ConfigMgr Client Enable Verbose Logging Debug Logging | SCCM | Configuration Manager | Endpoint Manager

Let’s understand how to Enable verbose logging & Debug logging for ConfigMgr (a.k.a SCCM) client-side logs. This logging information is helpful in SCCM troubleshooting scenarios. You can get more details about the ConfigMgr Client Logs details to understand the different types of logs available at the client-side.

Once you enable Debug and Verbose logging for the client logs, it provides additional information on error conditions. However, you need to be very careful when you enable these settings in production.

I won’t recommend keeping this logging enabled for a long time on the client’s devices. I would rather enable only for a very short span of time during the troubleshooting.

Enable Verbose Logging for SCCM Server-side

You can log in to the SCCM server and navigate to the registry (You will need to do this for each thread if you want). More details SCCM Server-Side Logging How To Turn On Verbose SQL NAL Logging.

Follow the method mentioned below to Enable Verbose Logging for SCCM Server Components. You will need to enable the logging level to verbose by changing the value to 0.

LoggingLevel = 0

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Tracing\SMS_WINNT_SERVER_DISCOVERY_AGENT

Enable Verbose Logging for SCCM Client

Let’s see how can you enable it on the Windows 10 devices where the SCCM client is installed. Well, you can use ConfigMgr functionality to deploy these registry changes or you can do it manually using a local admin account.

The following table gives you the registry values for enabling verbose logging. You need to change the values of REG_DWORD as I’m going to explain below.

Type of Logging	Values
Verbose	0
Default	1
Warnings and errors	2
Errors only	3

• From Windows 10 device, click Start, and type Regedit. Then, select Registry Editor.
• Navigate to the following registry path
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CCM\Logging\@Global
• Double click on the LogLevel REG_DWORD

NOTE – We recommend you create a backup before editing the registry.

• Click on Decimal options from the base section.
• Change the value data to 0.

• Check and Confirm the value against the REG_DWORD LogLevel is 0.

Registry Entries to Enable Verbose Logging

Here is the option to make your life easy.

• Copy the following text and save this as filename.reg file.
• Double click on the reg file.
• Select the Merge option to change the ConfigMgr client LogLevel to Verbose.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CCM\Logging\@Global]
"LogDirectory"="C:\\windows\\CCM\\Logs"
"LogEnabled"=dword:00000001
"LogLevel"=dword:00000000
"LogMaxHistory"=dword:00000001
"LogMaxSize"=dword:0003d090

Enable Debug Mode

Now, let’s look at the second point to help you in troubleshooting ConfigMgr client issues. Yes, you can enable Debug mode logging to get all the low-level information for troubleshooting.

The following table gives you the registry values for enabling debug logging. You need to create a new REG_SZ value as I explained below.

Type of Logging	String Values
Enable debug logs	TRUE
Disable debug logs	FALSE

NOTE – I won’t recommend keeping this logging enabled for a long time on the client’s devices. I would rather enable it only for a very short span of time during the troubleshooting.

• From Windows 10 device, click Start, and type Regedit. Then, select Registry Editor.
• Navigate to the following registry path.
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CCM\Logging
• Right-click on the blank space as shown below.
• Click on New.
• Select the option called String Value to create the REG_SZ value.

• Enter the name DebugLogging for the new String Value record you created above.

• Double click on DebugLogging REG_SZ value.
• Change the string value TRUE.
• Click on OK.

Restart SMS Agent Host Service

This is the last step you need to perform to start getting new detailed information in the SCCM client log files.

• Start Services.msc.
• Ring Click on the Service called – SMS Agent Host.
• Click on Restart.

Check the log file to confirm whether Verbose Logging & Debug Logging is enabled on the client devices or not.

Resources

• SCCM ConfigMgr How to Turn On Verbose SQL NAL logging
• ConfigMgr Client Logs Details | SCCM
• Enabling Debug and Verbose Logging in ConfigMgr SCCM

Author

Anoop is Microsoft MVP! He is a Solution Architect in enterprise client management with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is a blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. E writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc…