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Author: Simon Butler, Exchange MVP, MCSE
Last Page Review: 30/01/2008
Message tracking is a feature of Exchange which allows you to track what Exchange has done with a message. It works for both inbound and outbound messages, as well as internal messages.
- The feature does not show you the actual message, but can show the subject line.
- It does need to activated before use. You cannot activate it and then ask for information from the feature retrospectively.
With its low overhead it is a good idea to leave it enabled all time, so that the information is there when required.
Enabling and Configuring Message Tracking - Exchange 2003
Message tracking is set per server, so if you have multiple servers you will need to enable it on each.
- Open Exchange System Manager, Servers.
- Right click on your server and choose Properties.
- Select the following options:
- Enable subject logging and display
- Enable message tracking
- You should review the "remove log files" option. In most cases 30 days of logs is enough. If your site is very high traffic then you may consider keeping less, possibly only 7 to 10 days of logs.
- You should also review the location of the log files. It is good practise to keep them away from the main Exchange store, perhaps on a separate drive. If you have the space, putting them on the same drive as the transaction logs can provide a convenient place to store them.
Enabling and Configuring Message Tracking - Exchange 2007
Message tracking is enable by default on all Exchange 2007 servers with the Hub Transport, Mailbox or Edge roles installed. The default configuration will be fine for most deployments. However there are some changes that you may want to make.
Configure Location of Message Tracking Logs - Management Console
The most common change is the path where the logs are stored. You may want to configure storing them in a separate directory on the same drive as the transaction logs - therefore keeping the logs together. To change the path, follow this process (Exchange 2007 SP1 or higher)
- Start the Exchange Management Console.
- Open Server Configuration, Hub Transport. For the Edge server, select Edge Transport.
- Right click on the server and choose Properties.
- Click on the "Log Settings" tab and use Browse to select and create a new folder as required. Apply/OK out.
- Restart the Exchange Transport Service to ensure the new settings are used.
Configure Location of Message Tracking Logs - Management Shell
Note that the path has a space in it, so is enclosed in "
Hub Transport:
Mailbox Server:
Configure Retention Time
By default, message tracking logs are stored for 30 days. If you want to change that then you need to use the Management Shell. The following command will set the Message Tracking logs age on the server "EXCH01" to 60 days.
Hub Transport:
Mailbox Server:
Configure Subject Logging
If you want to set logging of the subject line as well, then you need to use the Management Shell again
Hub Transport or Edge Servers:
Mailbox Server:
Which to use?
When a server has both Hub Transport and Mailbox Server roles installed, you can use either to enable the feature.
Tracking Messages - Exchange 2003
Once you have collected the raw statistics, you need to track the message.
- Open Exchange System Manager and then Tools.
- Click on Message Tracking Center
- Enter the server that you want to track the message from. This will be the server that the user who sent or received the message has their mailbox on, depending on whether you want to track inbound or outbound messages.
You can actually search at that point - with nothing else configured. That will return a result - up to a maximum of 1000 items, of every message that server has processed since midnight.
However you should use the other fields to narrow the search criteria.
Once you have found the message that you are interested in, double click on it and another new box will be presented. This will show you what Exchange did with the message. If it is an inbound message, it will show where it was delivered to. If it was an outbound message then the address of the server that the message was delivered to will be show.
Tracking Messages - Exchange 2007
The GUI for message tracking in Exchange 2007 has moved to the Toolbox and is part of the troubleshooting section. You can also run commands through Powershell. As there are many options available, look at the Microsoft Technet Article on using Message Tracking: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124926.aspx
Doing More with Message Tracking
The message tracking logs can be used by other applications to create more intuitive reports.
Commercial Products
- Quest Message Stats is one of the best third party applications for processing the logs.
- Another tool that can process the logs is Mail Detective from ADVSOFT. This product is charged per mailbox or per server for Exchange, and can be much cheaper than Quest.
- Sirana have an application called AppAnalyzer, which will produce statistics on your Exchange environment:
- Waterford technologies have MailMeter Insight .
Scripts
- Exchange MVP Glen Scales, has written some ASP code and scripts that can create reports. You can see the full details here: http://www.outlookexchange.com/articles/glenscales/mtrackrs.asp
- Yet another Exchange MVP, Michael B Smith, has made available two files that allow the tracking logs to be read in standard XML. http://theessentialexchange.com/blogs/michael/archive/2007/11/13/more-exchange-message-tracking.aspx
- Promodag (who create Exchange reporting tools) have a free tool that will import the tracking logs in to Access. Once you have them in Access you can create reports on the content. More details and download here:
http://www.promodag.com/products/storelog/description.aspx
Microsoft Links
There is some information on using Message Tracking on Microsoft's web site.
Exchange 2003
How to enable message tracking in Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server 2003 (KB 246856)
Using the Message Tracking Center to Track a Message (KB 262162)
Exchange 2007
Message tracking for Exchange 2007: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997984.aspx
How to search message tracking logs: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124926.aspx
30/01/2008
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