Setting Verbosity Levels in Memcached using C# (Detailed Guide w/ Code Examples)

Use Case(s)

The verbosity level of Memcached is a useful feature for debugging and auditing. It determines the amount of information logged by Memcached during operation. In some situations, you might want to increase the verbosity level to get more detailed logs for debugging purposes, or decrease it for production environments to reduce noise.

Code Examples

In C#, you can use the Enyim.Caching library to interact with Memcached server. However, direct support for setting verbosity level is not provided out-of-the-box. A common workaround is to run raw commands.

using Enyim.Caching;
using Enyim.Caching.Memcached;

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        using (var client = new MemcachedClient())
        {
            // Verbosity level can be from 0 (least verbose) to 2 (most verbose)
            int verbosityLevel = 2;

            // Use Execute command to send raw command to the server
            var result = client.Execute("localhost", 11211, $"verbosity {verbosityLevel}\r\n");

            if (!result.Result) 
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Failed to set verbosity: {result.Message}");
            }
        }
    }
}

In this example, we're sending a raw command directly to the Memcached server to set the verbosity level.

Best Practices

1. Verbosity levels should ideally be set as low as possible in production environments to avoid unnecessary log growth and potential performance degradation.

2. Always handle any potential failure when trying to set the verbosity level. This includes logging any error messages returned by the Memcached server.

Common Mistakes

1. Not closing the MemcachedClient: Always use a using block or explicitly close the client when you're done with it to ensure all resources are properly disposed.

2. Overusing high verbosity levels: High verbosity levels can generate significant log output and could slow down your application, especially in high traffic environments.

FAQs

Q: What do different verbosity levels mean?

A: Level 0 is the least verbose (only errors are logged), level 1 logs some operational messages and level 2 logs more detailed information about operations.