[Web4lib] Moving AWSTATS to a new server

[Michael McDonnell]

McHale, Nina wrote:
> We're moving web servers, and our campus IT support isn't sure what will
> happen to our implementation of AWSTATS when we move. We have web stats
> from the past 4 years in our current setup, and I'm loathe to lose that,
> so I'm asking:
>
> Does anyone have experience with moving web analytics (AWSTATS or
> otherwise) from one server to the other? Are the log files lost? Is
> there an easy way to back them up prior to the move?
>   
If you want to make sure you retain the *reports* that awstats produces
you can simply use a web mirroring program to make static copies of them.

On the other hand, if you want to make sure the report data that has
already been processed will be available to an installation of AWSTATS
on the new servers you just have to make sure you copy some files over.

With AWSTATS there are two sets of logfiles to be considered.  First,
there are the original access logs from the web server.  If those are
being retained on the current server, you should move the historical
logs to the new server for preseveration.  You will need them if you
ever want to reprocess/rebuild your AWSTATS.  Second, there are the
AWSTATS data files.  These represent statistical data visible in the
AWSTATS reports you view, as well as other supporting data (e.g. a cache
of DNS hostnames to enable faster lookups).  These should be copied to
the new server.  The location of these files will depend on how you
installed AWSTATS. 
    If you installed manually (from a source distribution) you probably
have all AWSTATS program and data files in one directory.  You will want
to move the entire directory to the new server.
    If you installed AWSTATS on a Linux server using an RPM package the
files may be in /var/lib/awstats (this is true of many RedHat-based
linux distributions).
    The files you are looking for will have names that start with
"awastats" and end with ".txt" and have a number representing the date
of the data and your domain name in the middle.  DNS cache data are in
files with names that start with "dnscache".

You really should discuss this with your system adminstration staff as
soon as possible.

--
Michael McDonnell