Overview
The GFI MailEssentials POP2Exchange service allows MailEssentials to connect and download emails from a hosted POP3 mailbox. The service should be started and running at all times for the MailEssentials POP2Exchange functionality to work properly.
This article describes the various types of logging done by this service and is an important reference when troubleshooting issues related to the POP2Exchange service crashing or not working as expected.
Introduction
The GFI POP2Exchange service checks for new messages in the POP3 accounts, downloads them, and sends them to the SMTP server by submitting them to the Pickup or Replay folder (in Exchange 2010 and above) via the Pickup Submission Module (PickupSM).
If the service is stopped or has crashed for any reason, this functionality will not work as expected.
The next section describes the various logs available for troubleshooting the POP2Exchange service, including critical registry entries that result in the service crashing if not present or incorrectly set.
Description
Dashboard Logs
The MailEssentials Dashboard provides a dedicated tab for the POP Downloader Logging which shows any errors logged by the POP2Exchange module. The same logs can be retrieved in text format from ..GFI\MailEssentials\Antispam\GFiMon\popstru.log
Debug Logs
The POP2Exchange service executable is located at ..GFI\MailEssentials\Antispam\pop2exch.exe and loads its configuration from POP2Exchange.xml which is the POP2Exchange configuration file located in the same directory at ..GFI\MailEssentials\Antispam\POP2Exchange.xml
The POP2Exchange configuration can be loaded in the MailEssentials configuration GUI by saving the POP2Exchange.xml file to the MailEssentials Antispam directory restarting the GFI MailEssentials Attendant service.
The service writes to a number of debug logs that can be examined while troubleshooting to understand why the service is failing.
Below are the relevant debug log files for the POP2Exchange service located at ..GFI\MailEssentials\Antispam\DebugLogs
|
Debug Log Filename |
Description |
|
PickupSM.log |
Debug log file for the Pickup Submission Module (PickupSM) |
|
Pop2exchange_*.log |
Log files for the different mailboxes configured in the POP2Exchange configuration. These log files are only created when the debug registry key is enabled (=1) and the debug value in the [Pop2Exchange] sub registry key is equal to ‘8’. See the |
|
PopConfig.log |
Debug log for the loading, reading, and updating of the POP2Exchange configuration |
|
PopService.log |
Debug log file for the gfipop2exch service and the checking for new emails by the POP2Exchange module |
Note: Pop2Exchange skips emails that cannot be processed (e.g. due to corrupt or malformed headers), therefore mail flow should not stop when Pop2Exchange encounters corrupt mail items. Unprocessed emails must be manually removed/processed.
POP2Exchange Registry Keys
As a last resort in the troubleshooting process, check the registry keys for missing or incorrect keys which can sometimes become corrupted particularly during product upgrade or installation in environments containing orphaned registry keys.
All the MailEssentials registry values are stored under the following key:
x86: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GFI\MailEssentials]
x64: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\GFI\MailEssentials]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GFI\MailEssentials\Antispam\POP2Exchange]
|
Value |
Default Value (Type) |
Description |
|
CONFPATH |
C:\Program Files\GFI\MailEssentials\Antispam\ |
Path to the folder where the configuration (pop2exchange.xml) file is found WARNING: This registry value must end with the backslash (“\”) character Possible values: Any valid path ending in \ |
|
DebugLevel |
0x00000000 (0) (dword) |
Contains the debug level (0-8). If the debug level is 0 (zero) or this key is missing, no debug logs are written by POP2Exchange. The levels 1-7 would log more debug information as the number increases to 7. 8 would log more information for the POP2Exchange. For every mailbox, a separate log file is created in the debug logs directory. This value would need to be created manually. |
|
DownloadNow |
0x00000000 (0) (dword) |
If set to 1, the POP2Exchange service will try to download the emails. This can be also done from the MailEssentials configuration. Possible values: 1: instructs POP2Exchange to download emails 0: POP2Exchange does not download emails |
|
Simdownloads |
0x00000005 (5) (dword) |
Represents the number of simultaneous POP3 connections. By default, the key is not created and Pop2Exchange only connects to 5 mailboxes simultaneously. Possible values: Any number If not created, connection is made to 5 mailboxes simultaneously by default. |
|
Timeout |
0x000000b4 (180) (dword) |
Timeout in seconds for all Socket operations (connecting to the POP3 server, read and write from the socket) Possible values Any valid integer The default value is 180 seconds (3 minutes) |