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The Logs Tab
The Logs Tab allows you to configure your access and error logs, view them, and archive them.The Logs Tab contains the following pages:
The View Access Log Page
The View Access Log Page
If you are accessing this page from the Administration Server, see The View Access Log Page in the Administration Server section.If you are accessing this page from the Virtual Server Manager, see View Access Log Page in the Virtual Server Manager section.
The View Access Log page allows you to configure a customized view of the information about requests to the server instance and the responses from the server. You can also view logs through the Virtual Server Manager.
For more information, see the following sections:
About Log Files
The following elements are displayed:Number of entries. Specifies the number of entries to retrieve (starting with the most recent).
Only show entries with. Specifies a string or a character to filter the log entries. Case is important; the case of the string or character specified in this field must match the case of the entry in the access log. For example, if you want to see only access log entries that contain POST, type "POST." If all the virtual servers are logged to one main log file, and you have set up the log file to log the virtual server ID, enter the virtual server ID in this field to get just the entries for a single virtual server.
OK. Displays the log entries in the lower section of this page.
Reset. Erases your changes and resets the elements in the page to the values they contained before your changes.
Last number accesses to access_file. Displays the access log entries with the parameters specified in the upper section of this page.
The View Error Log Page
If you are accessing this page from the Administration Server, see The View Error Log Page in the Administration Server section.If you are accessing this page from the Virtual Server Manager, see The View Error Log Page in the Virtual Server Manager section.
The View Error Log allows you to configure a customized view of the errors the server has encountered as well as the informational messages about the server, such as when the server was started and who has tried unsuccessfully to log in to the server. You can also view logs through the Virtual Server Manager.
For more information, see the following sections:
About Log Files
The following elements are displayed:Number of errors to view. Specifies the number of entries to retrieve (starting with the most recent).
Only show entries with. Specifies a string or a character to filter the log entries. Case is important; the case of the string or character specified in this field must match the case of the entry in the error log. For example, if you want to see only those error messages that contain warning, type "warning."
OK. Displays the log entries in the lower section of this page
Reset. Erases your changes and resets the elements in the page to the values they contained before your changes.
Last number errors. Displays the error log entries with the parameters specified in the upper section of this page.
The Archive Log Files Page
The Archive Log page allows you to automatically rotate your access and error log files at regular intervals. When you archive log files, the server renames the current log files and then creates new log files with the original names. You can archive or delete the old log files, which are saved as the original file name followed by the date and time the file was archived. For example, access might become access.24Apr-04AM.The Archive Log File page allows you to archive your log files immediately or specify days and times when archiving will take place.
When you archive logs, you archive all logs for all virtual servers.
For more information, see Archiving Log Files.
The following elements are displayed:
Internal daemon log rotation. Specifies whether to use iPlanet Web Server internal system daemon log settings for log rotation.
rotation start time. Specifies the time used as a basis to rotate log files and start a new log file. For example, if the rotation start time is 12:00 a.m., and the rotation interval is 1440 minutes (one day), a new log file will be created immediately upon save regardless of the present time and collect information until the rotation start time. The log file will rotate every day at 12:00 a.m., and the access log will be stamped at 12:00 a.m. and saved as access.200104241200. Likewise, if you set the interval at 240 minutes (4 hours), the 4 hour intervals begin at 12:00 a.m. such that the access log files will contain information gathered from 12:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m., from 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., and so forth.
Cron based log rotation. Specifies whether to use the operating system's cron (or job scheduling) facility to schedule log archiving.rotation interval (minutes). Specifies the number of minutes until the next log rotation when a new log file is started. You must specify an interval of at least 30 minutes or more.
Note Before archiving the log files, you must shut down the The NS Cron Control Page (Unix/Linux) from the Administration Server.
Archive the log files now. Archives the log file that is currently being written to and restarts the server when you click Archive. Note that clicking "Archive the log files now" archives both the access and error logs.
OK. Saves your entries.rotate log at. Specifies the time and day of the week on which log archiving will occur. To select multiple times, hold the Control key when clicking on the time.
Reset. Erases your changes and resets the elements in the page to the values they contained before your changes.
The Log Preferences Page
If you are accessing this page from the Administration Server, see The Logging Options Page in the Administration Server section.The Log Preferences page allows you to specify what information is recorded in your server's logs. Server log files can help you monitor your server's activity and troubleshoot problems.
For more information, see Setting Log Preferences.
Note You should not change the log format of a log that is already in use.
The following elements are displayed:
Editing. Specifies a resource to which custom logging is applied. If you choose a directory, custom logging applies only when the server receives a URL for that directory or any file in that directory. If you want to set up logging for individual virtual servers, use The Logging Settings Page in the Class Manager.
Browse. Allows you to browse your file system.
Wildcard. Specifies a wildcard pattern. For information on using wildcard patterns, see Wildcards Used in the Resource Picker.
Log client accesses. Specifies whether to include client accesses in your log files.
Log File. Specifies the absolute path for the access log file. As a default, the log files are kept in the logs directory in the server root. If you specify a partial path, the server assumes the path is relative to the logs directory in the server root.
If you are editing the entire server, the default value for this field is $accesslog, the variable that denotes the access log file for the server and virtual servers in the configuration file.
