The SERVER button in the main aTool menu brings up the server configuration. The menu is shown below.
The server has the ability to log all input requests and to record what if any packages are sent back to Clients. If this option is set to YES then this information is output to the log file in the LOG FILE below.
The method used to open the log file when the server is started. CREATE causes the previous log file contents to be overwritten each time the Server is stopped and restarted. APPEND preserves the previous log file contents and appends new entries to the end.
This is the Server Log file. If the field is empty and Log Requests is set to YES then the request information is directed to stderr and will be output in the window in which the Server was started.
The server has a number of error conditions that it reports on including missing archive files, connection problems, and problems opening and creating required files. If this option is set to YES then this information is output to the log file in the LOG FILE entry below. If this option is set to NO then all errors are set to the window in which the server was started.
The method used to open the error log file when the server is started. CREATE causes the previous error log file contents to be overwritten each time the Server is stopped and restarted. APPEND preserves the previous error log file contents and appends new entries to the end.
This is the Error Server Log file. If the field is empty and Log Errors is set to YES then the errors are directed to stderr and will be output in the window in which the Server was started.
After modifying the available options the can either be transferred to the Server Configuration file by clicking UPDATE button or returned back to their original configuration by clicking on the RESET button. If the Server is not running, it can be started using the START SERVER button. VIEW LOG allows the Server Log file to be parsed and displayed. This option is described in detail below. QUIT closes the menu.
The Server Log file contains a full description of the connections made to the server by the Client systems. It can be used to identify hacking attempts as well as provide a statistical usage database. Once a Server Log file has been created it can be parsed and the information contained in it displayed using the VIEW LOG option. Clicking VIEW LOG brings up the empty Server Log menu.
The first step is to parse the log file by clicking on the PARSE button. This reads the server log information. If the server log is not parsed one of the other options in the menu will function. You can reparse the server log to update information which may have been added to it since it was last parsed.
Parsing the server log outputs some basic statistical information below the PLOTS definition section of the menu as shown below.
The time range of covered by the log file heads the lower section. This is followed by five categories of information averaged over this time range. BYTES SENT is the number of bytes of data sent out to various clients. CONNECTIONS is the total number of transactions handled by the Server. Note that a request for data requires two transactions; the first to see what data the Server contains and the second to request data from the list returned. PKGS SENT is the number of data files sent. HACK ATTEMPTS is the number of identified invalid attempts to access the Server. The vast majority of hack attempts are identified as server access attempts which contains either no request or an invalid request. A Server access which requests a data file to be sent which is not physically in the Server database is also flagged as a hack attempt. ERRORS is a count of two different situations. The first and rarer of the two is the number of times a data file in the server database is requested but is unable to be opened and sent by the Server. The second and more likely source of any errors is a line drop on transmit.
A more detailed description of the type of REQUESTS being made, the PACKAGES being sent, or the actions taken by IP address can be viewed by selecting one or more of the items under the VIEW column of entries. Selecting one or more categories will add a section of tabular information about that category to the GUI menu. The tabular entries can be sorted by various parameters. Category information can be removed from the menu by deselecting one or more of the categories under VIEW. The figure below show the menu with all categories selected and with the IP addresses being sorted by the number of Connections.
In addition to tabular displays of information the server log information can also be displayed graphically. The information is presented in a time based plot binned in one day increments. A plot is produced any time one of the options under the PLOTS section of the GUI is activated. Deactivating the selection closes the plot. The figure below below shows a plot of the Server Connections spanning several months. The gap in the middle of the plot is due to a time gap in the ServerLog.
Clicking on the PRINT button at the top of the menu will cause all of the basic statistical information as well as any active tabular information to be dumped to a file. The file is called SLDmp.txt and will be created in the directory from which aTool was invoked. The individual PRINT buttons associated with each tabular window will print out the current data in that window plus the statistical information if it has not already been printed out.
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