E-mail Address Policies and Accepted Domains in Exchange 2007

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In Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, recipient policies are used to control e-mail address settings, and to manage mailboxes. In Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, this task has been assigned to two features: E-mail Address Policies (EAP) and Accepted Domains. In this topic, we discuss the relationship of EAP and accepted domains in Microsoft Exchange. We also discuss how recipient policies in Exchange 2003 relate to EAP and to Accepted Domains in Exchange 2007.

E-mail Address Policies and Accepted Domains in Exchange 2007

E-mail Address Policies (EAP) defines the e-mail proxy addresses that are stamped onto recipient objects. Accepted domains define the SMTP namespaces for which an Exchange organization routes e-mail. Any accepted domain that is added to the system can be linked to an EAP so that the EAP generates recipient e-mail addresses for the accepted domain. Also, every EAP must link to an existing accepted domain so that e-mail messages that are sent to addresses that are defined by the EAP can be routed by Microsoft Exchange transport servers.

In Microsoft Exchange, authoritative and relay domains are managed together as accepted domains. You can manage all accepted domains that are defined in the organization by using the Exchange Management Console.

To manage accepted domains

  1. In the Exchange Management Console console tree, click the Hub Transport node under Organization Configuration.

  2. In the details pane, click the Accepted Domains tab.

  3. In the Actions pane, click New E-mail Address Policy to start the New E-mail Address Policy wizard.

  4. Use the wizard to select an accepted domain for which a new e-mail address policy applies.

Only accepted domains that are defined in the Microsoft Exchange organization can be added to the list in the EAP.

You can also use cmdlets in the Exchange Management Console to manage accepted domains and e-mail address policy. For more information, see Configure Exchange 2010 to Accept E-Mail for More Than One Authoritative Domain.

E-Mail Address Recipient Policies in Exchange 2003

In Exchange 2003, two kinds of recipient policies exist: e-mail address recipient policies and mailbox manager recipient policies. E-mail address recipient policies combine the concepts of EAP and accepted domains that are separated in Microsoft Exchange.

There are three problems that affect the combined e-mail address recipient policy concept in Exchange 2003:

  • Consider a domain that is specified for an e-mail address recipient policy but that is not set as an authoritative domain. In this case, e-mail messages that are sent to recipients that have e-mail addresses that are defined by the policy will not be routed within the Exchange organization for this domain. This is an invalid scenario. However, the Exchange System Manager does not block this.

  • To configure the authoritative domain, the setting must be found in the properties for the e-mail address recipient policy in the Exchange System Manager.

  • Relay domains are managed through the Connector node instead of through the Recipient Policies node in which authoritative domain management occurs. This makes management more complex.

For these reasons, the e-mail address recipient policy concept of Exchange 2003 is separated into EAP and Accepted Domains in Microsoft Exchange.