Managing event log files

You can manage your event log files and control where they are located, how much space they can consume, and how low disk space in the logging directory is handled.

Choosing the logging directory

By default, Content Gateway writes all event log files in the logs directory, which is located in the directory where you installed Content Gateway. To use a different directory, see Setting log file management options.

Controlling logging space

You can control the amount of disk space that the logging directory can consume. This allows the system to operate smoothly within a specified space window for a long period of time.

After you establish a space limit, Content Gateway continues to monitor the space in the logging directory. When the free space dwindles to the headroom limit (see Setting log file management options), Content Gateway enters a low space state and takes the following actions:

If the autodelete option (discussed in Rolling event log files) is enabled, Content Gateway identifies previously rolled log files (log files with a .old extension) and starts deleting files one by one—beginning with the oldest file—until it emerges from the low state. Content Gateway logs a record of all files it deletes in the system error log.

If the autodelete option is disabled or there are not enough old log files to delete for the system to emerge from its low space state, Content Gateway issues a warning and continues logging until space is exhausted. Content Gateway resumes event logging when enough space becomes available for it to exit its low space state. You can make space available by removing files from the logging directory or by increasing the logging space limit.

You can run a cron script in conjunction with Content Gateway to automatically remove old log files from the logging directory (before Content Gateway enters the low space state) and relocate them to a temporary partition. Once the files are relocated, you can run log analysis scripts on them, and then you can compress the logs and move them to an archive location or delete them.

Setting log file management options

Navigate to Configure > Subsystems > Logging.

In the Log Directory field, enter the path to the directory in which you want to store event log files. This can be an absolute path or a path relative to the directory in which Content Gateway is installed. The default directory is logs, located in the Content Gateway installation directory.


	Note The directory you specify must already exist. The Websense user must have read/write permissions for the directory storing the log files.

In the Limit field of the Log Space area, enter the maximum amount of space you want to allocate to the logging directory.

When Content Gateway is on a V-series appliance, the size is set to 5120 (5 GB) and cannot be changed.

When Content Gateway is installed on a stand-alone server, the default size is 20480 (20 GB) and the size is configurable.


	Note All files in the logging directory contribute to the space used, even if they are not log files.

In the Headroom field, enter the tolerance for the log space limit. The default value is 100 MB.

If the Auto-Delete Rolled Files option is enabled in the Log Rolling section, autodeletion is triggered when the amount of free space available in the logging directory is less than the headroom. For information about log file rolling, see Rolling event log files.

Click Apply.