Command line syntax for multiple files for load balanced server report

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I have my profiles configured as follows:
Profile Properties > Log Files tab > Log location = Multiple
Analyze log files from load balanced servers is checked.
I then have multiple file location entries and each one has a name.
When I run Analyze on that profile the Servers report showed up in the Access Statistics section as expected. So far so good.

However, for all of my scheduled reports, I am executing in Batch Mode where I am calling a text file with all of my profiles using the TimeRange, LogFiles, and OutputPath switches. In this case, I do not know the correct syntax to mimic the "Multiple" log location setting and configure a name for each entry. If you could point me to the correct syntax, that would be great.

As an aside, I know that you implemented the load balancer/server reporting the way that you did so that you could be more 'flexible'. However, in my case, it is a bit of a burden. I am actually using a separate utility to pull all of our logs locally into a hierarchical folder structure and was using the "@" prefix to pull logs from subfolders for each server/site group. I am having to go from a nice tight path of "@E:\Logs\Intranet\IIS\MyWebSite\*.*" that would then pull from the 3-4 separate server folders under the MyWebSite folder to having to enter separate entries for each path/server and give each a name. Again, I get that it was done to provide flexibility for reporting on load balanced server even when those fields aren't chosen, but it would be nice if there were a way to indicate that I have everything needed so just pull it from the logs without all the extra configuration. If it were just one set of servers and reports, that would be one thing, but I am pulling from 5 server groups, 15 different servers and almost 50 different sites total.

Thanks! We've had WLE for almost 10 years now. We haven't used it well up until recently and the more I've gotten into it, the more I've found that it is extremely flexible and is now able to solve lots of problems I used to run into. Great job!
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Michael
Unfortunately it's not possible to specify multiple log locations in the command line mode. However, if you need to analyze logs for multiple sites automatically, you can write a small script to create profile files for your sites (you can find information on profile files location at https://getsatisfaction.com/weblogexp...). Profile files have simple text format, so you can take one of them as a template and just create multiple profiles with changed name, log location, output path, etc.
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Matt Smith
Thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately that seems like a lot of hassle and hoops to jump through to get one chart/table based on a valid log file field. Again, I appreciate the flexibility of the approach that was implemented, but it seems like that approach should be an alternative approach for when the field isn't available.

I'm going to fallback to using the "@" for pulling from the subfolders to keep things simpler and forego the Servers report for now.
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Michael
The problem is that using the "Multiple" log location mode with the “Analyze log files from load balanced servers” option enabled is required to correctly process log files from load balanced servers, it's not used for the Servers report only.

The program needs to "merge" visitor hits from different logs when it analyzes logs from load balanced servers, so it needs to know which logs are from different servers. If the load balanced mode isn't used in this case, the program will show incorrect visitor-related statistics (number of visitors, entry pages, search engines, etc.).
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Matt Smith
After my last response, I realized that I should have also thrown in a "and I am sure there are lots of reasons that I don't have insight into or am not thinking about on why it was implemented the way it was." I'm definitely not questioning the validity of the approach, just lamenting the loss of a helpful metric that shows how much traffic our servers are getting and whether they are balanced or not.

In our specific case, we don't care about any of the items you mentioned because our 'visitor' hits are useless because our load balancers are not passing through the original IP address from the end user. I know. It is something that I've complained about for 10 years now and it is due to how they have it configured for NATing purposes or something. Not saying that I completely buy in to their implementation, but I'm sure they have their reasons.

I asked 8-9 years ago if there was a way to sort WLE by something other than visits/visitors and was quite happy a couple of weeks ago when I found that I had complete control of what was shown in the graphs in the Professional edition and could completely hide visits/visitors since it is so useless on our end.

It would be nice if there were a 'basic/dumb' option that would just report traffic by server and an 'advanced/smart' option that does everything you called out. I pull the information manually on my own every couple of months when we feel things aren't balancing using the excellent LogParser tool.

I realize that not caring about visitors, entry points, paths, visit duration, etc. is pretty atypical for a website but we have a captive audience where we don't have a lot of the same needs (corporate/government bureaucracy).

Regards,
Matt
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Michael
Thank you for your suggestions. We'll consider reporting on server name by log field. Do I understand correctly that you have the server names logged in the s-computername field and want to get a report based on this field?
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Matt Smith
Yes, that is correct. Thank you for considering it. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help out.