Messages not being delivered to second exchange in site

[NETING]

Ok. Here we go.

I have two exchange servers (5.5) under the same site and same NT 4.0 domain model. My second exchange was added not so long ago. Half of my users are on the original exchange server the other half on the newly added one. There is no replication between the two. The set up is...let's just say...3 departments on the one server....3 departments on the other server. All users are under "abc.com"

Problem:

This is what I believe is happening. When customers email let's say 3 people at the same time at “abc.com”...1 of the persons mailbox resides on the original exchange server and 2 of the mailboxes on the new exchange server. Only the person on the original exchange server receives it. For the other 2 people the customer gets a non deliverable message. Now here is were it gets fun….If the customer emails those users individually one at a time, they receive it. It’s almost as if the original exchange server is not passing the message to the new exchange server were the other 2 users reside. I just set this new server up last month out of necessity (original server was being overworked) and don’t know if I set it up properly. All the help I can get is appreciated....For the most part this site is one of my most trustworthy sources and am heavily relying on the experts on this forum. Many thanks ahead of time.

 

[NETING]

Sorry...Forgot to mention...

Our Mx record is a server running 5.5 in our DMZ. It also runs Symantec's mail filter product. This mail filter product is set to deliver mail to the original mail server. That is were the problem I believe begins. Once my original internal exchange recieves mail from the symantec filter if the user resides on the other exchange server it does not know to transfer the email. Then the customer gets an undeliverable.

 

[zbnet]

The worrying thing about your post is the phrase "There is no replication between the two". You can't stop servers in the same site replicating, they do it automatically.

How did you join the second server to the site? When you built it, did you take the option 'join an existing site' and specifiy the original server name? If you didn't, then they aren't in the same site and you are forever doomed to try and get them into the same site, save for reinstalling the server again.

 

[NETING]

zbnet thanks for the reply as you have helped me in the past. Maybe I mis phrased the question. By no replication I mean that the server is not clustered in any way. Half of my users are on one exchange and the others on exchange2. I did take the option join an exsisting site and specified the original server name. Once again thanks for comming through.

Neting

 

[zbnet]

I'm not familiar with the Symantec mail filter product. You say this is running on a 5.5 server in your DMZ - is this a 3rd Exchange server? Is this server in the same Exchange org as your other two servers, or is it a seperate org? How is it sending on the messages to your original server - via SMTP? I think this might be the cause of the problem, as two Exchange servers in the same site should swap mail back and forth with each other as necessary.

 

[NETING]

Still struggling through the same problem. Actually the 3rd "exchange" is the symantec mail filter product. Mail hits the gateway first. This first point of contact if you will, is the smtp gateway. It is sending messages to the original server via smtp. I tracked one of the messages that I did not receive and saw that it actually came into the site but was not delivered to the new exchange by the original exchange. So in other words it did not forward to the recipient in the new exchange. The gateway is set to forward all messages to the original exchange. And from there I agree that mail should be swapped as necessary. This is not the case though. I am baffled as this does not always happen.