Forum OpenACS Q&A: How to get host names insted of IP addresses in the access log?

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1: How to get host names insted of IP addresses in the access log?
Posted by Marcin Bajer on 11/02/00 01:54 PM
In the access log generated by nslog module I have only IP addresses
of visiting hosts. Is there
    a way to set things up so full host names are recorded in the
log? I asked this question on AOLserver forum a month ago -- no reply
until now. Maybe someone here knows?
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2: Response to How to get host names insted of IP addresses in the access log? (response to 1)
Posted by Ola Hansson on 11/02/00 10:38 PM
Hi Marcin, I haven't tried this but it may work. In section: 
ns_section "ns/server/server-name/module/nslog"
add: 
ns_param LogCombined "On"
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3: Response to How to get host names insted of IP addresses in the access log? (response to 1)
Posted by Don Baccus on 11/03/00 12:36 AM
There is, or at least used to be, but I forget how.  Try the previous poster's suggestion, if that doesn't work try posting at www.aolserver.com or scouring the documentation.

Reverse DNS can be slow, so expect a performance hit...

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4: Response to How to get host names insted of IP addresses in the access log? (response to 1)
Posted by Todd Gillespie on 11/04/00 05:29 AM
something like this:

[ns/server/md2/module/nslog]
EnableHostnameLookup=On
File=/home/aol30/log/md2.log
LogCombined=On
LogRefer=Off
LogUserAgent=Off

Note that this will absolutely crush your speed - every access will take a nslookup (which I assume is exec'd, not in the threaded code); some kind of blocking will take place when trying to nslookup from slow DNS servers; and you might get long-delayed failures from DHCP addresses or people behind NAT.

A much better approach is to do DNS substitution afterwards - when you're analyzing your log files or whatever it is you intend to do with them. There are some excellent log analyzers that will do this simple task for you; as for me, I just home-brew some perl when I need a log question answered.

good luck!

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5: Response to How to get host names insted of IP addresses in the access log? (response to 1)
Posted by Ola Hansson on 11/04/00 11:51 AM
Todd's right but the supported syntax seem to have shrunken a bit lately. Check out what the admin guide says about feature changes in 3.0.
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6: Response to How to get host names insted of IP addresses in the access log? (response to 1)
Posted by Marcin Bajer on 11/08/00 09:58 AM
Many thanks!

I should have checked it in aolserver docs, before posting this question. DNS lookup is no longer supported. Finding host names
by a log analyzer seems to be the only option, if not for the performance reasons, then because AOLserver does not do that anymore.