Analog is a very popular Web Log Analyzer that can be installed directly on a Virtual Private Server. Analog will analyze your web server logfiles in-place and then create HTML, text, or even e-mail reports of your web site traffic. Our Web Development Team has made Analog freely available for easy installation on all Virtual Private Servers.

Installation

Connect to your Virtual Private Server via Telnet or SSH, and issue the commands below that match your server O/S.

  • FreeBSD & Solaris [Analog 5.1]
    Execute the following command:

    % vinstall analog

    NOTE: Versions of Analog prior to version 5.22 have a known security vulnerability. If you are using an earlier version of analog, we strongly recomend you update to the most recent version.

Configuration and Usage

Now that the Analog software is installed, you will need to configure it for your Virtual Private Server. The Analog configuration file is installed with the Analog software. Edit the following lines in the Analog configuration file (~/usr/local/analog/analog.cfg) so that they contain the correct information.

LOGFILE /usr/local/etc/httpd/logs/access_log
OUTFILE /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/analog/index.html
HOSTNAME YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME

The LOGFILE parameter designates the path and filename of the TransferLog file on your Virtual Private Server. The OUTFILE parameter designates the file that your Virtual Private Server's web server statistics will be written to. The HOSTNAME paramater indicates the domain name of your Virtual Private Server.

Analog has already been compiled for your use. All that you need to do once the configuration file is ready is run the Analog program to create an HTML page with your Virtual Private Server's web statistics.

% virtual /usr/local/analog/analog

This will create a page with your Virtual Private Server's web statistics at the location and filename you specified in the analog.cfg configuration file. According to the configuration above the page with your statistics would be located at:

http://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/analog/index.html

To have an Analog report regularly e-mailed to you, add something like one of the following lines to your Crontab (the text below should all be placed on a single line):

59 23 * * 7 /usr/local/bin/virtual /usr/local/analog/analog +O- +a | /usr/bin/mail -s "Weekly Stats" user@YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME

This will cause your Virtual Private Server to send you an e-mail each Sunday night at 11:59pm containing your Analog analysis report in ASCII format. For more information concerning Analog command line arguments, see the documentation.

Documentation

Documentation will be installed on your Virtual Private Server when you install Analog. This documenation can be accessed in the following file:

http://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/analog/docs/Readme.html

More Information

More information can be found at the Analog web site.

Please note: the information on this page applies to ITS web hosting plans. It may or may not apply to other environments. If you are looking for a feature described here, or better support from your hosting provider, please consider hosting your site with ITS!

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Naperville, IL 60563
phone 630.420.2550
fax 630.420.2771