Mike
Wed Jul 30 14:49:16 CDT 2008
"Rich Matheisen [MVP]" <richnews@rmcons.com.NOSPAM.COM> wrote in message
news:vpl094959qt4mihjndo25vqfgaf8ljb3ql@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:00:37 -0400, "Mike O." <putthespam@thecan.com>
> wrote:
>
>>I've done some more testing. I installed another mailbox server as a test
>>system and moved a couple of mailboxs to it. It showed the same problems,
>>able to send to the other internal servers,
>
> Even to other mailbox servers in the same routing group?
>
>>but backing up in the queue
>>anything sent through the connectors.
>
> SMTP is used between servers, too. So if the problem is just getting
> mail to the outflow servers that's really odd (but not impossible).
>
>>I set most of the MTA and/or SMTP
>>related logging settings to "maximum" then tried sending. I also turned
>>on
>>logging in the SMTP virtual server. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything
>>that stood out.
>
> Maybe not "stand out", but did you see, in the SMTP protocol log, any
> communication between the troubled server and the outflow server?
>
>>The SMTP logging did shows what appears to be SMTP traffic both incoming
>>and
>>outgoing to and from this server to the other mailbox servers.
>
> Okay. That answers the question I asked earlier.
>
It appears that "normal" mail flow between all the servers (including this
one) in the routing group are working OK. It's only things that this server
is trying to send out the connectors that are having problems.
>>It also
>>showed incoming mail coming from the bridgehead server and going to the
>>test
>>one.
>>
>>The queue on the problem server shows the target as the SMTP connector,
>>and
>>the source as the "default SMTP virtual server". It looks like it's just
>>not able to use the SMTP connectors for mail going to the internet (and
>>our
>>Exchange 2007 group).
>
> The SMTP Connector is just a collection of parameters, not an actual
> "connection". Try creating another SMTP Connector (you can leave the
> one you have as it is) with, say, just one specific domain in the
> address space. Can you then send mail to that one domain while the
> other mail sits there? If so, change the address space on the new SMTP
> Connector to "*". If things start working, remove the original SMTP
> Connector.
>
I thought about creating a new connector, I'll try that tomorrow.
>>I've checked all the settings I can find, including
>>turning on the "security" tabs in ESM, and I can't find any setting that
>>would be blocking that either on the test/problem server or the connector
>>bridgehead server.
>>
>>Looking back, the only significant system change I can think of between
>>the
>>last time I added a mailbox server and this new one was that we installed
>>Exchange 2007 into the organization around the first of the year. It
>>created a new admin group and routing connector, but did not cause any
>>problems with the other mailbox servers.
>
> Did you add any "Send Connectors" to the Exchange 2007 configuration?
> Probably not if the messages are trying to leave through the E2K3
> outflow servers.
>
No. Due to some issues in our fiscal department (very long and messy
story!), we don't have licenses (yet) for our entire organization for
Exchange 2007, so I wasn't going to have the Exchange 2007 hub server
handling the entire organization mail flow. Currently only one department
is on Exchanage 2007, but as soon as we get the remaining licenses
(hopefully about a month or so) we're going to move our internet mail
routing through the Exchange 2007 box and start the migration of rest of the
organization to 2007. The Exchange 2007 servers are all new hardware and
lots of RAM and disk. This "new" Exchange 2003 server I'm setting up is a
temporary measure to aleviate some of the congestion and performance issues
with our Exchange 2003 server and disk structure.
>>Mailboxes that have been moved to
>>the Exchange 2007 box can send and receive mail with no problems (outgoing
>>internet mail from the Exchange 2007 box still goes through the Exchange
>>2003 SMTP connector). Could something related to that Exchange 2007
>>install
>>have modified a setting on the existing servers and/or connectors so that
>>they continued to work, but now isn't set on the new servers?
>
> The only thing Exchange 2007 installed was a Routing Group Connector
> between the 1st E2K7 Hub Transport server and a bridgehead server in
> your Exchange 2003 configuration.
>
> Now that you know the problem isn't limited to just one machine it's
> time to use a network monitor to see what's going on.
> ---
> Rich Matheisen
> MCSE+I, Exchange MVP
Until I can get this resolved, what problems might I be seeing or causing by
having the "problem" server set with a smarthost entry in the SMTP Virtual
Server? That entry is basically telling the server to send all it's
outgoing SMTP mail to that specific server, correct?
The server it's pointing to is not one of our regular mailbox servers, it's
our OWA server (not heavily used), and is the "bridgehead" server for our
internet mail; basically doing similar functions as the Hub and CAS server
in in the Exchange 2007 environment. It's also fairly new hardware, so even
with the additional traffic, it's probably not anywhere near to overloading
it.
Mike O.