errorlog

The SQL Server error log folder is increasingly used to store other files such as the System Health monitor’s XEL event files as well as the default location for Extended Event traces. I’ve seen some really creative approaches to getting this information over the years, so I thought I’d share my slightly more boring version which works as far back as SQL Server 2008: /* Script to get the error log directory (pre-SQL Server 2012) */ declare @logpath nvarchar(1024) select @logpath = convert(nvarchar(1024),serverproperty('errorlogfilename')) select @logpath = left(@logpath, (len(@logpath) - charindex('\\',reverse(@logpath)))) select @logpath as errorlogfolder There’s not much to it because it’s using the ErrorLogFilename property of the SERVERPROPERTY function to do most of the groundwork.

The SQL Server Error log At some point every DBA will have had to look at the current SQL Server error log using their favourite text editor. However, as the default error log file is literally just called errorlog (with no file extension), there’s the awkward process of selecting the application with which to open the file every time you need to view it, with no option to associate errorlog with your favourite text editor thanks to the lack of file extension.