Message tracking centre log files

Question

1) If message tracking is enabled, any idea where exactly the physical log files reside on windows 2008 server?2)
2) if message tracking logs only go back 30 days, is there anyway to restore older logs from backups so they can be searched in tracking centre?
3) is there any 3rd party tools that can search/parse message tracking logs, so you can just restore the raw log files from the backup and not have to touch the live system?
this if for exchange 2010.

Answer 1

Hi,
1) If message tracking is enabled, any idea where exactly the physical log files reside on windows 2008 server?
A: By default, the message tracking log files exist in %ExchangeInstallPath%TransportRoles\Logs\MessageTracking. For Exchange 2010, the logs are generally stored in C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\TransportRoles\Logs\MessageTracking
directory. On an Exchange 2013 Mailbox server, you can use the Set-TransportServer cmdlet to set the log path, for example:
Set-TransportServer Exchange01 -MessageTrackingLogPath "D:\Message Tracking"
2) if message tracking logs only go back 30 days, is there anyway to restore older logs from backups so they can be searched in tracking centre?
A: Also, we can use the Set-TransportServer cmdlet to set the maximum age of a message tracking log file. The example sets the maximum age of a message tracking log file to 45 days:
Set-TransportServer Exchange01 -MessageTrackingLogMaxAge 45.00:00:00
For more information about how to configure Message Tracking, please refer to:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997984(v=exchg.141).aspx
3) is there any 3rd party tools that can search/parse message tracking logs, so you can just restore the raw log files from the backup and not have to touch the live system?
A: Exchange 2010 also have message tracking tool in Exchange Management Console to search the Message Tracking Log. For more information about it, please refer to Searching the Message Tracking Logs by Using the Exchange Management Console
part in the following article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124926(v=exchg.141).aspx
Regards,
Winnie Liang
TechNet Community Support