How to generate reports on Amazon S3 log files with SiSense

In one of our previous posts we discussed how to enable Amazon S3 logging with CloudBerry Explorer. You can also check out how to enable S3 logging here. In this blog we will discuss how to actually view the log files.  Amazon S3 log files come in their proprietary formats, what’s more under certain circumstances one log record can show up in two log files at the same time, which makes the reconciliation process rather difficult. Besides, there are not very many tools around there that could help you to view the log files in the meaningful way.

 Now comes SiSense Prism, which is a powerful Business Intelligence tool. It helps you to generate visual reports on the data coming from different sources. SiSense consist of two products SiSense Prism Desktop a commercial product that helps you to create visual reports on your data and SiSense Prism Viewer a freeware product that can be used to view the reports created with Editor. But what is the most interesting for our readers is that SiSense Prism Viewer it comes with the pre-build dashboards for Amazon S3 logs.

How to obtain SiSense

SiSense Viewer is a free downloadable product that you can get here

You will also need an Amazon S3 pre-defined dashboard that you can download here It is required to register and get your SiSense account to access download section, but the registration process is simple and straight forward. While there we also encourage you to download a trail version of Prism Desktop and try other predefined dashboards.  Prism Desktop will help you to create your own Amazon S3 dashboard if the predefined one doesn’t fit your requirements.

How to view the Amazon S3 Dashboard with Prism Viewer

Open SiSence Prism Viewer. Click open button on the tool bar

Locate the file of the S3 Dashboard and open it.

The dashboard comes with some dummy data and now you want to connect it to your Amazon S3 bucket with the log files.

How to connect Amazon S3 dashboard to your bucket

The second step is to connect to your bucket. Open Amazon S3 Settings using “Settings” link

Note: If you have already created connection to your Bucket using SiSence Prism Desktop, you will see it in this dialog below.

You can select a bucket using Edit Connection button.  Connect to AmazonS3 dialog will be opened.

Specify Access Key /Secret Access Key, select your Bucket from drop-down list and specify your connection Name

NOTE: If you bucket doesn’t have the logging enabled Prism Viewer will offer to enable it

 You have several options on how you want to synchronize the log files.  this helps you to save a lot of time if you want to load only subset of log files from Amazon S3.   Press Synchronize button to proceed.

 By now you will have everything ready to analyze your Amazon S3 logs.

Working with the Dashboard

Select the period you want to analyze your logs

Refresh all document

Dashboard is refreshed

You can also go to other tabs:

1. -          Traffic Sources
   
2. -          Visitors
   
3. -          Content
   

When you open other tab, you should also change the period and refresh the tab

When you close this application, you can save changes and when you open the dashboard again next time, you will see your data

 

Conclusion

Amazon S3 log files contain valuable information about the way your Amazon S3 buckets are used, but they are not easy to analyze as there are no out of the box tools that will help you to do that. SiSense Prism Viewer coupled with predefined Amazon S3 dashboard provides you with an easy way to start understanding your Amazon S3 log files as it show the information on your log file in easy to grasp visual charts. You can download it and start looking into your log files in a matter of minutes and best of all it is completely free! In our follow-up articles we will show you how to generate custom Amazon S3 log reports with SiSense Prism Desktop.  Stay tuned!