Article ID: 251746 - Last Review: October 25, 2007 - Revision: 5.6 How to troubleshoot messages that remain in the "Messages awaiting directory lookup" queue in Exchange Server 2003 and in Exchange 2000 ServerThis article was previously published under Q251746 On This PageSUMMARYThis article describes how to troubleshoot messages that remain in the "Messages awaiting directory lookup" queue in Exchange Server 2003 and in Exchange 2000 Server. This article describes the following troubleshooting methods:
INTRODUCTIONThis article describes how to troubleshoot messages that remain in the "Messages awaiting directory lookup" queue in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. MORE INFORMATIONImportant This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 322756
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/
)
How to back up and restore the registry in Windows Typically, messages accumulate in the “Messages awaiting directory lookup" queue because the advanced queuing engine cannot categorize the messages. You can increase diagnostic logging for the MSExchangeDSAccess and MSExchangeTransport services to collect more information. To do this, follow these steps:
Verify that the global catalog server is availableThe Exchange Categorizer will connect to the global catalog server to perform LDAP queries. If the global catalog server is unavailable to perform LDAP queries, an event ID 8024 message may be logged in the Application log. Additionally, messages may remain in the "Messages awaiting directory lookup" queue. To resolve this issue, make sure that the global catalog server is available for LDAP queries. To do this, follow these steps:
Verify that the Exchange servers have sufficient permissionsYou can use Exchdump.exe to check the permissions and configurations of the Active Directory objects that are related to Exchange transport. For more information about the Exchdump.exe tool, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:839116
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839116/
)
Overview of the ExchDump tool for Exchange 2000 Server and for Exchange Server 2003
If Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server computers do not have sufficient permissions to obtain the attributes of the recipients, messages may remain in the "Messages awaiting directory lookup" queue. Additionally, event ID 9004, 9003, 929 and 6004 messages may be logged in the Application log.To resolve this issue, make sure that inheritable permissions are permitted to propagate to the Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server object to which you are trying to send messages. To do this, follow these steps:
Verify that the attributes of a user object are correctThere are several attributes of a user object that must be correct for messages to be categorized. If any of these attributes are incorrect, the message remains in the categorizer. And, no event ID messages are logged.For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 281761
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281761/
)
Attributes required to route messages through the Categorizer
Verify that the message archive location is valid if message archiving is enabledWhen you send a message to a recipient that resides in a mailbox store that has message archiving enabled, the server that first processes the message will generate the message to the archive recipient. If the mailbox or the public folder that you configured as the message archive recipient is no longer a valid location, the message may remain in the “Messages awaiting directory lookup” queue. Additionally, event ID 9035, 9003, 9004 and 6004 messages may be logged in the Application log.Note Message archiving is also known as message journaling. To resolve this issue, make sure that the archive recipient for mailbox stores has not been deleted from Active Directory. To determine the archive recipient for a mailbox store, follow these steps:
884996
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884996/
)
Messages remain in the "Messages awaiting directory lookup" SMTP queue in Exchange Server 2003 or in Exchange 2000 Server
Verify that the mailbox store on the SMTP bridgehead server is mountedOn the SMTP bridgehead server, make sure that the Information Store service is running and that the mailbox store is mounted. These conditions must be true because messages may have to be bifurcated if message archiving is enabled or a non-delivery report (NDR) is generated.Note Sometimes one server is configured as both an SMTP bridgehead server and a front-end server. Verify whether this issue occurs when you are sending a message to a large distribution listWhen you send messages to a large distribution list, or you configure delivery restrictions based on distribution groups, messages will remain in the “Messages awaiting directory lookup” queue in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.For more information about how to resolve these issues, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 895407
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/895407/
)
In Exchange Server 2003, message delivery to local mailboxes and to external mailboxes is slower than you expect after you configure delivery restrictions based on distribution groups
832425
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832425/
)
An e-mail message that you send to a dynamic distribution list is not delivered successfully in Exchange Server 2003
Verify whether any third-party software is installed on the Exchange serverVerify whether any third-party applications, antivirus programs, transport event sinks, or socket-level applications, such as firewall clients, are installed on the Exchange server. Temporarily disable or remove any third-party software and check to see whether the issue is resolved.For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 920200
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920200/
)
Mail flow stops and an event ID 5066 message is logged after you update the Kaspersky scan engine in Sybari Antigen 8.0 for Microsoft Exchange
245822
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245822/
)
Recommendations for troubleshooting an Exchange Server computer with antivirus software installed
REFERENCES | Article Translations
|
| United States | Change | | | All Microsoft Sites |
Back to the top
|
