Google is retiring the service.urchin.com server on 1 June, 2009. If your legacy Urchin 5.x installation references this server, you'll need to update the "__utm.js" that's being used on your web pages.
What to do: Check to see if your Urchin Traffic Monitor (UTM) file is referencing this old service. If it is, you must make a change to the javascript or replace it if you wish to continue logging traffic both locally and to the Google Analytics system.
You can either update or replace your existing UTM. Both options are detailed in the following help document at the Urchin Help Center.
5.15.2009
Urchin Q and A: Recommended Environment for Andvanced Setup
Question: What would be the ideal condition to run Urchin without low speed: some servers with Urchin and database in all of them; some servers with Urchin and one master database; 2 or 3 servers with Urchin and some databases configured as master and slave?
Answer: Reporting data is stored in proprietary databases. Reporting data can be configured to be stored on your NAS. The MySQL or PostgreSQL database may also reside on a separate box. You will need a license for each Urchin installation that is crunching logs. Start with the minimum system requirements to see how Urchin's log processing performs. With a baseline measurement, you'll be able to easily scale from there.
Server specifications and configuration are really dependent upon your unique situation. You must set up a test environment to see what kind of resources you are going to need.
Answer: Reporting data is stored in proprietary databases. Reporting data can be configured to be stored on your NAS. The MySQL or PostgreSQL database may also reside on a separate box. You will need a license for each Urchin installation that is crunching logs. Start with the minimum system requirements to see how Urchin's log processing performs. With a baseline measurement, you'll be able to easily scale from there.
Server specifications and configuration are really dependent upon your unique situation. You must set up a test environment to see what kind of resources you are going to need.
Urchin Q and A: Special Data Storage Circumstance
Question: How much disk space, memory and processing is required if we have to store 1-year's of data information for 50.000 domains with about 50 million pageviews per day?
Answer: Server specifications are really based on size of log data being crunched, and resulting amount of reporting data. Report data is going to be ~10% of raw log data. Try starting with the minimum system specifications, and scale from there:
* 2.5Ghz Pentium dual-core
* 2GB RAM per Core (i.e. dual-core = 4GB; quad-core = 16GB)
* Ultra2/Wide SCSI hard disk (such as a Seagate Cheetah)
* Backup utility external to Urchin
Answer: Server specifications are really based on size of log data being crunched, and resulting amount of reporting data. Report data is going to be ~10% of raw log data. Try starting with the minimum system specifications, and scale from there:
* 2.5Ghz Pentium dual-core
* 2GB RAM per Core (i.e. dual-core = 4GB; quad-core = 16GB)
* Ultra2/Wide SCSI hard disk (such as a Seagate Cheetah)
* Backup utility external to Urchin
5.11.2009
Urchin Q and A: How Urchin 6 Licensing Works
Question: How does Urchin 6 licensing work?
Answer: The Urchin activation process is as follows:
When installing a serial code, your Urchin machine sends the serial code and key code to the Urchin licensing server.
Urchin verifies these two values and returns a license key enabling the customer to complete the installation through the following process:
1. ugetlicense utility automates the sending of the serial code and key code to the Urchin license center
2. A unique license key is returned and written to the Urchin configuration. You can use uconf-export to export your Urchin configuration which contains this value
3. The key code is computed using:
* Inode numbers of configuration database files (Unix systems)
* System identifiers (Windows systems)
* Note that the IP address is NOT used in the license key!
* Also note that copying Urchin config databases or moving Urchin to another disk or partition will change the computed key code
4. Once activated no further network-based license authentication is done by any Urchin component.
Answer: The Urchin activation process is as follows:
When installing a serial code, your Urchin machine sends the serial code and key code to the Urchin licensing server.
Urchin verifies these two values and returns a license key enabling the customer to complete the installation through the following process:
1. ugetlicense utility automates the sending of the serial code and key code to the Urchin license center
2. A unique license key is returned and written to the Urchin configuration. You can use uconf-export to export your Urchin configuration which contains this value
3. The key code is computed using:
* Inode numbers of configuration database files (Unix systems)
* System identifiers (Windows systems)
* Note that the IP address is NOT used in the license key!
* Also note that copying Urchin config databases or moving Urchin to another disk or partition will change the computed key code
4. Once activated no further network-based license authentication is done by any Urchin component.
4.10.2009
Urchin 6.501 Changelist (Mar 26, 2009)
Urchin 6.501 is a minor release fixing the following four issues in the Urchin 6.500 release. (Scroll down to see the Urchin 6.500 changelist.)
