I've used Apache for years and I've taken for granted that it handles log rotation for me. I've been digging through the IIS config and googling, but I can't find an option for IIS to turn on log rotation.
What is the preferred way to configure IIS to delete logs past a certain threshold? Are there any products out there that do this for you? What do enterprisy Windows shops do?
Configuration: IIS 6.0 / Windows Server 2003 32-bit
There's no built in mechanism to handle log rotation or archiving. There may be third party products to handle this chore or you could script something and configure a scheduled task. I have only a handfull of IIS servers so I just set up a recurring Task in Outlook to remind me monthly to delete IIS log files older than 30 days.
Check: http://www.700c.dk/?code-iis-log-housekeeping
A bunch of scripts are available, which you can add in the scheduled task = logrotation :)
Have a look at the IIS Logs tool (http://www.iislogs.com/). There are a couple of different ways to install this and does a very effective job at managing IIS and other log files (compress files to .zip format, move them to different locations, delete files past a certain date, etc.).
Setup a scheduled task to use robocopy to copy the files to a subdirectory named "old". It has a switch, /minage:x that you can set to 30,60, or whatever you feel. Then delete everything in that directory. I'm doing it this way on a couple dozen servers, and it seems to do the trick.
The other answers are good, and offer a more robust solution to this problem. If you just need a quick fix, you can setup CCleaner to automatically clean your logs folder each time you login, or on a schedule.
Keep in mind, though, that this deletes all logs, not just aging files.
I followed these instructions but added that I wanted it to run even when the user was logged off, as is the normal case on a server.
I recently posed this same question on the Powershell.org forum. Then ended up posting a hack of a Script Resource for Desired State Configuration, that I will be using to solve my need for a log purging routine. Maybe some of this code will be useful to others.
# Requires an E: drive.
configuration LogDirectory
{
param (
[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[string[]]$Node
)
node $Node
{
Script LogDirectoryScript
{
GetScript = {
$result = (Test-Path 'E:\log') -and (schtasks.exe /query /TN Purge_Log_Folder | Select-String Purge_Log_Folder -Quiet)
return @{
GetScript = $GetScript
SetScript = $SetScript
TestScript = $TestScript
Result = $result
}
}
SetScript = {
Write-Verbose 'Creating log directory.'
if ( -not (Test-Path 'E:\log')) {
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path 'E:\log'
}
Write-Verbose 'Changing permissions to log directory such that any user can write, but only an administrator can read or modify.'
$acl = (Get-Item 'E:\log').GetAccessControl('Access')
$acl.AddAccessRule((New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule('Users','Write', 'Allow')))
Set-Acl -Path 'E:\log' -AclObject $acl | Out-Host
Write-Verbose 'Scheduling purge task.'
$script = 'Get-ChildItem E:\log\* -Include ex*.log -Recurse | Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7)} | Remove-Item'
Set-Content -Path C:\Windows\Purge_Log_Folder.ps1 -Value $script
$task = 'Powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -File C:\Windows\Purge_Log_Folder.ps1'
SCHTASKS /CREATE /TN Purge_Log_Folder /TR $task /SC DAILY /ST 23:59 /RU SYSTEM /F | Out-Host
Write-Verbose 'Configuring IIS'
# Default Log File Settings for Web Sites <logFile>
# http://www.iis.net/configreference/system.applicationhost/sites/sitedefaults/logfile
Import-Module WebAdministration
Set-WebConfigurationProperty '/system.applicationHost/sites/siteDefaults' -name logFile -value @{
directory = 'E:\log'
localTimeRollover ='true'
period = 'Hourly'
}
}
TestScript = {
(Test-Path 'E:\log') -and (schtasks.exe /query /TN Purge_Log_Folder | Select-String Purge_Log_Folder -Quiet)
}
}
}
}
LogDirectory
You could do this with a scheduled task and a batch file.
forfiles -p "C:\Path\To\Log\Files" -m *.* /D -30 /C "cmd /c del @path"
I use below Windows batch script to compress and then delete the log files.
Note: 7zip https://www.7-zip.org/download.html software is required.
@echo off
:: process files older than 1 day
FORFILES /P C:\PATH\TO\LOGS\ /D -1 /M *.log /C "cmd /c ^0x22C:\Progra~1\7-Zip\7z.exe^0x22 a ^[email protected]^0x22 ^0x22@path^0x22 -sdel"
:: process files older than 6 days
FORFILES /P C:\PATH\TO\LOGS\ /D -6 /M *.log /C "cmd /c ^0x22C:\Progra~1\7-Zip\7z.exe^0x22 a ^[email protected]^0x22 ^0x22@path^0x22 -sdel"
Create a scheduled task to run the above batch script at desired schedule, preferably at mid-night.
IIS 7 introduces a configuration to periodically clear binary log files. For more information look at period in the following link:
http://www.iis.net/configreference/system.applicationhost/log/centralbinarylogfile
