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Q285090: XFOR: Retiring an Internet Mail Service

Article: Q285090
Product(s): Microsoft Exchange
Version(s): 5.5
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): exc55
Last Modified: 10-FEB-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5 
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SUMMARY
=======

This article describes how to retire an Internet Mail Service.

MORE INFORMATION
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It is a common misunderstanding that if you stop or disable an unused Internet
Mail Service, the service is taken out of commission and messages are not lost.
It is also a misconception that if you set the transfer mode of an Internet Mail
Service to None or Inbound Only, messages from the Exchange Server organization
are not routed to outbound destinations. However, this is not the case. In both
cases, messages can still be routed to the disabled Internet Mail Service and
continually be queued in the XAPI mailbox on the server that houses the retired
Internet Mail Service. When messages arrive in the Internet Mail Service mailbox
(MTS-OUT queue), the message transfer agent (MTA) is not able to reroute them to
other destinations, and non-delivery reports (NDRs) are not generated.
Therefore, if the Internet Mail Service that you disabled is never started
again, the messages are lost.

To prevent messages from being sent to an Internet Mail Service that has been
taken out of commission, use the following method to retire the Internet Mail
Service:

1. If an MX record points to an Internet Mail Service that has been taken out of
  commission, modify the MX record so that it refers to another Internet Mail
  Service in your organization that receives inbound Internet mail.

2. On the Internet Mail Service, set the transfer mode to Outbound Only, and
  then restart the Internet Mail Service so that all outbound mail messages are
  sent. The Internet Mail Service then no longer accepts inbound mailflow; this
  mail must be sent to another inbound Internet Mail Service.

3. Remove the address space from the Address Space tab in the Internet Mail
  Service properties. Messages are then no longer routed to this connector, and
  the MTS-OUT queue does not grow.

Monitor the retired Internet Mail Service for a few days to ensure that the
previous Internet Mail Service settings have been transferred, and that no
issues develop if this Internet Mail Service is taken out of commission. If no
issues have occurred in a few days, it is safe to remove the Internet Mail
Service from the computer.

Additional query words:

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Keywords          : exc55 
Technology        : kbExchangeSearch kbExchange550 kbZNotKeyword2
Version           : :5.5
Issue type        : kbhowto

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