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Description of Fields on the SMTP and X.400 Queue Properties Tabs

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Summary

This article describes the fields that appear on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Properties tab and the X.400 queue Properties tab. In Exchange 2003 Server, you can locate the SMTP queue and the X.400 queue by using the following path:
Organization_name\Administrative Group\Administrative_group_name\Servers\Server_name\Queues

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More information

You can use the Properties tab of a queue to view the following properties for that queue:
  • Queue name
    This field displays the name of the queue. Exchange 2003 assigns default names for the following types of queues based on the naming conventions of each protocol:
    • System queues
      System queues are default queues that are always displayed. Messages that are in a system queue indicate a potential problem. The specific function of a system queue can help you to determine the nature of the problem. The specific queue that is displayed varies depending on the protocol of a particular queue:
      • SMTP
        SMTP queues contain the following system queues (you can view these default queues directly under the Queues object of the SMTP virtual server):
        • [local domain name] (Local Delivery)
          This queue contains messages that are queued for local delivery to an Exchange mailbox.
        • Messages awaiting directory lookup
          This queue contains messages that have recipient addresses that have not been resolved against the Microsoft Active Directory directory service. Messages are also held in this queue while the distribution lists are expanded.
        • Messages waiting to be routed
          This queue holds messages while Exchange determines the next-destination server for each message. Exchange then moves the messages to the appropriate link queues for the next-destination server.
        • Final destination unreachable
          This queue contains messages that have a final-destination server that Exchange cannot reach (for example, if Exchange cannot determine a network path to the final destination server).
        • Pre-submission
          This queue contains messages that the SMTP service has acknowledged and accepted but has not yet processed.
      • MAPI
        The Microsoft Exchange Connector for Novell GroupWise, the Microsoft Exchange Connector for Lotus Notes, and the Microsoft Exchange Connector for Lotus cc:Mail all use the following MAPI system queues:
        • MTS-IN
          This queue holds messages that are sent to Exchange from a remote system. The recipient addresses of the messages that are in this queue are resolved, and the messages are ready to be picked up.
        • READY-IN
          This queue holds messages that are sent to Exchange from a remote system. Exchange has converted the message content and has mapped the attributes, but has not yet resolved the recipient addresses.
        • MTS-OUT
          This queue holds messages from Exchange that are destined for a remote system and that have unresolved addresses.
        • READY-OUT
          This queue holds messages from Exchange that are destined for a remote system. Exchange has resolved the addresses but has not yet converted the messages.
        • BADMAIL
          This queue contains all the messages that cause errors when the connector tries to process them. Messages are transferred to this queue when no more delivery attempts will be made. The messages remain in this queue until an administrator manually deletes them.
    • Link queues
      Link queues contain all the messages that are destined for the same next-destination server. Messages reside in the link queue until an active connection is made with the next-destination server. Link queues are typically displayed only when messages are queued in them.

      The names of link queues vary depending on the protocol that is used. SMTP link queues are named for the next-destination server. X.400 link queues are generally named for the Microsoft Windows 2000 Active Directory CommonName attribute of the connector or gateway where the queues are connected. However, when a Microsoft message transfer agent (MTA) object is connected to a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 MTA, the link queue is named for the Exchange 5.5 computer.
  • Total number of messages
    This field displays the total number of messages in the queue. If there are many messages in a queue, there may be a problem with your messaging system.
  • Total message size (KB)
    This field displays the total size of all the messages in the queue in kilobytes (KB). If your system is experiencing performance problems, you can freeze larger messages and unfreeze them for delivery at a time when the volume of messages is lower.
  • Time of submission of oldest message
    This field displays the time that Exchange tried to deliver the message that has been in queue the longest. A long period between the time of submission and the current time may indicate routing problems or a problem with Domain Name System (DNS) resolution.
  • Time of next connection retry
    This field displays the next time that the server is scheduled to try to reconnect to a remote server. To force an immediate connection without waiting for the next scheduled retry, right-click the queue, and then click Make Connection Active.
  • Status. This field displays one of the following terms to indicate the state of the queue:
    • Active
      This state indicates an active connection that allows messages to be transported into and out of the queue.
    • Ready
      This state indicates that the queue is ready for a connection allocation. In this state, the queue cannot transport messages until you allocate a connection to it.
    • Retry
      This state indicates that the queue is waiting for the next scheduled attempt to reconnect to the next-destination server. This state also indicates that the previous attempt to connect to the remote server did not work. Check the status of the remote server, because this state may indicate a more serious problem.
    • Scheduled
      This state indicates that the queue is not connected to the remote server because the current time is outside the scheduled time window of the connection.
    • Remote
      This state indicates that the queue is waiting for a remote server to connect and to issue a dequeue command.
    • Frozen
      This state indicates that no messages will flow out of the queue. If the Categorizer is still running, messages can still flow into the queue.
Note You can also follow these steps to find these field descriptions:
  1. Locate the queue that you want to view field descriptions for by using the following path:
    organization_name\Administrative Group\administrative_group_name\Servers\server_name\Queues
  2. Right-click the queue that you want to view field descriptions for, click Properties, and then click Help.

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Keywords: KB821877

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Article Info
Article ID : 821877
Revision : 5
Created on : 10/25/2007
Published on : 10/25/2007
Exists online : False
Views : 223