Is it possible to use a transport rule to send an auto reply to all e-mail coming in from outside the orginization? We are migrating from GW to Exchange 2010 and during the migration weekend I want to let all external users know that they may not get a reply right away because we are migrating. Is that possible with a transport rule?

I don't think you can use a transport rule to send a reply, but you can use it to direct a copy of all the inbound external emails to a mailbox set up with a server side rule that will. You'll have to be careful of mail loops. [string](0..33|%{[char][int](46+("686552495351636652556262185355647068516270555358646562655775 0645570").substring(($_*2),2))})-replace " "

Yes, but its a bit tricky using a secondary mailbox like noreply@domain.com. Create a new transport rule On Conditions Page -> Check "From users that are inside or outside the organization" Click on "Inside the organization" in the Step 2 area You will get a popup with a dropdown where you can select if the target emails should be internal or external to organization. On Action Page -> Check "Blind carbon copy" Add a secondary mailbox address From outlook, configure Auto reply on this mailbox with the dedicated template. So all external mails will get forwarded to the noreply@domain.com mailbox and trigger a reply mail with the specific template we chose. Only disadvantage is - we need to have a different address. Good luck Shaba

Agree with mjolinor. This is a bad idea as it could lead to mail loops and could get you put on blocklists responding to spoofed SPAM messages. Before migrating you should be in the position to accept the mail with your own SMTP gateway that will queue the messages or migrate mailboxes in such a way as to not disrupt inbound mail flow. Note that if external sending servers are unable to initially contact your gateways, most will queue the message and resend. How long are you planning to be down?

I think you can avoid the mail loop problem by using OOF instead of a server side rule to send the reply. You'll still have the problem of the replies coming from a different address than the original email was sent to. I'm not sure what the procedure is for the migration, but the best scenario would be to have the Exchange mailboxes created in advance, with OOF rules in place to send the notifications. That will avoid the mail loops, and the replies will come from the original recipient. I believe you can script setting the OOF rules on all the mailboxes with EWS. [string](0..33|%{[char][int](46+("686552495351636652556262185355647068516270555358646562655775 0645570").substring(($_*2),2))})-replace " "

We wont be down at all. But the concern is that users are being told not to access their mailbox during the weekend we are migrating. So, they want a way to notify external senders that they will not get a reply until monday.

The easiest way will be to use a rule to send a copy to a common mailbox, and have that mailbox send the replies. The procedure -Shaba- posted looks about right, except that you want to use Out of Office to send the notification instead of using a server side rule. That should eliminate the mail loops that you can get using a server side rule to send replies. The biggest drawback is that the notificatations sent to the external senders will all come from the same address, and not the address of the person they originally emailed that triggered the reply.[string](0..33|%{[char][int](46+("686552495351636652556262185355647068516270555358646562655775 0645570").substring(($_*2),2))})-replace " "