A.5.4 mtaGroupTable

This two-dimensional table provides channel information for each MTA in the applTable. This information includes such data as counts of stored (that is, queued) and delivered mail messages. Monitoring the count of stored messages, mtaGroupStoredMessages, for each channel is critical: when the value becomes abnormally large, mail is backing up in your queues.

Below is an example of data from mtaGroupTable (mib-2.28.2.1).

mtaGroupTable:

mtaGroupName.1.1 = tcp_intranet                1
        ...
mtaGroupName.1.2 = ims-ms
        ...
mtaGroupName.1.3 = tcp_local
    mtaGroupDescription.1.3 = mailsrv-1 MTA tcp_local channel
    mtaGroupReceivedMessages.1.3 = 12154
    mtaGroupRejectedMessages.1.3 = 0
    mtaGroupStoredMessages.1.3 = 2
    mtaGroupTransmittedMessages.1.3 = 12148
    mtaGroupReceivedVolume.1.3 = 622135
    mtaGroupStoredVolume.1.3 = 7
    mtaGroupTransmittedVolume.1.3 = 619853
    mtaGroupReceivedRecipients.1.3 = 33087
    mtaGroupStoredRecipients.1.3 = 2
    mtaGroupTransmittedRecipients.1.3 = 32817
    mtaGroupOldestMessageStored.1.3 = 1103
    mtaGroupInboundAssociations.1.3 = 5
    mtaGroupOutboundAssociations.1.3 = 2
    mtaGroupAccumulatedInboundAssociations.1.3 = 150262
    mtaGroupAccumulatedOutboundAssociations.1.3 = 10970
    mtaGroupLastInboundActivity.1.3 = 1054822
    mtaGroupLastOutboundActivity.1.3 = 1054222
    mtaGroupRejectedInboundAssociations.1.3 = 0
    mtaGroupFailedOutboundAssociations.1.3 = 0
    mtaGroupInboundRejectionReason.1.3 =
    mtaGroupOutboundConnectFailureReason.1.3 =
    mtaGroupScheduledRetry.1.3 = 0
    mtaGroupMailProtocol.1.3 = applTCPProtoID.25
    mtaGroupSuccessfulConvertedMessages.1.3 = 03     2
    mtaGroupFailedConvertedMessages.1.3 = 0
    mtaGroupCreationTime.1.3 = 0
    mtaGroupHierarchy.1.3 = 0
    mtaGroupOldestMessageId.1.3 = <01IFBV8AT8HYB4T6UA@red.iplanet.com>
    mtaGroupLoopsDetected.1.3 = 0                    3
    mtaGroupLastOutboundAssociationAttempt.1.3 = 1054222

         

Notes:

In the .x.y suffix (example: 1.1, 1.2. 1.3), x is the application index, applIndex, and indicates which application in the applTable is being reported on. In this case, the MTA. The y serves to enumerate each of the channels in the MTA. This enumeration index, mtaGroupIndex, is also used in the mtaGroupAssociationTable and mtaGroupErrorTable tables.

1. The name of the channel being reported on. In this case, the tcp_intranet channel.

2. Only takes on non-zero values for the conversion channel.

3. Counts the number of .HELD message files currently stored in this channel’s message queue.

A.5.4.1 mtaGroupTable Usage

Trend analysis on *Rejected* and *Failed* might be useful in determining potential channel problems.

A sudden jump in the ratio of mtaGroupStoredVolume to mtaGroupStoredMessages could mean that a large junk mail is bouncing around the queues.

A large jump in mtaGroupStoredMessages could indicate unsolicited bulk email is being sent or that delivery is failing for some reason.

If the value of mtaGroupOldestMessageStored is greater than the value used for the undeliverable message notification times (notices channel keyword) this may indicate a message which cannot be processed even by bounce processing. Note that bounces are done nightly so you will want to use mtaGroupOldestMessageStored > (maximum age + 24 hours) as the test.

If mtaGroupLoopsDetected is greater than 0, a mail loop has been detected.