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Monitoring Message Transactions

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

Protocol logs track the commands a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) virtual server receives from SMTP clients.

Four formats are available for tracking. For the most part, they track the same information. The differences among them are depth of detail, type of display, and analytical uses. When choosing a format, decide what you want to track, how you want to review the data, and how you want to track transactions from other Internet Information Services (IIS) services.

The default format is World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Extended Log File Format, but you can choose a different one. For three of the formats, transactions are written to a text file. You can determine the logging period and maximum size of the file. When the size limit is reached, a new file is created. Back up and remove older files so the system doesn't run out of disk space when writing to the current transaction log file. There is also a format that enables you to collect data in an ODBC-compliant database.

Note

The log formats and default file names are the same as those used by other IIS services. Plan what you want to track for all the services, how many files to use, and how to set file size before choosing a format for the SMTP service.

This section includes the following information: