Performance may decrease when you use a WMI script to query Exchange Server 2003 SMTP queues

When you use a custom Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) script to query Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SMTP queues, the performance of the computer that is running Exchange Server 2003 may slowly decrease over time. Additionally, the WMI script process may consume 20 percent to 30 percent of the available CPU cycles.

This problem may occur if the following conditions are true:

• The WMI script queries the Exchange Server 2003 SMTP queues.
• The WMI query process returns information about distinguished names in the SMTP queue, and the information is not correctly cleared from the WMI query process.

In this scenario, the distinguished name information that is gathered by the WMI query process accumulates. This accumulation causes a decrease in the performance of the Exchange Server 2003 computer.

To resolve this problem, you must install Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

To work around this problem, restart the Exchange Management Service. This operation clears the information from the WMI process. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.
2. In the Services snap-in, locate the Microsoft Exchange Management service.
3. Right-click the Microsoft Exchange Management service, and then click Restart.

This problem was first corrected in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1.