Linux: Install Urchin 6 Web Analytics Software

Web analytics is the study of online behaviour in order to improve it. There are two categories; off-site and on-site web analytics. Google's Urchin 6 can be installed under Linux kernel 2.6 or 2.4 for Apache web log analysis. Urchin 6 is just like Google Analytics the most widely used hosted web analytics system. It is targeted at ecommerce or enterprise users:

Urchin Software from Google analyzes traffic for one or more websites and provides easy-to-understand reports on your visitors - where they come from, how they use your site, what converts them into customers, and much more. If you have content behind a security firewall or on an intranet or internal network that prevents you from using the Google Analytics service, Urchin Software from Google is for you.

In this small tutorial you will learn about installing Urchin 6 Web Analytics under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x.

Step #1: Download Urchin 6

Visit offical site to grab latest Urchin 6 for Linux kernel 2.6. You can also use wget command as follows:
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://dl.google.com/urchin/current_urchin6_linux2.6_kernel.zip

Step #2: Create MySQL database to store urchin data

First, connect to mysql server, enter:
$ mysql -h server-ip -u root -p
OR
$ mysql -u root -p
Once connected type the following two command to create urchin database:
mysql> create database urchin character set utf8;
Create urchin user and grant all permissions:
mysql> GRANT ALL ON urchin.* to 'urchin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'mySecreteUrchinPassword';
mysql> quit;

Step #3: Install Urchin

Untar urchin software:
$ unzip current_urchin6_linux2.6_kernel.zip
$ mkdir urchin
$ tar -zxvf urchin6402_linux2.6_kernel.tar.gz -C urchin
Install urchin software, enter:
$ cd urchin
$ ./install.sh
Follow on screen instructions, at the end you should see information as follows:

Installation Directory: /usr/local/urchin
Webserver Port: 9999
Webserver User: nobody
Webserver Group: nobody
SQL Server Type: mysql
SQL Server: 127.0.0.1
SQL Port: 3306
SQL Database: urchin
SQL User: urchin
SQL Password: (set but not displayed)
Initialize configuration database during install: Yes
Automatic monthly geodata updates: Yes
Start Webserver and Scheduler: Yes
Please select continue or exit [Default: 1]
   1. Continue
   2. Exit
Installing Urchin
Configuring Urchin to use existing SQL server
-- Initializing SQL database for Urchin
-- Configuring SQL parameters in urchin.conf
Creating webserver configuration
Setting file ownership and permission
Starting the Urchin webserver and scheduler daemon
Urchin webserver started on port 9999
Urchin SLAVE scheduler started
Urchin MASTER scheduler started
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Installation Complete
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Urchin administrative interface should be ready to use at
http://sun.simplyguide.org:9999/
To start or stop the Urchin webserver or scheduler, run 'urchinctl start'
or 'urchinctl stop' from the installation bin directory.
The administrative interface default username is admin and the password
is urchin.  A wizard will direct you through the process of licensing
the product and changing the default password.  We strongly recommend
that you change the default value to something more secure.

Configure Urchin

You need to open default port using iptables. A sample rule, adjust it according to your setup:
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i ${PUB_IF} -p tcp --destination-port 9999 -j ACCEPT
Next, type the following url to start the Urchin administrative interface:
http://your-server-ip.com:9999/
OR
https://your-server-ip.com:9999/

Fig.01: Urchin 6 Login Screen

The default username is admin and the password is urchin. A wizard will direct you through the process of licensing the product and changing the default password. You must obtained license from Urchin software authorized consultants.

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