---
title: "How to Configure Apache for Retrace"
slug: "web-log-monitoring-configure-apache-applications"
description: "Monitor Apache web app logs with Retrace: Enable log collection, configure LogFormat & CustomLog, check permissions, and set up applications."
updated: 2020-02-06T15:20:34Z
published: 2020-02-06T15:20:34Z
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.stackify.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Collecting Apache Logs

To enable Retrace to monitor your Apache web application access logs:

## Enable Log Collection

In Retrace **Server Settings**, enable the **Apache Access Logs** option found under **Log Collectors.**

## Configure LogFormat

Adjust your Apache configuration to include the following:

Add **stackify** LogFormat.

```
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-agent}i\" %D" stackify
```

> Note: If you are using multiple LogFormats, be sure to put the **stackify** LogFormat at the top of the order.

Update your application's **CustomLog** to reference the **stackify** LogFormat.

```
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/www.foo.com/htdocs
    ServerName www.foo.com
    CustomLog /var/log/apache/access_myvhost.log stackify
    ErrorLog /var/log/apache/www.foo.com-error.log
</VirtualHost>
```

## Check Permissions

Ensure that the log file and directory are accessible by the monitoring agent.

- `chmod 755` on the log file directories
- `chmod 744` or similar on the log files

> Note: If you use something like logrotate, be sure to specify the permissions (mode) of the new log file that is created after rotating the old log file out and replacing it.

## Configure Applications

Depending on your setup, use either **Auto Discovery** or **Manual Configuration**.

### Auto Discovery

Auto Discovery option will scan a set of predefined directories for Apache access logs:

- `/var/log/apache2`
- `/var/log/apache`
- `/var/log/httpd`
- `/etc/httpd/logs`

Auto discovery can be enabled in `/usr/local/stackify/stackify-agent/stackify-agent.conf`.

```
discovery.apache=true
```

This can automatically be enabled with the Linux Installer argument `--discovery-apache`.

### Manual Configuration

Use **Manual Configuration** if auto discovery does not find your access logs or you want to define specific **Application** and **Environment** labels.

Configuration should be added to: `/usr/local/stackify/stackify-agent/stackify-agent.conf`.

For each access log setup the following parameters, `[application]` should be replaced w/ a unique key to group the configuration items together.

```
stackify.apache.[application].app=Sample Application
stackify.apache.[application].env=Production
stackify.apache.[application].accessLog=/var/log/custom/apache/access.log
```