query on transport rule

Glenn Maxwell 12,336 Reputation points
2024-01-20T08:02:32.93+00:00

Hi All I am using exchange 2016 hybrid environment. we create users in onprem and migrate to online.I have 100 users and these 100 users have two accounts in AD, lets say ******@contoso.com is a regular account with E5 license and ******@contoso.com is just an AD user which is synced to Azure ******@consoto.com doesnot have a valid mailbox or license. when any email is triggered to ******@contoso.com the email should be forwarded or redirected to ******@contoso.com. is it possible to achieve this using transport rule. in one transport rule i want to add 100 users like the below as i cannot create 100 rules. if it is possible do i need to create transport rule in exchange onprem or online.

when email is received to ******@contoso.com, the email should be forwarded or redirect to ******@contoso.com 
when email is received to ******@contoso.com, the email should be forwarded or redirect to ******@contoso.com 
when email is received to ******@contoso.com, the email should be forwarded or redirect to ******@contoso.com

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Accepted answer
  1. Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,216 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2024-01-22T06:42:17.6466667+00:00

    Hi @Glenn Maxwell ,

    is it possible to achieve this using transport rule. in one transport rule i want to add 100 users like the below as i cannot create 100 rules.

    Not possible to include all the 100 users in one transport rule, so if you want to achieve this using transport rule, you will have to create 100 rules, one for each user. This is however not practical at all.

    ******@consoto.com doesnot have a valid mailbox or license.

    Since ******@contoso.com doesn't have a mailbox, configuring email forwarding for them as suggested by Andy isn't not applicable either in your scenario, because Email forwarding requires that the from account has a license unless it is a shared mailbox, see this link.

    Taken in the round, if you don't have any specific need to sync @contoso.com from AD to Azure AD, I‘d suggest stopping them(@contoso.com) from syncing to AAD by means like moving these AD accounts into a different OU which is excluded from the AAD sync. Then you can bulk add the ******@contoso.com addresses as an email alias for ******@contoso.com using PowerShell script.

    Another thought is to bulk create "******@contoso.com" as shared mailboxes which don't require licenses, then you would be able to enable mailbox forwarding for them in bulk through Exchange Online PowerShell script.


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  1. Andy David - MVP 152.3K Reputation points MVP
    2024-01-21T16:29:08.97+00:00

    You would need 100 rules so not practical. It better to set forwarding on each mailbox in Exchange Online to the specific SMTP Address. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/recipients-in-exchange-online/manage-user-mailboxes/configure-email-forwarding


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