XCON: Intersite Message Transfer Agent Distribution List Cache Issue

ID: Q229728

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5 SP2

SYMPTOMS

Distribution List (DL) membership may not be updated correctly across Exchange Server sites. In other words, after a DL member's mailbox had been deleted (at Site A, for example), other sites in the Exchange Server organization should not see the mailbox in the global address list. However, the remote sites may not be notified of the change to the DL membership. When sending to this DL from one of these remote sites (for example, Site B), a non-delivery report (NDR) may be generated by the message transfer agent (MTA) similar to the following:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: Test MTA DL Cache message
Sent: 2/1/99 9:25 AM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

c=US;a= ;p=ORG;o=SITE;dda:MSXCHNGE=
//o=ORG//ou=SITE//cn=RECIPIENTS//cn=Deleted user; on 2/1/99 9:25 AM
The recipient name is not recognized
MSEXCH:MSExchangeMTA:SITE:SERVER

CAUSE

The MTA checks the "When Changed" attribute of the DL for updates before every expansion pass. Implicit deletion of the mailbox (that is, deleting it from a server, but not from the DL) does not update the "When Changed" attribute of the DL, even though the mailbox is no longer a member of the DL. The MTA still recognizes the mailbox is as a member of the DL because the MTA DL cache does not get updated when a mailbox is deleted, but not manually removed, from the DL. As such, the Site B MTA DL cache information is not updated because of the implicit deletion of the mailbox in Site A. Therefore, the Site B MTA continues to include the deleted mailbox when sending to the DL. Therefore, the Site A MTA continues to generate an NDR for the deleted mailbox.

RESOLUTION

A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but it has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. If you are not severely affected by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 service pack that contains this fix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

The English language version of this feature should have the following file attributes or later:

Component: MTA

File name	Version
Emsmta.exe	5.5.2564.0

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, recycle the MTA service in Site B.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 Service Pack 2.

MORE INFORMATION

After you apply the fix, the NDR may still occur if someone sends a message to the DL within 10 minutes of the mailbox being deleted, but after the 10-minute period, the NDRs will not occur for the deleted mailbox.

For additional information about this problem as it applies to intrasite DL updates, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q194504 XCON: MTA Returns NDR for Deleted Mailbox when Message Sent to DL

Additional query words:

Keywords : exc55sp2
Version : winnt:5.5 SP2
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug