Each endpoint in the system can be configured to send audit copies of every message that is processed into a central audit queue. ServiceControl Audit instances consume and store the messages sent to the audit queue and make them available for visualizing message flows in ServiceInsight or ServicePulse.
ServiceControl Audit can optionally forward these messages into an audit log queue for further processing if required.
Data about audit messages is exposed via an HTTP API from a ServiceControl Error instance, which aggregates the data stored in all connected ServiceControl Audit instances.
Connecting ServiceInsight or ServicePulse directly to a ServiceControl Audit instance is not supported.
The ServiceControl HTTP API is designed for use by ServiceInsight or ServicePulse only and may change at any time. Use of this HTTP API for other purposes is discouraged.
Persistence
Each ServiceControl Audit instance stores message data in a RavenDB database. For instances deployed using the ServiceControl Management utility or PowerShell this database is embedded with the ServiceControl Audit instance. For ServiceControl Audit instances deployed using containers the database resides in a separate container.
By default, audit data is retained for 7 days. This retention period can be customized.
The ServiceControl RavenDB server and databases are used exclusively by ServiceControl and are not intended for external manipulation or modifications.
RavenDB versions used
In ServiceControl.Audit version 4.26 and above new instances use RavenDB version 5. Instances created by version 4.25 and below use RavenDB version 3.5.
Upgrading ServiceControl.Audit instances to version 4.26 or higher does not change the database version. Instances using RavenDB version 3.5, when upgraded to the newest version, will still use RavenDB version 3.5. For more details see upgrade guide to new persistence format
Notifications
Each ServiceControl Audit instance sends notification messages to a ServiceControl Error instance.
Endpoint detection
When a ServiceControl Audit instance detects a new endpoint, it sends a notification to the ServiceControl Error instance. The Error instance keeps track of all of the endpoints in the system and can monitor them with heartbeats and custom checks.
Health monitoring
ServiceControl includes some basic self-monitoring implemented as custom checks. These checks are reported in ServicePulse along with other custom checks.
MSMQ transactional dead letter queue
A machine running MSMQ has a single transactional dead letter queue. Messages that cannot be delivered to queues located on remote machines are eventually moved to the transactional dead letter queue. ServiceControl monitors the transactional dead letter queue on the machine it is installed on. The presence of messages in this queue may indicate problems delivering messages for retries.
Azure Service Bus staging dead letter queue
Every Azure Service Bus queue has an associated dead letter queue. When ServiceControl sends a message for retry, it uses a staging queue. ServiceControl monitors the dead letter queue associated with the staging queue. The presence of messages in the dead letter queue indicates problems delivering messages for retries.
Failed imports
When ServiceControl is unable to ingest an audit or error message, an error is logged and the message is stored separately. ServiceControl monitors these messages. For more information, see re-importing failed messages.
Error message ingestion process
When ServiceControl has difficulty connecting to the configured transport, the error message ingestion process is shut down for sixty seconds. These shutdowns are monitored. The time to wait before restarting the error ingestion process is controlled by the ServiceControl/TimeToRestartErrorIngestionAfterFailure setting.
Message database storage space
ServiceControl stores messages in an embedded database. If the drive containing the database runs out of storage space, message ingestion fails and the ServiceControl instance stops. This may cause instability in the database, even after storage space is increased. The remaining storage space on the drive is monitored. The check reports a failure if the drive has less than 20% remaining of its total capacity. This threshold is controlled by the ServiceControl/DataSpaceRemainingThreshold setting.
Critical message database storage space
This is similar to the Message database storage space check. However, in this case, if the drive containing the database has less than 5% remaining of its total capacity, message ingestion on the ServiceControl instance is stopped to prevent data loss, and a failure is reported. This threshold is controlled by the ServiceControl/MinimumStorageLeftRequiredForIngestion (for the error instance) and ServiceControl.Audit/MinimumStorageLeftRequiredForIngestion (for the audit instance) settings.