Article ID: 177862 - Last Review: October 28, 2006 - Revision: 4.1

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

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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:

  1. 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.
  2. These connectors do not have any Connected Sites information.
  3. These connectors are configured as 1984.
  4. 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=<org>/OU=<site>/CN=Recipients/CN=<DN of recipient>.
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: 

   Either the size of this message exceeds your maximum allowed message
   size or you have exceeded the storage limit on your mailbox.
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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: 
   The recipient could not be transferred because it could not be
   downgraded.
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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
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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
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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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Keywords: 
kbqfe kbhotfixserver kbbug kbfix KB177862
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Retired KB ArticleRetired KB Content Disclaimer
This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.
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