In tracking down problems with PMDF you should first determine whether the problem occurs before or after a message is entered into the message queue; then such messages were never accepted: configuration problems, or environmental problems (e.g., disk space or quota problems), or the absence of PMDF servers (such as the Dispatcher and its services) can prevent PMDF from accepting messages; or network connectivity or routing problems could mean that the messages are stuck or misrouted on a remote system. If messages do not get placed in a queue directory at all, or get put into the wrong queue directory, you probably have a configuration problem.

To track an errant mail message, you can start by examining each step of the process for errors. The subsections below discuss investigating these processing steps.