Ensuring that client logs are sent to servers

Content providers can still receive client logging information

Many streaming media content providers require that clients send logging information back to the streaming server so that information can be collected for billing, advertisement revenue, performance analysis, and other purposes.

If you want to ensure that client logging information is forwarded to the streaming server, you must configure your NetCache appliance to do so by setting the log forwarding options on the MMS and RTSP pages in the Appliance Manager (Setup tab > Streaming).

Note
Even if you disable the MMS or RTSP log forwarding options, NetCache sends standard logging information to the streaming server.

Client log forwarding

When client requests are routed through more than one streaming media cache, you must enable the client log forwarding options on each streaming media cache in the same way. If you enable client log forwarding on some caches but not others, client logging information will not be delivered to the streaming server. By default, client log forwarding options are turned on.

For example, assume that you have two streaming media caches between the client and the streaming server--one at a POP (point of presence) and another at a data center. Assume further that all POP traffic is routed through the data center. If the streaming media cache at the POP has log forwarding enabled but the streaming media cache at the data center does not, client logs will be forwarded from the POP to the data center, but no further. You must enable log forwarding on the streaming media cache at the data center to ensure that NetCache can forward client logs to the streaming server.

Information contained in client logging information

The following table shows the information contained in the logs that clients send to streaming servers. Even if a log does not record a client IP address, you can still determine the popularity of streams because all logs contain one entry line per client.

Logging information	RealMedia	QuickTime	Windows Media
URL	Yes	Yes	Yes
Client IP address	No	No	Yes
Play time	Yes	Yes	Yes
Connection time	Live media: Yes On-demand media: No	Yes	Yes
One entry line per client	Yes	No	No
Viewing quality statistics	Yes	No	Yes

Real-time client monitoring

You can configure the NetCache Real-Time Monitoring Protocol (RTMON) to monitor client streaming media activity and have NetCache send real-time statistics to application servers (for example, to billing servers). You can, for example, use the statistics to determine user demographics and popular URL access in order to determine load balancing. With NetCache deployed near clients, you can acquire information that other proxies block, such as original client IP addresses.

To use RTMON, an application server developer must program the interface on the server to the NetCache API for RTMON. Additionally, the appliance must be configured for RTMON. You can configure RTMON on the appliance on the Real-Time Monitoring- RTMON page in the Appliance Manager (Setup tab > Real-Time Monitoring > RTMON).

See Client Monitoring and Control for Streaming and the Application Manager online Help for details about real-time monitoring with RTMON.

Limiting log entry disk space requirements

Use the Maximum Buffer Size Per Server IP option (Setup tab > On Demand Statistics) to limit the amount of client event data that Netcache writes to disk. Setting a maximum event buffer size is useful if you think that your logging servers will not be able to keep up with the event data sent by clients. If you do not specify a buffer size and your logging servers cannot handle the data or are unavailable, NetCache will write all client event data to disk as long as disk space is available.

When you specify a maximum buffer size, NetCache writes client event data to disk until the buffer size is reached. See the Maximum Buffer Size Per Server IP option in the online Help for more information.

The default setting is 0 KB (unlimited event buffering).