kds

Keywords : kbtool
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto