XADM: Setting Diagnostics Logging Levels in the Registry

This article describes how to set the diagnostics logging levels for a Microsoft Exchange component without using the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it.

The diagnostics logging information for each Microsoft Exchange Server component is saved in the Windows NT registry in the components key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services.

Each component has a sub-key named "Diagnostics" that holds the diagnostics logging information.

For example, the Microsoft Exchange Directory Service diagnostics logging information is saved under

The Diagnostics sub-key contains values for each of the logging categories. Each of these values has data of type REG_DWORD. Following are the possible data values for each category:

For example, to set the logging level for the knowledge consistency checker category of the directory service to medium, you must set the data for the registry value "1 Knowledge Consistency Checker" under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services \MSMExchangeDS\Diagnostics, to 3.