SUMMARY
This step-by-step article describes how to set routing costs for connectors, verify connector queues, view the link state information and how to force Active Directory replication.
Cost values determine which connector is preferred for message transfer. Costs are associated with address spaces and connected Routing Group information. To locate the best connector, you must verify the link state table. Only messages on available routes are included in the message selection process.
To optimize message routing, Exchange 2000 Server uses the connector that has the lowest routing cost. When you have multiple connectors and setting routing costs, you can ensure that messages are delivered even if a primary connector does not respond. You can also use routing costs to distribute the messaging loads evenly among the connectors.
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How to Set Routing Costs for Connectors
- Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
- Navigate through Administrative Groups, First Administrative Group, Routing Groups, and then click to expand the Routing Group to which you want to apply changes.
- Click to expand the Connectors container, right-click the connector that you want to change, and then click Properties.
- For Routing Group Connectors, you can use the Cost box on the General tab to set the routing cost.
- For Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and X.400 connectors, each address space and connected Routing Group has an associated cost. You configure these costs on the Address Space tab and the Connected Routing Groups tab respectively.
- Click OK.
- Verify the following:
- Active Directory replication of the changes.
- Update of the link state table.
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Additional Information
View Connector Queues
Microsoft advises that you view the message queues frequently to verify that the system is functioning properly. System queues always display; however, connector queues only display when messages are present.
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Link State Information
Link state information helps to indicate whether a particular connector or Routing Group is available. A link state table contains all link state information. To view the link state information:
- Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
- In the console tree, click to expand Tools, click to expand Monitoring, and then click to expand Status.
- Click the Status container.
- In the details pane, status information for all connectors and servers in your organization displays.
The link state table database is not stored on hard disk. To examine the link state table in detail, use the Winroute utility. The Winroute.exe file is located on the Exchange 2000 Server (Standard and Enterprise Editions) CD-ROM in the \Support\Utils\I386 folder.
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Active Directory Replication
Active Directory replication is a pull process. The server that has configuration changes to propagate notifies remote servers about the changes, however it does not push the changes. To force Active Directory replication:
- Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Sites and Services.
- In the console tree, click to expand Sites.
- Click to expand the container that represents the target server.
- Click to expand Servers, and then click to expand your target server.
- Click to select NTDS Settings.
- In the details pane, right-click the replication connector object that you want, and then click to select Replicate Now.
- This procedure initiates the replication of configuration changes from the source server.
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