The most important component in the entire Velocity MTA ecosystem is velocity-install/logs/velocity.log.
Want to know if your configuration change went through? Check velocity.log.
Want to know why your message didn't get delivered? Check velocity.log
Want to know how an unsubscribe happened you swear you didn't do? Check velocity.log
Want to know why opens or clicks aren't showing up? Check velocity.log
Want a real-time look into the email delivery "black hole"? Check velocity.log
Want to open a ticket? Please check velocity.log
All outgoing email, incoming email, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes for mail sent through Velocity MTA are stored for eternity in the same file, to see the most recent 100 log entries do:
Upon startup, you should see output similar to the following
cdd9bc69586595e21c3404faf9814e2d534705de022132bfcf27ac33a427d114
License is activated!
:TRACE:::Starting
When changes to policies, server settings, or ip warmups have been pushed from the platform installation backend MTA UI you can verify they were received if you see output similar to the following
:API:::172.50.100.1:33552 POST /settings
:API:::Finished writing settings
When sending a test message through the email marketing broadcast test widget, you should see output similar to the following for troubleshooting purposes
:API:::172.50.100.1:37458 POST /send-addr
:TRACE:::looking up MX for gmail.com
:TRACE:::gmail.com has 5 MX servers
:TRACE:::looking up A for gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com.
:TRACE:::IPs for gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com.: []string{"74.125.200.26", "2404:6800:4003:c00::1a"}
test:TRACE:secretseedemail@gmail.com:192.168.100.1:mail.vitaminpowerhouse.com:Connecting to gmail.com -> gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com. (74.125.200.26)
test:SEND:secretseedemail@gmail.com:192.168.100.1:mail.vitaminpowerhouse.com:Message delivered in 6.374919129s
Test messages receive special handling
When sending bulk production mail you should see output similar to the following
There are four types of potential delivery outcomes recorded in the velocity.log file
SEND means successful message delivery
SEND:disposabletemporary+hello@gmail.com:192.168.100.1:mail.vitaminpowerhouse.com:Message delivered in 2.140289308s
DEFER means a sending pause has been triggered and shows you the complete error code and deferral message returned by the mailbox provider
DEFER:misunderestimated@yahoo.com:192.168.100.1:mail.vitaminpowerhouse.com:421 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 192.168.100.1 temporarily deferred
SOFT shows you the complete error code and temporary bounce message returned by the mailbox provider
SOFT:misunderestimated12345@gmail.com:192.168.100.1:mail.vitaminpowerhouse.com:452 4.2.2 The email account that you tried to reach is over quota. Please direct
4.2.2 the recipient to
4.2.2 https://support.google.com/mail/?p=OverQuotaTemp h3-20020a05600c350300b003f31a440e2fsi1991773wmq.13 - gsmtp (Rcpt) in 1.480220065s
HARD shows you the complete error code and permanent bounce reason returned by the mailbox provider
HARD:bademailonpurpose123000@gmail.com:192.168.100.1:mail.vitaminpowerhouse.com:550 5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try
5.1.1 double-checking the recipient's email address for typos or
5.1.1 unnecessary spaces. Learn more at
5.1.1 https://support.google.com/mail/?p=NoSuchUser f7-20020a7bcd07000000b003f0ae6369e2si4683916wmj.234 - gsmtp (Rcpt) in 1.431423553s
Web activity for opens, clicks, and unsubscribes will be logged as HTTP GET requests, you should see output similar to the following
GET /l?t=adviser&r=4KQbmSaDsWWWm8gvs-11DRR&c=nHet3QX8kNc8BdjtbTmo5x&u=45CCjYmMhYqNhpCX0tfF&l=J8VrP7iaiVoL2PeNthk8UG Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 16_4_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/16.4 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1
GET /l?t=adviser&r=4KQbmSaDsWWWm8gvs-11DHW&c=avDvnrUNfeHQSu8ZXppZYW&u=xaukrq6spKeymw&l=LCHLfWNEKcRy78ihbc74up Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 12; SAMSUNG SM-S124DL) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) SamsungBrowser/20.0 Chrome/106.0.5249.126 Mobile Safari/537.36
GET /l?t=bend&r=4KQbmSaDsWWWm8gvs-11DR8&c=nHet3QX8kNc8BdjtbTmo5x&u=n_z3_u3y_ubx-sD1uQ YahooMailProxy; https://help.yahoo.com/kb/yahoo-mail-proxy-SLN28749.html
GET /l?t=bend&r=4KQbmSaDsWWWm8gvs-11DDK&c=T6yLhvtUJy5NzEARwRj3hq&u=h-7m6ejp9Oz-9-K22Q Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:11.0) Gecko Firefox/11.0 (via ggpht.com GoogleImageProxy)
Messages using the test widget in broadcasts don't appear in the or , they receive the highest priority and bypass all other outstanding mail. This also applies to funnels.