HTTP logging to IIS and Apache

Both Apache on Unix systems and IIS on Windows systems log HTTP requests out-of-the-box in file form. Requests to your own website should not only be evaluated and analyzed manually and automatically (e.g. by log file analyzers such as AWStats) on a regular basis to protect against hacking attacks. The paths of the relevant log files in common configurations are as follows:

  • /var/log/apache2/access.log (Example: Ubuntu 12.04, Apache 2.2)
  • C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles\W3SVC1\u_ex<YYMMDD>.log (Example: Windows Server 2012 R2, IIS 8.5)

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