Store Wowza Streaming Engine logs in a MySQL database (legacy)

This article describes how to set up Wowza Streaming Engine™ media server software logging to a MySQL database using the Apache log4j logging utility.

Notes:

• The instructions in this article apply to Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.5 and earlier. For version 4.8.8.01 and later, see Store Wowza Streaming Engine logs in a MySQL database.
• Database logging is provided by the log4j open source logging system, which Wowza Streaming Engine uses for its logging framework. There have been reports of issues with database logging when the connection to the database is lost. The log4j system will not automatically try to reconnect to the database server.
• For information about PostgreSQL logging, see Store Wowza Streaming Engine logs in a PostgreSQL database.

1. Download the MySQL JDBC Connector, then open the ZIP file and extract the file mysql-connector-java-5.1.8-bin.jar file to the Wowza Streaming Engine installation folder [install-dir]/lib.
2. In MySQL, create a catalog named wowzalogs. Then create the following table to store the Wowza Streaming Engine log fields. (Table attributes have the same name as log4j fields but without hyphens.)

CREATE TABLE  `wowzalogs`.`accesslog` (
  `logid` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `date` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `time` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `tz` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xevent` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xcategory` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xseverity` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xstatus` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xctx` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xcomment` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xvhost` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xapp` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xappinst` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xduration` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `sip` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `sport` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `suri` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cip` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cproto` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `creferrer` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cuseragent` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `cclientid` varchar(25) DEFAULT NULL,
  `csbytes` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `scbytes` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xstreamid` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xspos` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `csstreambytes` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `scstreambytes` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xsname` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xsnamequery` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xfilename` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xfileext` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xfilesize` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xfilelength` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xsuri` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xsuristem` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `xsuriquery` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `csuristem` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `csuriquery` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`logid`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=0 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

3. Open the Wowza Streaming Engine file [install-dir]/conf/log4j.properties in a text editor.
4. In the first line, add a new root category "SQ":

log4j.rootCategory=INFO, stdout, serverAccess, serverError, SQ

5. In the same file, copy in the following appender. You will have to modify the password and possibly the URL for the location of the database and the user as necessary:

log4j.appender.SQ=org.apache.log4j.jdbc.JDBCAppender
log4j.appender.SQ.Driver=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
log4j.appender.SQ.URL=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/wowzalogs
log4j.appender.SQ.user=root
log4j.appender.SQ.password=CHANGEME
log4j.appender.SQ.layout=com.wowza.wms.logging.ECLFPatternLayout
log4j.appender.SQ.layout.OutputHeader=false
log4j.appender.SQ.sql=INSERT INTO accesslog (date, time, tz, xevent, xcategory, xseverity,xstatus,xctx,xcomment,xvhost,xapp,xappinst,xduration,sip,sport,suri,cip,cproto,creferrer,cuseragent,cclientid,csbytes,scbytes,xstreamid, xspos,csstreambytes,scstreambytes,xsname,xsnamequery,xfilename,xfileext,xfilesize,xfilelength,xsuri,xsuristem,xsuriquery,csuristem,csuriquery) VALUES ('%X{date}', '%X{time}', '%X{tz}', '%X{x-event}', '%X{x-category}', '%X{x-severity}', '%X{x-status}', '%X{x-ctx}', '%X{x-comment}', '%X{x-vhost}', '%X{x-app}', '%X{x-appinst}', '%X{x-duration}', '%X{s-ip}', '%X{sport}', '%X{s-uri}', '%X{c-ip}', '%X{c-proto}', '%X{c-referrer}', '%X{c-user-agent}', '%X{c-client-id}', '%X{cs-bytes}', '%X{scbytes}', '%X{x-stream-id}', '%X{x-spos}','%X{cs-stream-bytes}', '%X{sc-stream-bytes}', '%X{x-sname}', '%X{x-sname-query}', '%X{x-file-name}', '%X{x-file-ext}', '%X{x-file-size}', '%X{x-file-length}','%X{x-suri}','%X{x-suri-stem}', '%X{x-suri-query}', '%X{c-suri-stem}', '%X{c-suri-query}');

6. Restart Wowza Streaming Engine and check the table:

select * from accesslog;

Notes:

• Start Wowza Streaming Engine in the console or IDE to see any errors that occur.
• Some fields might need to be longer to accommodate all possible values.