Troubleshooting Exchange 2000
In this article, we will cover tracking messaging, enabling message tracking, using the Message Tracking Center, and using Windows 2000's event viewer to troubleshoot common issues in Exchange.
Best Practices
Exchange Server is an intricate product that consists of many components, so it is important in any pilot or installation that you set aside enough time for planning and installation. Many tools exist that can help you plan and analyze an Exchange server installation. This article familiarizes you with some of the tools that Exchange provides for diagnosing and troubleshooting various components of Exchange within your organization.
The best-practice method in troubleshooting Exchange is to utilize all the tools that enable you to actively diagnose and resolve an immediate problem. It is very important to monitor and probe your email system. You should monitor server performance, ensure that the information replication is distributed to your users, and verify that messages are being transferred and received correctly. Furthermore, it is critical that you make sure that you have a recent backup for each server.
It is very important to have an updated Exchange infrastructure layout of your messaging system, especially in a large organization.
To achieve the best troubleshooting results, you should enable the Message Tracking tool. It helps you visualize the message route, track the exact message flow, and find out a message status. By default, message tracking is turned off.
By enabling protocol logging, you will be able to better troubleshoot your Exchange server. You can track the commands that a virtual server receives from users, the client IP address, the client's domain name, the date and time, the number of bytes, and the protocol command sent. The protocols that you can enable are SMTP, NNTP, and HTTP.