SUMMARY

How to track messages as they pass through MailEnable.

DETAIL

MailEnable makes no distinction between whether a message comes from a locally hosted domain or an external domain. If a message is received by the SMTP connector it will always pass through the MTA (as will any message that has been placed in the inbound queue of a MailEnable connector). Hence messages can be tracked as they pass through connectors to the destination mailbox. Review the respective logs and track the message as it is delivered to the mailbox. The MTA logs will report on how the recipients SMTP address is matched to a post office address.

For example, to track a message that entered MailEnable by SMTP, it is possible to see the message arrive by reviewing the SMTP Activity or W3C logs. If a problem occurred during the SMTP transaction then the SMTP debug log can be reviewed as it will contain any errors or significant actions undertaken by the MailEnable SMTP service or responses from the remote server.

Example SMTP activity log snippet:

04/15/24 12:47:27 SMTP-IN A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI 364 127.0.0.1   220 mail.mailenable.com ESMTP MailEnable Service, Version: --10.49 ready at 04/15/24 12:47:27 0 0  
04/15/24 12:47:27 SMTP-IN A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI 364 127.0.0.1 EHLO EHLO me2k 250 Requested mail action okay, completed 43 18  
04/15/24 12:47:27 SMTP-IN A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI 364 127.0.0.1 MAIL MAIL FROM:<test@example.com> 250 Requested mail action okay, completed 43 37  
04/15/24 12:47:27 SMTP-IN A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI 364 127.0.0.1 RCPT RCPT TO:<test@example.com> 250 Requested mail action okay, completed 43 35  
04/15/24 12:47:27 SMTP-IN A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI 364 127.0.0.1 DATA DATA 354 Start mail input; end with <CRLF>.<CRLF> 46 6  
04/15/24 12:47:27 SMTP-IN A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI 364 127.0.0.1 DATE  250 Requested mail action okay, completed 43 64073 
04/15/24 12:47:27 SMTP-IN 992EC28E0D0049B2AB185EF782CBB7DE.MAI 364 127.0.0.1 QUIT QUIT 221 Service closing transmission channel 42 6  message subject

To locate the address map that was used to route the message, search the MTA log using one of the recipient SMTP addresses.   In other words, check the MTA logs for a match of recipient, this will display where the message is being moved to.

Example MTA activity log snippet:

04/15/24 12:47:28 [A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI] from (SMTP) [SMTP:test@example.com]->[SF:example.com/test] Mapped Literal

Example MTA debug log snippet:

04/15/24 12:47:29 ME-MTA-ROUTE [A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI] from [SMTP] Connector queued to [SF] Connector as [67A0CFCE2B4D4E11949EF1F6D249592D.MAI]

If the message had local recipients, the address map specified in the MTA logs will determine which mailbox the SMTP address was mapped to. This will inform which post office and mailbox the message was then delivered to.

Finally, the delivery of the message can be confirmed by reviewing the post office connector log files.

Example Postoffice connector log snippet:

04/15/24 12:47:30 [67A0CFCE2B4D4E11949EF1F6D249592D.MAI] Delivered message from [SMTP:test@example.com] to PO=example.com MBX=test FLD=\Inbox

MORE INFORMATION

There is a message tracking utility that is provided within the administration program. Expand the Servers->localhost->System->Diagnose branch and select Track Message. You can then enter the addresses that you are looking for.

The utility can also be accessed outside the administration program within the MailEnable program group under "System tools" named "Message Tracking" and accessed by right clicking on the "METray" icon within the Windows task bar and selecting "Message tracker..."  in the menu.

The message tracking utility allows you to trace a message as it passes through the mail services and determine where the message was routed and the times taken to be delivered. It is handy when log files are large in size which can be time consuming when searching for a particular message.

Example how to use the utility:

1. Select the date in respect to when the message was sent and received.
2. Specify a sender or recipient address within the "sender" or "recipient" fields.
3. Click "Search".
4. In the "inbound messages matching criteria" window you will see all messages that were sent or recieved (by the "sender" or "recipient" specified within the respective field).
5. Click on the message in the list in respective to the date and time and click on the "Trace" button.  

Example Message search result window:

Trace: Tracing message with Message ID [A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI] from the SMTP Inbound Queue

Status: Message ID [A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI] was routed by the MTA from the SMTP Inbound Queue to 1 destination queue(s)

04/15/16 12:47:29 Queue Route: Message ID [A88C0A1E5695465897642AFE193D76CB.MAI] was routed by the MTA from the SMTP Inbound Queue to the Postoffice Connector (SF) Outbound Queue with a Message ID of [67A0CFCE2B4D4E11949EF1F6D249592D.MAI]

04/15/16 12:47:30 [67A0CFCE2B4D4E11949EF1F6D249592D.MAI] Delivered message from [SMTP:test@example.com] to PO=example.com MBX=test FLD=\Inbox

REFERENCES

Tracking Message Path and sender location: Article ME020338

How to troubleshoot SMTP Connectivity issues and Analyse Log Files?: Article ME020170

How to track message sending in web mail: Article ME020196