Tracking mail messages

Both users and Domino administrators can track mail. Users can track only messages that they themselves sent. Administrators can track mail sent by any user.

When you configure mail tracking, you can specify which types of information Domino records. For example, you can specify that Domino not record message-tracking information for certain users, or you can choose not to record the subject line of messages sent by specific users.

The Mail Tracker Collector task (MTC) reads special mail tracker log files (MTC files) produced by the Router and copies certain messaging information from them to the MailTracker Store database (MTSTORE.NSF). The MailTracker Store database is created automatically when you enable mail tracking on the server. When an administrator or user searches for a particular message, either a message tracking request or a mail report, Domino searches the MailTracker Store database to find the information.

Note The Mail Tracker Collector differs from the Statistics Collector (Collect task), which is responsible for gathering statistical information about servers.

How mail tracking works

1. From an IBM® Lotus® Notes® client or Domino Administrator client, a user creates a query to determine whether a specific message arrived at its intended destination or to determine how far it got if delivery failed.

2. The mail tracking program begins to trace the routing path from the server where the message originated. If the message is not found on the originating server, tracking automatically continues at the next server on the route.

3. Step 2 is repeated on each "next server" until the route ends. Detailed information is provided about the processing of the message on each server.

4. After the tracking query completes, the user can select messages from the results and check their delivery status. The following table displays the possible values for the delivery status:

Delivery Status	Meaning
Delivered	The message was delivered to a mailbox on the server. The mail file status indicates whether the message was read, unread, or deleted. If the mail file status is not read, unread, or deleted, it appears as unknown.
Delivery failed	The server attempted to deliver the message to a mail file but was unsuccessful. The recipient may not exist, or the server's disk may be full.
In queue	The Router is processing the message.
Transferred	The Router successfully sent the message to the server identified in the next hop field.
Transfer failed	The Router attempted to transfer the message to another server and failed.
Group expanded	The message was addressed to a group, and the group was expanded on this server.
Unknown	The status of the message on the server cannot be determined.

Generating mail usage reports

Over time, the Domino MailTracker Store database (MTSTORE.NSF) accumulates valuable data about message routing patterns on the server. It may be useful to generate mail usage reports from this data. For example, you can generate reports of recent messaging activity, message volume, individual usage levels, and heavily traveled message routes. You can use the Reports database (REPORTS.NSF) to generate and store mail usage reports. Typically, the Reports database is created automatically when you set up the server.

Mail usage reports provide important information that you can use to resolve problems and improve the efficiency of the mail network. In addition, this information is valuable when you plan changes or expansions to the mail network. For example, you can generate reports that show the 25 users who received the most mail over a given period of time (a day, a week, a month, and so forth), or the volume of mail sent by a specified user over some interval. With this information, you can identify users who might be misusing the mail system. Other reports show the most frequently used next and previous hops, enabling you to assess compliance with mail use policies.

Agents stored in the Reports database let administrators schedule reports on a one-time, daily, weekly, and monthly basis. By default, Domino generates scheduled reports at midnight at the interval you specify -- daily, weekly, or monthly. When a report query is run, the active report agent examines the data collected in the Domino MailTracker Store database to generate the resulting report. You can configure a report to save results in the Reports database or mail results to one or more administrators. Saved reports are organized in the Reports database under several different views. Reports that are mailed, but not saved, are not added to the Reports database.

You can use the Reports database to analyze server mail usage. Views in the database display previously saved reports according to date, schedule, report type, and user. In addition, a view displays all scheduled reports by interval.

Mail routing event generators

To monitor a mail network, you can configure mail routing event generators to test and gather statistics on mail routes.

Related topics

Tracking a mail message
Generating a mail usage report
Event generators
Statistic Collector task

Glossary