Question
I get a daily message from the mail server indicating the throughput for the past 24 hours and the total throughput since the server was installed.
The format of the message is as follows:
Messages processed in the 24 hours up to 00:00:00 Thu, 2 May 2002 Incoming Messages: 00000000000000000584 Outgoing Messages: 00000000000000000113 Cumulative totals to date Total Incoming Messages: 00000000000000060040 Total Outgoing Messages: 00000000000000010677
Answer
The Incoming and Outgoing statistics show the number of messages that have been handled by the SMTP service.
The Incoming Messages are a count of the number of messages passing through the SMTP service destined for an internal account.
The Outgoing Messages are a count of the number of messages passing through the SMTP service destined for an external account.
The Outgoing Messages count is therefore not a reflection of the number of messages posted out by your server. For example, if there are a number of lists or groups on the server one message would be posted to the list, but the list could then in turn generate 1000’s of external messages. As none of these 1000’s of messages pass through the SMTP service they would not count towards the Outgoing Messages count.
The top set of statistics relating to 24 hours statistics cover either a 24 hour period, or if the SMTP service was stopped and restarted for any reason, the number of messages from that point through to midnight. The cumulative statistics maintain an accurate count of messages processed to date.
Keywords:Statistics, incoming, outgoing, throughput, mail, smtp