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Inbound connectors from on-premises organizations FAQ

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Summary: This article covers the most common questions asked by the customers and administrators about using Inbound connectors from on-premises organizations in Exchange Online.

Inbound connectors from on-premises organizations are just one type of connector that's available in Office 365 or Microsoft 365 organizations with Exchange Online. For more information about connectors in Exchange Online, see Configure mail flow using connectors in Exchange Online.

Admins create Inbound connectors from on-premises organizations using any of the following methods:

Inbound connectors from on-premises organizations are designed to support the following scenarios:

  • Organizations that are still in Hybrid mode (send mail from their on-premises mailboxes to their Exchange Online mailboxes.
  • On-premises mailboxes relaying email to the internet via Exchange Online.

Inbound connectors from on-premises organizations aren't designed to relay bulk email to the internet, so this activity is considered a misuse of the feature.

When you create or update an Inbound connector from an on-premises organization, you might see the following warning messages:

  • "Inbound connector for this service offering is created in a disabled state. Contact Support to enable it."
  • "For this service offering, you can't enable an inbound connector. Contact Support to enable it."

If you receive one of these errors, do the following steps:

  1. Read this article to understand whether you need an Inbound connector from your on-premises organization.
  2. If you believe your organization has a business justification for an Inbound connector from your on-premises organization, contact Microsoft Support with your business justification. Our service engineers will review your information. If approved, we'll enable the Inbound connector from your on-premises organization.

FAQs

Q: When do I need to create an Inbound connector of OnPremises type?

Typically, you don't need to manually create Inbound connectors from on-premises organizations. For more information, see Configure mail flow using connectors in Exchange Online.

Q: I'm using a third party filtering service to filter emails from the internet for my organization. Do I need to create an Inbound connector of OnPremises type?

No. As long as you configure the third party service to deliver your messages using your organization's .onmicrosoft.com domain, your mail can be successfully delivered.

Q: I'm using a third party add-on service to process emails that are composed by users of my Exchange Online organization before they're sent to the internet. I need to create an Inbound connector of OnPremises type to relay emails from the third party service for my organization. What do I need to do?

This scenario is valid for Inbound connectors from on-premises organizations. Follow the instructions in Integrate Exchange Online with an email add-on service.

If you use the New-InboundConnector cmdlet in Exchange Online PowerShell to create the Inbound connector as described in Step 4, don't use the SenderIPAddresses parameter (ensure the SenderIPAddresses property value is empty on the connector). Only a unique certificate domain from the third party service is allowed and the domain must be an accepted domain in your organization.

If your organization provides the add-on service and your customers followed the instructions but still see a warning message, contact Microsoft support to address the issue.

Q: Why do I see a warning message "Inbound connector for this service offering is created in a disabled state. Contact Support to enable it" when I try to create an Inbound Connector of OnPremiseType? What should I do, if my organization needs to create an Inbound Connector of OnPremises type?

These connectors are created as "Disabled" by default. Customers that experience this behavior must contact Microsoft support with a business justification to enable an Inbound connector of OnPremises type.

Q: I'm running the Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) and I see a warning message "Inbound Connectors created by HCW are in disabled state"? What do I need to do to enable the Inbound Connector by HCW?

You need to contact Microsoft support with a business justification to enable an Inbound connector of the type OnPremises for hybrid use within your Exchange Online organization.

Q: Can I modify the HCW created connector Inbound from <TenantGUID> to use IP addresses versus certificates for their hybrid service connectors? Is this allowed?

No. Hybrid connectors are supported only with certificates, not with IP addresses.