• Article

Submission Queue Length - sustained for 5 minutes - Yellow(>150) - 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

Submission Queue Length

Instance Name

_Total

Sample Interval (in seconds)

60

Server Role

Ex. Edge Transport

Warning Threshold

>150

Critical Error Threshold

>250

MOM Rule Path

Microsoft Exchange Server/Exchange 2007/Edge Transport/Transport

MOM Rule Name

Submission Queue Length - sustained for 5 minutes - Yellow(>150) - Edge Transport.

Explanation

The Submission Queue Length performance counter measures the number of messages currently in the submission queue. Messages in this queue are in a retry state because an issue prevented their submission to the categorizer. If the issue is transient, a subsequent attempt to submit the message may be successful.

This alert indicates that the submission queue length has been greater than 150 for five minutes.

A sustained high Submission Queue Length value may indicate that an excessive amount of inbound messages have over loaded the categorizer. It may also indicate that there is an issue with message categorization. Message resubmission sends undelivered messages back to the Submission queue to be reprocessed by the categorizer.

A sustained high Submission Queue Length may be caused by one or more of the following:

  • The server is being over-utilized and does not have enough resources to satisfy all of the current requests. This situation may occur if there are more messages being submitted for transport then the server can handle. Similarly, it may also occur if many messages are being resubmitted for categorization.

  • There is a problem with a custom event sink or rule, or a third-party event sink or rule.

For information about the submission queue, see Managing Queues.

User Action

To resolve this alert, try one or more of the following:

  • If you believe that the server is being over-utilized, determine what is causing the extra load on the server and try to minimize the load.

  • If you believe that there are too many messages being received by the server, try to remove the messages from the submission queue. For example, it might be necessary to remove the server from the network to allow messages to drain from the submission queue. If you can determine that the messages in the submission queue are all inbound from an external source, consider disconnecting the server from the external network. This action will give the server time to process all of the messages currently in the message queues.

  • To determine if an event sink or message rule is causing the issue, turn off all event sinks and rules and see if the queue clears.

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.