XADM: Disabling Public Folder Replication Status Messages on Information Store Startup

ID: Q177251

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

When the Microsoft Exchange Server information store starts, two public folder (PF) replication status messages are sent. If Replication Outgoing Messages logging is set to max in the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program, you will see the following Event IDs in the Windows NT Event Viewer Application log: 


   This is a status message for the public folder hierarchy, it is sent
   from every server with a public store (pub.edb) to every server with a
   public store in the Microsoft Exchange Organization:

   Event ID: 3017
   Source: MSExchangeIS Public
   Type: Information
   Category: Replication
   Description:
   Outgoing Message Type 0x20
   Message ID: 1-1B64 (this will not be the same)
   Folder(s): (1-1) IPM_SUBTREE

   This is a status message for the System Folders (Offline Address Book,
   Schedule+ Free Busy Folder, and so forth) (Note: the numeric
   information in the description will differ from server to server) and
   is sent from every site folder server in a site to any other site
   folder servers in other sites it has knowledge of:

   Event ID: 3019
   Source: MSExchangeIS Public
   Type: Information
   Category: Replication
   Description:
   An outgoing replication message was issued.

   Type: 0x80000002
   Message ID: 1-1B62
   CNSET: 12-1B67,12-1B67
   12-1B69,12-1B69
   , CNSET(FAI): {0}

   RFIs: 2
    1: 2-7,1-4,48
   NON_IPM_SUBTREE\SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY\EX:/o=ORGNAME/ou=SITENAME
   2: 2-8,1-5,666
   NON_IPM_SUBTREE\OFFLINE ADDRESS BOOK\EX:/o=ORGNAME/ou=SITENAME

   IDCN Deleted:
   {0}

In large Exchange organizations where there are many single server sites connected over slow links and the information stores are stopped each night for offline backups (in lieu of the preferred online backups), these messages may cause the Microsoft Exchange message transfer agent (MTA) queues to back up.


WORKAROUND

You can do the following to try to work around this problem:

  1. Remove the public information store from any Exchange Server computer possible. This will only be valid in multi-server sites with a dedicated public folder server.


  2. Increase the speed of the WAN links where/when possible.


  3. Perform ONLINE backups of the information store.



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


MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it.

After applying the updated files, the following registry entry must be added for the replication status message to be suppressed: 


   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/SERVICES/MSExchangeIS/ 
   ParametersPublic/Disable Replication Messages At Startup

Set the type to DWORD and the default value to 0.

If this registry entry is not present or present and set to 0, the PF replication will work as originally designed. In other words, it will send the replication status messages at startup of the IS.

If this registry is present and set to 1, the PF Replication will not send the status messages at startup of the IS.

If set to 1, two new Event ID's were added to notify the administrator that the PF replication messages are not being sent out, they will look similar to the following: 

   Event ID: 3094
   Source: MSExchangeIS Public
   Type: Warning
   Category: Replication
   Description:
   The site folder server status message was not sent out.

This is because the following registry entry has been intentionally set to 1 by the system administrator. 

      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/SERVICES/MSExchangeIS/ 
      ParametersPublic/Disable Replication Messages At Startup

   Event ID: 3093
   Source: MSExchangeIS Public
   Type: Warning
   Category: Replication
   Description:
   The replication startup status message was not sent out.

This is because the following registry entry has been intentionally set to 1 by the system administrator. 

      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/SERVICES/MSExchangeIS/ 
      ParametersPublic/Disable Replication Messages At Startup.

It is strongly recommended that this registry entry only be used in the in cases described in the Symptoms section. Setting this registry entry and preventing the status messages from going out on startup has the following caveats:

  1. If a replication connector between 2 Exchange Sites is torn down, the system folders from the foreign Site are marked as removed and they will not show up in the Systems Folder hierarchy. If these Sites are reconnected, the System folders from the foreign Site will still not show up since we are preventing the status message, which is the message that causes the marked as removed flag to be reset, from reaching the other Site. This registry entry must be set to 0, and then the IS re-started to get the System Folders to synch up again.


  2. Public Folder hierarchies may temporarily become out of synch because changes are only known to other Sites when an actual hierarchy change message is received.


Additional query words: backlog repl WAN 


Keywords          : kbbug4.00 kbbug5.00 kbfix5.00.sp2 kbbug5.50 
Version           : 4.0 5.0 5.5
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: March 17, 1999