OT : Paging MS Exchange FOAK

Odd problem.

One single user in the Exchange server has stopped receiving any emails
coming in via SMTP.

Internal mails delivered by X400 work fine.

*Sometimes* it does work and an external email gets delivered.
Unfortunately I can't turn on a high enough level of SMTP
session/internal logging to find out enough to trace the problem.

Error codes returned vary, 5.0.0, 5.1.0, 5.1.1 have been seen,
essentially they say "user doesn't exist"

Oh, but they do.

Nothing odd about the configuration for that user, or their mailbox.

So, as a last resort, if I delete the user, it will "ask" me if I want
to also delete the associated mailbox (presents a list with exchange
objects, which list contains their mailbox with a greyed out check box
next to it so I can't unselect it), delete them, do NOT purge the
actual mailbox itself, can I then re-create the user and it'll link
itself back to the existing mailbox store?


(this is a stop gap as i'm in the process of creating a Debian/postfix
mailserver, but as its the boss' email account thats fubar'd, i'd like
to get it working ASAP!

 

ISTBC but I very much doubt it. Best bet would be export it from Outlook to
a .pst then pull it all back.

Bit of a bummer. Have you tried tracing the message to see where it does
go?

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Is the SMTP gateway on the same server as Exchange? If it is, try telneting
to port 25 on the server and send mail manually so that you can see the
response of the server:

for example (sorry if this is patronising - I don't know you level of
experience)

click start, run and type CMD
in the Dos box, type 'telnet'
then type 'open x.x.x.x 25' where x.x.xx.x is the IP address of the exchange
box
type 'HELO'
type 'MAIL FROM: '
type 'RCPT TO: ' this is the address that you
want to check
type 'DATA'
type 'some message or other'
press return then a full stop and another return.

You'll get a response from the server after each command - look up anything
weird in google (sods law says it'll work fine though)

Also, check in AD that the users mail address is okay and delete any that
aren't needed. Also check and mail box size limits.

HTH

Tim

 

^^^^
ITYM:

HELO somedomain.com

Unless Exchange is so screwed up to not respect RFC's.

 

This is *Microsoft* Exchange we are talking about here.. I remember the
pain of integrating Exchange 5.5 into an otherwise good SMTP network
(Solaris running Sendmail) and the confusion that arose because
Exchange would indicate in it's HELO/EHELO response that it supported
ESMTP when in fact it didn't..

Phil

 

I recommend your company hires someone who knows Exchange.

 

Tim Gordon scribbled:

Done that already from various places. Accepts email fine. Then bounces
it.

You know Sod well

Addresses are fine, he has lots, I've tried deleting and re-creating
the (main) offending one, no difference. Sizes are fine.

 

Catman scribbled:

So do I, hence asking.

I've been nagging everyone to copy everything to their own pst files
but its like trying to herd cats.

I would if I knew how.

Done telnet SMTP sessions, Exchange accepts the email fine, and then
produces a bounce.

Exchange will accept mail for anyone, even invalid users, a security
feature so hackerz can't determine whats a valid email and whats not.

Got diagnostic logging on maximum, nothing in there, tracing the
relevant emails just says its sending a "NDR" back.

Mail box size is well within its limits (and all its set to when they
go over the limit is send them a nagging email anyway), max email size
is huge.

 

Indeed. Part of the point of Exchange though is that you shouldn't have
to

IMAP BTW?

Depends which version, but there is a find message section that will (when
presented with the email address and rough time show you messages that were
received and what happened to them, and often why. Let me know which
version, and I should be able to give better details.

Yep. You can turn off NDRs to stop exactly that.

See above about versions and I'll see what I can do.

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Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
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www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Erm, I wonder, at this point, if it's worth examining his filters. The
message trace I'm talking about would confirm this but I'd be suspcicous
that Outlook is set to bounce them for some (varying) reasons....
--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 TS 156 TS S2
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Catman scribbled:

True. But thats valid for any IMAP server, not just exchange.

What? Exchange or the new server? Both can be, or POP3, and the
exchange can be its ususal Exchange thang.

2000.

I've found the problem now though, so its fixed (too late as the
postfix server is happily dealing with all the emails now)

Bit of a problem when valid users try to send emails and they've just
mis-typed the email address, no NDR and no other errors will make em
think its been sent OK.

Anyway, turned out the problem was cause by me...

Boss came in at lunch time, wondering why he'd had no external emails
that day, so I had a look and tested it, and for some reason I still
don't know it failed that time, so I deleted that email address and
added it again.

And mis-spelled his surname when I added it back in.

Doh. I are a TC.

(but Exchange didn't help by throwing out three different 5.x.x error
messages for the same problem...!)

 

BWAHAHAHAHA. You Pillock.

Don't blame your tools Man! Even if they are MS!

 

Of course

I meant the new one. Not a great example of clarity on my part.//

There is that.

Oh well, something else for the knowledge base

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 TS 156 TS S2
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Either will work fine. And, yes, Exchange complies with all standards -
Microsoft standards that is though.

// A standard becomes a standard when the majority of people use it //

//discuss.



Tim