How to change the location of the message tracking logs in Exchange Server 2003

This article describes how to change the location of the message tracking log files in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

When message tracking is enabled on a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 computer, the tracking logs are written to the following default location: In this scenario, C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr represents the folder where Exchange Server 2003 is installed and ServerName is the host name of the Exchange Server computer.

The size of the message tracking logs can increase depending on the message throughput and the function of the particular Exchange Server computer in your environment. Because of this increase, you may want to change the location of the message tracking logs. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start the Exchange System Manager tool.
2. Expand Administrative Groups, expand your administrative group, expand Servers, right-click your server, and then click Properties.
3. On the General tab, click Change.
4. Type the new path of the message tracking logs, and then click OK.
5. Click OK.

By default, the modification of the tracking log file location takes effect at midnight coordinated universal time (UTC). After this change takes effect, the Exchange message tracking component creates new log files in the new location that you specified. However, previous log files are not moved to the new location. Because of this, wait until the new log file location change has taken effect, and then manually move the log files from the old location to the new log file location.

If the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service is restarted, the log file path is immediately changed to the new location. In this scenario, Exchange message tracking creates a new log file in the new location when a user sends a message. In this scenario, you might have two log files that have the same name; one log file in the original location, and one like named log file in the new location that you specified. If this behavior occurs, rename the log file that is stored in the original log file location before you move it to the new log file location. Use the same naming convention that is used by Exchange message tracking (yyyymmdd). However, in this case, use a date that is earlier than any one of the existing log files so that this renamed log file does not interfere with a future log file.