- Downloading CPC data in v6.500 frequently took a long time.
o v6.501 fixes a performance issue that affected accounts with a very large CPC history. v6.501 can download up to 256 MB of GZIPPED historical CPC data and process it much more quickly. Due to Google AdWords limitations, however, downloads over this threshold are not supported.
- Proxy Settings
- o Fixed v6.500 proxy issue when downloading CPC data. All traffic is now being redirected through proxy (with or without authentication).
o For new proxy setup instructions, see Downloading CPC Data via proxy (6.501+) in CPC Data Import Utilities.
- o Fixed v6.500 proxy issue when downloading CPC data. All traffic is now being redirected through proxy (with or without authentication).
- 64-bit Visitor ID overflow issue
- o We continue to recommend that you use "urchin.js", not "ga.js". However, for ga.js users, v6.501 addresses the issue of the utma cookie containing a 64-bit value that is used during visitor_id generation. The Urchin parser has been modified to handle both 32 and 64 bit values in the utma cookie.
- uconf-manager
- o The v6.501 uconf-manager can perform 'add', 'delete' and 'update' operations on the uprofiles table.
Urchin Q and A: Differences in U5 and U6 Data Results
Question: We see differences in Urchin 5 versus Urchin 6 results. There is also some information that we used to get in urchin 5 that we no longer see in urchin 6. Are you able to speak with us about a few examples?
Answer: In comparing any two web analytics packages (including U5 vs U6), a difference in data should be expected. It's not always easy to compare U5 to U6 because of the change in report organization and naming. In addition, there are a lot of reasons why the numbers may not be exact. Here's some of the things you should check:
1. Is the Pageview Mimes Match field in the Reporting tab of the profile's configuration the same for both profiles?
2. Is the Session Timeout the same for both profiles?
3. Do you have Session Requires Pageview on in Urchin 5 (It's always "on" in Urchin 6)?
4. Is Log Tracking on for both profiles?
5. Are you using the same Visitor Tracking Method for both installations?
6. Are you processing the log source from both profiles, or are you processing in Urchin 5 and then migrating the data to Urchin 6?
7. Are metrics different for the most recent day, week, and month and for historic days, weeks, and months?
8. Are any other metrics the same?
Urchin 6 has changed a good deal since Urchin was originally acquired (U5.7). Thus, proprietary back-end algorithms may also be different.
Answer: In comparing any two web analytics packages (including U5 vs U6), a difference in data should be expected. It's not always easy to compare U5 to U6 because of the change in report organization and naming. In addition, there are a lot of reasons why the numbers may not be exact. Here's some of the things you should check:
1. Is the Pageview Mimes Match field in the Reporting tab of the profile's configuration the same for both profiles?
2. Is the Session Timeout the same for both profiles?
3. Do you have Session Requires Pageview on in Urchin 5 (It's always "on" in Urchin 6)?
4. Is Log Tracking on for both profiles?
5. Are you using the same Visitor Tracking Method for both installations?
6. Are you processing the log source from both profiles, or are you processing in Urchin 5 and then migrating the data to Urchin 6?
7. Are metrics different for the most recent day, week, and month and for historic days, weeks, and months?
8. Are any other metrics the same?
Urchin 6 has changed a good deal since Urchin was originally acquired (U5.7). Thus, proprietary back-end algorithms may also be different.
3.11.2009
Urchin Q and A: Fixing Daylight Savings Error
Question: Ever since daylight savings, we get the following error when Urchin tries to process logs:
ERROR: (9003-942-883) Failed to query the database
DETAIL: Incorrect datetime value: '2009-03-08 02:59:50' for column 'utpt_data_start_time' at row 1
How do we fix this?
Answer: Reconfigure your MySQL installation and uncheck the checkbox for Enable Strict Mode.
Then, stop and restart the Urchin service.
If that doesn't work, from the MySQL Command Line
Prompt enter the following command:
mysql>SET @@global.sql_mode='MYSQL40'
ERROR: (9003-942-883) Failed to query the database
DETAIL: Incorrect datetime value: '2009-03-08 02:59:50' for column 'utpt_data_start_time' at row 1
How do we fix this?
Answer: Reconfigure your MySQL installation and uncheck the checkbox for Enable Strict Mode.
Then, stop and restart the Urchin service.
If that doesn't work, from the MySQL Command Line
Prompt enter the following command:
mysql>SET @@global.sql_mode='MYSQL40'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
