I am having trouble with a Exchange Server 2003 configuration. About every 30-45 days, the exchange queue will fill up and not deliver (inbound or outbound) email to mailboxes (both internal or external). The email will get stuck in the queue and only a reboot will seem to fix the problem. Using the Exchange System Manager, the last time it happened, one message was stuck in the "Message pending submission" queue, but the queue folder under the Mailroot\vs 2\queue folder showed probably 30+ messages. After the reboot, all message got flushed through the system correctly. Other times, the "Local delivery" queue will show a number of messages in it before rebooting the system.Inbound email will get delivered to the exchange server box but not to an individual mailbox. Outbound emails just gets left on the box and not delivered externally.Any thoughts on where to look for resolving this problem. I have enabled logging but no useful information is being provided. All services appear to be running when it gets into this state. One thing of note, if the system gets into this state, trying to stop the SMTP service fails (timeout while trying to stop).

I hope your exchange is uptodate with SP and hotfixes. If the messages are getting stuck in local delivery Q's check out for below issues in the article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828938 also run dcdiag/netdiag to make sure your exchange can talk to Dc and GC's properly. also make sure you have not mentioned the external DNS entry in the Exchange Network configurations also check if you have excluded the exchange folders from A.V Vinod |CCNA|MCSE 2003 +Messaging|MCTS|ITIL V3|

The AV is excluding the exchange folders.The thing that makes the least amount of sense, is the system will run fine for 30-40 days and the suddenly have issues. It seems if this was a DNS or AD problem, it would occur all the time. Not sure if I understood your comment about the external DNS entry.I will check on the SP and hotfixes available for Exchange.Thanks.

Run ipconfig/all check the DNS entries. it should be pointed to local DNS servers Vinod |CCNA|MCSE 2003 +Messaging|MCTS|ITIL V3|

Lets seeDNS entries point to local DNS serversDCDIAGAll test but systemlog failed (Event string could not be retrieved error)NETDIAGEverything seemed to passWarning on DNS test - Cannot find the primary authoritative DNS server for the name My.Company.name [ERROR_TIMEOUT] The name My.Company.name may not be registered in DNS.Currently running Version 6.5 (Build 7638.2: Service Pack 2)Also installing server updates.

Run the command netdiag/fix and see if this error goes away? Vinod |CCNA|MCSE 2003 +Messaging|MCTS|ITIL V3|

Nope the warning still exists

Hi, We need to increase Diagnostic Logging Level of Transport to troubleshoot the issue. You can increase Diagnostic Logging by using following method: ESM->Server->Properties->Diagnostics Logging->MSExchangeTransport Please increate all Categories to Maximum and reproduce the issue to check the issue. At the same time, there should be a "Additional queue information" in the bottom of queue viewer, whats the information for those two queues? Please also download ExBPA to have a health check for the Exchange Server. Related article: How to use Queue Viewer to troubleshoot mail flow issues in Exchange Server 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823489/en-us. Thanks, Elvis

Thanks - I will make sure the logging is set to the maximum and see if that provides addtional info. I will also look into the ExBPA.

I have increased the logging levels to maximum for all categories under the MSExchange Transport service.ExBPA did not show any health problems.Since I cannot recreate the problem, I will have to wait until it shows up again.Thanks,Chips

Well the problem seems to have come back. After updating the server at the end of year with all the latest server patches the problem is still occurring with more frequency now.To recapFor a period of time, email (both inbound and outbound, local and external) will all work fine without any problems. Then for some reason, nothing will be delivered to the users mailbox nor will email be delivered externally. Inbound messages never receive a NDR but instead just sit in the queue folder. Outbound messages do not get delivered either. Local email (internal - exchange user to exchange user) do not get delivered.There is absolutely no errors reported in the event logs even though I have logging to the max as noted above.The only thing users notice is that they stop receiving expected email and the queue folder fills up. But the queue viewer from the system manager usually does not show any messages.A very perplexing problem which is becoming more urgent as it is happening more often now.Thoughts?Thanks,Chips

Quick update since the system is bottled right nowUsing the System Manager message tracking centerThe first email that fails went through the followingSMTP: Message submitted to Advanced QueuingSMTP: Started Mesaage Submission to Advance QueueSMTP: Message Submitted to CategorizerA successful one processes as followsSMTP: Message submitted to Advanced QueuingSMTP: Started Mesaage Submission to Advance QueueSMTP: Message Submitted to CategorizerSMTP: Message Categorized and Queued for RoutingSMTP: Message Queued for Local DelieverySMTP: Message Delievered Locally to <email address>SMTP: STore Driver: Message Delievered to Locally to Store at <email address>Both inbound and outbound stuck messages stop after the SMTP: Message Submitted to Categorizer

Solution foundIt appears that Trend Micro ScanMail was responsible for the system hanging the email. When I killed the ScanMail services, mail immediately began flowing correctly again and has been working without issue for the last week.