Logfile - Potential Solutions for Weekly Deletion

[cameron]

I just realized when I went to download some logfiles for one of my sites, that the files are only kept for a week before being deleted!

I know that the webalizer output is kept indefinately, but I prefer doing my own logfile analysis, and now I'm in the unfortunate position of realizing I'm missing a bunch of log files....

....so, I'm wondering if it is possible to find solution. If anybody else has any thoughts, that would be great. Here are the possibilities I can think of:

1. I download the logfiles myself on a "just less than" weekly basis. Sure I can do this, but the fact is that I know I'll miss days during weeks when I am busy, or possibly away from my computer (yes, it happens sometimes.) This is not my ideal solution.

2. The server settings be changed so that the files are kept longer than a week. 2 perhaps, or even a month? This would be up to you guys at Vortech, but any longer time would help me on my end.

3. I set up some sort of cron job that sends me the files regularly, probably by email, without me having to do anything. This solution might be the best for each of us, but unfortunately, it is out of my league as far as figuring out how to actually do it.

Any thoughts would be welcome!

[admin]

This has been talked about before.. You should be able to search for the other post on it.

[cameron]

I've been searching for a little while now and haven't found anything. I did find one post just questions whether it is every 7 days or not, but nothing more.

Any further suggestions??

I've been waiting for Urchin4, any estimate on when that is coming admin?

Cameron I'm not sure what software you're using but I am using Webalizer atm and although I haven't used it, it does allows for scheduled events.

[cameron]

Thanks resellme,

I do my log analysis with both Analog and Webalizer. I've found they each offer interesting things.....

You're right about Webalizer having scheduling abilities....I'll look into that as one possibility. I'm just not sure if that would actually download the files I need, so they can also be used for Analog...

Cameron I did some playing around with Webalizer and have got the scheduling working. I have it setup to grab the files from the FTP site but you can have it download the log files before it proccess them as well. On the second setup page you have to specify an FTP client and a comand line (which might be hard to figure out, I would have no idea myself). In any case it is doable.

Out of curiosity what does Analog offer that Webalizer doesn't? I looked quite a bit before I decided on Webalizer, the only thing I wish it had was an easy way to view specific months or days seperatly.

Regards
Nik

[newmem]

I also think 7 days is too short a time for me to download the log files, I believe studying your stats is a very important activity and I do not wish to lose even a day's stats.

I want to download the files from my Win hosting account, is it possible to transfer the files directly to my ftp account before they are automatically deleted? That way I can download the files once in a month rather than once in a week.......

I do not want to keep a scheduler on my desktop to download the files.....I want it to be done from server side without my invervention....

Has anyone found a way to do this?

[Brangwyn]

Setup something like www.smarterstats.com locally to ftp your log files in the background daily for you, then you don't have to worry about it, and you also get a damm good log analyser out of it too.

[newmem]

Originally posted by Brangwyn
Setup something like www.smarterstats.com locally to ftp your log files in the background daily for you, then you don't have to worry about it, and you also get a damm good log analyser out of it too.

Nope, can't it be done without installing the scheduler software on my computer? I want it to be done automatically on the server itself without my or my comp.'s intervention, so that when I get the time or my disk space starts reaching the limit I can download the log files and delete them from disk....

Can't I set up a cron job in my unix account to copy the log files of my windows account?

[Brangwyn]

smarterstats isn't a scheduler it a log anaylser with a built in FTP that you'd run on your local PC which would provide you with a backup of your logs then also.

Sure you could setup a cron job to do almost whatever you want, youd have to write a script to FTP to your windows machines and then just do a PUT to the server and once completed delete the log files.

[newmem]

Originally posted by Brangwyn
smarterstats isn't a scheduler it a log anaylser with a built in FTP that you'd run on your local PC which would provide you with a backup of your logs then also.

Sure you could setup a cron job to do almost whatever you want, youd have to write a script to FTP to your windows machines and then just do a PUT to the server and once completed delete the log files.

I would prefer setting up the FTP.....but problem is I have no knowledge of UNIX cron jobs, any suggestions where to get such a script?

From what I understood, I will need a script which will copy the log files to a different folder. No need of deleting the files bcos I have ample space and they will be automatically deleted once a week anyway.

Then I will need to set a cron job to execute that script regularly. But then the script has to be such that it does not copy already copied files.

I have no knowledge of the writing scripts, any idea where I can get one for free?

If I find one I will post the script here so that the other members can also use the facility of analysing log files in their own computer with a software like smaterstats or webtrends.....

[jmbeach]

there are a bunch of posts about using cronjobs - here's one

http://matrixwebhosting.net/forum/sh...hlight=cronjob

For making copies of windows files (in this case the test log files) you could easily use FileSysObject to do all of this - here's extensive documentation to get you started.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...temobjects.asp

[newmem]

I am not a techie so it would take me a lot of time to first understand FileSysObject and then create a script, does anyone have a ready-made script for copying the log files to a different folder before they are deleted?

I think if someone does create a script like that then Vortech should give a free download of that script to all those who value the log files and do not with to see them being deleted automatically.

I think that will add one more star on vortech

[newmem]

hello? no replies?