Web Logs

R

riley

Perch
After loading my sites to the new server, and running them with the immediate access URL in control panel (new dns entries have not yet propagated), I took a look at the web logs. They seem different from the web logs on the old server -- the fields are in a different order and some are not included. Status codes are now at the end of the line, ClientIP now follows the RequestURL, and SessionID is absent.

Will the log file format on the new server stay the way it is, or are you going to change it to the format used on the old server?

Thanks
 
Actually the format of IIS logs doesn't matter, any log-parsing program today knows (or should!) how to deal with it. The format is simple - follow the column names, that's all. So why it matters if you get some fields on other places?
 
StPatrick said:
Actually the format of IIS logs doesn't matter, any log-parsing program today knows (or should!) how to deal with it. The format is simple - follow the column names, that's all. So why it matters if you get some fields on other places?
Click to expand...

I often look at the raw logs and it's easier to use them with the fields in the order they were in on the old server.
However, the more important issue is that some of the fields that were in the logs on the old server are not included in the logs on the new server. For example, cs(Referer), of all things, does not appear in the logs on the new server.

Here are column headers from the old and new logs:
Old Log:
#Fields: date time c-ip cs-username s-sitename s-computername s-ip s-port cs-method cs-uri-stem cs-uri-query sc-status sc-win32-status sc-bytes cs-bytes time-taken cs-version cs(User-Agent) cs(Cookie) cs(Referer)
New Log:
#Fields: date time s-ip cs-method cs-uri-stem cs-uri-query s-port cs-username c-ip cs(User-Agent) sc-status sc-substatus sc-win32-status

I think we are missing some important information...
 
riley said:
I think we are missing some important information...
Click to expand...

I did a little experiment and got some interesting results. I turned on Webalizer in Control Panel and then turned it back off (I don't use it). Now the web logs contain the same information as the logs on the old server, although still in a different order.
It seems Webalizer updates the log settings to ensure it has what it needs.

Is it possible to let customers control their own log file settings? Perhaps in a future version of Control Panel?
 
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