Exchange 2013 CU2 "mail.Queue"

HI All

Exchange 2013 CU2 installed on Windows 2012 server and co-existing with Exchange 2007.

Two Exchange 2013 Mailbox server configured in DAG, two Exchange 2013 CAS in Hardaware load balancer configured.

Issue: on Mailbox servers in Queue folder there are multiple folders generated with name "messaging old" with date and inside there is old "mail.queue file" .

I am facing above issue in both the mailbox servers. causing disk space issue. (checked tracing pipeline and transport dumpster setting and its in deafult setting)

can I delete the old mail.queue file? is its reported by anybody.


  • Edited by trvenkat_24 Wednesday, August 21, 2013 12:58 PM
August 21st, 2013 12:56pm

Hi,

If you have any concerns about any potential issues after deleting the file, we can firstly rename the file and see whether everything works properly.

Thanks,

If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnsfl@microsoft.com

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August 23rd, 2013 4:39am

What is the final solution? On my E2K13 Mailbox server which is holds all the active database copies has a folder called "Messaging.old-20130929105426" in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\TransportRoles\data\Queue\ where the original mail.que database also exists. The Messaging.old.xxx folder has a mail.que database also present with a size around 11GB where as the default mail.que database which lies in the Queue folder is of 1.4GB.

I would like to know what the Messaging.old.xxx folder is and how did it get created? And now that it is occupying my disk space can I safely move the entire folder to another drive? What are the best practices?

Thanks

Savio.

September 30th, 2013 10:08am

This sounds like the QueueDatabaseRecoveryAction recovery feature, where if the database causes the service not to start a copy is moved off (which may contain emails in transit) and a fresh database is used to get the service started so your messaging environment uptime is not impacted.
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October 1st, 2013 1:38am

Thanks for the clarification Rhods. Would like to know if there are mails still present in the folder containing the mail.que database. I did find users mails in pending state when doing a message tracking. Probably there would be mails in that. I would like to know the process to move the Messaging.old-xxx folder from the queue directory to another volume. Additionally I would also like to know if it is required to re-process or extract mails from that queue and re-submit them? Let me know your advice.

Appreciate your help.

Thanks

Savio.

October 1st, 2013 5:18am

I have the same evironment with you and mail.que in my exchange server is 99GB, I open a case with microsoft, but they can not solve it and ask me to open a new case that need 1000 RMB per hours!!

If you found a solution, please share with us. thanks

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November 13th, 2013 4:53am

Thanks for the clarification Rhods. Would like to know if there are mails still present in the folder containing the mail.que database. I did find users mails in pending state when doing a message tracking. Probably there would be mails in that. I would like to know the process to move the Messaging.old-xxx folder from the queue directory to another volume. Additionally I would also like to know if it is required to re-process or extract mails from that queue and re-submit them? Let me know your advice.

Appreciate your help.

Thanks

November 13th, 2013 1:54pm

I have the same evironment with you and mail.que in my exchange server is 99GB, I open a case with microsoft, but they can not solve it and ask me to open a new case that need 1000 RMB per hours!!

If you found a solution, please share with us. thanks

Direct send me the case # and I'll take a peek if I have time.  Go to my blog and contact me from there.

Not sure what sort of contract you have with Microsoft - do you have a TAM?   The other option is to call in and do a pay per incident support using a credit card, if you check the support page you can see the fee associated there.  It used to be a flat fee.

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November 13th, 2013 1:58pm

My queue.mail file size is growing large in size how to shrink it.

I am having onld todays transction logs displaced in the queue folder.

but the mail.queue file size is large.

January 13th, 2014 6:32am

Hi Simon,

Did you ever manage to get this solved?

Did deleting the Messaging.old folder cause any problems?

Thanks!
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August 25th, 2014 1:58pm

I am also having the same issues and I keep on increasing space,has somebody got the solutions?
September 2nd, 2014 2:15pm

I renamed the Messaging.old folder and left it for a day to make sure it didn't cause problems. It didn't affect anything so I just moved it to another drive.
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September 2nd, 2014 2:20pm

Hi Simon,

Did you ever manage to get this solved?

Did deleting the Messaging.old folder cause any problems?

Thanks!

Just chiming in as I just experienced a similar issue. Yesterday a series of events caused our Exchange servers to get low on resources, delivery to back up, and our TransportRoles\data\Queue directory grew exponentially on both servers. Upon "crashing," after a reboot Exchange moved all active data in that folder to a "20141209103326Messaging.old-20141209103326" folder that was 80GB in size. *TODAY* I noticed back-pressure on that server again and realized it had grown my C:\ to less than 4GB. In an emergency (and after reading this thread), I deleted that folder (none of the files appeared accessed since yesterday) and have found no immediate consequences...

Everything is back up and rockin'...

(Now to figure out how to move these **** queues to isolated drives...)

December 10th, 2014 6:32pm

Same issue as you. Noticed the C: drive on our primary Exchange server was low on space. Ran treesize against the C: drive and noticed Messaging.old-201503231091 folder taking up 90GB of space. Each .old folder would have another .old folder in it and it would go deeper and deeper.

As a test first I renamed the folder, everything was fine with Exchange

Deleted the root .old folder and regained my space back

 
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March 31st, 2015 6:41pm

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