Squid Logs for Request History, Cache Manager for Live Stats
Use transaction logs for historical request reports and Cache Manager for live runtime reports, interpreting each metric within its reporting scope.
SARG analyzes Squid transaction logs. Cache Manager exposes reports about the running Squid process. Choose the data source according to the question being asked.
| Question | Relevant source |
|---|---|
| Which recorded requests did a client make? | access.log |
| Historical traffic grouped by user or destination | SARG processing the available logs |
| Current runtime, memory or internal counters | The corresponding Cache Manager report |
SARG cannot reconstruct a field that the input log never recorded. Configure the required log format before collecting the period that needs to be analyzed, and account for rotated files and any access-log exclusions.
For Squid 6 and 7, access_log selects where and which matching transactions are logged. logformat controls the recorded fields. Sending records through UDP changes delivery; it does not add missing transaction fields or guarantee that every datagram arrives. For a Squid 7 file logger, select its output and log format before collecting the required period.
Cache Manager reports have their own scope. In multi-worker deployments, Squid combines some worker values but not every report is aggregated uniformly. Read that report's meaning before treating a number as a single system-wide measurement.
Finally, proxy transaction bytes and the network interface's total traffic are different measurements. State which one a report actually contains.