XCON: The MTA Process Is Leaking Memory with a High Handle Count (313735)

SYMPTOMS

The Exchange 2000 message transfer agent (MTA) process (Emsmta.exe) may show a steady increase in the handle count. Eventually, the Exchange 2000 server may generate multiple event ID 2020 error messages, and then stop responding (hang). See the "More Information" section of this article for information about how to identify this problem.

CAUSE

This problem can occur if the Exchange 2000 server exhausts its pool paged limit, which causes the computer to hang. As the computer leaks pool paged bytes and the limit is approached, the computer starts to generate event ID 2020 error messages.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

301378 XGEN: How to Obtain the Latest Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack

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

Component: MTA

File name	Version
Emsmta.exe	6.0.5770.08
X400om.dll	6.0.5770.08
X400omv1.dll	6.0.5770.08

NOTE: Because of file dependencies, this update requires Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 2.

MORE INFORMATION

To identify the memory leak, use Microsoft Windows 2000 System Monitor to capture the memory object and the paged pool counter. Also capture the process object and the handles count counter for the Emsmta instance. If you are experiencing the problem that is described in this article, both of these counters increase at a steady rate that is not dependant on computer activity. Typically, the handle count value increases from 50,000 to 100,000. If you use a tool such as Oh.exe (from the Windows 2000 Resource Kit) or Process Explorer, the majority of these new handles that are created but not destroyed are "token" handles.

Process Explorer is available from the following Sysinternals Web site:

http://sysinternals.com