Safe to Run LogParser Against Live Production IIS Log?

Question

Is it safe to run LogParser against our live production IIS log file?

Currently, I have been copying it over to another location and then running LogParser 2.2 against the log file.

Instead, I would really like to run it against the live data so that I can see changes to it immediately, however, I am a little concerned that it might cause issues.

Does anyone know if querying the live IIS logs would cause a problem?

Answer 1

It shouldn't cause any problems as I don't believe it locks the file. Why would it be a problem to copy the file though just to make sure? Even if you just copy it to a local folder, a batch file could make that easy, to copy the file and run it through logparser.

But it should be fine against live files.

Answer 2

It's definitely safe, since as Tom says Log Parser does not lock input files. Running in production on live log files was a key target scenario.