Top 10 best LogParser links ( plus a bonus 7 😛 )

1. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/08/microsoft-logparser.html

   This is my fav one because of the pretty picture at the top 😛

2. http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/forensic-log-parsing-microsofts-logparser

   This one is second fav because it uses the word ‘forensic’ and they are doing a scenario track down instead of just a bunch of random queries. This one is usually the first extended stop because it uses actual LogParser commands instead of just listing the sql queries.

3. http://serverfault.com/questions/45516/recommended-logparser-queries-for-iis-monitoring

   This one I find useful every time. Not sure why. I think because of the succinctness of the queries and by this time, I am normally using query files instead of straight up LogParser commands and since generally I am looking at iis logs, these give me a way to get back on point with some data

4. http://www.adopenstatic.com/cs/blogs/ken/archive/2005/05/30/22.aspx

   This one I love because it always reminds me of the graphing coolness. It gets a spot in the top 5 just for that

5. http://serverfault.com/questions/132892/using-logparser-to-generate-average-response-time-graph

   his one also gets a top 5 spot for reminding me that most of the time I can just copy/paste some junk into excel and re-mine the data there.

6. http://blog.crowe.co.nz/blog/archive/2005/08/24/229.aspx

   This one always shows up too and reminds me to use the datagrid view

7. http://linuxlore.blogspot.com/2006/11/howto-use-microsofts-logparser-to.html

   This one always seems to show up as well and for some reason normally starts me looking into doing the reversedns function. Not sure why I forget it every time, but this reminds me

8. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mmcintyr/archive/2009/07/20/analyzing-iis-log-files-using-log-parser-part-1.aspx

   This article started me wanting to do some series charts. That’s right…. I blame you mike. 😛 and sadly, for some reason I wanted to do what he is doing in LogParser instead of just doing it in excel as he is doing it

9. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.08.insidemsft.aspx

   This one gives a great overview on doing the pivots with LogParser and is a great reference for the ‘using’ statement in the LogParser sql. Hell I should probably put it higher just for that cool factor, but normally I don’t need to go this far down on my ‘top LogParser links’ list to get the info I need so I guess it’ll stay here.

10. http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/11/28/447598.aspx

    This is in the top 10 for two reasons. Firstly, I love the blog name ‘you had me at ehlo’ for an exchange blog. So cool. And secondly because of the fact it shows a bunch of great queries for something that isn’t iis.

Some bonus links that aren’t in the top 10, but are bookmarked all the same for me under LogParser and always show up and prove useful if I am researching LogParser long enough:

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/carloc/archive/2008/08/07/charting-with-logparser.aspx

  Great simple charting with LogParser post

• http://www.hmailserver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11792

  This forum thread has a batch file someone uses to get stats daily I believe or on demand, I like it just because it shows something someone else thought they wanted to see every day. 😛

• http://www.patents.com/log-parser-20040254919.html

  This is the patent for LogParser. Sometimes if I don’t want to dig through the LogParser help, I just open this up and search. It seems like everything is in here including a lot more detail about some of the functions in LogParser.

• http://blog.trivadis.com/blogs/michaelkoenings/archive/2008/01/10/how-to-query-iis-logs-with-log-parser.aspx

  For some reason, at some point I normally seem to look at this post. I guess I must like to look at it because it’s got a long query for something specific.

• http://charliearehart.sys-con.com/node/296223/mobile

  Cold Fusion logs with LogParser… How can I not include this adorable page 😛

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rahulso/archive/2008/07/16/logparser-scenario-9-find-out-what-is-the-peak-time-for-your-iis-server.aspx

  I’m just gonna include this one because who doesn’t want to know what the peak MINUTE of traffic is on their server. Well… I don’t, I would go for an hour, but hey, I love it anyway.

• http://www.d-fens.net/?idMenu=3&idSub=10&idPage=3

  This has a ton of diff input types. I really would include it in the top 10 just because it queries so many cool things, but unfortunately I normally don’t hit this one until I have been surfing for quite some time and am just looking for random LogParser junk

There are a bunch of other pages, including the actual documentation and the official site. And plenty of people will probably say to go with one of the newer graphical tools etc. but oh well, I like using the command line and these are the links I like the most. 😁