Configuring Message Tracking Log files on the Hub Transport

Set-TransportServer “servername” –MessageTrackingLogMaxDirectorySize 2GB

Use the following powershell commands to set message tracking age, max log file size and max directory size

1. setting the max log file size to 5MB
 Set-TransportServer HT2k7 –MessageTrackingLogMaxFileSize 5MB

2. setting the age for the logs
Set-TransportServer SERVERNAME –MessageTrackingLogMaxAge DD.HH:MM:SS

for eg

Set-TransportServer E2K7 –MessageTrackingLogMaxAge 15.00:00:00 (will set the logs to expire after 15days)
3. setting the max directory size to 2gb for eg

Set-TransportServer e2k7ht – MessageTrackingLogMaxDirectorySize 2GB

event id parameters of message tracking logs defined

 In exchange 2007, the admin needs to understand the important parameters of Message Tracking logs. Whereas Exchange Server 2003/2000’s Message Tracking log was an easy-to-use application that shielded the user from this complexity, it also provided much less flexibility.
 
Message Tracking logs have a lot of details about a message as it originates from an internal user or external sender, and makes its way through the different stages of message routing and transfer, and finally gets delivered (or not). You can now track messages based on these events.
 
see below the event ids and descriptions. Proper understanding of these events will help for better troubleshooting and tracking of messages.
 
 
EventID Description

DEFER Message delivery delayed
DELIVER Message delivered to a mailbox
DSN A delivery status notification was generated.
Messages quarantined by the Content Filter are also delivered as DSNs. the recipients field has the SMTP address of the quarantine mailbox.
EXPAND Distribution Group expanded. The RelatedRecipientAddress field has the SMTP address of the Distribution Group.
FAIL Delivery failed. The RecipientStatus field has more information about the failure, including the SMTP response code. You should also look at the Source and Recipients fields when inspecting messages with this event.
POISONMESSAGE Message added to or removed from the poison queue
RECEIVE Message received. The Source field is STOREDRIVER for messages submitted by Store Driver (from a Mailbox server), or SMTP for messages
a) received from another Hub/Edge
b) received from an external (non-Exchange) host using SMTP
c) submitted by SMTP clients such as POP/IMAP users.
REDIRECT Message redirected to alternate recipient
RESOLVE Generally seen when a message is received on a proxy address and resolved to the default email address. The RelatedRecipientAddress field has the proxy address the message was sent to. The recipients field has the default address it was resolved (and delivered) to.
SEND Message sent by SMTP. The ServerIP and ServerHostName parameters have the IP address and hostname of the SMTP server.
SUBMIT The Microsoft Exchange Mail Submission service on a Mailbox server successfully notified a Hub Transport server that a message is awaiting submission (to the Hub). These are the events you’ll see on a Mailbox server.
The SourceContext property provides the MDB Guid, Mailbox Guid, Event sequence number, Message class, Creation timestamp, and Client type. Client type can be User (Outlook MAPI), RPCHTTP (Outlook Anwhere), OWA, EWS, EAS, Assistants, Transport.
TRANSFER Message forked because of content conversion, recipient limits, or transport agents

Working with message tracking logs

use this powershell command to get message tracking logs from a hub transport server, with start date of 1/13/2009 and end date of 2/13/09 at 11:20am respectively. this will also export to csv file on root of C:drive
get-messagetrackinglog -Server “servername”
 -Start “1/13/2009 11:20:00 AM” -End “2/13/2009 11:20:00 AM” -resultsize unlimited
| select timestamp, eventid, source, messagesubject, sender, internalmessageid, {_.recipients}, sourcecontext | export-csv c:msgtrak.csv
 
more examples:
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender chuck@chuck.com
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender “obi@obi.com” -eventID RECEIVE
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender “barb@domain.com” -eventID DELIVER
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender “erik@domain.com” -eventID DELIVER -Start “10/01/2009 9:00AM” -End “10/03/2009 5:00PM”
formatting the output
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender obi@domain.com -eventID DELIVER -Start “10/01/2009 9:00AM” -End “10/03/2009 5:00PM” | Select timestamp,recipients,messagesubject
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender “Mike@domain.com” -eventID DELIVER -Start “10/01/2009 9:00AM” -End “10/03/2009 5:00PM” -ResultSize 25

Distribution list has reached maximum size errors

Issue: you may receive error that distribution list has reached max size and therefore no new contacts can be added.
 
