Topic Last Modified: 2007-03-13

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool queries the Win32_Service Microsoft Windows® Management Instrumentation (WMI) class to determine the value of the Started key for the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service. A value of False indicates that the SMTP service is not running. A value of True indicates that the SMTP service is running.

If the Exchange Server Analyzer finds the value for the Started key is set to False, the Exchange Server Analyzer displays an error.

The Windows SMTP service is a component of Internet Information Services (IIS) and runs as part of Inetinfo.exe. Exchange Server relies on the SMTP service as its native transport protocol. Therefore, Exchange uses SMTP to route all internal and external messages.

The SMTP service should always be running on Exchange servers.

To correct this error

  1. Open the Services Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.

  2. In the right pane, scroll down to the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service and double-click it. This will display the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Properties dialog box.

  3. Set the value in the Startup type drop-down menu to Automatic.

  4. Click Start to start the SMTP service.

  5. Click OK to save the changes and close the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Properties dialog box.

  6. Close the Services snap-in.

For more information about the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service and Exchange Servers, see "SMTP Transport Architecture" in the Technical Reference Guide for Exchange Server 2003 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47891).

For more information about how to configure SMTP service for Exchange, see "Configuring SMTP in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=24866).