Enabling W3C Centralized Logging

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

W3C centralized logging is a global configuration on the server where all Web sites write data to a single log file. This single log file uses the W3C Extended log file format and can be viewed in a text editor. W3C centralized logging is available in Windows ServerĀ 2003 Service PackĀ 1 or later. For more information about this logging option, see W3C Centralized Logging.

By default, log files are stored in the Windows/system32/logfiles/W3SVC directory. After you enable, W3C centralized logging, IIS creates a new log file and all Web sites begin writing data to that single source.

Important

You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform the following procedure or procedures. As a security best practice, log on to your computer by using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the runas command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At a command prompt, type runas /user:Administrative_AccountName "mmc %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc".

To enable W3C Centralized Logging

  1. From a command prompt, type
    Adsutil.vbs set w3svc/CentralW3CLoggingEnabled true

  2. The World Wide Web Publishing Service (WWW service) must be stopped and restarted for changes to take effect. From the command prompt, type net stop W3SVC, and press ENTER. The WWW service stops.

  3. Type Net start w3svc

See Also

Concepts

CentralW3CLoggingEnabled Metabase Property