We use UNIX boxes as our main email gateway/smarthost. Messages are routed to/from our back end exchange boxes to the unix boxes via an exchange 2003 front end server (which handles the anti-virus and anti-spam filtering). This configuration means that the unix boxes deal with all routing issues and are the only boxes exposed to the internet. Our back end servers can handle internal message traffic (although they do also scan messages for viruses)
Ed, We will try running without the anti-virus scanning on the front end server, but with such an intermittant problem (may occur a couple of times a week and then not again for a couple of weeks) it is difficult to know how long a trail to give it. If this is an anti-virus issue then I would expect to get this problem with our backend servers which handle more smtp traffic (albeit only between themselves) and are running the same anti-virus config. > -----Original Message----- > From: Greg Brown [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 10 November 2003 18:43 > To: Exchange Discussions > Subject: RE: smtp receives but stops sending > > > I am going to make a few assumptions based on the info > contained in this > thread thus far. > 1)You have a MS SMTP server configured as a Smart Host for an > Exchange 2003 > server. In other words, you can install an instance of > Exchange as a front > end server, and I'm guessing you did not do this. > 2)I'm also guessing that on said MS SMTP Smart Host you have relaying > restricted to ONLY the domains you list. This alleviates MS > "confusion". > 3)Anti-Spam operations are being conducted on this SMTP server via GFI > software. > 4)In the properties of your SMTP Smart Host, you have not > enabled logging > via the check box, AND included all extended properties. If a time > threshold for delivery is not met, it will be logged here. > Depending on > your volume, place this file where there is ample storage. > Also, be sure to > check "unlimited file size". > Remedy- > IMHO, there may be 2 ways to fix this. First, double check > your hard coded > DNS server on the smart host. I know that in native-mode AD, > this should > only have your DDNS server listed. Your DDNS server should > be configured to > make the DNS call if it doesn't have it in cache. I ran into > this at the WS > level. What happened was a latency with regards to delivery > that lasted > anywhere from 30 minutes to several days. > Second, MS IIS SMTP is MICROSOFT! Build an EXACT duplicate > box, configured > exactly as the box you now have. Give it a test run between > say 8-10 pm on > a slow night. I'll bet that fixes it. Be sure ALL logging > is enabled via > the SMTP properties page, including extended properties. I'm > guessing your > build may be bad, or over time it has degraded. > Hope that helps. > gb > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Tony Hlabse > Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 10:23 AM > To: Exchange Discussions > Subject: Re: smtp receives but stops sending > > > > Only thing that comes to mind is a disk space issue. Will > listen to see what > the final outcome is. > > From: "Mark Dewell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: "Exchange Discussions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Exchange Discussions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: smtp receives but stops sending > Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 16:56:51 -0000 > > Can anyone shed any light on the following behavior. We are > running Exchange > 2003 and during normal operation the smtp queues will be > empty (apart from > the occasionally message or 2 in transit). However, once or > twice a week the > smtp service on our front end server seems to stop delivering > messages, but > does continue to accept them, with the result that if left > unchecked we get > a > backlog of thousands of messages in the 'Messages pending > submission' queue. > To resolve this we have to restart the smtp service, which is > normally not > possible. So we instead have to set the service to 'disabled' and then > restart the entire server. The queue contents can then be > moved out to a > temporary location and the smtp service restarted. If we > restart without > clearing the original queue contents the IIS service often > crashes, but if > we > start up with an empty queue we can feed the backlog back > into the system a > thousand at a time via the pickup folder and this will > successfully deliver > them. So this seems to imply that it is not the queue/message > content that > is > causing the problem. > > We originally saw this problem with Exchange 2000, but > successive service > packs and now Ex2003 have not fixed the problem. It only > seems to happen at > busy periods, like the Autumn term of a University. It ran > without a hiccup > over the summer break. > We have a very fast network with several AD global catalogs > available so I > don't believe this to be an active directory related problem, but..... > We are also running GFI MailEssentials on this server, but > only since June > and the problem has been occuring on and off for the last > couple of years. > Sophos Mail Monitor Anti-Virus also runs on this and all our > other Exchange > servers, but only this one front end server has the problem. > > Is anyone having a similar problems? > > Any ideas how we can investigate this further (The events logs show no > errors > during the time period this occurs). > > ---< Mark Dewell, University of East London, Dagenham, > Essex, UK >--- > ---< Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >--- > ---< URL : http://homepages.uel.ac.uk/1278 > >--- > > < Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty (Anne > Herbert) > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm > Web Interface: > http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&t ext_mode=&lang =english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ MSN Shopping upgraded for the holidays! Snappier product search... http://shopping.msn.com _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&lang =english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&lang= english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&lang=english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
