How does the mail flow happen in Exchange 2003?

1. Mail is submitted to Information store by ExIPC or Exchange Inter-process Communication

Channel of IIS. EXIPC is responsible for Data Transfer between Internet Information Server 6.0
(IIS) and the Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store (MSExchangeIS). EXIPC provides a
layered service between both components to achieve the best possible performance between
IIS dependant components and the Exchange databases. As you might know, all Internet Client
Access Protocols like HTTP/S, SMTP, POP3 and IMAP4 are configured and managed by IIS with
some exceptions.

2. Also the mails sent by MTA and other Legacy connectors, they are kept in SMTP Temptables
until they are processed by categorizer. One may find messages in Temp Tables for following
reasons.

• An error occurs each time the particular message is processed. For example, the
Information Store may return a retry-able error when an attempt is made to relay the
message, or the connector to the message destination is unavailable.
• The message was categorized to go to a specific Message Database for local delivery,
but the Message Database is no longer available.
• An unknown or unexpected behavior caused by message damage.

Source: XADM: Inetinfo Process Consumes a High Amount of Memory When You Start the SMTP
Service on a Cluster Server
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=812275&sd=tech

3. The Advanced Queuing Engine is responsible for several aspects of message delivery.
Specifically, the AQE retrieves messages from SMTP or the Microsoft Exchange store driver,
categorizes them, determines each message's destination, and then provides an interface to
the multiple queues to which a message can be assigned while awaiting delivery. When AQE
receives a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) mailmsg object, this object will be forwarded
to the Message Categorizer. The Advanced Queuing Engine then queues the Mailmsg object for
message delivery based on the Routing information provided by the Routing Engine process of
Exchange Server 2003.

The Message Categorizer is a component of the advanced queuing engine that sends
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) queries to the global catalog server to perform
directory lookups. These queries retrieve the following information:

• The recipient e-mail addresses (mailnickname)

• The mailbox store on which a recipient mailbox resides (homeMDB)
• The Exchange server hosting that mailbox store (homeMTA)

The categorizer sends Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) queries to the global
catalog server to retrieve user and configuration information stored in Microsoft Active
Directory® directory service. The message categorizer retrieves recipient policy information
and Exchange virtual server information to enable message delivery. It uses this information to
validate the recipient address, to verify that message limits are not exceeded, and ultimately
to determine how the message is delivered using Exchange routing and SMTP.

Once the message enters Advanced Queuing Engine, it first goes through any event sink which
may be working with OnMessageSubmission function of IIS. This function triggers the third party
sinks which hooks themselves in the SMTP in IIS metabase, so that they could scan any inbound
message for virus and content filtering. Any mails received by Exchange Servers are also
directly submitted to the Advanced Queuing Engine directly & goes through the same process
 as messages submitted by Store after submission to AQ. Message Categorizer is also responsible
for splitting messages into Plain-Text, RTF or MAPI based on their destination which may in an
internal recipient (MAPI) or an external recipient (Plain-Text, RTF or HTML). Once the
categorizer is done with message categorization, it hands over the message to Routing Engine
for Final Delivery.

4. The Microsoft® Exchange Routing engine, a service in the Default Exchange Services, is
responsible for determining the least expensive available path for message delivery. It supplies
this information to the advanced queuing engine as part of the message delivery process. One
of these enhancements is the implementation of the XLINKSTATE protocol. The Routing Engine
creates and maintains the Link State information for every Exchange Server and is also
responsible for routing the messages to inbound or outbound destinations. All the internal
Routing Information is obtained from Active Directory. Therefore any Active Directory
replication / Latency issues may also cause message routing to not work.

5. Ultimately, the messages are submitted to either SMTP Store Driver or SMTP Back in order to
deliver mail to the ultimate recipient. If the mails stay in Local Delivery queues, there could be
store health related issues while internet mail delivery issues could be due to third party
applications, firewalls or DNS.

Exchange Server 2003 determines the route that an e-mail must take based on the status and
availability of connectors between different routing groups and to external messaging systems through
an SMTP connector or other connectors. Every exchange server stores its status information in a Link
State Table (LST). The Link State Table is a small table which requires about 32 bytes per entry which
is held in the Exchange Servers' RAM.

All information will be collected by the Routing Group Master (RGM) of the routing group. The Routing
Group Master uses TCP Port 691 to talk with other exchange servers in the routing group and is
responsible for generating / updating the LST and for the distribution of the LST to each exchange
server in the routing group.

The updated LST is propagated to other routing groups through Bridgehead Servers. The Routing Group
Master (RGM) then sends the updated information to the Bridgehead Server, and then the Bridgehead
Server sends the information to Bridgehead Servers in other Routing Groups over TCP Port 25.

The Link State Table lists all connectors, and their status, in an Exchange Server 2003 organization.
The following information is included in the LST:

Link status

There are only two states for any given link: up or down. For this reason, connection information, such
as whether a link is active or in a retry state, is not propagated between servers running Exchange
Server 2003, and it is only available on the server involved in the message transfer. Exchange Server
2003 only considers routing messages by using connectors with a link status of up.

Link cost

The Link State Table stores costs for each connector. Exchange Server 2003 uses the cost values stored
in the link state table to select the least cost route for a message. Costs are configured on each
connector, and Exchange Server 2003 records them in the Link State Table.
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