XCON: Messages Remain in Queue and Are Resent at MTA Startup

ID: Q198958

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5

SYMPTOMS

On extremely rare occasions, the message transfer agent (MTA) continues to resend a message after every successive restart until the message age exceeds the Held-For-Transmit Timer for the object, resulting in the non-delivery report (NDR) shown below:

----Original Message-----
From: System Administrator
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 1998 9:44 PM
Subject: Undeliverable: RE: Test Message
Importance: High

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
Subject: RE: Test Message Sent: 10/29/98 1:37 PM
The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
User, Test on 12/15/98 9:44 PM The maximum time for delivering the message expired MSEXCH:MSExchangeMTA:NorthAmerica:Test01

CAUSE

After a messages is transferred from the MTA, the MTA sometimes fails to delete a .dat file, (usually the file is locked), from the Mtadata folder, which leads to the object remaining in the queue. Thus, the next time the MTA is restarted, the message is resent.

STATUS

This problem no longer occurs in Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 1 or later.

Additional query words:

Keywords : exc55
Version : winnt:5.5
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug