Viewing log messages
The Log submenu displays locally stored log files. If you configured the FortiMail unit to store log messages locally (that is, to the hard disk), you can view the log messages currently stored in each log file.
| You can also view history log messages from the History Log widget in Monitor > System Status > Status. |
| Logs stored remotely cannot be viewed from the web UI of the FortiMail unit. If you require the ability to view logs from the web UI, also enable local storage. For details, see “Configuring logging to the hard disk”. |
The Log submenu includes the following tabs, one for each log type:
• History: Where you can view the log of sent and undelivered SMTP email messages.
• Event: Where you can view the log of administrator activities and system events.
• AntiSpam: Where you can view the log of email detected as spam.
• AntiVirus: Where you can view the log of email detected as infected by a virus.
For more information on log types, see
“FortiMail log types”.
Each tab contains a similar display.
The lists are sorted by the time range of the log messages contained in the log file, with the most recent log files appearing near the top of the list.
For example, the current log file would appear at the top of the list, above a rolled log file whose time might range from 2008-05-08 11:59:36 Thu to 2008-05-29 10:44:02 Thu.
To access this part of the web UI, your administrator account’s:
• Domain must be System
• access profile must have Read-Write permission to the Others category
To view the list of log files and their contents
1. Go to Monitor > Log.
2. Click the tab corresponding to the type of log file that you want to view (History, Event, AntiVirus, AntiSpam, or Encryption).
GUI item | Description |
Download (button) | Click to download the report in one of several formats: • Normal Format for a log file that can be viewed with a plain text editor such as Microsoft Notepad. • CSV Format for a comma-separated value (.csv) file that can be viewed in a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc. • Compressed Format for a plain text log file like Normal Format, except that it is compressed and stored within a .gz archive. |
Search (button) | Click to search all log files of this type. Unlike the search when viewing the contents of an individual log file, this search displays results regardless of which log file contains them. For more information, see “Searching log messages”. |
Start Time | Lists the beginning of the log file’s time range. |
End Time | Lists the end of the log file’s time range. |
Size | Lists the size of the log file in bytes. |
3. To view messages contained in logs:
• double-click a log file to display the file’s log messages
| To view the current page’s worth of the log messages as an HTML table, right-click and select Export to Table. The table appears in a new tab. To download the table, click and drag to select the whole table, then copy and paste it into a rich text editor such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer. |
• click a row to select its log file, click Download, then select a format option
Alternatively, to display a set of log messages that may reside in multiple, separate log files:
• If the log files are of the
same type (for example, all antispam logs), click
Search. For details, see
“Searching log messages”.
• If the log messages are of
different types but all caused by the
same email session ID, you can do a cross-search to find and display all correlating log messages. For details, see
“Cross-searching log messages”.
For descriptions of individual log messages, see the
FortiMail Log Message Reference.
Log messages can appear in either raw or formatted views.
• Raw view displays log messages exactly as they appear in the plain text log file.
• Formatted view displays log messages in a columnar format. Each log field in a log message appears in its own column, aligned with the same field in other log messages, for rapid visual comparison. When displaying log messages in formatted view, you can customize the log view by hiding, displaying and arranging columns and/or by filtering columns, refining your view to include only those log messages and fields that you want to see.
By default, log messages always appear in columnar format, with one log field per column. However, when viewing this columnar display, you can also view the log message in raw format by hovering your mouse over the index number of the log message, in the # column.
When hovering your mouse cursor over a log message, that row is temporarily highlighted; however, this temporary highlight automatically follows the cursor, and will move to a different row if you move your mouse. To create a row highlight that does not move when you move your mouse, click anywhere in the row of the log message.
For information on individual log messages, see the
FortiMail Log Message Reference.