Determining Logging Requirements; Calculating Rollover Requirements - Novell ACCESS MANAGER 3.1 SP2 - ACCESS GATEWAY GUIDE 2010 Manual

4.3.1 Determining Logging Requirements

Because logging requirements and transaction volume vary widely, Novell 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.
1 Identify the reasons for tracking transactions such as customer billing, statistical analysis, or
growth planning.
2 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.
3 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 the Access
Gateway is tracking thousands of hits every second. For information about what is available in
an extended log profile, see
4 Design a rollover strategy.
A log must be closed before it can be downloaded to another server for analysis or deleted. You
specify either by time or size when the Access Gateway closes a log file and creates a new one.
For each proxy service that you enable for logging, you need to reserve enough space for at
least two files: one for logging and one for rollover. To calculate the best procedure, see
Section 4.3.2, "Calculating Rollover Requirements," on page
5 Design a log deletion strategy
The 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
Requirements," on page

4.3.2 Calculating Rollover Requirements

You can have the Access Gateway roll over log files based on time or on size, but not both. If you
already know which option you want to use, scan this section and then complete only the
calculations pertinent to your choice. If you don't know which option best matches your situation,
completing the calculations in this section should help you decide.
The following variables are used in the formulas:
logpartition_size: The total disk capacity reserved for log files on the Access Gateway.
The Access Gateway Appliance reserves 4 GB to share between logging and system files. The
system files do not grow significantly, so you can assume that you have about 2 GB for
logging. To increase this size, see
page 140.
132 Novell Access Manager 3.1 SP2 Access Gateway Guide
Section 4.3.5, "Configuring Extended Log Options," on page
132.
Section 4.3.6, "Configuring the Size of the Log Partition," on
132.
Section 4.3.2, "Calculating Rollover
137.