---
title: 'Tutorial: Query the Access Server Log Database with the logdba Tool'
canonical: https://openvpn.net/as-docs/v3/tutorials/tutorial--log-database-logdba/
product: Access Server Docs
description: Helpful commands to query the log database for Access Server with the logdba tool.
---

# Tutorial: Query the Access Server Log Database with the logdba Tool

## Overview

The Access Server maintains a log database of all VPN and web server usage. You can query this database using the **./logdba** tool. This tutorial provides a list of commands to help you accomplish that.

You can also query your log from the Admin Web UI.

> **Tip**
>
> Access Server's command-line tools, including the **logdba** tool, are in the scripts directory: `/usr/local/openvpn_as/scripts/`.

## Prerequisites

- An installed Access Server.
- Console access and the ability to get root access.

## Step 1: Run logdba commands from the scripts directory

1. Connect to the console and get root privileges.
2. Change to the scripts directory:

   ```
   cd /usr/local/openvpn_as/scripts/
   ```

   - You're ready to run **logdba** commands to query the log database.

## Step 2: Run logdba commands

Use the following list of commands to query your Access Server log database:

**Show all database records formatted as comma-separated values (CSV):**

```
./logdba --csv
```

**Show all database records formatted as javascript object notation (JSON):**

```
./logdba --json
```

**Show all active records (currently connected VPN sessions):**

```
./logdba --csv --active=1
```

**Show active or closed connections/sessions initiated in the last four hours:**

```
./logdba --csv --start_time_ge="-4h"
```

**Show VPN and web service authentication failures from the last 24 hours:**

```
./logdba --csv --start_time_ge="-1d" --auth_bfilt=0
```

**Show VPN log records (omit web records):**

```
./logdba --csv --service_filt=VPN
```

**Show web records (omit VPN records). Both forms below are equivalent:**

```
./logdba --csv --service_filt="WEB_ADMIN,WEB_CLIENT"
./logdba --csv --service_filt="WEB%"
```

**Show only XML\_API log records (omit web and VPN records) with the API method called. These include sacli commands that access the Access Server XML API but omit all XML API accesses from the web server.**

> **Tip**
>
> Adding **log\_db\_xml\_api\_verbose=true** to the **as.conf** file will cause web server accesses to the XML API to also be logged. Refer to the [debug flag tutorial](https://openvpn.net/as-docs/v3/tutorials/tutorial--debug-flags.md) for more details.

```
./logdba --csv --service_filt=XML_API --columns="+api_method"
```

**Show VPN sessions that used more than 2.5MB of bandwidth during the past 24 hours, and format bandwidth stats using KB, MB, etc. notation.**

```
./logdba --csv --start_time_ge="-1d" --bytes_total_ge="2.5mb" --fmt_bw_all
```

**Show all records formatted as JSON, and use unix time instead of formatted time:**

```
./logdba --json --start_time_outfmt=unix
```

**Show the ten VPN sessions over the last month that used the most bandwidth, with the highest bandwidth session shown at the top of the list.**

```
./logdba --csv --service_filt=VPN --start_time_ge="-1M" --order_by=bytes_total --limit 10 --desc
```

**Show VPN sessions and restrict the columns shown to a subset:**

```
./logdba --csv --service_filt=VPN --columns="username,start_time,duration,bytes_total,error"
```

**Show users "alice" and "bob" usage during 2009:**

```
./logdba --csv --username_filt="alice,bob" --start_time_ge="2009.01.01" --start_time_lt="2010.01.01"
```

**Show the eight most recent records for user bob, ordered from more recent to less recent:**

```
./logdba --csv --limit=8 --desc --username_filt=bob
```

**Show all records, but format the start time according to the RFC 2822 internet email standard:**

```
./logdba --csv --start_time_outfmt="%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S +0000" --start_time_outfmt_gmt
```

**Show VPN records for the previous one day + 12 hours (including still-active sessions), show session duration in HH:MM format, and sort by session duration by increasing order:**

```
./logdba --csv --service_filt=VPN --start_time_ge="-1d 12h" --order_by=duration --duration_fmt
```

**Display additional logdba info:**

```
./logdba --help
```

---

Prev: [Log Database Queries](https://openvpn.net/as-docs/v3/tutorials/log-database-queries.md)
Next: [Tutorial: Query the Access Server Log Database Using the Web API](https://openvpn.net/as-docs/v3/tutorials/tutorial--query-the-log-database-via-api.md)
Index: https://openvpn.net/as-docs/llms.txt