How To Analyze Non-Commerce Web Server Log Files

This article describes how to analyze log files from a computer that is not running Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 or Commerce Server 2002. The only requirement is that the log files must be in W3C log file format.

For the purposes of this article, the Web server log files will come from a fictitious Web site and a fictitious Web server. This fictitious server is running Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version 5.0. The URL of this fictitious site is http://noncswebsite.microsoft.com/.

In IIS, the fictitious Web site is named My Custom Web Site. The NetBIOS name of the server is MyNonCS2KSrv, and the IP address of this server is 192.168.5.5. This fictitious Web site logs daily.

To analyze log files, follow these steps:

1.	Install Commerce Server 2000 or Commerce Server 2002 by following the recommended installation instructions for your version of Commerce Server. To view the instructions, visit one of the following Microsoft Web sites: Commerce Server 2000 Installation Guide http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/commerceserver/2000/install/default.asp Commerce Server 2002 Installation Guide http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/comm/comm2002/Install.mspx
2.	Unpack the Blank.pup solution site.
3.	Select Custom unpack, and then click Next.
4.	Select Create a new site, and then click Next.
5.	Name the site NonCSAnalysisSite, and then click Next.
6.	On the Select Resources screen, click Remove All, and then click Add. Select only Business Desk Permissions, App Default Config, and Data Warehouse. These are the minimum resources that your computer must have for this example. Click Next.
7.	On the Global Resource Pointers screen, accept the default. Click Next.
8.	Modify the database connection information as appropriate (for example, specify a computer that is running SQL Server and specify a database) on the Database Connection Strings screen, and then click Next.
9.	On the Select Applications screen, clear BlankSite, and then click Next.
10.	Change the IIS virtual folder of the BlankSiteBizDesk application to NonCSAnalysisBizDesk, and then click Next.
11.	On the Data Warehouse screen, change the name of the Data Warehouse to NonCSAnalysis DW, and then click Next. You can also accept the defaults on this screen.
12.	After the package is complete, click Finish.
13.	Open the Commerce Server Manager Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
14.	Under the Commerce Server Manager snap-in, expand Commerce Sites, and then expand the site that you just created (NonCSAnalysisSite).
15.	Select Applications, right-click Applications, click New, and then click Add Non-Commerce Application.
16.	On the General tab, type the DNS name of the site (noncswebsite.microsoft.com) for the Nonsecure host name.
17.	Because you want to analyze the whole site, type / for the IIS application path.
18.	Click the Web Servers tab. For the IIS Web site, type My Custom Web Site.
19.	For Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) ports, type the correct information based on the configuration of the Web server that the logs are coming from.
20.	For the local domain, type microsoft.com, and then click OK.
21.	Select the non-commerce application that you just created (noncswebsite.microsoft.com). Right-click noncswebsite.microsoft.com, click New, and then click Add Non-Commerce Web Server.
22.	For the server name, type MyNonCS2KSrv, and for the IP address, type 192.168.5.5. Note You can leave the log file path blank. This is the default path on the Commerce Server Analysis server where the Data Transformation Services (DTS) tasks search for logs. This path must be on the local computer or on a mapped network drive.
23.	Select the appropriate log file period based on the configuration of the Web server that the logs are coming from. For the purposes of this article, type Daily. This setting directly affects how the DTS tasks search for log files. Also, the naming convention of the log files is very important. Do not modify the names. Click OK.
24.	Open the SQL Enterprise Manager (MMC), expand Microsoft SQL Servers, expand SQL Server Group, and then expand Your Server Name.
25.	Click Data Transformation Services. Right-click Data Transformation Services and then click New Package.
26.	From the menu at the top of the window, click Task, and then click Configuration Synchronization (Commerce Server). The Properties dialog box for Synchronize Data Warehouse appears. For the site name, select NonCSAnalysisSite. Note You must run the Configuration Synchronization task on a newly created data warehouse and after any changes to the Commerce site configuration have been made.
27.	From the menu at the top of the window, click Task, and then click Web server log import (Commerce Server). The Properties dialog box for Import Web Server Logs appears.
28.	For the site name, select NonCSAnalysisSite.
29.	Select the noncswebsite.microsoft.com application.
30.	Modify the log file path as required. (This path must be the path of a folder that is located on a local drive or mapped network drive that contains W3C log files.)
31.	Click View Log Files. Select all the log files that you want to import. If you do not see any log files, either the log file period is not set correctly or the log file names are not correct. Note Logs cannot be imported while IIS is actively writing to them.
32.	In the Import Web Server Logs task Properties dialog box, click OK.
33.	From the menu at the top of the window, click Task, and then click Report Preparation (Commerce Server). The Properties dialog box for Import Web Server Logs appears.
34.	For the site name, select NonCSAnalysisSite, and then click OK.
35.	Hold down the CONTROL key, and then click Web server log import and Report Preparation. On the Workflow menu, click On Success.
36.	To start the DTS task, click the green Play button.
37.	After the DTS task is completed, you can start and install the NonCSAnalysisBizDesk. You can use the BizDesk to view the predefined analysis reports.

The following is a list of built-in reports that work when only Web logs are imported:

�	Bandwidth Summary (dynamic)
�	Bandwidth Trends (dynamic)
�	Directories (dynamic)
�	Distinct Users and Visits by Week (dynamic)
�	Distinct Users by Day (dynamic)
�	Entry pages (dynamic)
�	Entry path analysis (static)
�	Exit pages (dynamic)
�	General activity statistics (dynamic)
�	Hits by HTTP status (dynamic)
�	Hits by Win32 status (dynamic)
�	Query strings (multi value) (dynamic)
�	Query strings (single value) (dynamic)
�	Top referring domains by request (static)
�	Top requested pages (static)
�	User trends (dynamic)
�	Usage summary by day of week (dynamic)
�	Usage summary by hour of day (dynamic)
�	Usage summary by week of year (dynamic)
�	Usage trends (dynamic)
�	User visit trends (dynamic)
�	Visits by Browser, Version, and OS (Dynamic)

Note For more information about Commerce Server 2000, see the "Adding a Non-Commerce Application and Web Server" section in the product documentation.

For more information about Commerce Server 2002, visit the following Microsoft Web sites:

For more information, see the whitepapers that are located at the following Microsoft Web sites: