E-mail client users experience a decrease in performance, and event 623 is logged when you receive a large message in Exchange Server 2003

When you receive a large e-mail message in a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 organization, you experience the following symptoms:

• E-mail client users experience a decrease in performance.
• Exchange Server 2003 stops responding until you perform one or both of the following actions:
  • Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service
  • Remove the large e-mail message from the message queue
• The following event is logged in the Application log:

  Event Type: Error
  Event Source: ESE
  Event Category: Transaction Manager
  Event ID: 623
  Description: Process_Name (PID) The version store for instance instance> ("name") has reached its maximum size of valueMb. It is likely that a long-running transaction is preventing cleanup of the version store and causing it to build up in size. Updates will be rejected until the long-running transaction has been completely committed or rolled back. Possible long-running transaction: SessionId: value Session-context: value Session-context ThreadId: value

These symptoms may occur again when you receive the next large message.

This problem occurs when Exchange Server 2003 receives a large, corrupted MIME message. For example, a 10-megabyte (MB) MIME message may cause this problem. When Exchange Server 2003 tries to convert the corrupted message from MIME format to MAPI format, the version store runs out of memory.

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Exchange Server 2003. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required.

Restart requirement

You do not have to restart the computer after you apply the hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix does not replace any other hotfixes.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

To work around this problem, you can set the message size limits for an organization. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Exchange System Manager.
2. Expand Global Settings, right-click Message Delivery, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Defaults tab.
4. Under Sending message size, click Maximum (KB). Then, type the size that you want, in kilobytes (KB). For example, type 10240 to set a limit of 10 MB.
5. Under Receiving message size, click Maximum (KB). Then, type the size that you want, in kilobytes (KB). For example, type 10240 to set a limit of 10 MB.

This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2.

The version store is memory that is reserved for outstanding transactions. Exchange Server 2003 stores all the operations of incomplete transactions in the version store. If anything delays the transactions from being completed, the version store fills up. The version store then stops generating additional transactions. This problem lasts until the outstanding transactions are cleared. Usually, the version store recovers by itself. However, the users cannot work in the interim. Additionally, the version store will not accept or deliver new messages. For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: