Retry Mailbox Delivery Queue Length - sustained for 5 minutes - Red(>250) - Edge Transport
Topic Last Modified: 2007-11-16
The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager includes a performance data collection engine that is used to query performance counter objects on computers that are running Exchange Server 2007. For this Operations Manager rule, data is collected using the performance counter specified in the Details table.
To review the value of the performance counter that generated this alert, do one of the following:
If you are using Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, from the Operator Console, select this alert, and then click the Properties tab. Review the description of the alert that includes the variables specific to your environment.
If you are using System Center Operations Manager 2007, double-click this alert, and then click the General tab. Review the description of the alert that includes the variables specific to your environment.
Details
Product Name |
Exchange |
Product Version |
8.0 (Exchange Server 2007) |
Event Source |
MSExchangeTransport Queues |
Counter Name |
Retry Mailbox Delivery Queue Length |
Instance Name |
_Total |
Sample Interval (in seconds) |
60 |
Server Role |
Ex. Edge Transport |
Critical Error Threshold |
>250 |
MOM Rule Path |
Microsoft Exchange Server/Exchange 2007/Edge Transport/Transport |
MOM Rule Name |
Retry Mailbox Delivery Queue Length - sustained for 5 minutes - Red(>250) - Edge Transport. |
Explanation
The Retry Mailbox Delivery Queue Length performance counter measures the number of messages currently in the retry mailbox delivery queue. Messages in this queue are in a retry state because an issue prevented their delivery. If the issue is transient, a subsequent attempt to send the message may be successful.
Messages that cannot be delivered successfully are subject to various retry, resubmit, and expiration deadlines based on the message's source and destination. Retry is a renewed connection attempt with the destination domain, smart host, or Mailbox server. Resubmit is the act of sending messages back to the submission queue for the categorizer to reprocess. The message is said to "time-out", or expire, after all delivery efforts have failed during a specified period of time. After a message expires, the sender is notified of the delivery failure. Then the message is deleted from the queue.
In all three cases of retry, resubmit, or expire, you can manually intervene before the automatic actions are performed on the messages.
This alert indicates that the retry mailbox delivery queue length has been greater than 250 for five minutes.
This alert may be caused by any of the following:
A domain that you send a large amount of e-mail to is down or experiencing problems.
A computer on your network may be infected with a virus which is sending messages through your Exchange servers.
Your DNS server may have some issue resolving fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) to IP addresses.
There may be a network connectivity issue that is preventing your server from properly connecting to destination servers or the Internet. Some possible issues that could effect your connection are:
Router or routing issues between your server and the destination.
Proxy or gateway server issues.
Internet Service providers (ISP) issues such as a cut line, downed system, routing issues, global disturbance, or some other issue.
User Action
To resolve this alert, do the following:
Determine the root cause of the performance issue by doing one or more of the following:
Check the destination where the retry messages are being sent to. If the messages are all addressed to a single domain, or small number of domains, verify that the specified domains are valid and functional using the steps detailed in How to Use Telnet to Test SMTP Communication.
Verify that there are no computers on your network that are infected with a virus which is sending messages through your Exchange server(s). Check where the retry messages are being sent to, if there a large number of messages addressed to companies that you do not know or do not regularly work with, or with unusual subject lines that look to be spam in nature. Take steps to remove the virus from the infected computer, or remove the computer from your network.
Confirm that your DNS server can resolve the FQDNs of the affected domain's mail exchanger (MX) resource records to IP by using the NSLOOKUP command as described in the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 documentation located at Verify DNS server responsiveness using the nslookup command.
Confirm that there are no network connectivity issues preventing your server from properly connecting to destination servers or the Internet. After you have isolated and corrected the issue, manually submit again any messages that are located in the mailbox delivery queues. To do this, use either the Queue Viewer or the Retry-Queue cmdlet and specify the Resubmit parameter. For information about how to retry sending a message, see How to Retry Queues.
Note
If you do not want to manually resubmit messages, you can wait for Exchange to do this automatically as specified by the MaxIdleTimeBeforeResubmit parameter.
For More Information
To search the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles based on criteria that generated this alert, visit the Microsoft Help and Support Web site.
If you are not already doing so, consider running the tools that Microsoft Exchange offers to help administrators analyze and troubleshoot their Exchange environment. These tools can help you make sure that your configuration is in line with Microsoft best practices. They can also help you identify and resolve performance issues, improve mail flow, and better manage disaster recovery scenarios. Go to the Toolbox node of the Exchange Management Console to run these tools now. For more information about these tools, see Toolbox in the Exchange Server 2007 Help.