Because logging requirements and transaction volume vary widely, NetIQ cannot make recommendations regarding a specific logging strategy. The following tasks guide you through the process of creating a strategy that fits your business needs.
Identify the reasons for tracking transactions such as customer billing, statistical analysis, or growth planning.
Determine which resources need logging.
You enable logging at the proxy service level. If you have a proxy service protecting resources whose transactions do not need to be logged, reconfigure your proxy services so that the proxy service you configure for logging contains only the resources for which you want to log transactions.
Determine what information you need in each log entry.
The common configuration for a log entry contains minimal information: the date, time, and client IP address for each entry. If you need more information, you can select the extended log configuration. Do not select all available fields, but carefully select what you really need. For example, you can include cookie information, but cookie information can consume a large amount of space and might not include any critical information you need.
You should log only the essential data because a few bytes can add up quickly when Access Gateway is tracking thousands of hits every second. For information about what is available in an extended log profile, see Configuring Extended Log Options.
Design a rollover strategy.
A log must be closed before downloading to another server for analysis or deleted. Specify by time or size when Access Gateway closes a log file and creates a new one. For each proxy service that you enable for logging, reserve enough space for at least two files: one for logging and one for rollover. To calculate the best procedure, see Calculating Rollover Requirements.
Design a log deletion strategy
Access Gateway has a limited amount of disk space allocated for logging, and you need to decide how you are going to manage this space. You can limit the number of rollover files by number or age. To calculate the best procedure, see Calculating Rollover Requirements.