If you are new to Lighttpd, please see how to install and configure Lighttpd web server.
The Webalizer is a fast, free, web-server log files analysis program. It produces highly detailed, easily configurable usage reports in HTML format, for viewing with a standard web browser.
Statistics commonly reported by Webalizer include: hits; visits; referers; the visitors’ countries; and the amount of data downloaded. These statistics can be viewed graphically and presented by different time frames, such as per day, hour, or month.
Install Webalizer
If you are using Fedora Core or Cent Os, type the following command to install
# yum install webalizer
If you are using Debian Linux Os, type the following command to install
# apt-get install webalizer
Webalizer configuration
Let us see how to configure Webalizer for the domain theos.in:
- Domain name: theos.in
- Webroot: /home/lighttpd/theos.in/
- Webalizer Webroot: /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats
- Webalizer Reports directory: /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/out
- Webalizer configuration file: /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/webalizer.conf
- Webalizer state log file: /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/webalizer.current (This file stored incremental processing state for logs. This is useful for large sites that have to rotate their log files more than once a month [using logrotate] )
- Webalizer the history file: /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/webalizer.hist (keeps the data for up to 12 months worth of logs i.e. you will be able to see last 12 months stats)
Lighttpd log file location: /var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/access.log
To configure Webalizer, copy /etc/webalizer.conf file to your webroot/stats directory. Type the following commands:
# mkdir -p /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats
# cp /etc/webalizer.conf /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/webalizer.conf
Now open /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/webalizer.conf file:
# vi /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/webalizer.conf
Setup LogFile location:
LogFile /var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/access.log
Make sure LogType is set to Lighttpd’s Combined web server log format:
LogType clf
Setup statistics report directory where you want to put the output files:
OutputDir /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/out
Setup the name of the history file:
HistoryName /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/webalizer.hist
Make sure you get stats for last 12 months:
Incremental yes
Specify the filename for saving the incremental data:
IncrementalName /webroot/home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/webalizer.current
Define the hostname of report:
HostName theos.in
Setup DNSCache file name. Use the same file name for all your domains. This will speed up DNS name lookup (you need to create a directory /var/cache/webalizer):
DNSCache /var/cache/webalizer/dns_cache.db
To get accurate stats you need to hide your own site from stats:
HideSite theos.in
In addition, you need to hide your own site from referrals as it gives most referrals:
HideReferrer theos.in
Save and close the file.
Create a directory to store DNS cache file:
# mkdir -p /var/cache/webalizer
Generate test stats:
$ webalizer -c /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/webalizer.conf
Map /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/ directory to url:
Since /home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats directory is out of your default webroot (/home/lighttpd/theos.in/html) you will not able to see the stats by visiting url http://theos.in/stats/. You can take the help of Lighttpd’s mod_alias to map urls. Open your configuration file and type following line:
# vi /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
Append following config directives:
alias.url = (
"/stats/" => "/home/lighttpd/theos.in/stats/out/"
)
Save and close the file. Restart the Lighttpd server:
# /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart
View your stats by visiting http://yourdomain.com/stats/ url . Here is sample stat from my own personal website (Click to enlarge images):
Security
Since your log contains lots of personal information of your visitors (such as IP address, Search string query and much more), it is a good idea to put statistic folder/directory in a password protected directory.
Rotating log files
Finally, you need to configure logrotate to rotate logs files with Lighttpd