Usage analysis lets you track how Web sites that run
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 are being used. Daily log files are
created to track site usage. A flag is set each time a log file is processed.
Log files are not automatically deleted, and the storage limit is 30 files,
with a minimum of 1 file. When the log files reach the maximum limit, no more
files are created until some existing files are deleted.
Usage
analysis data is gathered from the Web servers and is stored in temporary
files. When the log files are processed, the data is merged into the content
databases on the database servers.
Log file management
Log files are by default stored in %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\logs. This folder holds a folder for every Web application, and within these folders, folders for each day. You can specify another location for the log file storage if you prefer.
Usage
data is stored for 31 months. Daily information is stored for 31 days. The log
files will not be deleted, even after processing. Usage analysis processes rely
on the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service to manage the timing of log
processing.
The usage analysis process runs only once a day. When you enable usage processing inOffice SharePoint Server 2007, it starts to collect information about the usage data; however, you can see its reports only after a day. Additionally, the log processing processes a single day's data. Therefore, if you disable log processing for a week but leave the data logging enabled, the next time that you enable processing, only one day's log files are processed.
You
must enable logging on the Usage Analysis Processing page on the SharePoint
Central Administration Web site before you can enable usage analysis
processing.
After
you enable the usage analysis processing, the log files are processed between
scheduled time intervals.
Membership in the Administrators group on the local server computer, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete the procedure to enable usage analysis.
When
you configure usage analysis processing for a server, the processing takes
effect for any existing Web applications. If you add a new Web application later
and you want to monitor its usage, you do not need to enable usage analysis
processing again; this is a global setting that applies to all Web applications
in the server farm.
Enable usage analysis processing
Use this procedure to enable usage analysis processing for your Web sites that run Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Enable
usage analysis processing
On
the top navigation bar, click Operations.
On
the Operations page, in the Logging and Reporting section, click Usage analysis
processing.
On
the Usage Analysis Processing page, in the Logging Settings section, select the
Enable logging check box.
In
the Log file location box, accept the default path for the log file, or type a
new path.
In
the Number of log files to create box, type a value for the number of log files
to keep per Web application.
In
the Processing Settings section, select the Enable usage analysis processing
check box. Specify the time of day to process the usage analysis data by using
the Start and End lists.
By default, the log files are set to be processed every day at 1:00 A.M. You can schedule the usage log to be processed at a more convenient downtime for your Web sites. If your Web sites are primarily used by local employees, for example, you might schedule the log to be processed at night, when demand on the sites is lower than during working hours. If you have multiple servers, you can stagger the processing. For example, you can configure the processing to start at midnight, and stagger it by 15 minutes, so that server1 starts at 12:00, server2 starts at 12:15, server3 at 12:30, and so on.
Click
OK.
