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Log Locations On Dedicated/VPS

Overview

There are two main locations where logs are kept on Dedicated and VPS servers: the /usr/local/cpanel/logs directory and the /var/log/ directory. Here is a list of the logs common to each directory, as well as some which can be found in other locations on the server.

/usr/local/cpanel/logs

access_log: cPanel access log for both cPanel and WHM
cpbackup directory: logs of recent system backups
cphulkd.log: Firewall (cPHulk) blocks
error_log: cPanel error log
license_log: cPanel license log
login_log: cPanel user failed login log
stats_log: cPanel web stats log

/var/log/

messages: Contains global system messages like mail, cron, daemon, kern, auth, etc.
bandwidth: cPanel total bandwidth logs for the entire server
btmp: failed login attempts
chkservd.log: chkservd service log
clamav: clamav log directory
cron: any scheduled tasks, for both root and cPanel users
cpupdate.log: cPanel update log
exim_mainlog: Exim email transaction log
exim_paniclog: Exim error log
exim_rejectlog: Exim rejected email log
maillog: Transaction and login log for all mail services
pgsql: PostgreSQL log file
secure: authentication logs for both successful or failed logins
yum.log: updates for system packages

Miscellaneous

/usr/local/apache/logs/error_log - Apache error log e.g. some 500 errors.
/var/cpanel/accounting.log - Account creation, deletion, etc.
/var/cpanel/logs/mysql_upgrade.log - logs of MySQL upgrades
/var/cpanel/updatelogs/ directory - cPanel/WHM updates
/var/lib/mysql/HOSTNAME.err - MySQL error log

cPanel keeps the domain weblogs in the /usr/local/cpanel/domlogs directory for each domain name that is hosted on the server. This includes FTP transfer logs for each account.

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