ICAP logging and statistics

About logging

The ICAP log is a record of ICAP server transactions.You can specify one of two ICAP log file formats: default or custom. The default ICAP log file format captures common errors, such as unavailable services or ACL configuration problems. You can configure custom ICAP log files to record selected services, object size, and result codes for each ICAP transaction.

ICAP default log file format

Entries in the ICAP log file reflect the timestamp, time taken, client IP address, bytes available, requested URL, pipeline of ICAP service farm names, pipe times, and authenticated user name for a request. For example:

x-timestamp time-taken c-ip bytes cs-url x-icap-pipenames x-icap-pipetimes x-username

The following is an example of the default ICAP log file format:

984170515.26 0.332 173.20.100.116 23134 http://www.cnn.com/sports|(virusblocker)|adinsert [0.100]|0|.232 paul

A pipe (|) demarcates service farm names. Parentheses that enclose server farm names designate a bypass for requests in the event that services are unavailable, and angle brackets (< >) designate no bypass in the event that services are unavailable. Square brackets ([ ]) indicate that the vectored request, REQMOD or RESPMOD, resulted in a cache hit. Pipeline entries are followed by a record of the time taken by a service farm to perform a service.

ICAP custom log file settings

You can apply default attributes and customize log file entries for each ICAP transaction. Custom settings include the x-icap-categories and x-icap-pipeservs attributes:

The x-icap-categories attribute can be used to display content filter categories, such as sports and news. For example, a custom log that records content categories is useful for identifying user-requested content.
The x-icap-pipeservs attribute can be used to display pipeline service URLs. For example, a custom log that records pipelines can be useful for troubleshooting a slow service.

Enabling ICAP logging

To enable ICAP logging, complete the following steps.

Step	Action
1	In the Appliance Manager, select Setup tab > ICAP > ICAP 1.0.
2	Select the General tab.
3	Select the ICAP 1.0 Log Enable check box.
4	Select the log format: default or custom. If you select custom, edit the text box to include the log attributes that you want recorded.
5	Click Commit Changes at the bottom of the page.

Note
Log file switching and configuration options are located on the System - Logging page.

Viewing the log file

To view the log file, complete the following steps.

Step	Action
1	In the Appliance Manager, select Data tab > Log Files > ICAP 1.0.
2	Select a log file from the list of log files.
3	Select the log file action. You can do one of the following: View the file. View the last n lines of the file. Enter the number of lines in the text box. Delete the log file. Copy the file to your computer as is or in gzip compressed format. Send the file to an FTP or Web server. Specify the server using the following format: [ftp: \| http:] + //user:password@server:port/path/file
4	Click Commit Changes at the bottom of the page.

Statistics

ICAP statistics are reported on a per-farm, per-server basis. These statistics enable you to monitor the status of active ICAP service farms. ICAP statistics are a collective report of service and processing values, such as the following:

Active service connections to the NetCache ICAP connection cache
Bytes sent between NetCache and ICAP services
Total number of services in a farm
Approximate number of requests sent to a particular ICAP service
Total number of failed attempts to initialize or open a connection to an ICAP service

ICAP statistics can be viewed on the ICAP - Status page of the Appliance Manager (Data tab > ICAP > Status).