Understanding Queues State in Exchange Server 2010

Messages remain in a queue when there's any problem or if they have been suspended by an administrator. Queue Viewer us used to examine the number of messages in the queues. If you see a queue with a consistent growing number of messages, there might be a problem. Normally messages come into a queue and then processed quickly. Because of this, the number of messages in a queue should gradually decrease over time as the messages are processed, provided no new messages come into the queue.

Whenever you click the Queues tab in the Queue Viewer, you get a summary of the currently available queues for the selected server. Although queue summaries provide important details for troubleshooting message flow problems, you do have to know what to look for. The connection status is the key information to look at first. This value tells you the state of the queue. States you'll see include these:

· Active queue contains messages that are being delivered.

· Ready queue is needed to allow messages to be delivered. Connection time is allocated to the queues.

· Retry state displays failed connection attempts and the server is waiting to retry.

· Suspended state displays that the queue is suspended, and none of its messages can be processed for routing.

Other summary information that you might find useful in troubleshooting includes

· Delivery Type tells what type of recipient messages are being queued for delivery.

· Next Hop Domain tells the next destination or next hop domain of a delivery queue.

· Message Count tells you the number of messages waiting in the queue. If you see a large number, you might have connectivity or routing problem.

· Next Retry Time is the time when another connection attempt will be made if connection state is Retry. You can click the Retry command to attempt a connection immediately.

· Last Retry Time is the time when the last retry attempt was made when the connection state is Retry.

· Last Error Tells you the error code and details of the last error to occur in a particular queue.

Other summary information that you might find useful in troubleshooting includes

·  Delivery Type tells what type of recipient messages are being queued for delivery.

· Next Hop Domain tells the next destination or next hop domain of a delivery queue.

· Message Count tells you the number of messages waiting in the queue. If you see a large number, you might have connectivity or routing problem.

· Next Retry Time is the time when another connection attempt will be made if connection state is Retry. You can click the Retry command to attempt a connection immediately.

· Last Retry Time is the time when the last retry attempt was made when the connection state is Retry.

· Last Error tells you the error code and details of the last error to occur in a particular queue.