XCON: Description of Fields on the SMTP and X.400 Queue Properties Tabs (260693)

MORE INFORMATION

• Queue name. This field displays the name of the queue. Exchange Server 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 in a system queue indicate a potential problem. The specific function of a system queue can help you 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 Server mailbox.
      • Messages awaiting directory lookup. This queue contains messages with recipient addresses that have not been resolved against the Active Directory. Messages are also held in this queue while distribution lists are expanded.
      • Messages waiting to be routed. This queue holds messages while Exchange Server determines each message's next-destination server. Exchange Server then moves the messages to the appropriate link queues for the next-destination server.
      • Final destination unreachable. This queue contains messages with a final-destination server that Exchange Server cannot reach (for example, if Exchange Server 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 (X.400). X.400 queues contain the following system queue:

      PendingRerouteQ. This queue contains messages that are waiting to be rerouted after a temporary link outage.

    • 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 Server from a remote system. The recipient addresses of these messages are resolved and the messages are ready to be picked up.
      • READY-IN. This queue holds messages that are sent to Exchange Server from a remote system. Exchange Server has converted the message content and mapped the attributes, but has not yet resolved recipient addresses.
      • MTS-OUT. This queue holds messages from Exchange Server with unresolved addresses that are destined for a remote system.
      • READY-OUT. This queue holds messages from Exchange Server that are destined for a remote system. Exchange Server has resolved the addresses but has not yet converted the messages.
      • BADMAIL. This queue contains all of the messages that cause errors when the connector attempts to process them. Messages are transferred to this queue when no further delivery attempts will be made. The messages remain in this queue until an administrator manually deletes them.
  • Link queues. Link queues contain all of 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 usually only displayed 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 to which the queues are connected. However, when a Microsoft message transfer agent (MTA) object is connected to an Exchange Server 5.5 MTA, the link queue is named for the Exchange Server 5.5 computer.
• Total number of messages. This field displays the total number of messages in the queue. A large number of messages in a queue indicates a possible problem with your messaging system.
• Total message size (KB). This field displays the total size of all of 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 of attempted delivery for 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 time that the server is next scheduled to attempt to reconnect to a remote server. You can force an immediate connection without waiting for the next scheduled retry by right-clicking the queue, and then clicking Make Connection Active.
• Status. This field displays one of the following 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 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 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.

1. Navigate to the queue that you want to view field descriptions for by using one of the following paths (as applicable):
   • organization_name\Administrative Group\administrative_group_name\Servers\server_name\Protocols\SMTP\Default SMTP virtual server\Queues
   • organization_name\Administrative Group\administrative_group_name\Servers\server_name\Protocols\X.400\Queues
2. Right-click the queue that you want to view field descriptions for, click Properties, and then click Help.