Apache Log Viewer
 

General Info
Hello all, Ive decided to release my first semi-hack for the administration side of things.

This script as stated in the name itself is for viewing a specified / sorted Apache Combined Access Log File in vbulletin, but it is very specific.

In general this script will do 3 things, list IP's grouped by total times that IP has appeared in logfile, along with its first access time and its newest, particularly useful for a multitude of things.

In my case, I had a person using a proxy clicker, and I really didnt want to delve into squinting at my Apache Log File to determine which IP's were bad and which weren't so I thought (Hey ! Why don't I make something to count the number of times the IP sent a request to Apache) so yes thats basically what this does, nothing more and nothing less.

If you want to know what IP's are connecting to your server in some situation, and which ones to block - here you go.

Details
This script offers a default (connects per ip) so it filters out the minute connections that normal people have, which you can change in the file, also the script auto builds some higher counts to limit it to. Ie (pp=1000) would limit output to IP's that had atleast 1000 request to apache and so on. Also you can click on an IP to view its Hostname info, if you want that stuff.

Important
As many people know, your access log files can be Massive and thus this script will in most cases for a normal site Not run if your Memory Limit is set too low. Lots of people dont like doing this, but the Memory is released as the script is run, so its not constantly hogging memory, its just briefly using it to load the access log and parse it.

Instructions
Open script in some editor, edit the configurations. Save it, and upload to your webserver in your forums admin directory and point your browser to it. Easy as that.

LogFiles
Please make sure your logfiles are setup generally in this way, if not; tell me how it is, and I will make script able to accept various logfile setups.
You can adjust PHP Memory Limit in 2 ways:
1. Raise your memory limit in the PHP.ini file (i recommend atleast 60 - you may need even more)
2. Raise your memory limit in the Apache virtual host containers for your Domain Name so that the memory limit is adjusted JUST for your domain. (php_admin_value memory_limit 60M) is an example entry for 60 Megabytes.

This looks great! Thanks for sharing with the community :)

How to run this hack?

Regards

Updated Main Post, on what to do.

Looks good Trigunflame. I'll check this out.

Installed but its not picking up any IP's from apache

Cool hack. :) People need to know what you have in your apache error_log depends on how you've set it up in httpd.conf.

Also, a tip is to use logrotate to rotate your log files - if they get too big e.g. over 500 Mb, your server slows down dramatically.

Do you have an example line from your logfile? I can try to make it work for it.

I'm new at this and just bought my first srever. How do I find out where the apache logs file is located and what it is called?

Apache / WebSite Logs

/usr/local/apache/logs/error_log
/usr/local/apache/logs/access_log
/usr/local/apache/domlogs/sitename.com
/var/log/messages
/var/log/dmesg
/var/log/maillog
/var/log/exim*
* = All files starting with exim are important to view and monitor
/usr/local/apache/logs/*
* = All log files inside the above directory are important to view and monitor
/usr/local/cpanel/logs/*
* = All log files inside the above directory are important to view and monitor
Server Login/Access Logs
/var/log/secure
/var/log/logins_log
CPanel Logs
/usr/local/cpanel/logs/access_log

How do I view these logs?

Login to SSH as root, or as another user and su to root.
pico -w <log file path & name here>
Example: pico -w /var/log/maillog
To view the files inside the * directories you simply type.
cd <directory>
ls

View your logs in realtime

tail -f <complete_file_name>