Note: This article was originally published in 2013. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current Exchange 2013 documentation for the latest information.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn visualize the message tracking log in exchange server 2013. Exchange Server 2013 introduced a simplified architecture, site mailboxes, DLP policies, and integration with SharePoint and Lync.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Exchange Server 2013 CU or later
  • Exchange Admin Center (EAC) or Exchange Management Shell access
  • Appropriate administrative role assignments

How to: Visualize the Message Tracking Log in Exchange Server 2013

I’ve always been a big (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface “Graphical user interface”) person, but in the world of IT I am definitively going against the trend. (<http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=47.6395972222,-122.12845&spn=0.01,0.01&q=47.6395972222,-122.12845 (Microsoft)&t=h> “Microsoft”) has been no exception to this trend, over the past few releases they have increasingly focused on correctly decoupling their GUI from their applications. You could see this trend for example on (http://www.microsoft.com/exchange “Microsoft Exchange Server”) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Management_Console “Microsoft Management Console”)… all it did was build the (http://www.microsoft.com/powershell “Windows PowerShell”) command it would run on your behalf. Well, it seems now Microsoft has taken this a step further and you are not even given a GUI for many operations. The beauty here is that PowerShell is very robust and you can do many things programmatically and automation is taken to a whole new level, the downside: People not dedicated to a particular solution/application/program have to dig out (http://technet.microsoft.com/ “Microsoft TechNet”) articles rather than just read the GUI. Now, getting back on topic… The Message Tracking Log was rather easy to access on Exchange 2010 but on Exchange 2013 you are simply given a web interface that allows you to perform some basic queries, but you are limited to the kind of information you can obtain as the source or destination emails are restricted by the interface. At this point you are forced into using the Exchange Management Shell and using PowerShell. And with the considerably increase in internal monitoring emails that get sent around inside Exchange 2013, the logs are busy with all the Delivery Probe emails. I recommend using the Start parameter so you don’t pull thousands of records since the beginning of time:

Get-MessageTrackingLog -Start “April 2 2013”

So… what are your options? Well, for starters you can use the Query parameter to perform some filtering, but still the amount of information you can see at the shell level and the presentation is not at least what I am looking for. On the bright side Microsoft via PowerShell v2.0 or higher offers a featured called Out-GridView that presents the information as the name implies, in a Grid View using your (http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWS “Windows”) GUI! Most people end up directing the output of their commands to text or csv files, but with this you can directly output it to a grid you can manipulate saving you some time and the need for an application to nicely present that information:

Get-MessageTrackingLog -Start “April 3 2013” | Out-GridView

Now using the GridView you can do all those fancy filtering and sorting things you always wanted to do, oh and scrolling! And remember, this is only the beginning of what you can accomplish, below is an example that uses a Selection query to increase the amount of information you obtain as well as the use of the -ResultSize parameter so you get more than 1k rows:

get-messagetrackinglog -Start “March 3 2013” -ResultSize Unlimited | select-object eventid,timestamp,messageid,sender,recipients,messagesubject | out-gridview

 

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Summary

You’ve successfully learned visualize the message tracking log in exchange server 2013. If you run into any issues, double-check the prerequisites and ensure your Exchange 2013 environment is properly configured.