Easily determining the exact error by using Correlation ID in SharePoint 2010

Have you encountered an error that looks like this screenshot below?

Well, if you develop items in SharePoint, then most probably you have seen that not just once but a lot of times unless you are a really good developer that does not commit any mistakes.

Now you are presented with a GUID without any other information so you might be wondering what the hell that means, so you Google your problem and seesome solutions on how to determine what that Correlation ID means by going to the server and in this folder location:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS

and voila! You see a ton of logs that SharePoint had generated over time.

You then open the log specific to the time when your issue happened and to your surprise, the GUID is non-existent. To your dismay, you search other logs that are near the time your issue happened but still there’s no luck. Well, there are other easier means for searching for what you want and that is through the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit v2.0.

That toolkit has some of the tools you need for diagnosing issues like such, plus more; it has Load Testing Toolkit, User Profile Replication, Content Management Interoperability Services, and much more. Viewing logs has never been easier as the results are presented in a meaningful way. So how do I use the tool to check what that correlation ID means? Well, here are the steps:

1. Install the tool in your server or even in your local machine that can connect to that server; the installation file can be downloaded here for free. Once downloaded, the installation is straightforward.
2. Once installed, it is time to create your project. First, find the application on your Start menu, then go to SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit -> SharePoint Diagnostic Studio. Open that, then click New Project, you will then be presented with a screen similar to below. Put your server name on the text box, then hit “Create Project”. Be patient, it will take sometime to process that.



3. Once finished, you will be presented with this screen, with some information. In other slower servers, you might see it a bit later and it will show “building report please wait…”, but don’t worry, it is processing in the background. Also, if there’s no data, it retains that message.



4. Now you can start searching for your issue by clicking the Search button on top.
5. Populate the needed text boxes and hit OK.



6. Now you will be presented with what you are looking for.