[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change]

# Logging Site Activity

You can collect information about user activity by enabling logging for your Web sites. The information is stored in ASCII files or an ODBC-compliant database. Logging information in IIS goes beyond the scope of the event-logging or performance-monitoring features of Windows. The logs can include information such as who has visited your site, what the visitor viewed, and when the information was viewed last. You can use the logs to assess content popularity or identify information bottlenecks.

This section includes:

- About Logging Site Activity: An overview of logging, description of logging formats, and discussion of log file size and the creation of new log files.
- Enabling Logging: Enabling or disabling logging for a Web or FTP site or for directories.
- Tracking Processor Use: Setting process accounting to determine CPU usage by out-of-process applications.
- Customizing W3C Extended Logging: Specifying the fields that are included in W3C Extended log files.
- Saving Log Files: Specifying the log-file directory and the option for new log file creation.
- Converting Log Files to NCSA Format: Using the command-line utility Convlog.exe to convert logs to NCSA Common log file format.

This section does not include information on:

- Using monitoring tools other than logging; see Performance Tuning.
- Generating, viewing, or understanding security logs (auditing); see Security.

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