Distribution group identified as a common destination

Topic Last Modified: 2006-10-04

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool queries the Exchange_Queue Windows® Management Instrumentation (WMI) class to determine the values of the following attributes for the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) queues of the SMTP virtual server.

LinkId	Indicates the identifier for the link that contains the queue.
QueueId	Indicates the identifier of the queue.
QueueName	Indicates the name of the queue.
VirtualMachine	Indicates the name of the virtual machine that contains the queue.
VirtualServerName	Indicates the name of the virtual server that the queue is on.
MessageCount	Indicates the number of messages in the queue.

The Exchange Server Analyzer uses the information obtained here to query the Exchange_QueuedSMTPMessage WMI class for the values of the following attributes of the messages in the queue:

Recipients	Indicates the recipients of the message.
Received	Indicates the received time stamp for the message.
MessageId	Indicates the identifier of the queued message.
StateRetry	Indicates that transmission is retried for a message that was not delivered successfully.

Finally, the Exchange Server Analyzer uses the data obtained here to query the Active Directory® directory service for the distinguishedName value of each Recipient object. The Exchange Server Analyzer then determines whether the recipient is a user, a distribution group, a public folder, or a public folder store.

If the Exchange Server Analyzer determines that at least 25 percent of the messages stuck in the queue are addressed, in either the To: or Cc: fields, to a specific distribution group, the Exchange Server Analyzer displays a warning.

If the Exchange Server Analyzer determines that at least 50 percent of the messages stuck in the queue are addressed, in either the To: or Cc: fields, to a specific distribution group, the Exchange Server Analyzer displays an error.

This warning or error means that the distribution group identified is a common destination for messages that are stuck in an SMTP queue.

To address this issue, the distribution group should be investigated as follows for configuration issues or other anomalies that could cause messages to queue for it:

Make sure that the distribution group object attributes are correctly set and contain the correct values in Active Directory.
Review the Active Directory permissions of the distribution group object for the correct settings.
If the distribution group contains a special use user object, that is, a designated Journaling recipient, review the configurations of the service or components that the user object is related to for the correct configuration.
Look for possible unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), or spam, or virus attacks against the distribution group.
Determine whether the distribution group's delivery restrictions are incorrectly set.

For more information about how to troubleshoot SMTP queues, see the following Exchange resources:

"Troubleshooting Mail Flow and SMTP" in the Exchange Server Transport and Routing Guide (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=67875).
Microsoft Knowledge Base article 823489, "How to use Queue Viewer to troubleshoot mail flow issues in Exchange Server 2003" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=823489).

For more information about the effect of distribution group restriction on Exchange Server mail flow, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

895407, "In Exchange Server 2003, message delivery to local mailboxes and to external mailboxes is slower than you expect after you configure delivery restrictions based on distribution groups" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=895407)
329171 "XADM: Mail Delivery Is Slow if Recipients Are Configured with Delivery Restrictions Based on Group Membership" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=329171).
839949, "Troubleshooting mail transport and distribution groups in Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server 2003" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=839949).
812298, "Mail delivery is slow after you configure delivery restrictions that are based on a distribution list" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=812298).