Outlook 2007 mail goes to badmail. But why?
Environment:
AD forest, one root domain and 5 child domains
Exchange 2003 environment composed of 2 hubs, each with a backend cluster and front-end nlb, and some sites have just a backend. All sites connected to each other with RGC's using the front-end NLB's. All servers up to date with Windows 2003 SP1 and Exchange 2003 SP2.
Problem:
Everything is running fine... or was. We began testing Office 2007, and that's when the problems began. Outlook 2007 e-mails began to be dropped into badmail whenever they would go through the front-ends. Even simple mail in clear text, would be completely dropped.
As you may know, SP2 for Exch removed badmail directory...
We saw some alerts being generated and were able to pinpoint it to the following article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/820379
Additionally, I opened a ticket with Microsoft, but this is where things go downhill.
First of all, I'm extremely unhappy with both the article, and the help the Microsoft expert that was trying to troubleshoot me.
We added these keys to the NLB front-ends, and we unmounted/remounted the mailbox stores are required. However, one server promptly crashed some 12 hours later, and the other one crashed with the same error about 6 days later. In both cases, the mailbox stores stopped working and multiple MOM alerts were generated. However, this DID correct the problem of badmail being generated!
Secondly, the Microsoft expert could provide no information I did not know already, and in fact even tried to put the blame on us. Extremely unprofessional, as not only did he try to find some blame on our systems, but he even tried to hint that our antivirus was causing this (sorry, it doesn't scan the mailbox stores, we know they must be excluded) or that the fact that a DC was unreachable by the EXBPA tool, would have caused a store crash (wtf?).
This is where I'm wondering, has anyone else experienced this? Has anyone else had Outlook 2007 mails go to badmail and promptly disappear when sent on an Exchange 2003 environment? And has anyone changed the values in the article and experienced the same issues we have?
I'm really looking to have more info on the cause of the crash (the expert was quiteinexperienced and I didn't like the way he tried to insinuate that our systems, which were designed by several Microsoft Exchange experts and were working 100% fine for nearly 3 years now, would suddenly crash or go wrong... I'm not quite the Exchange n00b he'd like to think I am. But I'll not go into all the detail about the stuff he tried to feed me).
And I need to find out if any other Microsoft clients have experienced these same issues with Outlook 2007. I can't believe it's not something well known, or at least previously experienced by other IT admins. Even clear text e-mails, if sent from Outlook 2007, will go to badmail.
And get this! If the mail is written in Outlook 2007, then saved as draft, and finally sent from Webmail2003, THEY TOO will go to badmail! It's as if Outlook 2007 writes some code into e-mails that Exchange 2003 (especially Front-ends) do not like. This is random, but happens roughly one infive mails, and nearly everytime you send a meeting request (yes, they too go to badmail).
But the store crashes are scary... when it happens, the server being piling up e-mail (the Microsoft Expert would try to tell me that the store has nothing to do with the routing of mail... oh ok... whatever). So far it's only happened once on each server, but what's to say it doesn't happen again? The values we used were the max values, but the expert couldn't even tell me what a "safe" value would be. In any case, if the values are left default, mails go to badmail, so we need these regs for the time being.
(posting this in another section of the forum in case this is not the correct one to do so).
April 6th, 2007 9:39pm
Nope sorry, no issues here. It works like a charm.
Just a long shot.... Did you install Exchange system manager on the same box as where you installed Outlook 2007? Maybe there are some dll conflicts.
My first guess is that Outlook is not confirming to the required syntax when creating the message. I would not look for the cause in Exchange at this point.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
April 12th, 2007 9:06am
No, Outlook2007 is running on workstations, Exchange System Manager is installed only on Exchange servers.
We just had one of the front-ends have a store crash again this weekend. So I've asked to have another technician to troubleshoot this.
April 16th, 2007 9:28pm