W2K3 Ent IIS logging

[GT1999]

I'm running a dual 3GHz Xeon Windows 2003 Enterprise Server with IIS, Plesk, and AWStats. The log files from these apps are getting quite large and crunching through HDD space like mad. It's going through almost 1-2GB a week. Is there any way to minimize this? We want to hold onto the log files in case if we get audited from somewhere, but at the same time disk space will be running low in 4-5 months (20GB+ left on the SCSI disks).

Any suggestions?

Port to a new server with more disk space? The problem with this, is how do I retain NTFS permissions?

 

[nweaver]

setup a scheduled task to delete the logs after a backup. You are backing up, right?

 

[GT1999]

We use rotating tape backups through Veritas, however the tapes are rewritten every other week. The tapes copy the server's full data, so if we removed logs they would also be removed from the tape backups as well.

Unfortunately the guy who setup a lot of this stuff didn't really go over with how it is all setup -- it's a lot of fun trying to figure out how everything is pasted together. (sarcasm) 😛

 

[netsysadmin]

You could use something like EventSentry to port the logs into a database like SQL or MySql. We use it to collect our security logs for seven different servers.

http://www.eventsentry.com/

John

 

[RebateMonger]

You can change the settings of the IIS Event Log files to reduce the types of data being stored. And you can set IIS to create new Log files every day or week. Then move the old log files off the Server to a separate backup device or media once a week or whatever....

I'd probably move them to DVD or a separate USB hard drive if rapid access is required. A 200GB hard drive would last a couple of years, would be near-zero effort, and costs less than $100.