Apache Log file analyzer Using Awstats in Debian

 Webserver  Add comments
Jun 042007
 

    AWStats is a free powerful and featureful tool that generates advanced web, streaming, ftp or mail server statistics, graphically. This log analyzer works as a CGI or from command line and shows you all possible information your log contains, in few graphical web pages. It uses a partial information file to be able to process large log files, often and quickly. It can analyze log files from all major server tools like Apache log files (NCSA combined/XLF/ELF log format or common/CLF log format), WebStar, IIS (W3C log format) and a lot of other web, proxy, wap, streaming servers, mail servers and some ftp servers.

    Install awstats in Debian

    #apt-get install awstats

    This will complete the installation

    Configuring Awstats

    Now you need to Run the awstats configure script located at cd /usr/share/doc/awstats/examples/awstats_configure.pl to setup awstats for the domain you want to monitor. You need to repeat the configuration process for each domain you want to monitor.

    perl /usr/share/doc/awstats/examples/awstats_configure.pl

    when this script starts it will prompt for some configuration questions first one is setup from non standard directory type yes and press enter

    Webserver install location type /etc/apache2/httpd.conf and press enter

    Need to create new config file type y and press enter

    Define config file path as default one and and press enter

    This will complete the configuration script setup

    Now you need to set up an alias for awstats-icons in httpd.conf. Inserted it in the Aliases section. The awstats_configure.pl script adds it in the end of httpd.conf you need to comment or remove it.

    Your entry for /awstats-icon/ in the Aliases section should look like:

    Alias /awstats-icon/ /usr/share/awstats/icon/
    <Directory /usr/share/awstats/icon>
    Options None
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    </Directory>

    Now you can restart apache using the following command

    #/etc/init.d/apache2 reload

    Now you need to configure for domain configuration file located at /etc/awstats/awstats.full-domain-name.conf and change the following parameters save and exit the file

    1)LogFile="/var/log/apache/access.log"

    to

    LogFile="/var/log/apache2/access.log"

    2)LogFormat=4

    to

    LogFormat=1

    3)SiteDomain=" "

    to

    SiteDomain="your domain name"

    Generate stats the first time by using the following command

    #/usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=awstats.full-domain-name.conf
    Update for config "/etc/awstats/awstats.full-domain-name.conf"
    With data in log file "/var/log/apache2/access.log"...
    Phase 1 : First bypass old records, searching new record...
    Searching new records from beginning of log file...
    Phase 2 : Now process new records (Flush history on disk after 20000 hosts)...
    Jumped lines in file: 0
    Parsed lines in file: 1585
    Found 0 dropped records,
    Found 0 corrupted records,
    Found 0 old records,
    Found 1585 new qualified records.

    You can now check the stats in your browser by point it to http://serverip/cgi-bin/awstats.pl?config=full-domain-name.You should see similar to the following screen

    Cron Job Setup

    If you want to get your website stats update every 5min you can use the following command

    */5 * * * * www-data [ -x /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -a -f /etc/awstats/awstats.conf -a -r /var/log/apache2/access.log ] && /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=full-domain-name -update >/dev/null

    Possible error and Solution

    When run awstats config script at the end you might see similar to the following error

    Error

    -----> Create config file ‘/etc/awstats/awstats.Test.conf'
    Error: Failed to open ‘/usr/share/doc/awstats/examples/wwwroot/cgi-bin/awstats.model.conf' for read.

    Solution

    make sure you unzipped the awstats.model.conf file:

    gunzip /usr/share/doc/awstats/examples/awstats.model.conf.gz

    Then, edit

    /usr/share/doc/awstats/examples/awstats_configure.pl

    where you will find some important parameters near head of file, which are meant to be edited by package maintainers. Unfortunately this seems not to have happened for Debian.

    Note:- You also may have to modify these paths in the generated apache2.conf manually afterwards.

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       Posted by at 8:50 am
      • http://engagemedia.org Lachlan Musicman

        Hola,

        I’ve got a successful Awstats install that I created using roughly the same procedure. I might have followed the debianhelp instructions though…

        I was wondering if you know much about the cron part?

        I can’t seem to get the cron working. I don’t have a special cron for awstats – I’ve got my logrotate set up as follows:

        /var/log/apache2/*.log {
        weekly
        missingok
        rotate 52
        compress
        delaycompress
        notifempty
        create 644 root adm
        sharedscripts
        prerotate
        /path/to/awstats_buildstaticpages.pl -config=engagemedia
        .org -update -awstatsprog=/path/to/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -dir=/path/to/awstats/ -buil
        ddate=%YY%MM%DD
        endscript
        postrotate
        if [ -f /var/run/apache2.pid ]; then
        /etc/init.d/apache2 restart > /dev/null
        fi
        endscript
        }

        If I run “logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf from the command line, it works fine, but cron wont run it, despite logrotate being in /etc/cron.daily?

        less /etc/cron.daily/logrotate

        #!/bin/sh

        test -x /usr/sbin/logrotate || exit 0
        /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf

        Help appreciated

      • Gabriel Filion

        Lachlan: even though your logrotate runs daily, you have set the config “weekly” in your logrotate file for apache. it will thus rotate only once every week. change it to “daily” if you want dayly rotation of your logs.

      • http://sgautomatizacion.dynalias.com Jaime Alberto Silva

        Is there an updated tutorial on this topic? I’m using Debian testing (sept 2009) and I’ve found that there is no wwwroot directory in /usr/share/doc/awstats/examples. I’ve also found that the awstats_configure.pl paths are still not changed by package maintainers.

        Is there an easier to configure tool for web log analysis?

      • Daniel

        The following line above is wrong:

        #/usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=awstats.full-domain-name.conf

        should be:

        #/usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=full-domain-name

        CU

      • Vinny

        Hi,

        I’m using Debian 6 and Lighttpd as webserver and tomcat as App server. When I install AWstats, /usr/local/awstats folder is not being created. What is the work around for it?

      • Cord Theseeker

        Like most Linux packages, you need eleven million configuration steps. I go this working, but holy f**k! Does nobody in linux development land think about usability?

      • Michael

        This tutorial fails horribly already in the first couple of steps on Debian Squeeze.

        Definitely OUTDATED as of October 27th 2012

      • Ray Jenson

        This tutorial is accurate as of 2007… can we pray for an updated tutorial?

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