Hi We have been using Exchange 2007 for 2 years now but suddenly, the server randomly stops receiving email. We have 1 server configured as Hub Transport and CAS with another 2 mailboxs servers setup with CCR. Users have started reporting that they have not received external email for a length of time although messages seem to be leaving there outbox. On checking the message tracking and the Queues there is no messages awaiting delivery. Once the transport service has been restarted on the Hub Transport Server then we start to receive mail again. The senders of the emails are also advising that they have sent mail that we haven't received during this period. To get round this we have scheduled a task to restart the transport service every hour however this doesn't solve the problem. As I am new to MS Exchange, any advise would be appreciated. Thanks

Nothing in the event logs? Any 3rd party software installed ( Anti Virus., Transport Agents, anti-spam?) Run ExBpa against the servers as well.

Hi Start the verbose logging on smtp and check the logs when this happens Also check the smtp traffic if you have the opportunity to monitor the smtp traffic so it works Jonas Andersson MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007/2010 | MCITP: EMA 2007/2010 | MCSE/MCSA Blog: http://www.testlabs.se/blog

There is nothing of any significance in the event log. The only errors are in the app log relating to the task engine service stopping working. This has only started to happen recently however when I check the service properties from the msc it is greyed out and won't let me change anything. We are running Policy Patrol 7.0 as our anti spam on the same server. ExBPA didn't show anything out of the ordinary. I have disabled the task that restarts the transport service and I will monitor the SMTP traffic the next time this happens. I have also enabled verbose logging on the receive connectors. Aside from this issue, there is one other strange thing happening. The occassional user reports that they haven't received an email and when you try to view the message tracking, it displays a completely different message ID with different Senders and Recipients. I'm not sure if this is related though.

What about the 3rd part products Andy asked about? What impact does Policy Patrol have on the transport? Any other 3rd part?Jonas Andersson MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007/2010 | MCITP: EMA 2007/2010 | MCSE/MCSA Blog: http://www.testlabs.se/blog

Hi StevieR71, Could you please disable or remove the Policy Patrol 7.0 antispam and then make a test, the issue seems related with it. Did you have checked the trackinglog about the missed email. It is very usefull to check the smtp log to confirm the issue, or you could check the pipleline tracing log, it would show some agent(antispam software) operation. Regards! Gavin

Thanks Gavin. I'll give this a go. The problem I have though is that we get so much spam on a daily basis and the problem with receiving mail is random. One thing I noticed last weekend was that it is not specifically external emails that we are not receiving as I first thought. We operate a service desk on our network and the application uses SMTP connections to our exchange server which allows users to log calls via email. We have noticed that during these periods of downtime, we no longer receive Service Desk Emails. Also, our Multifunction Printers use SMTP to allow scanning to the users mailbox. This doesn't work either during this period. Also, all the service seem to be running ok and there is nothing in the event logs to indicate a problem with SMTP. Would this be of any significance in troubleshooting?