Monday, June 30, 2008

Exchange Trouble Leads to Learning

Why is it that I always learn best by fire? Why can't I sit down with a tech book and read about issues, problems and tools BEFORE I have a fire to put out? Oh well, I don't. I usually only learn tech tricks by having to put out fires on the job. This was the case last week when our main Exchange server stopped sending mail and started to hold all the messages in the queues.
I had not had to track anything in the queues before this, so looking at and using the Message Tracking Center Tool was new to me. I found some useful information on how to do this at two sites; Computer Performance and Amset.info.
But for quick information on how to get to your queues, what you should see, and some quick troubleshooting tips I recommend these sites to get you started. And by all means, check out you queues, see how messages normally flow so that when you do have a problem you will know how things should work and may just be able to quickly resolve your trouble.