ASP.NET template disables EF Core SQL logging by default

[Rick-Anderson]

Include your code

Create an ASP.NET Core app with individual user accounts so EF Core is used

dotnet new webapp -au Individual -uld -o RPauth
cd RPauth
dotnet ef database update
dotnet run

Browse to https://localhost:5001/ and create a new account. Click on the link to confirm the account. Note that no SQL is logged.

Add the following to appsettings.json:
,"Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Command": "Information"

No need to stop/restart as appsettings.json is reloaded. Navigate to https://localhost:5001/Identity/Account/Manage can select some of the tabs on the left. SQL output is displayed.

Comment out the following and SQL output stops:

// ,"Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Command": "Information"

Include provider and version information

Using all defaults with .NET 5 or .NET 6

Related: dotnet/efcore#3240

[ajcvickers]

Moving this to ASP.NET since the configuration generated explicitly circumvents the default SQL logging from EF Core by setting the default level for all Microsoft events to Error. We had agreed when this was implemented that EF Core would log SQL at Info, and ASP.NET would show this by default.

[javiercn]

Thanks for the additional info.

I've tagged this as MVC, although its for the team to handle.

@ajcvickers what namespace are the queries logged in from. I imagine we need to add an additional entry to the appsettings.json to mark those logs as info and have the queries show up.

[Rick-Anderson]

I imagine we need to add an additional entry to the appsettings.json to mark those logs as info and have the queries show up.

See SQL Logging of Entity Framework Core
,"Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Command": "Information"

[mkArtakMSFT]

@davidfowl , @DamianEdwards looks like you had changed this area in the past so what do you want to do regarding this?

We've moved this issue to the Backlog milestone. This means that it is not going to be worked on for the coming release. We will reassess the backlog following the current release and consider this item at that time. To learn more about our issue management process and to have better expectation regarding different types of issues you can read our Triage Process.

[davidfowl]

Pretty sure this is by design. We don't want logs showing up as information by default. It's too much noise.

[ajcvickers]

It's by-design that EF Core shows SQL by default. Not doing so leads to things like the stackoverflow question that triggered this. We agreed with ASP.NET that SQL would be shown by default if we logged at Info level.

[Rick-Anderson]

Pretty sure this is by design. We don't want logs showing up as information by default. It's too much noise.

So add // ,"Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Command": "Information"
to appSettings.development.json

See this SO thread, 50K + views, all the ridiculous answers to get SQL logging. Luckily I was able to contact the owner and have him change my answer to the correct answer.

See SQL Logging of Entity Framework Core - Probably documenting it is enough. That just went live today and it's an include file so it's all over the ASP.NET Core EF tutorials.

[Rick-Anderson]

I have extensive anecdotes that customers want to see SQL logging in development, that's fundamentally different than seeing framework logging. The best fix might be enabling it in appSettings.Development.json and then documenting how to turn it off.

What would be really cool and beneficial is adding several useful logging flags // commented out in appSettings.Development.json with a link to a troubleshooting document describing them. I've seen lots of issues opened where the response is, "Enable this flag to debug".

What customers do now, after alot of searching, is enable logging of all of Microsoft*, then start backing off.

We really need a trouble shooting section under Configure logging with details on the important config settings and suggestions.