Manage e-mails on Linux Plesk and cPanel based servers

[Laurence]

When you are in trouble with sending/receiving e-mails from and to your server then you can investigate it using following basic commands on Linux Plesk and cPanel based server :

PLESK :


a. Check e-mail queue

root@server # /var/qmail/bin/qmail-qstat

messages in queue: 6

messages in queue but not yet preprocessed: 0

b. You can check current running e-mail logs

root@server # tail -f /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog

c. If you want to check previous or old logs then you can open file in viewer and find respective e-mail ID or IP address or specifc string while givin / with string and press enter

root@server # less /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog

d. Chek e-mails in e-mail queue

root@server # /var/qmail/bin/qmail-qread

2 May 2008 12:42:47 GMT #321244 3918 <test@domain.com>
remote testing@hotmail.com
1 May 2008 12:42:47 GMT #321244 3950 <tech@domain.com>
remote testmail@aol.com
3 May 2008 12:42:47 GMT #321244 3968 <mymail@domain.com>
remote email@hotmail.com
4 May 2008 12:42:47 GMT #321244 3975 <email@domain.com>
remote tech@yahoo.com
2 May 2008 12:42:47 GMT #321244 3988 <testing@domain.com>
remote myemail@gmail.com

e. From above output you can get a message ID like #321244 in first e-mail queue with which you can find a file having e-mail

root@server # find /var/qmail/queue -iname 321244

/var/qmail/queue/remote/12/321244

/var/qmail/queue/mess/12/321244

/var/qmail/queue/info/12/321244

f. From one of the above files you can get the IP from e-mail headers

root@server # vi /var/qmail/queue/mess/12/321244

======= ======= ======= ======= ======= ======= ======= ======= ======= ======= =======

CPANEL :


a. Check e-mail queue

root@server # exim -bpc

b. You can check current running e-mail logs

root@server # tail -f /var/log/exim_mainlog

c. If you want to check previous or old logs then you can open file in viewer and find respective e-mail ID or IP address or specifc string while givin / with string and press enter

root@server # less /var/log/exim_mainlog

d. Chek e-mails in e-mail queue

root@server # exim -bp

61h 1.8K 1OEAFt-0005G2-6R <test@domain.com>
testing@hotmail.com
59h 1.8K 1OEClh-000564-BU <tech@domain.com>
testmail@aol.com
38h 12K 1OEVob-0008JE-Oc <mymail@domain.com>
email@hotmail.com
35h 1.8K 1OEZDl-0007pB-VQ <email@domain.com>
tech@yahoo.com
14h 13K 1OEsIC-0005la-P1 <testing@domain.com>
myemail@gmail.com

e. From above output you can get a message ID like '1OEAFt-0005G2-6R' in first e-mail queue with which you can find logs, body and headers of the message respectively

View Log for message
root@server # exim -Mvl 1OEAFt-0005G2-6R

View Body for message
root@server # exim -Mvb 1OEAFt-0005G2-6R

View Header for message
root@server # exim -Mvh 1OEAFt-0005G2-6R

f. You can force delivey of one message

root@server # exim -M emailID

g. You can force another queue run

root@server # exim -qf

h. You can force another queue run and attempt to flush frozen messages

root@server # exim -qff

i. You can remove message with message ID

root@server # exim -Mrm 1OEAFt-0005G2-6R