E-mail message is not delivered from Exchange 2000 Server to Exchange Server 5.5 recipients (319886)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5

This article was previously published under Q319886

SYMPTOMS

When you try to send e-mail messages between mailboxes hosted on Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server computers and Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 computers, you may experience the following behaviors:
  • Messages sent from the Exchange Server 5.5 computer to mailboxes hosted on the Exchange 2000 Server computer are delivered.
  • Messages sent from the Exchange 2000 Server computer to mailboxes hosted on the Exchange Server 5.5 computer are not delivered and you receive a non-delivery report (NDR) similar to the following:

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

Subject: test message.
Sent: date time

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

UserName on 09/18/2001 11:30 AM
The e-mail address could not be found. Perhaps the recipient moved to a different e-mail organization, or there was a mistake in the address. Check the address and try again.The MTS-ID of the original message is:c=US;a= ;p=Example;l=MAIL-010918163000Z-10 MSEXCH:MSExchangeMTA:EXCHTC:MAIL

If you track the message, you may notice that it travels as far as the message transfer agent (MTA).

CAUSE

This behavior may occur if the user account on the Exchange Server 5.5 contains incorrect homeMTA information.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this behavior, use one of the following methods:

Method 1: Use Active Directory

To resolve this behavior by using Active Directory, perform both of the following steps:

IMPORTANT: You must complete step 1 and step 2 in succession for each user who experiences this behavior.

Step 1: Verify the HomeMTA Information

Use the ADSI Edit utility to obtain the homeMTA information of the user account with which you experience this problem. To do so, follow these steps:

NOTE: The ADSI Edit tool is located in the Microsoft Windows 2000 Support Tools. If this tool is not installed, you can install the tool from the Microsoft Windows 2000 CD-ROM. The file path is:

Support\Tools\Setup.exe.

WARNING: If you use the ADSI Edit snap-in, the LDP utility, or any other LDAP version 3 client, and you incorrectly modify the attributes of Active Directory objects, you can cause serious problems. These problems may require you to reinstall Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, or both. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems that occur if you incorrectly modify Active Directory object attributes can be solved. Modify these attributes at your own risk.
  1. Start ADSI Edit. To do so, click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows 2000 Support Tools, point to Tools, and then click ADSI Edit.
  2. Expand Domain NC (ServerName.example.com) (where ServerName is the name of the domain controller and where example.com is the name of the domain), expand DC=example,DC=com.
  3. Expand the container that contains the user account that you want, for example, expand CN=Users.
  4. Right-click the user account container that you want. (For example, right-click CN=UserName), and then click Properties).
  5. In the Select which properties to view list, click Both.
  6. In the Select a property to view list, click homeMTA.
  7. In the Value(s) box, note the value for the homeMTA property.
If the homeMTA value is not correct, you have to update the user account by typing in the proper homeMTA value.

For example, this is an incorrect homeMTA value:

CN=Microsoft MTA\DEL:e8b60430-4dfc-4902-8891-6651a6d141c8,CN=Deleted
Objects,CN=Configuration,DC=Example,DC=com;

NOTE: Notice that in this example the homeMTA value is in the Deleted Objects folder of the domain. In this scenario, the homeMTA value must be in CN=ServerName.

Here is an example of a correct homeMTA value:

CN=Microsoft MTA,CN=ServerName,CN=Servers,CN=First Administrative Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=Example Organization,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=example,DC=com

To change the homeMTA value:
  1. In the Value(s) box, note the value for the homeMTA property.
  2. In the Value(s) box, modify the homeMTA value in the Edit Attribute text box, click Set, click Apply, and then click OK.
NOTE: The easiest way to enter the correct homeMTA value is to use ADSI Edit to obtain the correct homeMTA value for a user in the same Exchange Server 5.5 site and that can receive messages from Exchange 2000 users. Copy the value from the user with the correct value, and then paste the value into the Edit Attribute text box for the user who has the value that in not valid.

If there are no users in the Exchange Server 5.5 site from which you can copy the correct homeMTA information, use the examples earlier in this article, and then type the correct value manually. Note that the examples must be adapted for your Exchange Server organization.