Record. Specifies whether the server should record domain names or IP addresses of the systems accessing the server in the access log.
Format. Specifies which type of log file format to use in the access log. You can select from the following:
Use Common Logfile Format. Includes client's host name, authenticated user name, date and time of request, HTTP header, status code returned to the client, and content length of the document sent to the client, or
Custom Format. Allows you to create a customized format for your access log. For more information about the parameters you should use for your custom format, see Setting Log Preferences.Only Log. Allows you to choose which information will be logged. You can choose from the following:
Client hostname. The hostname (or IP address if DNS is disabled) of the client requesting access.
Authenticate user name. If authentication was necessary, you can have the authenticated user name listed in the access log.
System date. The date and time of the client request.
Full request. The exact request the client made.
Status. The status code the server returned to the client.
Content length. The content length, in bytes, of the document sent to the client.
HTTP header, "referer". The referer specifies the page from which the client accessed the current page. For example, if a user was looking at the results from a text search query, the referer would be the page from which the user accessed the text search engine. Referers allow the server to create a list of backtracked links.
HTTP header, "user-agent". The user-agent information—which includes the type of browser the client is using, its version, and the operating system it's running on—comes from the User-agent field in the HTTP header information the client sends to the server.
Method. The HTTP request method used (GET, PUT, POST, etc.).
URI. Universal Resource Identifier. The location of a resource on the server. For example, for http://www.a.com:8080/special/docs, the URI is special/docs.
Query string of the URI. Anything after the question mark in a URI. For example, for
http://www.a.com:8080/special/docs?find_this, the query string of the URI is find_this.Protocol. The transport protocol and version used.
Vsid. The ID of the virtual server. You do not need to include this if you are setting up separate log files for each virtual server.
Reset. Erases your changes and resets the elements in the page to the values they contained before your changes.
The Generate Report Page
The Generate Report page allows you to generate a report about a server's activity using the log analyzer. Use the log analyzer to generate statistics about your server, such as a summary of activity, most commonly accessed URLs, times during the day when the server is accessed most frequently, and so on. You can also run the log analyzer from the Server Manager or the command line.
Note Before running the log analyzer, you should archive the server logs. For more information about archiving server logs, see Archiving Log Files.
For more information, see Running the Log Analyzer.
The following elements are displayed:
Server name. Specifies the name of the server for which to generate the report.
Output type. Specifies whether the report should be output to an HTML file or to a plain text (ASCII) file.
Log File. Specifies the log file or files to generate the report from. To select more than one file, hold the Control key when clicking on the file.
Output file. Specifies the absolute path to where the report should go. If you leave this field blank, the analyzer displays the results on the screen. For large log files, you should save the results to a file because displaying the output on the screen may take a long time.
Totals. Specifies whether you want to generate totals for statistics. Choose "Do not generate totals" if you do not want to generate totals for statistics. If you choose to generate totals, specify the items from the following list for which you would like to generate totals:
Total hits. Number of requests the server received since access logging was enabled.
General Statistics. Specifies whether to generate general statistics. Choose "Do not generate general statistics" if you do not want to generate general statistics. If you choose to generate statistics, choose from the following:304 (Not Modified) status codes. Number of times the requesting client used a local copy of the requested document, rather than retrieving it from the server.
302 (Redirects) status codes. Number of times the server redirected to a new URL because the original URL moved.
404 (Not Found) status codes. Number of times the server could not find the requested document or the server did not serve the document because the client was not an authorized user.
500 (Server Error) status codes. Number of times server-related error occurred.
Total unique URLs. Number of unique URLs accessed since access logging was enabled.
Total unique hosts. Number of unique client hosts who have accessed the server since access logging was enabled.
Total kilobytes transferred. Number of kilobytes the server transferred since access logging was enabled.
Find top number seconds of log. Generates statistics based on information from the most recent number of seconds.
Generate Lists. Specifies whether to generate lists. Choose Do not generate any list if you do not want to generate any lists. If you choose to generate lists, specify the items from the following list for which you would like to generate lists:Find top number minutes of log. Generates statistics based on information from the most recent number of minutes.
Find top number hours of log. Generates statistics based on information from the most recent number of hours.
Find number users (if logged). Generates statistics based on information from the number of users.
Find top number referers (if logged). Generates statistics based on information from the number of referers.
Find top number user agents (if logged). Generates statistics based on informationon the user agents, for example, the browser type, its version, and the operating system.
Find top number miscellaneous logged items (if logged). Generates statistics based on information from the number of user.
number most commonly accessed URL. Displays the most commonly accessed URLs or URLs that were accessed more than a specified number of times.
Output Order. Specifies the order of the output. Prioritize the following items from 1 to 3 in the order that you would like each section to appear in the report. If you chose to not generate any of them, the section will automatically be left out.URLs that were accessed more than number times. Displays the URL that were accessed more times than the number specified.
number hosts most often accessing your server. Displays the hosts most often accessing your server or hosts that have accessed your server more than a specified number of times
Hosts that accessed your server more than number times. Displays the hosts that accessed your server more times than the number specified.
Reset. Erases your changes and resets the elements in the page to the values they contained before your changes.
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Copyright © 2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Some preexisting portions Copyright © 2001 Netscape Communications Corp. All rights reserved.
Last Updated May 09, 2002