Professional Microsoft IIS 8

Configuring Logging

Windows Server 2012 ships with several modules that add a great deal of richness to the logging ability of IIS 8.0. The following table describes the default logging modules:

Note

In this chapter, we look at logging from HTTP requests that are passed to the web server core for processing. Logging for diagnostics will only be touched as to where logs are configured to be stored. Further details on analyzing these logs are in Chapter 23, “Diagnostics and Troubleshooting.”

IIS 7.0 first introduced the options of logging only failed requests, successful requests, or all requests that are processed. On a global configuration level for the server, logging can be configured on a per-site basis or centralized, with two types of centralized logging available: binary and W3C. First, we will discuss the types of standard logging available under IIS 8.0 and the situations in which they are best used.

Enabling Logging

Before you can enable logging, you need to install the Http Logging module in the server roles.

To install the Http Logging module, follow these steps:

1. Open Server Manager, if it is not already open. (Server Manager is pinned to the taskbar by default in Windows Server 2012.)

2. Select Local Server, and then scroll down to the Roles and Features ...