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Understanding OrgInfo Packet Details

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To explain the contents of an OrgInfo packet, this section analyzes the transmission of an OrgInfo packet from one server to another server within a routing group.

The example that is illustrated in Figure 15.1 is taken from an Exchange organization with one routing group containing two servers, both running Exchange Server 2003, with a single SMTP connector incorporating user restrictions. The OrgInfo packet that was transmitted over the network contained the following information:

{00000457}..a9c421ebe14f06710f6ab596345ac615.(.a2a0f896d197b84999557850ac796258.2d07476703630a4d87a651498e2d73b9.a.0.0.f0dcd868912f54479b26d729863bb825.{26}*.A2A0F896-D197-B849-9955-7850AC796258.{4b}c=US;a=.;p=Example;o=Exchange;cn=A2A0F896-D197-B849-9955-7850AC796258;*.{53}/o=Example/ou=First.Administrative.Group/*/A2A0F896-D197-B849-99557850AC796258.(.2d07476703630a4d87a651498e2d73b9.YES.1.1aae.{10}0701000000000101..979733932e995742bc2d5ecf93198b4d.YES.1.1aae.{10}0701000000000101.).(.f76005bd57ad93428518268f28f4f7e6.(.CONFIG.{4}SMTP.{23}_f76005bd57ad93428518268f28f4f7e6_S.{}.{54}/o=Example/ou=First.Administrative.Group/cn=Configuration/cn=Connections/cn=JUNK.0.0.0.0.ffffffff.ffffffff.0.1.0.().6.(.{24}CN=tester07,CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=com..{24}CN=tester04,CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=com..{24}CN=tester03,CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=com..{24}CN=tester02,CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=com..{24}CN=tester01,CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=com..{29}CN=Administrator,CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=com.).0.().0.()..ARROWS.(.{4}SMTP.{1}*.1.).BH.(.2fdb30b62e4ea949a71f91f319535143.CONN_AVAIL.{13}RGR-65-02.domain.com.).TARGBH.().STATE.UP)))..

Analyzing the packet shown above in order of presentation, the "ORGINFO" signals to the receiving server that the OrgInfo packet is contained within this frame. The contents that follow "ORGINFO" are:

  • The MD5 hash, an encrypted signature that represents the version number for the link state table, of the current OrgInfo packet. This signature is important because servers use this information to determine if they have the identical link state information. As illustrated later, if this hash is different between two Exchange servers, it signals that they have different routing information, and they will exchange OrgInfo packets with each other to determine which server has the most up-to-date information.

  • The first set of parentheses shows that information within them pertains to a particular routing group. This example shows a single routing group, so all routing information is contained within this set of parentheses:

    • The GUID for the routing group: a2a0f896d197b84999557850ac796258

    • The GUID for the routing group master: 2d07476703630a4d87a651498e2d73b9

    • The major, minor, and user versions of the link state information: a.0.0

    • The GUID of this version information: f0dcd868912f54479b26d729863bb825

  • SMTP address information for the routing group: {26}. Brackets signal the start of this information. When an organization is fully converged, each routing group will host this information, that is, if there are two routing groups, the information below will be listed within each routing group's section of the OrgInfo packet. (Note that the characters within these and subsequent brackets mentioned are not necessarily identical across implementations.)

    • The GUID immediately after the {26}, A2A0F896-D197-B849-9955-7850AC796258, is the GUID for the particular routing group.

  • {4b} This signals the start of X.400 addresses for the routing group. As above, this will be shown in each routing group's section of the OrgInfo packet:

    • c=US;a=.;p=Example;o=Exchange;cn=A2A0F896-D197-B849-9955-7850AC796258;* indicates the X.400 address space, the "cn" portion being the GUID of the routing group.

    • c=US;a=.;p=Example;o=Exchange;cn=A2A0F896-D197-B849-9955-7850AC796258;* indicates the X.400 address space, the "cn" portion being the GUID of the routing group.

  • {53} This signals the X.500 address information for the routing group. As above, this will be shown in each routing group's section of the OrgInfo packet:

    • /o=Example/ou=First Administrative Group/*/A2A0F896-D197-B849-9955-7850AC796258

  • Starting at the next open parenthesis, routing group members are identified:

    • The GUID of a member server in the routing group: 2d07476703630a4d87a651498e2d73b9

    • Whether or not the member is connected to the routing group master. "YES" indicates that the server is connected.

    • Server version numbers are listed last.

Note

The above three attributes are then identified for the second server in the routing group.

  • Starting at the next open parenthesis, connectors are identified:

    • The GUID of the single connector: a9c421ebe14f06710f6ab596345ac615

  • The next open parenthesis identifies connector configuration information:

    • The type of connector (SMTP): {4}

    • The address of the local source bridgehead which is in the format: GUID of the connector itself appended by an "_S" (without the quotation marks) to indicate a source bridgehead: {23}_f76005bd57ad93428518268f28f4f7e6_S

      This is an SMTP connector. However, if it was a routing group connector with a destination or remote bridgehead server assigned, the OrgInfo packet would show another {23} followed again by the GUID of the connector itself appended with a "_D". If it were an SMTP connector specifying a smart host, the OrgInfo packet would show the FQDN of the given smart host.

    • The distinguished name of the connector: {54}/o=Example/ou=First.Administrative.Group/cn=Configuration/cn=Connections/cn=JUNK

    • The schedule of the connector is identified by the first "0". (The schedule in this case is "Always".)

  • Restrictions of the connector are identified next:

    • The scope of the connector is identified by the next "0". (The scope in this case is "Organization".)

    • Whether triggered delivery is configured. The third "0" identifies triggered delivery, for example, TURN/ETRN (in this case, triggered delivery is not configured).

    • The type of message priority (High, Normal, Low) that is allowed through this connector is identified by the last "0".

    • Message size restrictions: ffffffff indicates that there are no message size restrictions through this connector.

    • Whether a not a large message threshold was set: ffffffff indicates that no message threshold was set.

    • The "0 1 0" following the above identifies that:

      - Public folder referrals are allowed.

      - By default, messages will be accepted from everyone.

      - Allowed originators (which is empty in this case because messages will be accepted from all by default based on the above setting).

  • ARROWS indicates the start of address space information for the connector:

    • {4}SMTP indicates that the address space type is SMTP.

    • {1}* indicates that it is for all SMTP domains.

    • 1 indicates that it has a cost of one.

  • Starting with "BH", the bridgehead servers for the connector are identified. In this example, there is one bridgehead server that is identified by:

    • The GUID of the SMTP virtual server that is designated as a local bridgehead server: 2fdb30b62e4ea949a71f91f319535143

    • The availability of the remote bridgehead server: CONN_AVAIL

    • The FQDN of the virtual server that acts as a bridgehead server for this connector: {13}RGR-65-02.domain.com

  • The FQDN of any target bridgehead servers if they were specified (in this example, none were specified): TARGBH.

  • The status of the connector: STATE_UP identifies, in this case, that the status is "UP", which means that the connector is available. ("Down", or unavailable, is the only other option.)