AWstats Configuration Example

AWstats is an open source log analyzer. I built up one on a Windows 2003 server to analyze the intranet (IIS server) usage. Here is my step by step how to:

The software version I use in my example:

1) Install Apache, this is where I want to publish my log analysis. You also can use IIS.

2) Install ActivePerl.

3) Install AWstats, during the installation, you need to answer a few questions. (You can rerun the configuration by executing “C:\Program Files\AWStats\tools\awstats_configure.pl”. In my example, here are my answers:

– Apache folder: C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2
– Apache configure file: C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\httpd.conf
– Site name: intranet

4) Verify the following can be found in your httpd.conf file, AWstats installation should have modified it already:

CustomLog “logs/access.log” combined

# Directives to allow use of AWStats as a CGI
#
Alias /awstatsclasses “C:/Program Files/AWStats/wwwroot/classes/”
Alias /awstatscss “C:/Program Files/AWStats/wwwroot/css/”
Alias /awstatsicons “C:/Program Files/AWStats/wwwroot/icon/”
ScriptAlias /awstats/ “C:/Program Files/AWStats/wwwroot/cgi-bin/”

#
# This is to permit URL access to scripts/files in AWStats directory.
#
<Directory “C:/Program Files/AWStats/wwwroot”>
    Options None
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>
#

5) Add “ScriptInterpreterSource registry” into httpd.conf to tell Apache to use Windows environment path.

6) Create the following folders:

# This is log location
C:\Program Files\AWStats\wwwroot\cgi-bin\logs\intranet

# This is the analysis data location
C:\Program Files\AWStats\wwwroot\cgi-bin\data\intranet

7) Edit the awstat config file C:\Program Files\AWStats\wwwroot\cgi-bin\awstats.intranet.conf:

#ex120403.log can be replaced by any string, as long as it keeps consistent in the PowerShell script I will mention in step 10).
LogFile=”C:/Program Files/AWStats/wwwroot/cgi-bin/logs/intranet/ex120403.log”
LogType=W
#Apache-1, IIS-2
LogFormat=2
SiteDomain=”intranet”
DirData=”./data/intranet”

8) Copy the log files from the IIS server “\\ip_address\c$\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles\W3SVC1” into “C:\Program Files\AWStats\wwwroot\cgi-bin\logs\intranet”

9) Install PowerShell, if it is not there.

10) Create a PowerShell script file named genlog.ps1

#genlog.ps1

$items = Get-ChildItem -Path “C:\Program Files\AWStats\wwwroot\cgi-bin\logs\intranet”

cd “C:\Program Files\AWStats\wwwroot\cgi-bin”

$a=”ex120403.log”

foreach ($item in $items)
{
    $old=$a
        $new=$item
    (Get-Content awstats.intranet.conf) | % {$_ -replace $old, $new} | Set-Content awstats.intranet.conf
    echo “Processing this log: $item”
    perl awstats.pl -config=intranet -update
    $a=$item
}

11) Launch the PowerShell script, and it will start to analyze the logs.

12) Go to “http://Server_IP_Address/awstats/awstats.pl?config=intranet”, and it should look like this: