Webalizer and migration

[MaRiOs]

Ok heres the deal.
We get a new client, he gives me his ftp, so I log on and copy the files of the weblizer folder from his previous host, the files were like :

usage_200407.html
usage_200408.html
usage_200409.html
usage_200410.html

etc, and some png files.Then I uploaded them on the plesks webalizer logs files folder :
/home/httpd/vhosts/domain.tld/statistics/webstat
and then I opened the link with webalizer in the browser and everything was fine! i could see all the statistics from the previous months,everything i copied from the previous host.
But after 2 days I noticed that all the statistics were gone from the webalizer page, even if the files still exist in the folder.
why is that ?

Is there any way to make them work again ?

Also i have to add that if you use the url and add the html file of an old statistics file it works great. check the link : https://arxondas.com/webstat/usage_200509.html

 

[ShadowMan@]

Try changing the domain's creation date from October 2005 to whatever the earliest date of html file you have (such as you posted 200407 would be July 2004)

It is in database 'psa', table 'domains', field 'cr_date'

Not sure if it can be done from the control panel, I've always just changed it directly using phpMyAdmin

Then wait until the statistics cronjob runs and regenerates the /webstat/index.html file to see if it puts all the previous month's list back in again.

 

[MaRiOs]

So you have done this for webalizer before?

 

[ShadowMan@]

Not related to Webalizer, but for something else (like transferring a domain from one server to another, I refuse to use the Migration Manager buggy as hell). But I can find no other place where Webalizer would know a 'starting' date for a domain.

Changing this value does no harm and can be changed back later if you wish.

Tell you what, I'll change one of my test domains to a later date, manually run the statistics script and see what happens, then I'll post here again. kala

 

[MaRiOs]

Thank you "kala"? haha polu kala

 

[ShadowMan@]

My greek vocabulary is very limited, I have no grasp of grammar.... The other words are (of course) the bad words.... LOL

Ok, this is not the first time I have been wrong. Changing the creation date does nothing. I am doing further research into Webalizer, I prefer awstats myself...

 

[ShadowMan@]

Hmm, looks like bad news, unless you also transferred the history file and current file:

A history file is searched for. This file keeps previous month
totals used on the main index.html page. The default file is
named 'webalizer.hist', kept in the specified output directory,
however may be changed using the "HistoryName" configuration file
keyword

If incremental processing was specified, a data file is searched for
and loaded if found, containing the 'internal state' data of the
program at the end of a previous run. The default file is named
'webalizer.current'

I suppose those may have been overwritten and would explain why your index.html file now does not show the earlier months.

For more info on how the main index.html file is created, Read the full README file at

ftp://ftp.mrunix.net/pub/webalizer/README

Sorry I could not be of more help.

 

[MaRiOs]

So there is no way to make them work ? damn..

 

[ShadowMan@]

If you still have backup copies of the domain's webalizer.hist and .current files, you can put those back and then manually run the statistics script and see if that puts the missing months back into the index.html file. But I have no explanation as to why it suddenly removed them when it worked in the first place.

Always remember, backups are important...

 

[MaRiOs]

Which of these files do u mean ?
Cause I still havea acccess to the domains's previous ftp account and in his folder FTP with the stat's files there are only the pngs and the html ones...i cant find any hist or any other file :/

 

[ShadowMan@]

Sounds like they just put the files they thought they needed into the ftp directory.

Depending on the old server's setup, the history and current files would be located somewhere (Plesk puts them in the domain's /statistics directory), but if they didn't save them, oh well. That would be their fault

Other than the usage .html and .png files, did they put their old index.html file in ftp also?

You may want to make sure you download and keep a separate copy of all their old files.

If you read the README link I posted, it explains how webalizer generates the files (usage, index, etc) from the history and current files.