PIX causing SMTP problems

edmonds_robert · ‎07-23-2003

I had a pretty wierd thing happen to me today that hopefully somebody here can shed some light on. I have a PIX 515 running software version 6.3(1). This morning I added an ethernet card to it, making it the DMZ style interface. When I enabled the interface, it somehow stopped all of my inbound e-mail from being delivered. Our mail server is an internal Windows 2000 server running Exchange 2000 server, in case that makes a difference. Anyway, as soon as I disabled the interface, mail started being delivered again.

I could sure use some insight from you folks, so that I don't make the same mistake again. Thanks in advance.

Robert

jmia · ‎07-24-2003

Hi -

Can you post your PIX config please, remember to exclude 'real inside IPs' and passwords.

Thanks --

edmonds_robert · ‎07-24-2003

Well, it turned out that the problem was not with the PIX, which explains one reason I was not able to come up with what had changed. In case any of you ever run in to this problem, you can benefit from my experience.

What happened was, on the Exchange 2000 server, the badmail folder, located under "exchsrvr\mailroot\vsi 1" and the queue folder, were so full that it was causing my mail server to stop responding. By renaming the "vsi 1" folder to "vsi old", then stopping and restarting the Exchange services, mail came back up, recreated all of those folders, and started forwarding mail.

I was not able to find this solution on Microsoft's website, even after SEVERAL hours of searching, and ended up having to pay a consultant $250.00 to fix it. Oh well!!!