Streaming Media Supplement sa2150 and sa2250

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Chapter 10 Logging and Monitoring
Although SMIL is a standard, these files only exist in RealNetworks streaming, in our experience. With
RealNetworks streaming of SMIL files, you also see a file whose suffix is .rp. The .rp file sits between the
SMIL file and the invoked content files: one SMIL file may invoke several .rp files, and one .rp file may
invoke several JPEG or GIF files, for example.
Media-IXT’s SMIL logging works like this:
• the SMIL file itself shows a relatively small size (like an HTML page, a SMIL file is lightweight compared
to an image or sound file)
• the files invoked by the SMIL file have their own log entries, with their individual byte counts shown
• some files invoked by the SMIL file may be logged as being zero bytes in size
In an earlier release, logging for SMIL files was incorrect, such that the SMIL file's byte count reflected the sum
of all the files invoked by the SMIL file, but the invoked files themselves were not named in the logs.
To users accustomed to the earlier, incorrect logging behavior, the present, correct logging may appear to be a
bug, but it is not.
Note that RealProxy has its own style of SMIL logging, in the proxy.log file:
• the SMIL file itself shows a relatively small size (like an HTML page, a SMIL file is lightweight compared
to an image or sound file)
• the files invoked by the SMIL file do not have their own log entries, except for the .rp file, whose byte
counts approximately equals the total byte count of the JPEG, GIF and other content files which it invokes
The above is only a general guideline about RealProxy SMIL logging, which is idiosyncratic, and,
unfortunately, undocumented.
Understanding log collation
Two or more Media-IXTs can have their logs collated as logging occurs. See the HP Cache Server Appliance
Administrator Guide for details about log collation.
To configure log collation:
1. Designate one Media-IXT as a collation host, also known as a collation server. This procedure assumes
throughout that 11.11.11.11 is the IP address of the collation host, and that you choose port 28006 as your
collation port.
You need to know the IP address of the collation host.
2. Designate one or more Media-IXT as collation clients.
On the collation host:
3. Use Traffic Manager to make the Media-IXT a collation host.
Select be a collation host, and accept or override the default IP address, log collation port, and log collation
secret offered by Traffic Manager.
Write down this data, which you will need when configuring the collation clients.
As an alternative to using Traffic Manager, you can configure the collation host by editing the
records.config file. See the HP Cache Server Appliance Administrator Guide for details.