Mail stuck in queue - Exchange 2003
Started experiencing some strange problems recently. To make things
more clear, let me first explain our setup:
I'm the network admin at a small university. We have two domains here,
xxx.edu and xxx.com. One is for students, the other for faculty and
staff. Both have their own Exchange 2003 servers, which are located on
campus. Both Exchange servers are behind both a Barracuda Spam
Firewall, as well as our Watchguard Firebox. The two mail servers are
on the same physical network, but are seperated by VLANs only.
The problem we've been experiencing is that mail from our faculty/staff
side is either being delayed or not being delivered at all (sometimes)
to our students. In some cases, the mail will be sent, but only after
several hours. In other cases, the mail just sits in the queue in the
faculty/staff email server, until I reboot that server. When the mail
is sitting in the queue, I can try to force a connection with no
effect. At the same time, I can successfully connect via telnet 25 to
the student mailserver from the faculty/staff mailserver.
At this point, the mail to our student server is stuck in the queue,
and rebooting the faculty/staff server hasnt released it. I'm in
desperate need of a fix here! Can anyone help?
more clear, let me first explain our setup:
I'm the network admin at a small university. We have two domains here,
xxx.edu and xxx.com. One is for students, the other for faculty and
staff. Both have their own Exchange 2003 servers, which are located on
campus. Both Exchange servers are behind both a Barracuda Spam
Firewall, as well as our Watchguard Firebox. The two mail servers are
on the same physical network, but are seperated by VLANs only.
The problem we've been experiencing is that mail from our faculty/staff
side is either being delayed or not being delivered at all (sometimes)
to our students. In some cases, the mail will be sent, but only after
several hours. In other cases, the mail just sits in the queue in the
faculty/staff email server, until I reboot that server. When the mail
is sitting in the queue, I can try to force a connection with no
effect. At the same time, I can successfully connect via telnet 25 to
the student mailserver from the faculty/staff mailserver.
At this point, the mail to our student server is stuck in the queue,
and rebooting the faculty/staff server hasnt released it. I'm in
desperate need of a fix here! Can anyone help?
ASKER
I dont know how to turn on message tracking.
Its ONLY happening from our Faculty/Staff Exchange server to our Student Exchange server.
Its ONLY happening from our Faculty/Staff Exchange server to our Student Exchange server.
ill give you a link http://www.amset.info/exchange/message-tracking.asp
ASKER
Turned on message tracking, and sent a test message. Results were as follows:
11:20AM SMTP Store driver: message submitted from store
11:20AM SMTP Message submitted to advanced queuing
11:20AM SMTP Started message submission to advanced queue
11:20AM SMTP Message submitted to categorizer
11:20AM SMTP Message categorized and queued for routing
11:20AM SMTP message routed and queued for remote delivery
11:20AM SMTP Store driver: message submitted from store
11:20AM SMTP Message submitted to advanced queuing
11:20AM SMTP Started message submission to advanced queue
11:20AM SMTP Message submitted to categorizer
11:20AM SMTP Message categorized and queued for routing
11:20AM SMTP message routed and queued for remote delivery
ASKER
I still have over 200 emails stuck in the queue. Nothing seems to be helping at the moment. Anyone have any ideas?
its like there is some third party application blocking your email on the other server anything elase on it??
ASKER
The only thing 3rd party on the Student email server is Symantec Antivirus Corporate, and an ATI display driver.
check the logs for the SAV
does anything show up in the q on the other server
ASKER
Nothing of any significance. There are a few mails sitting in the other queue. Mostly misspelled domain names, etc. No more than 2 in any queue. (Compared to 230 in the other).
ASKER
Just after I posted that last post, an error popped up on the Student Server:
"The RPC Server is unavailable."
"Facility: Win32"
"ID no: c00706ba"
"Exchange System Manager"
Only option on the error is to click "OK".
"The RPC Server is unavailable."
"Facility: Win32"
"ID no: c00706ba"
"Exchange System Manager"
Only option on the error is to click "OK".
check the event logs
have you used DCDIAG or NETDIAG tools ? they may give you a lil more info about you issue.
has anything changed with the spam firewall ? or the the watchdog ? and dns issues ?
has anything changed with the spam firewall ? or the the watchdog ? and dns issues ?
i think there is an AD communication problem-the server cannot see or find a domain controller. are your Exchange servers pointing to the correct DC,i would reboot the other exchange server to see if it can find a DC
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
What kind of tests?
dcdiag and netdiag you will find them on microsoft
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
After running netdiag, everything passes except for the wan configuration test, and I also get this message with the DNS test:
[warning] Cannot find a primary authoritative DNS server for the name 'stork.EAGLE.local.'. [error_timeout]
The name 'stork.EAGLE.local.' may not be registered in DNS.
[warning] Cannot find a primary authoritative DNS server for the name 'stork.EAGLE.local.'. [error_timeout]
The name 'stork.EAGLE.local.' may not be registered in DNS.
ASKER
Thanks guys, I finally found a fix.
Poweruser32, you were correct in that it was a DNS problem. It was a dns problem on our Faculty/Staff side.
Sembee, thanks for pointing me to the Exchange Best Practices Tool, as it helped me identify the problem.
The best practices tool identified that we were using an external DNS server to resolve for our Faculty/Staff Exchange Server. After removing that (Opening ESM > Servers > servername > smtp > properties > Delivery Tab > Advanced > Configure DNS), and restarting the SMTP service, all mail to our student exchange server was delivered, and the queue was cleared!
Thanks again!
Poweruser32, you were correct in that it was a DNS problem. It was a dns problem on our Faculty/Staff side.
Sembee, thanks for pointing me to the Exchange Best Practices Tool, as it helped me identify the problem.
The best practices tool identified that we were using an external DNS server to resolve for our Faculty/Staff Exchange Server. After removing that (Opening ESM > Servers > servername > smtp > properties > Delivery Tab > Advanced > Configure DNS), and restarting the SMTP service, all mail to our student exchange server was delivered, and the queue was cleared!
Thanks again!
best of luck!
does it happen external sending as well?