Q. How can I use the command line to quickly search Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 message tracking information?

A. The Exchange 2007 PowerShell cmdlet Get-MessageTrackingLog is a great way to search Exchange 2007's message tracking log. For example, to quickly search for any message from [email protected] that contains the word "Batman" in the subject, use the command

WindowsSystem32>Get-MessageTrackingLog -server savdalex01 -messagesubject "Batman" -sender [email protected]

The return would be:

EventId Source Sender Recipients MessageSubject
-------------------------------------------
RECEIVE STORE... [email protected] {clark@savilltech... Batman is the best
DELIVER STORE... [email protected] {clark@savilltech... Batman is the best
SUBMIT STORE... [email protected] {} Batman is the best

This output shows only some detail. If you added "| fl" to the end of the command, the output would return a list with more information, similar to the following code and return:

WindowsSystem32>Get-MessageTrackingLog -server savdalex01 -messagesubject "batman" -sender [email protected] | fl

The return would be:

Timestamp : 3/11/2008 11:08:07 AM
ClientIp : fe80::5de2:b09f:7c88:bb73
ClientHostname : savdalex01.savilltech.net
ServerIp : fe80::5de2:b09f:7c88:bb73%10
ServerHostname : savdalex01
SourceContext :
ConnectorId :
Source : STOREDRIVER
EventId : RECEIVE
InternalMessageId : 1
MessageId : 1.savilltech.net>
Recipients : {[email protected]}
RecipientStatus : {}
TotalBytes : 3601
RecipientCount : 1
RelatedRecipientAddress :
Reference :
MessageSubject : Batman is the best
Sender : [email protected]
ReturnPath : [email protected]
MessageInfo : 04I:

There are a number of other commands you can use, including a start and end date and time (-start and -end), the number of results to return (-resultsize), and a list of the recipients (-recipients). For a full list of options, use the command:

Get-help get-messagetrackinglog -detailed