How to Specify a Global Catalog Server

How to Specify a Global Catalog Ser...

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Topic Last Modified: 2005-05-24

Problems with a global catalog can cause delays in message delivery. In this case, NDRs are generated to notify the sender of the delay. You can use Message Tracking Center to diagnose these problems.

The following are common causes of global catalog issues:

Overloaded or overworked global catalog servers.
Performance issues with global catalog servers.
Low memory.
Low hard disk space.
Intermittent network issues between Exchange 2000 Server and global catalog servers.
Too many Exchange servers using the same global catalog server (the recommended ratio of Exchange processors to global catalog server processors is four to one).

Important:
Message tracking logs can be misleading. For example, if the global catalog server is working correctly and the message categorized correctly, but a remote SMTP server was unavailable for thirty minutes, the message tracking log looks similar to the sample log shown above. Also, if the message had to be delivered locally and the Exchange store was performing slowly, the message tracking log shows a large gap of time between "Message Submitted to Message Categorizer" and "Message Delivered Locally to Store."

Important:

Message tracking logs can be misleading. For example, if the global catalog server is working correctly and the message categorized correctly, but a remote SMTP server was unavailable for thirty minutes, the message tracking log looks similar to the sample log shown above. Also, if the message had to be delivered locally and the Exchange store was performing slowly, the message tracking log shows a large gap of time between "Message Submitted to Message Categorizer" and "Message Delivered Locally to Store."

Use a System Monitor log from a global catalog server while you reproduce the issue. It can help you diagnose these issues. Recycling the global catalog servers may resolve these issues. To troubleshoot these issues, you can specify a global catalog server for each Exchange server.

Note:
Manually configuring global catalog servers is only recommended for troubleshooting. When your global catalog servers are manually configured, Exchange cannot detect if a server becomes unavailable.

Before You Begin

Before you perform the procedure in this topic, read Troubleshooting Non-Delivery Report Messages.

The following permissions are required to perform this procedure:

Member of the local administrators group and a member of a group that has had the Exchange Administrators role applied at the organizational level

Procedure

To specify a global catalog server

In Exchange System Manager, expand Servers, right-click your Exchange server and then click Properties.
Click the Directory Access tab.
In Show, select Global Catalog Servers.
Clear the Automatically discover servers check box.

Directory Access tab
Click Add, and select the global catalog server that you want to troubleshoot. The global catalog that you select for the domain must exist in Active Directory, must be accessible by means of LDAP port 3268, must process the Exchange server's request in a timely manner, and must have all mail-enabled attributes for the recipient object.

The following example shows data gathered from Message Tracking Center:

6/22/2001 3:54 PM Tracked message history on server CONTOSO-MSG-01

6/22/2001 3:54 PM SMTP Store Driver: Message Submitted from Store

6/22/2001 3:54 PM SMTP: Message Submitted to Advanced Queuing

6/22/2001 3:54 PM SMTP: Started Message Submission to Advanced Queue

6/22/2001 3:54 PM SMTP: Message Submitted to Categorizer

6/22/2001 4:24 PM SMTP: Started Outbound Transfer of Message

6/22/2001 4:24 PM Message transferred out to FOURTHCOFFEE.COM through SMTP

6/22/2001 4:24 PM SMTP: Message Submitted to Advanced Queuing

6/22/2001 4:24 PM SMTP: Started Message Submission to Advanced Queue

6/22/2001 4:24 PM SMTP: Message Submitted to Categorizer

6/22/2001 4:24 PM SMTP: Started Outbound Transfer of Message

6/22/2001 4:24 PM Message transferred out to FOURTHCOFFEE.COM through SMTP

6/22/2001 4:24 PM SMTP Store Driver: Message Delivered Locally to Store

In this example, notice that the message was delayed in message categorizer for 30 minutes before outbound transfer started and the message was eventually delivered. In these situations, determine which global catalog server Exchange is using by running the Nltest tool as described in the "Recipients Were Moved to Active Directory by Using the Move Mailbox Tool" in Common Non-Delivery Report Scenarios. Then, investigate the global catalog servers that are involved.

For additional information about DSAccess, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 250570, "XCON: Directory Service Server Detection and DSAccess Usage."