Logging and Performance Analysis
All requests to a www4mail server results in one or more log file entries. www4mail can update up to 10 different log files with varying formats. Log files generated by www4mail conform to the Common Log Format as used with the Apache Web Server. In fact, the default log file may be analyzed with tools capable of analyzing logs from the Apache Web Server. However, www4mail also supports the Apache LogFormat directive to generate custom log file syntax.
Useful statistics on usage and performance may be obtained from these logs. In the last two years we have seen that www4mail@wm.ictp.trieste.it has been useful for many people from many different countries (including developed countries like Italy, USA, and others). The load on this public (www4mail@wm.ictp.trieste.it) server is well over 5,000 hits per day (average of about 3.5 requests per minute); other servers with bigger bandwidth have numbers well above 10,000. Typical results per server for a six-month period are:
Total |
Nov-'00 |
Dec-'00 |
Jan-'00 |
Feb-'01 |
Mar-'01 |
Apr-'01 |
Hits |
130,514 |
165,846 |
142,753 |
167,322 |
182,629 |
178,947 |
Files |
114,313 |
152,967 |
126,339 |
148,566 |
161,465 |
160,589 |
Pages |
53,550 |
65,850 |
59,945 |
62,927 |
57,761 |
62,870 |
Visits |
13,269 |
15,166 |
15,858 |
16,434 |
16,752 |
16,625 |
KBytes |
7,571,921 |
10,156,970 |
8,074,002 |
9,458,001 |
10,906,507 |
11,767,136 |
Maximum |
Nov-'00 |
Dec-'00 |
Jan-'00 |
Feb-'01 |
Mar-'01 |
Apr-'01 |
Hits per Hour |
571 |
497 |
813 |
608 |
542 |
770 |
Hits per Day |
7,662 |
7,015 |
8,195 |
7,789 |
8,642 |
7,480 |
Files per Day |
7,011 |
6,554 |
6,634 |
7,014 |
8,074 |
6,908 |
Pages per Day |
3,307 |
2,836 |
3,383 |
3,315 |
3,139 |
2,845 |
Visits per Day |
1,101 |
837 |
1,260 |
1,220 |
1,164 |
1,109 |
Hits by Response Code |
Nov-'00 |
Dec-'00 |
Jan-'00 |
Feb-'01 |
Mar-'01 |
Apr-'01 |
200-OK |
114,313 |
152,967 |
126,339 |
148,566 |
161,465 |
160,589 |
204-No Content |
1,187 |
355 |
493 |
733 |
900 |
560 |
400-Bad Request |
2,933 |
3,027 |
2,730 |
3,084 |
3,646 |
3,852 |
401-Unauthorized |
- |
94 |
125 |
104 |
67 |
119 |
403-Forbidden |
43 |
3,007 |
1,870 |
1,932 |
2,138 |
2,674 |
404-Not Found |
1,827 |
1,223 |
2,742 |
1,624 |
3,709 |
3,744 |
405-Method Not Allowed |
558 |
112 |
70 |
121 |
83 |
95 |
408-Request Timeout |
1,198 |
1,334 |
449 |
3,606 |
4,496 |
2,876 |
413-Request Entity Too Large |
232 |
312 |
258 |
314 |
477 |
488 |
500-Internal Server Error |
3 |
5 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
9 |
503-Service Unavailable |
3,295 |
386 |
713 |
5,141 |
3,813 |
1,208 |
504-Gateway Timeout |
960 |
1,084 |
731 |
1,210 |
907 |
1,565 |
Note that "hits" could be translated to mean the number of requests delivered by the server, while "visits" indicate the number of (different) email messages received. Previous hardware upgrades of the www4mail@wm.ictp.trieste.it service have indicated that demand always rises to fill the available and added capacity. This is the most significant indicator of the utility and success of www4mail.
The performance reported by other www4mail servers available may vary daily. A useful overview of performances of various www4mail and other Web-by-email gateways exists at www.netservs.com/mrcool/stats.htm.