Setup Instructions: SharePoint On-Premises

You can use Angelfish with any on-premises versions of SharePoint.  Here's how it works:
  • SharePoint is a web application that uses the IIS web server
  • IIS creates web server log files
  • Angelfish creates reports by reading these log files

The USR Tracking Method is usually a great fit for SharePoint Profiles, as IIS *usually* writes the username to the logs.

This also means you can process all of your historical logs in a SharePoint Profile - just make sure your config settings and Filters are correct before processing years of logs.

If you have other websites or web applications that use IIS, you can use Angelfish to track them too!

If your SharePoint environment contains multiple Site Collections and Subsites, you can create a Profile in Angelfish for each Site Collection or Subsite that needs its own set of reports.  

Here's how to proceed:

1) Locate the Log Files

IIS log files use a naming convention of "u_exYYMMDD.log" where YYMMDD is the year/month/day of the data contained in the file. 

The logs are usually located in this path, although your server may store them elsewhere:

C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles\W3SVC<Site ID>\
 
IIS uses a different Site ID for each website. You can find the Site ID by opening the IIS Manager application and clicking the Sites node – the Site ID will be listed in the column next to each site name. More info here:


For example: if your SharePoint Site ID is 2, the IIS logs will be located here:

C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles\W3SVC2\

Once you've verified the site ID, open the directory and make sure it's full of files named "u_exYYMMDD.log"

Make a note of the directory - you'll need it when you create the Datasource.

2) Create a Profile

If this the first Profile you've created, please read the Profiles Overview before continuing.

When you create the Profile, the "SharePoint On-Premises" Profile Template contains common settings for SP On-Prem sites.  You'll need to add or create at least one Datasource, and we recommend adding the four predefined SharePoint Filters to the Profile.

SharePoint logs are chatty, meaning they contain a lot of hits that are irrelevant from a report perspective.

The first few times you process data in the Profile, it's best to only process a few logs.  This allows you to quickly go through a few rounds of "update and reprocess" where you identify data to remove, add Filters & change config settings, delete data, process data.  

NOTES
  • IIS web servers use the W3C Log Format by default
  • If you have multiple Web Front Ends (WFEs), you will probably need a Datasource for each WFE.

NEXT STEPS


Once the config settings and Filters are established for the new Profile, you can easily create additional Profiles for Subsites - just click the Copy button and add a Filter to the copied Profile.

Please open a support ticket if you have questions!  We want to help you get the most out of Angelfish.

HELPFUL LINKS
Creation date: 5/20/2022 6:19 PM      Updated: 5/25/2022 12:16 PM