Info: There is no definite limit to the number of contacts that you can add to a distribution list. The exact limit is based on the total file size of the contacts. 
If you use only the very basic information for contacts, your distribution list limit may be as many as 125 contacts to 130 contacts. For example, the information for the contacts in a list of this size may include only the name and the e-mail address for each contact. You can create very large distribution lists that contain over a 1,000 contacts. However, these very large lists may not function as expected in Outlook.
 
Resolution/Workaround:
 
create multiple distribution lists while not exceeding maximum number of contacts. Please follow these steps to create multiple distribution lists
 
  1. In the Contacts folder in Outlook, open the large distribution list.
  2. On the File menu, click Save As.
  3. Type distribution_list_name Copy, click Outlook Message Format (*.msg) in the Save as type list, and then click Save. 

    Note This creates a backup copy of your original distribution list.

  4. Close the distribution list.
  5. Reopen the distribution list.
  6. In the Name box, type the following text at the end of the distribution list name:
    (start_firstname – end_firstname)

    In this example, start_firstname is placeholder text for the first name of the first contact in the new list. The placeholder text for the first name of the last contact in the new list is end_firstname. Select a range of contacts that has fewer than the maximum number of contacts. 

    For example, the distribution list “Business contacts” contains 200 contacts. There are 70 contacts between David Jones and Tony Smith. Therefore, you rename the list to “Business contacts (David – Tony).”

  7. Select and then delete all the contacts that are not in the name range that you specified in the new list name. 

    For example, if you rename the list to “Business contacts (David – Tony),” you then delete all the contacts that have first names that come before “David” alphabetically. Additionally, you delete all the contacts that have first names that come after “Tony” alphabetically.

  8. On the File menu, click Save As.
  9. Click Outlook Message Format (*.msg) in the Save as type list, and then click Save.
  10. On the File menu, click Close. When you are prompted to save changes to the list, click No.
  11. In Windows Explorer, open the folder to which you saved the modified distribution list, right-click the .msg file, and then click Copy.
  12. In the Contacts folder in Outlook, click Edit, and then click Paste. This creates a new distribution list that uses the new name that you specified in step 6.
  13. Repeat steps 5 through 12 for each group of contacts that you want to separate into an individual distribution list.

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;238569&Product=out

Customer can’t download and save attachments while using OWA

Issue: Customer is unable to open, run or save an attachment using OWA. 
 
Cause: Customer checked public at first logon to OWA instead of private.
 
Info: Private setting enables owa users to download and save attachments. Public setting assumes you are in a public workstation that’s unsecure. By so doing, that setting automatically, checks this setting in Internet Explorer, called “Do not save encrypted pages to disk”
 This prevents any attachment(word, excel, pdf, etc) from being saved to your computer.
 
Resolution:
While in IE, go to tools, internet options, security tab, advanced tab, uncheck do not save encrypted pages to disk
 
Click to see the screenshot
 

Outlook web access did not initialize. Contact your administrator

Error: Outlook web access did not initialize. Contact your administrator.
Cause: Customer’s alias in Active directory didn’t match user logon name
Resolution: Corrected customer’s alias to match user logon name. Also changed uid attribute using ADSIedit to match corrected alias

How to display and print yearly calendar in Outlook 2007

use calendar printing assistant to display Outlook Calendar in various day/week/month and year templates.
 
please download the utility from here:
 
 
after installation, you can find calendar printing assistant from programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office tools.

Access to additional contacts in Outlook

During the conversion from Groupwise to Outlook, some of my contacts that were in subfolders have been added to contacts in their respective folders, but I can’t access them when I am trying to create an email. I don’t want to add them all to my ‘Contacts’ list since that list is synched with my Blackberry, and I don’t want several hundred names to sort through. How can I get access to contacts to send emails if they are not part of the Global email address list?

unblock attachment restrictions in Outlook

Outlook by default blocks a lot of attachments. You can use this utility bu Ken Slovak(MVP-Outlook) to unblock attachments
 
It’s a COM add-in for outlook that lets you choose levels of file types in outlook
 
Note that level 1 types are totally blocked by Outlook by level 2 types can be saved to a disk
 
download the utility from:
 

Outlook requiring logins after laptop idle for 15-20 minutes

System: Macbook Pro running Windows XP Professional (yes XP natively via Bootcamp, not my choice) Problem: After leaving the laptop for 15-20 minutes Outlook would require the password to be entered numerous times before reconnecting. 1st step: Set power options in Control Panel to never go to standby while plugged in. This didn’t seem to have an effect. 2nd step: Opened Network Connections, right-clicked on the connection and opened Properties. Clicked on Configure next to the network card. On the Power Management tab, unchecked “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” This seems to have fixed the problem, although I’m not sure why Outlook required multiple password entries.