What does a guid as error message mean

Question

My ULS log is showing me an error message in the form:

327879a1-e505-4197-8a09-1499914e9a8e Stack trace: at Portal.SP.Branding.BrandingEventReceiver.FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.DoActivationCallout(Boolean fActivate, Boolean fForce) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.Activate(SPSite siteParent, SPWeb webParent, SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, SPFeatureActivateFlags activateFlags, Boolean fForce) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.AddInternal(SPFeatureDefinition featdef, Version version, SPFeaturePropertyCollection properties, SPFeatureActivateFlags activateFlags, Boolean force, Boolean fMarkOnly) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.AddInternalWithName(Guid featureId, Int32 compatibilityLevel, String featureName, Version version, SPFeaturePropertyCollection properties, SPFeatureActivateFlags activateFlags, Boolean force, Boolean fMarkOnly, Boolean fIgnoreMissing, SPFeatureDefinitionScope featdefScope) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.AddInternal(Guid featureId, Version version, SPFeaturePropertyCollection properties, Boolean force, Boolean fMarkOnly, SPFeatureDefinitionScope featdefScope)
..........

What kind of error is that?

To make some things clear:

• This is my own FeatureReceiver - it will programatically set the masterpage and an color theme. The result looks as expected.
• Debugging will not see this error
• The code will just go on - there are verbose ULS entries from the same method, which I wrote before that error and after that error. The expected result will be present after the method.
• The GUID is no CorrelationID - the CorrelationID differs from the GUID
• It is also not any FeatureId - it will change every time the function is called
• The question is what is going wrong and where does this error come from and will this error have side effects

Answer 1

This exception comes from the method named Portal.SP.Branding.BrandingEventReceiver.FeatureActivated(...).

This is not part of SharePoint, but probably belongs to a custom component which is deployed on the server. Only the developers of this component can tell when they throw such exceptions.

My guess would be that the error handling in this component is not perfect, the GUID is the ID of the feature for which the activation failed, while the actual error message is not logged.

Probably you should identify the component which throws this exception (might have a name similar to Portal.SP.Branding) and contact its developers for more information.

Answer 2

What is SharePoint Correlation ID?

The correlation ID is a GUID (globally unique identifier) that is automatically generated for every request that the SharePoint web server receives.

Basically, it is used to identify your particular request, and it persists throughout further communications, if any, between the other servers in the farm. Technically, this correlation ID is visible at every level in the farm, even at a SQL profiler level and possibly on a separate farm from which your SharePoint site consumes federated services. So for example, if your request needs to fetch some information from an application server (say, if you are using the web client to edit an Excel spreadsheet), then all the other operations that occur will be linked to your original request via this unique correlation ID, so you can trace it to see where the failure or error occurred, and get something more specific than “unknown error”.

Using this GUID you can

1. Date & Time of the incident
2. You can filter by the level of the events as well to get a good idea of what’s going on

Debugging

1. Open the Visual Studio project that contains your feature.
2. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project node, and then click Properties.
3. On the SharePoint tab, in the Active Deployment Configuration drop-down list, click No Activation.
4. Open the feature receiver class that you want to debug, and then insert a breakpoint.
5. Press F5 to deploy and debug your solution. In the Attach Security Warning dialog box, click OK.
6. Activate your feature through the browser user interface.
7. Verify that the debugger stops at your breakpoint.

References

1. https://support.office.com/en-nz/article/SharePoint-2010-Correlation-ID-in-error-messages-what-it-is-and-how-to-use-it-5bf2dba7-43d2-484c-8ef4-e059f76e3efa
2. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff798479.aspx

Answer 3

The guid is just a correlation id, a unique exception id in the uls. It does not mean anything. An error happens in you feature receiver. It is hard to say from the stack trace what fails.

I'd suggest to do following:

• Try to debug by attaching your code to the SharePoint process (can be hard to go into the debug breakpoint)

• Try to run this code outside the feature receiver context. Usually I create a dummy application page with a button. Onclick you run your code. Output possible errors to a label.

Think about the order of your actions in the feature event receiver. Perhaps the code uses something that it is not present yet.

Happy debugging.

Answer 4

That GUID is just an identifier for that error/exception. Yes your are right that it is not connected to any feature or any other else.

Answer 5

I'm seeing the same thing as OP. An exception is getting logged. In my case it looks like this:

96741211-490b-4e15-af20-6e272fc64a5e Stack trace: at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.get_Request() at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.GetItem(String strUrl, Boolean bFile, Boolean cacheRowsetAndId, Boolean bDatesInUtc, String[] fields)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFolder.get_Item() [stack trace in my code]

...

That GUID that the message starts with is not the correlation ID for the error. The correlation ID has a different GUID. Like the OP, the message gets logged between a couple statements that don't throw any exceptions, almost as though something in a different thread is throwing an exception, catching it and logging it.