For the past couple of days we have been experiencing performance problems with our Exchange 2003 server. When users go to delete, reply, send, and open messages it takes a long period of time for the task to complete. One user was trying to delete messages and it took about a 3 minuets per email to complete. Users are also reporting that they keep getting a "Trying to retrieve data from Microsoft Exchange Server [servername.domainname.com]" bubble error message periodically thru out the day. The performance problems seem to be impacting some users more than others, for example, my computer hasnt had any noticeable performance problems, however I am getting the trying to connect error message. Weve rebooted the server and plugged the server into a different port on the switch, however that didnt correct the problem. Im also wondering if we might be having a problem with the NIC card dropping packets. We also analyzed the hard disk using the disk defrag tool and it recommended that we defrag the data volume; the report is below. Our exchange store size is 47gb for priv1.edb and 24gb for the priv1.stm file. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to other potential causes of the problem, or if you think it might be NIC or the fragmented drive. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance to anyone who helps. Disk Defrag Report ----------- Volume Data ( E: ) Volume size = 87.89 GB Cluster size = 4 KB Used space = 69.06 GB Free space = 18.84 GB Percent free space = 21 % Volume fragmentation Total fragmentation = 49 % File fragmentation = 99 % Free space fragmentation = 0 % File fragmentation Total files = 17 Average file size = 6.27 GB Total fragmented files = 4 Total excess fragments = 728 Average fragments per file = 43.82 Pagefile fragmentation Pagefile size = 0 bytes Total fragments = 0 Folder fragmentation Total folders = 7 Fragmented folders = 1 Excess folder fragments = 0 Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation Total MFT size = 560 KB MFT record count = 44 Percent MFT in use = 7 % Total MFT fragments = 2

Hi, We know that The Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack has been released. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;912222 We need to disable TCP / IP Checksum Offloading on the Exchange server using the following steps:First, disabling TCP Chimney Offloading:1. Open the command prompt2. Type: Netsh int ip set chimney DISABLEDNext, disable the TCP / IP Checksum Offloading features on a single NIC, or on the entire server:To disable the features on a single NIC:1. Go to Properties of My Network Places2. Go to Properties of the servers Internal network card.3. Click the Configure button4. Go to the Advanced Tab5. In the Property box, click the Offload TCP Segmentation property.6. In the value list, click Off, and then click OK.7. Repeat steps 5 & 6 on the following properties if they are listed:-Offload Receive IP Checksum-Offload Receive TCP Checksum-Offload Transmit IP Checksum-Offload Transmit TCP ChecksumTo disable the features on the entire server:1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK. 2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters 3. Click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORD Value. 4. Type DisableTaskOffload as the entry name, and then press ENTER. 5. Right-click DisableTaskOffload, and then click Modify. 6. In the Value data box, type a value of 1, and then click OK. 7. Quit Registry Editor. 8. Restart your computer. Please check whehter BlackIce (a software firewall)has been installed on the Domain Controller/Global Catalog server (DC/GC). Besides,please download EXBPA to have a health scan to see whether any error would be logged there. Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer v2.8 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=DBAB201F-4BEE-4943-AC22-E2DDBD258DF3&displaylang=en Hope it helps. Xiu