Step 2: Update the Recipient Information

  1. In the Select a property to view list, click msExchALObjectVersion.
  2. In the Value(s) box, note the value for the msExchALObjectVersion property.
  3. In the Value(s) box, increment the value for the msExchALObjectVersion property by 500.

    For example, if the value is 40, change it to 540. To do so, in the Edit Attribute text box, type 540, click Set, click Apply, and then click OK.

    NOTE: An alternative to incrementing msExchALObjectVersion by 500 is to verify the msExchALObjectVersion attribute in Active Directory by using ADSI Edit, and then verify the Object-Version on the mailbox in the Raw Directory of Exchange Server 5.5. Compare the numbers, and then increment the value in Active Directory to 10 more than the value in the Exchange Server 5.5 Raw Directory. This procedure makes sure that you have correctly incremented this value.For additional information about how to check the Object-Version using the Raw Administrator in Exchange Server 5.5, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

    258257 XADM: How to Verify the Object-Version When You Troubleshoot Directory Replication Problems

  4. Quit ADSI Edit.
After you have edited the homeMTA information for each user who experiences this behavior, start the Active Directory Connector Manager, right-click the recipient connection agreement that is associated with the Exchange Server 5.5 site to which the user belongs, and then click Replicate Now to force replication.

Method 2: Use the Exchange Administrator

When the Home-MTA information in the Exchange 5.5 Directory is correct for the Exchange 5.5 mailbox, but incorrect in Active Directory, you can use the Microsoft Exchange Administrator to resolve this issue. To do so:
  1. Start the Microsoft Exchange Administrator. To do so, click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click Microsoft Exchange Administrator.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Directory Export.
  3. In the Home server list, click to select All (if it is not already selected).
  4. Click to select the Include subcontainers check box,
  5. Under Export objects, click to select the following check boxes:

    Mailbox
    Custom recipient
    Distribution list

  6. Under Logging level, click High.
  7. Under Character set, click ANSI (if it is not already selected).
  8. Click Export File, locate the folder to which you want to save the file, type the file name that you want in the File name box, click Open, and then click Yes when you are prompted to create a new file.
  9. Click Container, expand the domain object, click the Recipients container, and then click OK.
  10. Click Export to export the information to the comma-separated values (.csv) file that you created.
  11. On the message that appears stating that the directory export is complete, click OK.
  12. Start Microsoft Excel, and then open the .csv file to which you exported the directory information.
  13. Delete all the columns except for the Obj-Class column and the Directory Name column in the .csv file.

    NOTE: Delete the actual columns and not just the information that they contain. There should be no empty columns between the Obj-Class and Directory Name columns.
  14. In Row 1 of a new column, type Custom Attribute 15.
  15. In the Custom Attribute 15 column, type 1 in each row that corresponds to an item. The worksheet should appear similar to the following worksheet:
    Obj-Class Directory Name Custom Attribute 15
    Mailbox   User1          1
    Mailbox   User2          1
    Mailbox   User3          1 
    Mailbox   User4          1
    					
  16. Save the file, and then quit Excel.
  17. Start Microsoft Exchange Administrator. To do so, click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click Microsoft Exchange Administrator.
  18. On the Tools menu, click Directory Import.
  19. Click Import File, select the .csv file that you saved, and then click Open.
  20. Under Multivalued Properties, click Overwrite, and then click Import.
  21. On the message stating that the directory import is complete, click OK.
  22. Repeat steps 1 through 21 for the Recipients containers in each Site of your Exchange organization.
  23. Start the Active Directory Connection Manager and then replicate both the Recipient Connection Agreement and the Config_CA.
To remove the Custom Attribute 15 values from your Exchange 5.5 directory, open the .csv file that you saved in step 16, type ~del under the Custom Attribute 15 column, for each row that corresponds to an item. The worksheet should appear similar to the following worksheet:
Obj-Class Directory Name Custom Attribute 15
Mailbox   User1          ~del
Mailbox   User2          ~del
Mailbox   User3          ~del 
Mailbox   User4          ~del
				
Save, and then Import this new .csv file into the directory. When you do so, select Overwrite under Multivalued Properties.

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:10/12/2004
Keywords:kbpending kbprb KB319886