How to confirm the certificate details assigned to receive connector in exchange 2016.

Sharma, Rohit 40 Reputation points
2024-02-22T02:56:30.7366667+00:00

I'd like to confirm the certificate details assigned to a receive connector in exchange 2016 server, like certificate Thumbprint and FriendlyName. How could I collect this info. Get-ReceiveConnector cmd is not very helpful in this case.

Exchange | Exchange Server | Other
Exchange | Exchange Server | Management
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  1. Andy David - MVP 157.8K Reputation points
    2024-02-27T21:28:13.29+00:00

    If you want to see which specific certificate is being used, then enable SMTP protocol logging on the receive connector. Then check the text protocol logs that are generated and look for that receive connector by name. It will show you in the SMTP conversation which cert and thumbprint is being used https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mail-flow/connectors/configure-protocol-logging?view=exchserver-2019#use-the-eac-to-configure-protocol-logging


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  1. Andy David - MVP 157.8K Reputation points
    2024-02-22T12:41:09.2266667+00:00

    The receive connectors do not care or know about the thumbprint of the certificate. Its looking for a certificate assigned to the SMTP service and with a subject name that matches the FQDN set on the connector. If you want to lock the connector down to a specific cert, use the TLSCertificateName set on the connector that matches the subject and issuer of an installed certificate. If you have multiple certs with the same subject and issuer name, then Exchange will prefer a valid 3rd party cert with the later expiration date: https://practical365.com/configuring-the-tls-certificate-name-for-exchange-server-receive-connectors/ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mail-flow/connectors/receive-connectors?view=exchserver-2019#receive-connector-changes-in-exchange-server User's image

    1 person found this answer helpful.

  2. Amit Singh 5,306 Reputation points
    2024-02-22T11:09:00.4266667+00:00

    You're correct; the Get-ReceiveConnector cmdlet doesn't directly display certificate details. You can try the below option to check the certificate assigned to a receive connector in Exchange 2016:   Option 1 Combine the Get-ReceiveConnector and Get-ExchangeCertificate cmdlets. Use Get-ReceiveConnector to identify the TlsCertificateName property of the desired connector. Run Get-ExchangeCertificate -Thumbprint [Thumbprint from Get-ReceiveConnector] to retrieve details of the specific certificate.

    Option 2   Use Set-ReceiveConnector -Identity [ConnectorName] -Fields * to display all connector properties, including the TlsCertificateName. Ex tract the thumbprint from the output and use Get-ExchangeCertificate -Thumbprint [Thumbprint] for detailed information.


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