SMTP Queue Growth

If a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) queue grows continuously, e-mail is not leaving the queue and is not being delivered to another Exchange 2000 server as fast as new messages arrive. This can be an indication of network or system problems. To avoid delays in delivering messages, you should monitor SMTP queue growth. When the queue grows continuously for a specified period of time, the SMTP queue monitor displays a warning icon on the Monitoring tab. You can set a growth threshold for a warning state or critical state, or you can set both thresholds.

To set thresholds for SMTP queue growth:

1. If you have not already done so, select an Exchange 2000 monitor for SMTP queue growth, and then click OK.
2. To set a warning state threshold, in SMTP Queue Thresholds, select the Warning state (minutes): check box, and then type a number in minutes that identifies the maximum amount of time an SMTP queue can grow continuously before a warning icon is displayed.
3. To set a critical state threshold, select the Critical state (minutes): check box, and then type a number in minutes that identifies the maximum amount of time an SMTP queue can grow continuously before a critical icon is displayed. If you also set a warning state threshold, type a number that is greater than the warning state threshold.

Tip   To view the current size of your SMTP queue, on the Monitoring tab, click the SMTP Queues growth period monitor you just created, and then check the display in Current queue growth (minutes):.

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