Selecting the appropriate debugging method is an important part of the development process. For example, the simplest way to begin debugging your server application is to run it as a Windows NT Server console application so you can step through your code from the first instruction. Once your application is running smoothly, you can attach the debugger to the running process. To debug initialization routines, you can use the IMAGE PATH environment variable to run the server under the debugger.
MAPI and Microsoft Exchange Server contain several mechanisms for detecting and preventing errors. These include the EDKDEBUG library, parameter checking, and checking error returns. MAPI provides a complete debugging version that you can install and use. Some components require extra handling during the debugging process. These include proxy generation DLLs and Administrator extension DLLs.
The Microsoft Exchange Server SDK provides several debugging tools:
The Microsoft Platform SDK includes an additional debugging tool for MAPI, message store viewer, which provides detailed information on any object in the information store.
For more information about application debugging in the Microsoft Exchange Server environment, see the Microsoft Exchange Server documentation in the "Database and Messaging Services" section of the Microsoft Platform SDK.