---
title: "Apache access logs"
date: "2024-02-14T06:18:38+00:00"
summary: "Understand and analyze Apache access logs with ease. Learn how to interpret each component of the log entries, from IP addresses to request details, for effective website monitoring and troubleshooting."
image:
type: "page"
url: "/acquia-cloud-platform/apache-access-logs"
id: "3bea8553-1f7a-4f39-8114-da4d2b69487d"
---

The _Apache access log_ (`access.log`) contains a list of requests for your application that have bypassed Varnish®. These requests include pages, theme files, and static media files.

For a list of the log files handled by Cloud Platform, including accessing these log files, log file retention, and their locations, see [About Cloud Platform logging](/acquia-cloud-platform/monitor-apps/logs). You can also review information about how to [streaming Apache log entries in real time](/acquia-cloud-platform/monitor-apps/logstream) from your browser.

Note for log forwarding users

Acquia’s [log forwarding](/acquia-cloud-platform/monitor-apps/logs/forwarding) feature adds information to the beginning of each line that is forwarded to an external service. For more information, see [File formats in forwarded log files](/acquia-cloud-platform/monitor-apps/logs/forwarding/files).

Parsing the log file
--------------------

The following line is a representative example of the data written into your website’s Apache access log:

    200.0.0.1 - - [04/Jan/2017:23:20:38 +0000] "GET /contact_us HTTP/1.1" 404 10117 "-" "Pingdom.com bot version 1.4 (http://www.pingdom.com/)" vhost=alphabeta.prod.acquia-sites.com host=www.example.com hosting_site=alphabeta pid=26731 request_time=10186417 forwarded_for="200.0.0.1, 162.0.0.1" request_id="v-00000zzz-d2d4-11e6-9bed-0aeea9eaf9af" location="http://apache.example.com/"

Each of the items in the Apache access log is noted in the following table, along with its description:

Position

Data

Description

0

`200.0.0.1`

The remote host (client IP).

1

`-`

The identity of the user determined by `identd`. Rarely used.

2

`-`

The user name, determined by HTTP authentication.

3

`[04/Jan/2017:23:20:38 +0000]`

The date and time the request was received by the backend infrastructure.

4

`"GET /contact_us HTTP/1.1"`

The `REQUEST` line from the client, containing three parts:

*   The method of the request (`GET`)
*   The path requested (`/contact_us`)
*   The HTTP protocol (`1.1`)

5

`404`

The HTTP status code sent from the infrastructure to the client. Production environments don’t display full information for [HTTP 5xx status codes](5xx.html).

6

`10117`

The total size, in bytes, of the response to the client.

7

`"-"`

The referrer, which is the page (none in this case) that provided the link to this page.

8

`"Pingdom.com bot version 1.4 (http://www.pingdom.com/)"`

The user-agent, or browser identification string, encased in quotation marks as many browser names have spaces in them.

9

`vhost=alphabeta.prod.acquia-sites.com`

The underlying virtual host matching the requested domain name.

10

`host=www.example.com`

The domain name for the request, which does not have to match the virtual host (`vhost`) name.

11

`hosting_site=alphabeta`

The internal Acquia site name this request is for.

12

`pid=26731`

The process ID (`pid`) on the infrastructure that handled this request.

13

`request_time=10186417`

The time needed to serve the request, in microseconds (1/1000000 of a second).

14

`forwarded_for="200.0.0.1, 162.0.0.1"`

The full set of IP addresses tracked as “requester IP,” which will contain the IP addresses of the following if they are in use by the subscription:

*   Load balancer
*   ELB (Elastic Load Balancer)
*   Content Delivery Networks or Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) such as [Edge](/acquia-cloud-platform/add-ons/edge))

15

`request_id="v-00000zzz-d2d4-11e6-9bed-0aeea9eaf9af"`

A unique ID attached to this request by the load balancer, which appears in several Cloud Platform log files. For more information, see [Using HTTP request IDs](/acquia-cloud-platform/develop-apps/drupal-apps/requestid).

16

`location="http://apache.example.com/"`

The contents of the `Location` HTTP header.