IISLogs component overviewExecutive SummaryIISLogs is a program written using the Microsoft .NET Framework. It's developed to help effectively manage all log files related to Microsoft Internet Information Server 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0. No more writing and supporting your own custom scripts. There are two products to chose from, (Stand-alone EXE or a Windows Service version). IISLogs is developed to automatically compress, copy and remove log files on a scheduled basis. In keeping with best practices for a secure IIS server, IISLogs by default runs in a low privileged account (LOCAL SERVICE) and does NOT require administrative privileges. Install, Configure, Forget! Technical OverviewInformation Technology professionals are always being asked to do more with less, one of the biggest challenges in companies is day-to-day systems administration. If a company is running servers with Internet Information server, log files are usually being created every day. IIS does not provide a built-in mechanism to manage log files, this is where IISLogs comes in. One of the industry practices is to have the operating system on one partition (C:\) and data on another drive (D:\). This means the C: drive is specific one size and the D: is much larger to hold data and log files. The default setting in IIS uses %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\Logfiles, this means the log files are on the same partition normally reserved for the operating system. If left unattended, this could fill up the OS partition and cause issues. Medium/Large companies and Internet Service Providers (ISP's) normally would customize IIS to store log files in other file locations. IISLogs is flexible enough to handle custom directories. What does *Manage* log files mean?
How does IISLogs benefit me? How hard is IISLogs to configure?
What other security features does IISLogs have?
What type of reporting does IISLogs
provide? IISLogs offers two types of reporting, the first
option is IISLogs creates delimited files stored locally on each
computer. This provides the ability to import these files into a
database for more extensive reporting. The second feature is an
email-based summary reporting. When IISLogs runs, an email can be sent to
an email address with the following details listed below. Such items as
numbers of directories processed, numbers of files processed, Size of
directories before processing and after, and how long the process took.
In conclusion, the goal of IISLogs is to provide a secure, flexible program to manage log files. This can relieve one more thing that doesn't have to be concerned with when it comes to administration of computer systems. Log files are what we like to call, the silent disk killer, at first they are small, don't take up much space. As time goes on, more and more disk space is taken up eventually take up more than they should and even at times the entire hard drive. This can cause un-needed issues that are easily preventable IISLogs can be integrated into any based image of a machine providing out of the gate a managed log file solution. Hopefully this article has given insight the purpose IISLogs is trying to accomplish. About IISLogs Founded by Steve Schofield (ASP.NET - MVP, ASPInsider, IISAnswers.com (co-editor), ASPFree.com creator), IISLogs is part of IISLogs, LLC. Steve brings over 4 years of real-world, practical experience using .NET technology. His involvement in .NET dates back to pre-beta & beta days of .NET 1.0 framework. As webmaster of ASPFree.com, his website was the 1st to run the .NET framework and ASP.NET in a production environment. His *day job* is being an administrator/systems engineer for a large Microsoft environment. Any questions, comments Steve can be reached at steve@deviq.com or his blog @ http://weblogs.asp.net/steveschofield |