Zipping the logs with LogZip and a scheduled task.
Article created 2011-03-01
by Tom Bergfeld.
This article was written for MonitorWare Agent, but it can also be
applied to EventReporter
and WinSyslog.
By default the log files generated by MonitorWare Agent
using the WriteFile Action are written on a daily basis, so you have
one log file for each day. Over time this can become a huge number
uncompressed log files, so you properly want to archive them automatically to
save disk space. There is no inbuilt method in MonitorWare Agent yet to do so,
but this article will describe how you can archive this goal by using the
Windows Task Scheduler and Adiscon's LogZip.
1. Installing and
Configuring MonitorWare Agent
1.1 Download and
Install MonitorWare Agent
1.2 Setup up basic
MonitorWare Agent configuration
1.3 Configure the Write File
Action.
1.4 Start MonitorWare Agent
2. Zipping the logs
3 Setting up a scheduled task
Final Thoughts
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So if you haven't done so already, go to
www.mwagent.com and download
the latest MonitorWare Agent version. It is always recommended to use the latest
Version of MonitorWare Agent. Once the download is done, go ahead and install
it. You may have to restart after installation, this depends on your system.
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 Start
the MonitorWare Agent client and skip the wizard on startup. In
this article, we will use an EventLog Monitor as source for our File logging,
but you can use any other kind of source. Create a new
"EventLog Monitor" service and
just name it "EventLog Monitor". You can
leave all configuration settings as they are in the screenshot on the right.
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 In order to create
log files we need a Write File Action. Create a new Write File
Action like in the screenshot on the right. The default settings will create
daily log files automatically. You may customize the log format by using the custom "File
format" option. It is important to have the "Create unique filenames" Option enabled, this
will enable the daily written log files.
The log file name for 2011-03-01 would be MonitorWare-2011-03-01.log, and for the
next day MonitorWare-2011-03-01.log and so on.
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 After
you configured MonitorWare Agent, you can start the Service and verify that
the daily log files are successfully written.
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For zipping the logs the first thing you will need is LogZip, a free tool from Adiscon. To download the current version of LogZip please visit
http://www.monitorware.com/en/logzip/index.php
Setting up LogZip is very easy. The only thing you have to do is to download the zip file containing the application and
extracting it to a folder of your choice. No installation is needed and you can directly run the application. Please ensure,
that you have the Microsoft .NET Framework installed (this is standard on Windows XP and above), else LogZip will not work.
To test the LogZip tool open a ‘dosbox’(=‘cmd’ or ’Command Promt’). Switch in this Command Promt to your LogZip folder.
(c:\logzip for example). LogZip has a lot of available options to use as you can find in the man.rtf.
But we need the following command line: logzip –b=c:\temp –e=log –p=* -r=on –s=on
Please note that you have to adjust the temp folder with the folder that is given in your “write to file action”
in your MonitorWare Agent Configuration client. What the single options stand for you can find in the man.rtf in your LogZip folder.
With this command line we zip the logs, in the temp folder, from a day before and replace the log file with a zip file.
This command searches also in every subfolder for .logs to zip them, as example, every given “IP” subfolder in your temp folder.
For automating this we use a Windows feature called “Task Scheduler”.
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For setting up a new task, there are some steps that need to be done. Go to “Start” – “Accessories” – “System Tools” – “Task Scheduler”
1. Open you Task Scheduler window. In there, choose "Create Task…".
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2. A setup wizard will open. You can give your task a name here if you want.
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3. Switch to the tab ‘Actions’(1) and click on ‘New’(2). Another window opens. Click on ‘Browse’ (3) to search for the logzip.exe and
add the command from above in the ‘Add arguments’ field (4) (–b=c:\temp –e=log –p=* -r=on –s=on ). Click ‘OK’ to finish this.
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4. Switch to the tab ‘Trigger’(1) and click ‘New’(2) to setup the time interval for doing the action (zipping).
Another window opens where we can adjust the time for doing the action. Because we want to repeat this action every day we mark ‘Daily’
(3) and select the time when the task should be start (4). Click ‘OK’ for finishing this.
Well, now you have got a small but effective zipping tool.
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We hope this article will help you solving your tasks and shows you the
potential of MonitorWare Agent, and what you can archive with it. Feel free to
email us for recommendations or questions.
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