Microsoft KB Archive/177862

= XCON: Messages that Fail Downgrade Bounce Between X.400 Connectors =

Article ID: 177862

Article Last Modified on 10/28/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q177862





SYMPTOMS
In some Microsoft Exchange topologies, there may be cases where a message is constantly re-routed. The configuration where this occurs is as follows:

 There must be at least two X.400 Connectors that the message can be routed to. Typically each connector will have the route c=* in the Address Space tab of their Properties page in the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program. These connectors do not have any Connected Sites information. These connectors are configured as 1984.  The message has been addressed to an Exchange user in another site whose address is in another user's personal address book (PAB). The PAB entry has become invalid either because they have been deleted from the system or their original Exchange site no longer exists in the organization. If you use the Message Tracking feature in the Exchange Administrator program, this shows up as a Distinguished Name (DN); in other words:

     /O= /OU= /CN=Recipients/CN=. 

The tracking log shows that the failing message is constantly re-routed, and the Windows NT Event Log shows the following events every time a re- route occurs:

  Event ID: 175 Source: MSExchangeMTA Category: X.400 Service Description: (MTA DISP:RESULT(23) Proc 147) 11-17-97 01:41:11pm Transfer-Out failure, failed to downgrade per-rcpt-info X.400 reason code    unable-to-transfer X.400 diagnostic code unable-to-downgrade MTS Identifier C=US;A= ;P=MICROSOFT;L=JUNWIN03-971117134110Z-4

Event ID : 287 Source : MSEXchangeMTA Category : X.400 Service Description: (MTA DISP:RESULT(22) Proc 436) 11-17-97 01:41:11pm Successful rerouting MTS Identifier   C=US;A= ;P=MICROSOFT;L=JUNWIN03-971117134110Z-4 New Connector    /O=MICROSOFT/OU=MILTON KEYNES/CN=CONFIGURATION/CN=CONNECTIONS/CN=X400 84 TCP TO MARGATE New Target entity /O=MICROSOFT/OU=MILTON KEYNES/CN=CONFIGURATION/CN=CONNECTIONS/CN=X400 84 TCP TO MARGATE Old Connector Old Target entity /O=MICROSOFT/OU=MILTON KEYNES/CN=CONFIGURATION/CN=CONNECTIONS/CN=X400 84 TCP TO MARGATE 2

The sender of the message will eventually receive a non-delivery report (NDR) containing the following diagnostic information:

<pre class="fixed_text">  Either the size of this message exceeds your maximum allowed message size or you have exceeded the storage limit on your mailbox.

<div class="cause_section">

CAUSE
The message is being re-routed to the other connector, and this looping continues until the diagnostic information on the message eventually grows too big and the message is NDR'ed. The message is routed to the group of connectors that can send the message, but in this case only the 1984 connectors can do this, and they do not have Connected Sites information. The Microsoft Exchange message transfer agent (MTA) cannot downgrade the message to be sent and should NDR it with:

<pre class="fixed_text">  The recipient could not be transferred because it could not be   downgraded.

<div class="workaround_section">

WORKAROUND
The workaround for this is to use versions of the MTA greater than or equal to the following:

Exchange 4.0 : 996.56 - or use Exchange 4.0 SP5 Exchange 5.0 : 1459.72 - or use Exchange 5.0 SP2 Exchange 5.5 : 2110.00 - or use Exchange 5.5 SP1

<div class="status_section">

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 4.0. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. Service Pack for Microsoft Exchange Server version 4.0. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.0. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. Service Pack for Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.0. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. Service Pack for Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K

Additional query words: DN NDR 84 GWART X.500 BOUNCE

Keywords: kbqfe kbhotfixserver kbbug kbfix KB177862

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