XCON: MTA Logs Warning Events When Queues Reach Thresholds
  
PSS ID Number: Q173512
Article last modified on 04-03-1998
 
WinNT:5.0 SP2
 
winnt
 

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The information in this article applies to:
 
   - Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.0 Service Pack 2
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SUMMARY
=======
 
The Microsoft Exchange Message Transfer Agent (MTA) in versions 1459.39 and
later allow Exchange Server administrators to configure queue thresholds
that cause the MTA to log warnings in the application event log when the
specified queue size has been exceeded.
 
MORE INFORMATION
================
 
The MTA includes four new registry settings that can be used to configure
warning events to be logged:
 
   Work queue alarm on
   Work queue alarm off
   Outbound queue alarm on
   Outbound queue alarm off
 
All four of these case-sensitive registry values are REG_DWORDs and can be
added to the following registry key:
 
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services
   \MSExchangeMTA\Parameters
 
The Work Queue alarm may log two different events to notify the
administrator when the Work Queue reaches a certain size. One event
notifies the administrator that the Work Queue has reached the "alarm on"
threshold. This warning is logged with the Event ID of 666 and looks
similar to the following:
 
   Event ID: 666
   Source: MSExchangeMTA
   Type: Warning
   Category: Resource
   Description:
   The MTA work queue is backlogged with 600 messages in
   the queue. [MTA SUBMIT 18 231] (14)
 
After the Work Queue diminishes in size, the MTA will log a warning with
the Event ID of 667 that looks similar to the following:
 
   Event ID: 667
   Source: MSExchangeMTA
   Type: Warning
   Category: Resource
   Description:
   The MTA work queue backlog has subsided leaving 300 messages in
   the queue. [MTA DISP:RESULT 23 234] (14)
 
The Work Queue alarm can be configured by using only the "Work queue alarm
on" registry value. When the "Work queue alarm off" registry value is not
present, the MTA automatically substitutes half the value specified in the
"Work queue alarm on" registry value for the "off" value which causes the
667 event to be triggered. The example events shown earlier illustrate this
configuration where the "Work queue alarm off" value is not present in the
registry and the "Work queue alarm on" registry value is set to 600
decimal.
 
The administrator can configure the "Work queue alarm off" registry value
to log the 667 event at a different value. For example, if the "Work queue
alarm off" registry value is set to a value of 0, the 667 event is not
logged until the Work Queue is empty.
 
If the administrator sets the "Work queue alarm off" value to 100 decimal,
the 667 event is logged when the Work Queue diminishes to 100 messages. If
the "Work queue alarm off" value is set to a higher value than the "Work
queue alarm on" value, the value specified for "Work queue alarm off" is
ignored and the default value of half the "Work queue alarm on" value is
used instead.
 
The "Outbound queue alarm on" and "Outbound queue alarm off" registry
values work similarly to the Work Queue alarm settings. The Outbound Queue
alarm works independently of the Work Queue alarm. The Outbound Queue alarm
logs a 659 Event Id when a queue reaches the specified limit. For example,
if the "Outbound queue alarm on" registry value is configured to generate
the 659 event when an outbound queue reaches 500 messages and an X.400
Connector becomes backlogged to 500 messages or more, an event similar to
the following is logged in the application event log:
 
   Event ID: 659
   Source: MSExchangeMTA
   Type: Warning
   Category: Resource
   Description:
   The queue for /O=MS/OU=GUITARS/CN=CONFIGURATION
   /CN=CONNECTIONS/CN=X400 CONNECTOR TO BRASS_KITTEN
   is backlogged with 500 messages in the queue.
   [MTA GATEWAY 45 512] (14)
 
When the backlog subsides, a 660 event similar to the following is logged:
 
   Event ID: 660
   Source: MSExchangeMTA
   Type: Warning
   Category: Resource
   Description:
   The queue backlog for /O=MICROSOFT/OU=GUITARS
   /CN=CONFIGURATION/CN=CONNECTIONS/CN=X400 CONNECTOR TO
   BRASS_KITTEN has subsided leaving 250 messages in the
   queue. [MTA GATEWAY 45 512] (14)
 
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Keywords          : XCON
Component         : MTA
Version           : WinNT:5.0 SP2
Platform          : winnt
Issue type        : kbinfo
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Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1998.