XCON: MTA Does Not Reroute Mail Queued for the Internet Mail Service to Another Exchange Server Computer's Internet Mail Service (263714)

SYMPTOMS

If Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) mail is queued waiting to be delivered by the Internet Mail Service, and the Internet Mail Service becomes inactive, the message transfer agent (MTA) does not reroute the SMTP mail to a different server to make use of another Internet Mail Service.

CAUSE

Although the MTA reroutes mail, the MTA only reroutes mail for X.400 application programming interface (XAPI) connections, which include X.400, Site Connector, and remote procedure call (RPC) communications within a site. When e-mail messages are queued for an Exchange Development Kit (EDK) gateway, such as the Internet Mail Service, the MTA has already completed the routing algorithm process and queued the messages for outbound delivery. For the Internet Mail Service, this is the "Internet Mail Service local_machine_name" queue.

When mail is in the "Internet Mail Service local_machine_name" queue, the mail waits to be placed in the Mts-out folder of the Internet Mail Service in the information store. The mail is not removed from this queue until the mail is placed in the information store Mts-out folder.

Rerouting occurs when mail is transferred between MTAs by using the previously mentioned XAPI connectors. If the remote MTA is not available, the messages are rerouted to an alternate route through these connectors.