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Web Publishing and IIS logging with external address - 20.Oct.2004 5:26:00 PM

terzo

Posts: 8
Joined: 26.Jul.2004
Status: offline

We use ISA 2004. One of the great features of the new ISA version is the option in Web Publishing : "Requests appear to come from the original client"

In this way i can have the external IP logged on my internal (behind ISA) IIS server. Today i discovered with Webtrends that there is a problem in the logs and the visits on site strangly reduced.

I examined the logfiles and i discovered that i have many entries to the home page coming from the Internal ISA IP address, while other pages (not the homepage) report the external IP address. Not all, but most homepage requests have the Internal ISA IP address.

After trying many things i came to this conclusion ... IP logging on the Internal IIS Server behind the ISA 2004 server fully works with Web Publishng only if you disable the cache ! I tried also to make a no cache rule only to my internal sites but didn't solved the problem. So i disabled the cache.

Is this a bug ? Why only the homepages log the internal IP while the other page elements log the external IP ?

Please enlight me.

Post #: 1

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RE: Web Publishing and IIS logging with external address - 21.Oct.2004 12:16:00 AM

tshinder

Posts: 47668
Joined: 10.Jan.2001
From: Texas
Status: offline

Hi Terzo,

Definitely NOT a bug. That's just how caching works.

HTH,
Tom

(in reply to terzo)

Post #: 2

RE: Web Publishing and IIS logging with external address - 22.Oct.2004 1:44:00 PM

terzo

Posts: 8
Joined: 26.Jul.2004
Status: offline

I am thinking of two other possible workarounds:

1. If i use Server Publishing to have the original IP in my logs can i have the cache enabled or it will not work either ?

2. Can i have a rule that will not cache my internal wenb sites in order to have the original ip or it will not work ? I have tried and didn't worked but i am not sure that the rule was correctly configured. How can i do this ?

Thanks in advance.

(in reply to terzo)

Post #: 3

RE: Web Publishing and IIS logging with external address - 22.Oct.2004 3:06:00 PM

Jason Jones

Posts: 2259
Joined: 30.Jul.2002
From: United Kingdom
Status: online

I would go with option 2 as you then get to keep nice HTTP publising bits like HTTP filtering.

You will need to create a cache rule which look for something like http://internal.domain.com/somepath and then define the option of "never cache" - this should prevent ISA caching, but not 100% sure it will prevent the ISA IP addresses in the logs.

Here is an example from OWA of how to create a cache rule which you should be able to adapt for your needs:

"To avoid this, you must create a cache rule to prevent the caching of Outlook Web Access objects except for images. The cache rule must have the following properties

� Cache Rule Destination. A URL set containing http://nameofowaserver/exchweb/*.

� Content Retrieval. Only if a valid version of the object exists in the cache.

� Cache Content. Never, no content will ever be cached.

To create a cache rule:

1.
Expand Microsoft ISA Server Management, expand Configuration and click Cache.

2.
In the task pane, on the Tasks tab, select Create a Cache Rule to start the New Cache Rule Wizard.

3.
On the Welcome page of the wizard, provide a name for the rule, and then click Next.

4.
On the Cache Rule Destination page, click Add to open the Add Network Entities dialog box, select the appropriate network entity, click Add, and then click Close. On the Access Rule Destination page, click Next.

5.
On the Content Retrieval page, leave the default selection Only if a valid version of the object exists in the cache, and then click Next.

6.
On the Cache Content page, select options as described earlier in this topic.

7.
You can use the default selections on the remaining wizard pages. Information about cache rule properties is provided in the product Help. Review the information on the wizard summary page, and then click Finish."

HTH

JJ

(in reply to terzo)

Post #: 4

RE: Web Publishing and IIS logging with external address - 22.Oct.2004 5:06:00 PM

terzo

Posts: 8
Joined: 26.Jul.2004
Status: offline

I think i was wrong when i said that disabling the cache solved my problem. I still have many log entries in my IIS log that mention my Internal ISA IP address for the homepage in the log.

I tried enabling and making the cache rule as you mentioned, but didn't work. I dont know why some entries contain the real IP and some the Internal! I am puzzled !

Please help !

(in reply to terzo)

Post #: 5

RE: Web Publishing and IIS logging with external address - 30.Oct.2004 9:21:00 PM

pr0nd3xtr

Posts: 20
Joined: 6.Feb.2004
From: Thousand Oaks, CA
Status: offline

Has anyone found a fix for this? I would like to be able to use the logs from my web servers.

(in reply to terzo)

Post #: 6

RE: Web Publishing and IIS logging with external address - 4.Nov.2004 5:03:00 PM

jbaud3

Posts: 17
Joined: 23.Sep.2002
Status: offline

In ISA 2000 we used to use Server Publishing Rules instead of Web Publishing rules for the same reason of needing the log data. It worked well... is this still a viable solution to this problem? In this scenario, you don't get the caching benefits (and problems) associated with the web publishing rule.

(in reply to terzo)

Post #: 7

RE: Web Publishing and IIS logging with external address - 4.Nov.2004 5:43:00 PM

terzo

Posts: 8
Joined: 26.Jul.2004
Status: offline

Please help me clear some things !

1. When i use Web Publishing although that i use a no cache rule for the internal IIS Server, it doesn't (on most situations) record the external IP of the users requesting the page. When i disable all the cache it seems to work and the page views from external users are rising in reports. But i don't have cache at all.

Is this happening to everyone or i do something wrong ?

2. Can somebody confirm that if i use Server Publishing to publish my IIS Server do i need also to disable cache in order to get all the hits? All the no cache rule for the internal IIS server will work ?

Thanks in advance !

(in reply to terzo)

Post #: 8

RE: Web Publishing and IIS logging with external address - 16.Nov.2004 7:38:00 AM

Guest

In Last Default Rule, I disabled HTTP and FTP Caching. Instantly, I saw the proper IP address in the IIS Log files.

(in reply to terzo)

Post #: 9