Nginx access log configuration guide, monitor website access behavior

Nginx access log configuration guide, monitoring website access behavior

Nginx is a high-performance web server, widely used to build static or dynamic websites. In the process of building a website, we often need to monitor and analyze website access behavior. Nginx provides powerful access log configuration functions, which can help us monitor and analyze website access behavior. This article will introduce how to configure Nginx access logs and how to use log analysis tools to monitor website access behavior.

How to configure Nginx access log?

Nginx’s access log configuration is very simple. You only need to add a line of log configuration to the Nginx configuration file. Normally, the Nginx configuration file is located at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. The following is an example of a simple access log configuration:

http {
    ...
    log_format access '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
                     '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
                     '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log access;
    ...
}

The above configuration defines a log format named access and outputs the access log to the /var/log/nginx/access.log file. Through this log configuration, we can obtain the client's IP address, access time, requested URL, HTTP status code, amount of data sent, source page URL, client's User-Agent information, and proxy server's IP address.

How to use log analysis tools to monitor website access behavior?

After configuring the access log, we can use log analysis tools to monitor and analyze website access behavior. Two commonly used log analysis tools are introduced below: AWStats and ELK Stack.

1. AWStats is a free log analysis tool that can generate detailed statistical reports. First, we need to install AWStats and configure it. On Ubuntu systems, you can use the following command to install AWStats:

sudo apt-get install awstats

After the installation is complete, AWStats needs to be configured. In the AWStats configuration file, you need to specify the location and file format of the Nginx access log. Make sure the LogFormat, LogFile, and SiteDomain parameters are set correctly in the configuration file. Save the configuration file and exit.

Then, we need to create a configuration file for each website. In the AWStats configuration file directory (default is /etc/awstats), copy the awstats.model.conf file and rename it to the configuration file of the website domain name (such as awstats.example.com.conf). In this file, set the LogFile parameter to the location of the Nginx access log.

Finally, we can use the following command to generate a statistical report:

sudo /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=example.com -update

where example.com needs to be replaced with the actual website domain name.

2. ELK Stack is a set of tools for log analysis and search, including Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana. First, we need to install and configure Elasticsearch and Kibana. You can refer to the official documentation for installation and configuration. Then, we need to configure Logstash to process Nginx access logs and send them to Elasticsearch.

In the Logstash configuration file, we need to define input and output. The following is a simple Logstash configuration file example:

input {
  file {
    path => "/var/log/nginx/access.log"
    start_position => "beginning"
    sincedb_path => "/dev/null"
  }
}

filter {
  grok {
    match => { "message" => "%{COMBINEDAPACHELOG}" }
  }
}

output {
  elasticsearch {
    hosts => ["localhost:9200"]
    index => "nginx-access-%{+YYYY.MM.dd}"
  }
}

The above configuration takes Nginx access logs as input, uses Grok patterns to match the log format, and then sends the processed logs to Elasticsearch.

Restart Logstash to make the configuration take effect, and start Elasticsearch and Kibana. Then, we can create a dashboard in Kibana to display the website's access behavior statistics.

Summary

This article introduces how to configure Nginx access logs and how to use log analysis tools such as AWStats and ELK Stack to monitor website access behavior. By analyzing website access logs, we can understand website access and user behavior, providing important reference for optimizing website performance and improving user experience. I hope this article is helpful in your efforts to monitor website visit behavior.

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