Test Mail Sent to Badmail Directory

[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: 2006-05-17

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool sends a test message from the Exchange server to the Postmaster account or a user-defined account for the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) domain and then scans the message tracking logs of the server to determine whether there were issues with the delivery of the test message.

As a part of this scan, the Exchange Server Analyzer queries the EntryType property for the Exchange_MessageTrackingEntry Microsoft Windows® Management Instrumentation (WMI) class under the root\MicrosoftExchangeV2 namespace to determine what caused the message tracking log entry.

If the Exchange Server Analyzer finds a value of 1021 for the EntryType property, the Exchange Server Analyzer displays a warning.

This warning indicates that the test message was sent to the Badmail directory for the Exchange server and there is a problem with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) configuration for the server.

A message is entered into the Badmail directory for one of the following reasons:

  • It cannot be delivered.

  • The maximum number of retries has been exceeded.

  • It cannot be returned to the sender as undeliverable.

For more information about how to test outgoing mail flow, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 297700, "How to test outbound mail flow with a file in the Pickup folder" (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=297700).

For more information about how to troubleshoot mail flow and SMTP, see "Troubleshooting Mail Flow and SMTP" in the Exchange Server Transport and Routing Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47579).