Microsoft Sharepoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit eBook

246 Part III: Planning and Deployment
Configuring the Log Files
IIS logging is enabled by default for each virtual server. The recommended log file
format is W3C, which is the default. This enables you to specify which fields are
included in the log file. By limiting logging to the W3C fields that are most important
to your customer, you can limit the log file size and simplify the analysis. Depending
on the amount of traffic to your sites, the size of your log files can begin to consume
valuable memory resources and CPU cycles. You need to balance the gathering of
detailed data against the need to limit IIS log files to a manageable size and number.
The following W3C log file fields are the most important for analyzing Web
traffic for scale-out decisions:
■ User name. The name of the user who accessed the server.
■ Server IP address.
generated.
The IP address of the server on which the log entry was
■ Server port. The port number to which the client is connected.
■ Method. The action the client was trying to perform—for example, a GET request.
■ URI stem. The resource accessed, such as an HTML page, a Common Gateway
Interface (CGI) program, or a script (the most relevant resource for a scaling
decision).
■ URI query. The query, if any, the client was trying to perform. One or more
search strings that the client was seeking to match are recorded.
■ Protocol status. The status of the action, in HTTP terms.
■ Protocol substatus. Records additional status of the action, in HTTP terms.
■ Win32 status. The status of the action, in Windows operating system terms.
More Info For a complete list of W3C log file fields, visit http://www
.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/proddocs/standard
/log_customw3c.asp.
Usage Analysis Processing
Usage analysis processing provides usage reports on Windows SharePoint Services
sites. This information can help you to determine which Windows SharePoint Services
sites and subsites receive the most visitors.
Usage analysis data is taken from the IIS logs on the front-end Web servers and
gathered into temporary files. When usage analysis processing takes place, the logs
are merged into the content databases on the computer running SQL Server. For
more information, see “Configuring Usage Analysis” in the online SharePoint Portal
Server 2003 Administrator’s Guide.