PC NTMMTA: Maximum Number of Instances Running as a Service (131676)

SYMPTOMS

The Microsoft Mail Multitasking MTA for Windows NT (NT MMTA) running as a Service is limited to seven instances per machine. This limit is related to the number of drive letters available on the machine. Each instance of the NT MMTA takes three drive letters.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in version 3.5 of the Microsoft Mail Multitasking MTA for Windows NT. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

For a machine that has drives A: through E: reserved for other devices (for example, floppy disk drives, CD ROMs, etc.), there are 21 drives left. The following are examples of uses for these drives:

   Instance        1   2   3   4   5   6   7
   Home Drive      f   i   l   o   r   u   x
   Dynamic Drives  gh  jk  mn  pq  st  vw  yz

Two dynamic drives are used; one for sending mail, and one for receiving mail. This is the same as the DynamicDrives option in the MS-DOS and OS/2 versions of the External program.

NOTE: When you use a single postoffice instance, it will map only one drive.