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Accessing ProClarity Analytics Server Usage Information

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Depending on your ProClarity Analytics environment, you may have cause to know which users are accessing what content on PAS.  If you do have such a need, the ProClarity event log may provide you with the information you need.

By default PAS only logs exceptions to the ProClarity event log on the web server where it is hosted.  This is primarily for performance reasons, as tracking all usage could provide a fair amount of overhead, depending on the frequency and type of use the system is getting.  However, if you would also like to see usage information in the event log, open the ProClarity Administration Tool, right-click the server, choose "Properties", and choose the "Logging and Security" tab.  Change the logging from exceptions only to exceptions and usage, and OK out.  You should now see your ProClarity event log begin to report information on ProClarity content usage.

As I mentioned above, this should only be done if you are prepared to deal with the possible performance impact on your system, as this will create a lot more overhead for PAS than if it were just logging exceptions.

I'll also include a somewhat dated sample that shows how to extract the event log information and build a cube with it.  This was all done with SQL Server 2000 and VB6, but the concept remains the same and may help if you're thinking about doing this for your current needs. 

*Update:  If you attempt to run the extraction package from a machine that is remote to the ProClarity server (and therefore the event log with the usage information), you may receive an error.  This is due to an issue in the Log Parser that causes it to look for the registry entry in the local machine's registry instead of the registry on the PAS machine.  When it doesn't find it, it errors.  To solve this, add the appropriate registry entry on the machine running the DTS package.  For example:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ProClarity

For more information on this, please visit https://www.larkware.com/Articles/LogParser2.0Help.html, fourth question from the bottom ("I am trying to access the "DNS Server", "Directory Service", and "File Replication Service"...etc).

Thanks to Andy for finding this issue, and the resolution!