Topic Last Modified: 2007-01-24

Protocol logs track the commands that a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) virtual server receives from SMTP clients.

Four formats are available for tracking. Usually they track the same information. The differences among them are depth of detail, type of display, and analytical uses. When you select a format, decide what you want to track, how you want to review the data, and how you want to track transactions from other Internet Information Services (IIS) services. For more information, see Planning Protocol Logs.

The default format is World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Extended Log File Format. However, you can select a different one. For three of the formats, transactions are written to a text file. You can determine the logging period and maximum size of the file. When the size limit is reached, a new file is created. Back up and remove older files so the system doesn't run out of disk space when it writes to the current transaction log file. There is also a format that enables you to collect data in an ODBC-compliant database.