Installation¶

Prerequisites¶

Windows 7 or later (the forwarder uses Windows Forms and Windows-specific APIs)
.NET 9.0 SDK for building from source
Archestra / System Platform log files (.aaLog) on the machine

Building from Source¶

Clone the repository and build the solution:

git clone https://github.com/j-337/aaLog.git
cd aaLog
dotnet build aaLog.sln

The forwarder executable is produced at:

aaLogForwarder\bin\Debug\net9.0-windows\aaLogGUITester.exe

To build a release version:

dotnet build aaLog.sln -c Release

Publish as Self-Contained¶

To create standalone deployments that do not require the .NET runtime to be installed on the target machine:

Syslog Forwarder (GUI)¶

dotnet publish aaLogForwarder\aaLogGUITester.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained

Output: aaLogForwarder\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\win-x64\publish\

Elastic FileBeat Service¶

dotnet publish aaLogElasticFileBeat\aaLogElasticFileBeat.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained

Output: aaLogElasticFileBeat\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\win-x64\publish\

To install the service after publishing:

sc.exe create aaLogElasticFileBeat binPath="C:\Program Files\aaOpenSource\aaLogElasticFileBeat\aaLogElasticFileBeat.exe" start=auto
sc.exe start aaLogElasticFileBeat

Single-File Deployment¶

For a single executable with no loose DLLs:

dotnet publish aaLogForwarder\aaLogGUITester.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained /p:PublishSingleFile=true

MSI Installer (Elastic FileBeat Service)¶

The solution includes a WiX 5 installer project that produces an MSI for the ElasticFileBeat service. To build it, install the WiX Toolset v5 and run:

dotnet build aaLogElasticFileBeat-setup\aaLogElasticFileBeat-setup.wixproj -c Release

The MSI installs the service to C:\Program Files\aaOpenSource\aaLogElasticFileBeat\, registers it as an auto-start Windows service, and handles upgrades automatically.

File Layout¶

After building, the output directory contains:

File	Purpose
`aaLogGUITester.exe`	The forwarder application
`aaLogReader.dll`	Log reading library
`log.config`	log4net logging configuration
`app.config`	Application configuration
`Newtonsoft.Json.dll`	JSON serialization
`log4net.dll`	Logging framework

Log Directory¶

The forwarder reads .aaLog files from the Archestra log directory. The location is resolved automatically in this order:

Value set in OptionsStruct.LogDirectory (if configured programmatically)
Windows registry: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ArchestrA\Framework\Logger → LogDir
%ProgramData%\ArchestrA\LogFiles (if the directory exists)
Hardcoded fallback: C:\ProgramData\ArchestrA\LogFiles

No configuration is needed if System Platform is installed with default paths.