Conduit logs all transactions including empty messages and cron runs that synchronize between Conduit and Open LMS. Since these logs are useful for troubleshooting issues and following changes they are important. However they also can grow quite large over time especially when there is a lot of traffic. The larger the logs, the slow the Reports tool works. The log retention setting tells Conduit how long to keep logs for and what to do with old log information.
Setting Conduit Log Retention:
- Go to Conduit > Settings > General
- At the top of the page you will see the "Cron" section and look for the "Remove logs" setting.
- Here you can set the behavior(Never, Delete, or Archive) and the period for the frequency of the action.
- Never leaves the log running without cleaning it up ever. If you are experiencing long load times on the Conduit Reports tab this is probably why. Please consider using one of the other options to improve performance.
- Delete will delete Conduit logs after the set time span. For example, if the logs are set to "Delete" after "6 Months," Conduit will delete logs prior to 6 months before the current date.
- Archive does the same as Delete except that instead of permanently deleting logs, it places them in your data folder which is accessible via SFTP.
- You must also select a time span in the second drop-down menu. You choose the number of months that Conduit will keep logs until performing the delete or archive action. The options are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 months.
Archived logs are written out to your site’s dataroot/archive/conduit/logs/ directory. Be sure to periodically head into the SFTP and clear out old files or put them somewhere for storage. There may be some confidential information in the files like usernames or email addresses.
Conduit Log Retention Best Practices:
Open LMS suggests that you use Archive and select 6 months or less. This will keep the Conduit logs for the current semester in your system for review while erasing old data to keep performance from dropping too low on the Conduit Reports view. Be sure to use your SFTP access to download and remove the old logs periodically to keep the archives tidy.