title: Nlog database target - to use keepConnection or not?
body: <p>I'm using NLog in an asp.net 2.0 application; it gets a lot of traffic and logs a lot of data (average about 5000 log records per day), for both error logging and statistical purposes. It uses two different database targets, each calling a stored procedure, and both with the same connection string (SQL Server).</p>
  
  <p>Having copied the target definition from some documentation, both targets have <strong>keepConnection</strong> set to "true", which is, I know, the default. My question is, <strong>is this desirable?</strong> I do often see many open connections opened by NLog on the database (looking at open processes in activity monitor), and also, I've been sometimes getting connection failures in NLog; I'm tempted to try turning off keepConnection, but I am concerned as well about the high number of open and close operations. I haven't looked at the source code, and I'm not sure I would be capable of answering my own question anyway, so I'm not sure how the connection works relative to the pool that its parent application is in.</p>
  
  <p>Any thoughts, warnings, or advice? I know my question is a bit nebulous - it's just hat I can't find anything more than a bare-bones documentation of this attribute, and would like some feedback on the pros and cons - i.e., why was it put into NLog in the first place?
  Thanks. </p>