SMTP instance fully-qualified domain name does not match server name

[This topic is intended to address a specific issue called out by the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool. You should apply it only to systems that have had the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool run against them and are experiencing that specific issue. The Exchange Server Analyzer Tool, available as a free download, remotely collects configuration data from each server in the topology and automatically analyzes the data. The resulting report details important configuration issues, potential problems, and nondefault product settings. By following these recommendations, you can achieve better performance, scalability, reliability, and uptime. For more information about the tool or to download the latest versions, see "Microsoft Exchange Analyzers" at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=34707.]  

Topic Last Modified: 2006-07-07

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool queries the Active Directory® directory service to determine whether the value of the ncacn_ip_tcp: string of the networkAddress attribute for the server object matches the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) in the msExchSmtpFullyQualifiedDomainName attribute from the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) virtual server object.

If the Exchange Server Analyzer determines that the values of these attributes do not match, the Exchange Server Analyzer displays a warning.

This warning indicates that the values of these attributes may have been manually changed and could be contribute to mail flow problems on this server.

The value of the msExchSmtpFullyQualifiedDomainName attribute specifies the FQDN for the SMTP virtual server and must be resolvable by the Domain Name System (DNS) networking protocol.

A valid DNS HOST (A) record must exist for the value of this attribute so that messaging servers that try to resolve the FQDN of the SMTP virtual server can retrieve the correct IP address and route mail appropriately.

For more information about the reverse DNS lookup feature in Exchange, see "Add a resource record to a DNS zone" (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=63002).

For more information about SMTP virtual server settings, see the following Knowledge Base articles:

For more information about SMTP Service Design, see "SMTP Service Design" in the Technical Reference Guide for Exchange Server 2003 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=58876).