Working With Log Files

Help | Content Gateway | Version 8.1.x

Related topics:

Event log files

Managing event log files

Event log file formats

Rolling event log files

Splitting event log files

Collating event log files

Viewing logging statistics

Viewing log files

Example event log file entries

Websense Content Gateway keeps 3 types of log files:

System log files record system information, which includes messages about the state of Content Gateway and any errors or warnings that it produces. This information might include a note that event log files were rolled, a warning that cluster communication timed out, or an error indicating that Content Gateway was restarted. (Content Gateway posts alarms for error conditions in the Content Gateway manager; see Working with alarms, for details.)

All system information messages are logged with the system-wide logging facility syslog under the daemon facility. The syslog.conf configuration file (stored in the /etc directory) specifies where these messages are logged. A typical location is
/var/log/messages.

The syslog process works on a system-wide basis, so it is the single repository for messages from all Content Gateway processes, including content_gateway, content_manager, and content_cop.

Each log entry in the log contains information about the date and time the error was logged, the hostname of the proxy server that reported the error, and a description of the error or warning.

See Websense Content Gateway error messages, for a list of the system information messages that Content Gateway logs.

Error log files record information about why a transaction was in error.

Event log files (also called access log files) record information about the state of each transaction that Content Gateway processes.

Content Gateway creates both error and event log files and records system information in system log files. You can disable event logging and/or error logging. It is recommended that you log errors only or disable logging during peak usage hours.

On the Configure > Subsystems > Logging tab, select one of the following options: Log Transactions and Errors, Log Transactions Only, Log Errors Only, or Disabled.