Installing AWStats on Ubuntu 20.04

AWStats is an open-source web analytics tool that generates detailed reports about web traffic, including information about the number of visitors, pages accessed, search engine keywords, and more. It provides statistics in various graphical and textual formats, making it easy to analyze and understand the traffic patterns of your website.

Step 1: Update System Packages

Before installing AWStats, it is recommended to update the system packages to their latest versions. Open the terminal and run the following command:

Step 2: Install AWStats

To install AWStats on Ubuntu 20.04, use the following command:

Step 3: Configure AWStats

After the installation, you need to configure AWStats to monitor your website's traffic. The main configuration file for AWStats is located at /etc/awstats/awstats.conf. Open the file in a text editor and make the necessary changes, such as specifying the log file location and the hostname of your website.

Step 4: Generate Initial AWStats Report

To generate the initial AWStats report, run the following command:

Replace YOUR_CONFIG with the name of your configuration file (e.g., awstats.example.com).

Step 5: Automate Report Generation

To automate the generation of AWStats reports, you can set up a cron job to run the update command periodically. Open the crontab file by running:

Add the following line to the file to run the update every hour:

Step 6: Access AWStats Web Interface

Once the reports are being generated, you can access the AWStats web interface to view and analyze the statistics. The URL to access the interface is typically:

Replace your-domain-or-ip with the actual domain name or IP address of your server, and YOUR_CONFIG with the name of your configuration file.

Conclusion

With AWStats installed and configured on your Ubuntu 20.04 server, you can gather valuable insights into the usage patterns and visitors of your website. By regularly analyzing the reports, you can make informed decisions to optimize your website and improve its performance.