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Helpdesk not processing inbox, error in log

Updated: 22 May 2010 | 3 comments
Blacksmith's picture
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This issue has been solved. See solution.

Our Altiris Helpdesk was working fine until the morning of October 12th when it stopped processing emails. The emails started stacking up in the Exchange inbox instead of being processed by Altiris. We see the following error in the Notification Server log:

   Log File Name: D:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
   Priority: 1
   Date: 11/20/2009 8:25:05 AM
   Tick Count: 181226375
   Host Name: Svr121
   Process: w3wp.exe (8136)
   Thread ID: 5124
   Module: AltirisNativeHelper.dll
   Source: AlertManager.ProcessInboxes
   Description: Inbox processing exception: An unexpected error has occurred. NO The requested message could not be converted to an RFC-822 compatible format.

Any clues what might be at the root of this issue? Clearly something changed, but no one is admitting to purposefully changing anything.

Comments

mclemson's picture
20
Nov
2009
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Corrupt item in the inbox

You likely have a corrupt item in the inbox that cannot be processed.  Log into the account and see if an offending item is sitting there.  I usually see stuff like this on Microsoft Exchange with Appointments.  Once I log into OWA and delete any Appointments, the problem is resolved.  If you use Exchange, I recommend troubleshooting through Outlook Web Access, because the item may not show up or may not let you work with it if you log into the account in Outlook Client.

Mike Clemson, Systems Engineer
Intuitive Technology Group -- Symantec Platinum Partner

mclemson's picture
20
Nov
2009
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If using Exchange, check out this MS KB

If you're using Exchange, check out this KB.  I know the title for this Microsoft KB doesn't make a lot of sense, but search for RFC-822 and you'll find the applicable section.

"A meeting update message or a meeting cancellation message from an Exchange 2003 user is not delivered to an Exchange 2007 user."
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938650

Mike Clemson, Systems Engineer
Intuitive Technology Group -- Symantec Platinum Partner

Blacksmith's picture
20
Nov
2009
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It all seems to be working

It all seems to be working again after deleting the entire contents of the Exchange inbox for "ServiceDesk". Based on the error we saw in the logs, the system was encountering an email format that it didn't know how to handle, and this caused the process to break.

One more note is that the "ServiceDesk" account had been added to a few DLs by persons unknown, and those memberships have been removed.

Thanks for the replies!