W3C Log File Format May Contain Spaces in CS-Username Field

• Microsoft Internet Information Server version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

Applications which use the IIS log files in W3C format may produce errors or incorrect reports. This may be observed as parsing, or similar errors being encountered during processing.

CAUSE

The Windows NT SAM will permit user accounts that contain spaces in the name such as "JOE BLOGGS". When IIS creates the log file entry for an access to the site with this account, it does not delimit the cs-username field with quotes. As the W3C log is delimited by spaces, this can cause problems for applications, such as Site Server - Usage Analysis, which process these log files.

WORKAROUND

Make sure that user accounts used for Web authentication do not contain spaces in the username.

If this is not be possible, then the log fie will need to be pre-processed to delimit the cs-username field before log file analysis can be performed.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Internet Information Server 4.0.

MORE INFORMATION

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbinterop kbiis400
Version : winnt:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbprb