One of the least glamorous yet probably one of the most important parts is mail flow for Exchange. Mail flow covers rules that Exchange uses to control certain messages, to connectors for sending emails, and Domains Exchange accepts email for.
In this article I will cover Transport Rules, Delivery Reports, Accepted Domains, Email Address Policies, Receive and Send Connectors.
Rules (aka Transport Rules)
Transport rules provide directions to incoming and outgoing emails as to how they should be processed by the SMTP subsystem in Exchange. Rules can be used for the following:
To create a Disclaimer Rule (one of the most popular use of rules in Exchange 20xx):
Click on ‘More Options’ to see everything you can configure for Disclaimers:
So let’s create a sample Disclaimer. How do we do this?
- Enter the name of your rule:
- Select who the rule will apply to. My sample rule applies to internal Senders:
This box pops up so you can select your sender:
Click OK. You can also add more conditions by clicking on the ‘Add Condition’ button. This will let you choose an additional option to filter the disclaimer and who it is applied to:
Next we add the text that you want in the Disclaimer: [note that append disclaimer is the default]:
Click on ‘Enter text’:
Additional you can add another action here as well by clicking on ‘Add Action’:
You can also add an exception for this disclaimer:
I would use this if I would like to stop a disclaimer from being repeated more than once in an email I use this setting:
And then enter the text to look for :
Click OK.
You can choose to stop rule processing, which will halt any further rules on this message:
You can also decide to enforce the disclaimer for a certain period of time if you want:
Lastly, you can also decide to test the rule or enforce the rule:
So, in the end, this is what my disclaimer rule will look like:
Click Save and you have your disclaimer.
TechNet Links
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351127(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638183(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998315(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj674307(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657505(v=exchg.150).aspx
Delivery Reports
Delivery reports provide an important troubleshooting tool for mail flow. The wizard allows for a convenient place to track messages and you no longer have to open up the Exchange Toolbox to find a tool capable of tracking email messages.
Hit Search.
Here is what a result looks like:
Accepted Domains
Accepted Domains are any SMTP domains that you either host locally or are relaying for. For example, if you main domain is ABC.Com, you have a subsidiary with a DEF.Com and you have an internal sharepoint site that uses SP.ABC.Com, you can define Accepted domains for all three of these SMTP Domains.
If you click the properties of one of the domains you will see what can be configured for these SMTP domains:
Notice the ‘This accepted domain is” with the three options listed below.
Authoritative Domain:”In Exchange 2013, an accepted domain is considered authoritative when the Exchange organization hosts mailboxes for recipients in this SMTP domain.”
Relay Domain:”Typically, most Internet-facing messaging servers are configured to not allow for other domains to be relayed through them. However, there are scenarios where you may want to let partners or subsidiaries relay email through your Exchange servers. In Exchange 2013, you can configure accepted domains as relay domains. Your organization receives the email messages and then relays the messages to another email server.”
Internal Relay Domain: “When you configure an internal relay domain, some or all of the recipients in this domain don’t have mailboxes in this Exchange organization. Mail from the Internet is relayed for this domain through Transport servers in this Exchange organization.”
You can have as many accepted domains as you need for your environment. To add a new one, simply click the Add button and enter the information needed for your new domain:
Technet Links
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124423(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657734(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657491(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657737(v=exchg.150).aspx
Email Address Policies
Email Address Policies are used to assign SMTP domains to users with mailboxes. You can use these to assign one or more SMTP domains to the users.
How do we create a policy for applying SMTP domains? First we click the ‘+’ to Add a new policy. Then we give the policy a name and decide who it will apply to.
We then need to add the domains which will be give to the users bu clicking on the ‘+’ button:
Use the drop down box to select an Accepted Domain or click the ‘Specify a custom domain…’ radio button to a add a different domain. Then choose the format that you want for the email address and click Save twice to save your new Email Policy and you get a pop-up about applying the policy:
Then you need to highlight the policy and click apply in the lower right hand of the screen:
TechNet links
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb232171(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998940(v=exchg.150).aspx
Receive Connectors
“Receive connectors control the flow of inbound messages to your Exchange organization. They are configured on computers running Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 with the Transport service, or in the Front End service on a Client Access server. They can be created in the Exchange Administration Center (EAC), or in the Exchange Management Shell.
By default, the Receive connectors that are required for internal mail flow are automatically created when a Client Access server or Mailbox server is installed.”
To create a new Receive Connector, click ‘+’ to bring up the Receive Connector wizard:
Give the connector a name, select the role and select the type.
Click ‘+’ to add the IP to receive email from.
Enter the IP address and click Save and then remove the default 0.0.0.0 – 255.255.255.255 range. Click Finish.
The new connector is now listed – review the far right panel for a quick review of the settings.
TechNet links
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996395(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj673053(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657472(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657465(v=exchg.150).aspx
Send Connectors
“In Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, a Send connector controls the flow of outbound messages to the receiving server. They are configured on Mailbox servers running the Transport service. Most commonly, you configure a Send connector to send outbound email messages to a smart host or directly to their recipient, using DNS.
Exchange 2013 Mailbox servers running the Transport service require Send connectors to deliver messages to the next hop on the way to their destination. Send connectors that are created on Mailbox servers are stored in Active Directory and are available to all Mailbox servers running the Transport service in the organization.”
To create a new Send Connector, click on the ‘+’ to get the New Send Connector wizard:
Give the connector a name and select which type of connector you want to configure. Click Next.
Decide whether the connector uses DNS or MX records for routing of email. Click Next.
Add the FQDN for the domain. Click ‘Save’.
Click Next.
Select the server or servers for the connector, click ‘add’ once they are highlighted and then OK when done selecting servers.
Click Next.
Now you have a new Send Connector.
TechNet links
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998662(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657457(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj673059(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657514(v=exchg.150).aspx
Other notes:
For those who have not seen the new mail flow diagrams for Exchange 2013, take a look at this one straight from the Help file:
