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Power-Shelling the Message Tracking logs on Exchange 2000/2003

If you’ve ever had to write any scripts that query the message tracking logs though WMI you may have come across the issue that WQL cant handle doing a Where clause on an array. Because the Recipient address’s on an email are returned as an array when you want to use this class to make a query that only shows mail that is going to one address it can be a little cumbersome. With Powershell although you are still stuck not being able to filter via recipient address in a WMI query what you can do now is pipe that result to the where-object cmdlet where you can then filter the result to one particular recipient address.

If you combine this in a script what you can then do is query the tracking logs for the past x number of hours to show any email sent to a particular recipient. The reverse is also true you can query to see all the email sent from a particular address.

What I’ve done is put two scripts together that do this both scripts take 3 input parameters the first is the name of the server you want to query. The second is the number of hours to look back in the logs and the third is the email address to look at so to run the script you use a line such as c:\recvmail.ps1 servername 10 user@domain.com . This would look for any mail sent to user@domain.com on the server for the last 10 hours. The sent mail script works that same but shows messages that where sent from a particular email address The script requires that your running the Powershell RC but it should work in the old msh / monad beta’s as well.

I’ve put a downloadable copy of the script here

The Received email script looks like

param([String] $servername = $(throw "Please specify the Servername"), [int32] $timerange = $(throw "Please specify a Time Range in Hours"),[String] $emailaddress= $(throw "Please Specify the Email address you wish to use"))
$dtQueryDT = [DateTime]::UtcNow.AddHours(-$timerange)
$WmidtQueryDT = [System.Management.ManagementDateTimeConverter]::ToDmtfDateTime($dtQueryDT)

$WmiNamespace = "ROOT\MicrosoftExchangev2"
$filter = "entrytype = '1020' and OriginationTime >= '" + $WmidtQueryDT + "' or entrytype = '1028' and OriginationTime >= '" + $WmidtQueryDT + "'"
get-wmiobject -class Exchange_MessageTrackingEntry -Namespace $WmiNamespace -ComputerName $servername -filter $filter | where-object {$_.RecipientAddress -eq $emailaddress} | where-object {$_.SenderAddress -ne "<>"} | ft @{expression={[System.Management.ManagementDateTimeConverter]::ToDateTime($_.OriginationTime)}; width=25; label="Time Sent"},SenderAddress,Subject

The sent Email script looks like

param([String] $servername = $(throw "Please specify the Servername"), [int32] $timerange = $(throw "Please specify a Time Range in Hours"),[String] $emailaddress= $(throw "Please Specify the Email address you wish to use"))
$dtQueryDT = [DateTime]::UtcNow.AddHours(-$timerange)
$WmidtQueryDT = [System.Management.ManagementDateTimeConverter]::ToDmtfDateTime($dtQueryDT)
$WmiNamespace = "ROOT\MicrosoftExchangev2"
$filter = "entrytype = '1020' and OriginationTime >= '" + $WmidtQueryDT + "' and SenderAddress = '" + $emailaddress + "' or entrytype = '1028' and OriginationTime >= '" + $WmidtQueryDT + "' and SenderAddress = '" + $emailaddress + "'"
get-wmiobject -class Exchange_MessageTrackingEntry -Namespace $WmiNamespace -ComputerName $servername -filter $filter | ft @{expression={[System.Management.ManagementDateTimeConverter]::ToDateTime($_.OriginationTime)}; width=25; label="Time Sent"},@{expression={$_.RecipientCount};width=5;label="#Recp"},RecipientAddress,Subject

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All sample scripts and source code is provided by for illustrative purposes only. All examples are untested in different environments and therefore, I cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.

All code contained herein is provided to you "AS IS" without any warranties of any kind. The implied warranties of non-infringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are expressly disclaimed.