XCON: Troubleshooting w/out MTA Object in Administrator Program

You can still set Diagnostic Logging on the MSExchangeMTA and check Message Transfer Agent (MTA) queues even when no MTA object is exposed in the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator program.

The MTA will not be exposed if the version of Microsoft Exchange Server is not the Enterprise Edition and neither the Connectors disk nor the X.400 Connector disk has been installed.

If you are trying to troubleshoot a Microsoft Mail Connector or Internet Mail Connector (IMC) issue and no Message Transfer Agent object exists, you can still set logging levels and view queue information as follows:

Diagnostic Logging

Diagnostic Logging for the MSExchangeMTA can normally be set in one of three ways. The most common is via the Diagnostic Logging property page of the Message Transfer Agent object.

Even when this is not available, logging can be set on the Diagnostic Logging property page of the <ServerName> container. There are two ways to set Diagnostic Logging:

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On the Diagnostic Logging property page, select MSExchangeMTA in the Services pane.

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MSExchangeMTA Diagnostic Logging can also be set by modifying the values in the following registry key: WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. 1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe). 2. Under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following subkey: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeMTA\Diagnostics 3. Modify the value. A value of 0 corresponds with None, 1 with Minimum, 3 with Medium and 5 with Maximum. 4. Quit Registry Editor.

Viewing Queues

To view queues without an MTA object, use the Windows NT Performance Monitor as follows:

1.	At a new chart in Performance Monitor, on the Edit menu, click Add to Chart.
2.	Select the MSExchangeMTA Connections Object.
3.	Select the Queue Length Counter to highlight it.
4.	Use the Shift and Page Down keys (or any other method) to select everything in the Instance box.
5.	Click the Add button.
6.	Select the MSExchangeMTA Object.
7.	Select the Work Queue Length Counter.
8.	Click the Add button.
9.	Click the Done button.
10.	On the Options menu, click Select.
11.	Change the Gallery from Graph to Histogram.
12.	Change the Vertical Maximum from 100 if this is to high or low for your expected queue lengths.