XFOR: Mail Connector Dispatch Fails Against Postoffice on Unix

• Microsoft Exchange Server, version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Microsoft Exchange 4.0 MS Mail Connector against an MS Mail Postoffice that is residing on a UNIX server, it will not dispatch mail from the Postoffice. Messages will be successfully dispatched into the Postoffice, but the following event ID will be generated by the Microsoft Exchange PC MTA in the application event log upon attempting to retrieve outbound mail from the Postoffice(s) on the UNIX computer:

   Event ID: 4254
   Unable to deliver mail to \\servername\maildata\P1\XXXXXXXX.0lk
   MS Mail Connector (PC) MTA will retry in the next cycle.

CAUSE

Mail is not dispatched from the Postoffice because files on the UNIX system are written in lower case. The Microsoft Exchange 4.0 Microsoft Mail Connector requests creation of the file in upper case and expects \P1\<prefix>.0LK files to be generated. Specifically, the semaphore file is thought to be from another process when it is not in upper case. As a result, mail will not be dispatched.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 4.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft Exchange Service Pack. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K