---
title: Logging tools
description: The PingDirectory server provides tools that can be used to access content in access and error log files.
component: pingdirectory
version: 11.0
page_id: pingdirectory:pingdirectory_security_guide:pd_sec_logging_tools
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingdirectory/11.0/pingdirectory_security_guide/pd_sec_logging_tools.html
revdate: September 13, 2023
section_ids:
  search-logs: search-logs
  summarize-access-log: summarize-access-log
---

# Logging tools

The PingDirectory server provides tools that can be used to access content in access and error log files.

## `search-logs`

Use the `search-logs` tool to search for content in log files. This tool provides grep-like support for searching log files, but it offers several additional benefits, including:

* It can automatically trace backward through rotated log files to find matching records in older log files.

* It supports searching log files that are compressed and encrypted.

* It can handle multi-line messages.

* It allows you to specify start and end times for the messages to match.

## `summarize-access-log`

Use the `summarize-access-log` tool to examine one or more access log files and produce a plain-text report of the log data that they contain. The output can include:

* The length of time covered by the log files that were examined

* The number of connections that were established and disconnected

* The addresses of the clients that most frequently connected to the server

* The average rate of connects and disconnects per second

* The most common TLS protocols and cipher suites

* The number of operations processed, both overall and by operation type

* The average rate of operations processed per second, both overall and by operation type

* The average duration of operations processed, both overall and by operation type

* The breakdown of operation processing times into sets of predefined buckets, ranging from less than one millisecond to over one minute

* A breakdown of the most common result codes for each type of operation and their relative frequencies

* The most common authentication mechanisms

* The most common bind distinguished names (DNs) for successful and failed bind attempts

* The most common types of extended operations processed and their relative frequencies

* The number of unindexed search operations processed and the most common types of filters used when processing unindexed searches

* The most common base DNs for searches with non-baseObject scopes

* The relative frequencies for each search scope

* The most common types of search filters used and their relative frequencies

* The most common types of filters for searches returning zero, one, and multiple entries

* Filters used for searches that took the longest to complete

The `summarize-access-log` tool supports operating on log files that are compressed and encrypted. It also attempts to anonymize sensitive information in the output by replacing attribute values with placeholders.