How to Configure Authoritative Domains for the Exchange Organization
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.
Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3
This topic explains how to use the Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell to configure the authoritative domains for a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 organization. You configure an authoritative domain when you create an accepted domain and set the accepted domain type as authoritative.
Accepted domains are any Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) namespace for which an Exchange organization sends and receives e-mail. Accepted domains include those domains for which the Exchange organization is authoritative. An Exchange organization is authoritative when it handles mail delivery for recipients in the accepted domain. Accepted domains also include domains for which the Exchange organization receives mail and then relays to an e-mail server that is outside the Exchange organization for delivery to the recipient.
You must configure an accepted domain before that SMTP namespace can be used in an e-mail address policy. The accepted domain name is automatically populated to the e-mail address policy editor. Each domain or subdomain that you want to use in an e-mail address policy must have an explicit accepted domain entry. The e-mail address policy determines the e-mail address for the users who have mailboxes in the Exchange organization. Configure the SMTP domain that you want to use for these e-mail addresses as an authoritative domain.
By default, one accepted domain exists and is configured as authoritative for the Exchange organization during installation. The default authoritative domain is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your Active Directory directory service forest root domain. In many organizations the internal domain name differs from the external domain name. For example, your internal domain name may be Contoso.local, and your external domain name may be Contoso.com. The public domain name system (DNS) MX resource record for your organization will reference Contoso.com To send and receive e-mail across the Internet, you will have to assign Contoso.com as the SMTP e-mail address for the users in your organization.
Before You Begin
Accepted domains are configured for the Exchange organization and on computers that have the Edge Transport server role installed. We recommend that you configure accepted domains only on the Hub Transport server role and then create an Edge Subscription for the Edge Transport server. The accepted domain configuration will be replicated to the Edge Transport servers when the Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service runs. For more information, see Subscribing the Edge Transport Server to the Exchange Organization.
To configure accepted domains for the Exchange organization, the account you use must be delegated the following:
- Exchange Organization Administrator role
For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Exchange 2007, see Permission Considerations.
Important
You can't modify the accepted domain that is set as the default accepted domain. To set a different default accepted domain, you must create a new accepted domain, and then set the new accepted domain as the default by using the Exchange Management Shell.
For more information, see the following topics:
Procedure
To use the Exchange Management Console to create an authoritative domain
Open the Exchange Management Console.
In the console tree, click Organization Configuration, and then click Hub Transport.
In the work pane, click the Accepted Domains tab.
In the action pane, click New Accepted Domain…. The New Accepted Domain wizard appears.
On the New Accepted Domain page, complete the following fields:
Name Use this field to identify the accepted domain in the user interface. You can type any name that you want. We recommend that you select a meaningful name that helps you easily identify the purpose of this accepted domain. For example, you may want to use a name that identifies this as a subsidiary domain or as a hosted domain. You must use a unique name for each accepted domain.
Accepted Domain Use this field to identify the SMTP namespace for which the Exchange organization will accept e-mail messages. You can use a wildcard character to accept messages for a domain and all its subdomains. For example, you can type *.contoso.com to set Contoso.com and all its subdomains as accepted domains.
Important
If you are using the release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, and you want to use a subdomain as part of an e-mail address policy, do not use wildcard characters. You must explicitly specify each subdomain that you want to use in an e-mail address policy as an accepted domain. This restriction does not apply if you are using Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 or higher.
After you complete these fields on the New Accepted Domain page, select the following option: Authoritative Domain. E-mail is delivered to a recipient in this Exchange organization.
Click New.
On the Completion page, click Finish.
To use the Exchange Management Shell to create an authoritative domain
Run the following command:
New-AcceptedDomain -Name "Contoso" -DomainName contoso.com -DomainType Authoritative
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-AcceptedDomain.
For More Information
For more information, see the following topics: