Exchange 2010 w/ Multiple Domains under SBS 2011 - To/From per Mailbox, per User
I'm configuring Exchange 2010 on SBS 2011 and need to give each user in my company the ability to receive and send from multiple authoritative domains. (So far I have been able to successfully configure the "TO" a single mailbox for each user) I've found someone that seems to know the "best" solution to do this without creating a new user for each mailbox, but it's a bit cryptic: forums.msexchange.org link Yes it's possible. Each mailbox requires a unique AD object though. After creating the other objects/mailboxes, give full permissions to the actual logon accounts used. Then set up the Outlook profile to add the other mailboxes or set up separate Outlook profiles (one for each mailbox). Could someone point to a walkthrough or elaborate a bit further on what the author means before I destroy my AD? Furthermore, does Exchange 2010 still have a 1-to-1 relationship with Mailboxes? Furthermore, I've not only do I need to give the ability to send from the domains for each user, I need to give them the ability to respond for the original address he or she was written to. I have found others mentioning that this is not possible natively under Exchange: social.technet.microsoft.com link It cannot be done natively. You should use 3-rd party software. Is this statement correct? What is the third party software? (Problematic for SBS due to licensing) Beyond the walkthrough, is there a way for Exchange to automatically create the mailbox and give permission for each new user?
May 30th, 2011 5:41am

First - you have no issues with SBS and licencing. SBS is licenced per user, not per user account. If you have five staff, you can have 400 mailboxes if you want. Therefore you simply create additional mailboxes, with the correct SMTP address. The primary mailbox is granted Send As and Full Mailbox permissions through EMC. To send as the additional account you use the From field in Outlook. The only additional thing you have to decide is whether you want all email in the same inbox, or keep it separate. If you have the email come in to a single mailbox, then the link between the address the email was sent to and the email is lost and all replies will go out as the default account. Therefore you will have to use separate inboxes, or have some method that the user knows which address the email has to go out from and sets the From field appropriately. I wrote this for Exchange 2007, it applies to Exchange 2010 as well. http://exchange.sembee.info/2007/mbx/twodomainsoneuser.asp Exchange 2010 still has and almost certainly always will have in future versions a direct 1:1 relationship between mailboxes and user accounts. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.
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May 30th, 2011 4:39pm

Simon, thanks for the response. Due to regulatory reasons, I have to create 3 separate Exchange databases to host the mailboxes for the 3 separate companies. Some employees work for 2 companies, others for all 3. Hence, the inboxes should receive and store all mail separately. On a side note, we are running Outlook 2007, but upgrading to Outlook 2010 is a possibility. If Exchange has a direct 1:1 relationship between mailboxes and user accounts, what is the best practice for adding additional mailboxes for staff under my circumstances? Should I create 2 additional "Mail Users" w/ mailboxes for each person? (Option #2 in the article you wrote seems to be in-line with this)
May 31st, 2011 11:22pm

You just create additional users and then grant the permissions that are required. Very simple. It doesn't cause a problem with licences. The only advantage you will get with Outlook 2010 is notifications of email in the additional mailboxes. Outlook 2007 and older cannot do that. On another topic, I don't think that mail in separate databases is going to be required for regulatory purposes. What are you hoping to achieve? To separate the data? The data is already separated. If you need to provide some kind of ethical firewall between accounts, then that is done via transport rules. Exchange 2007 and higher was designed to work in that way from the ground up. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.
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June 1st, 2011 2:05am

I was hoping to be able to have the SBS 2011 interface configure everything w/o having to dive into Exchange for every new user entering/leaving our organization, but we're small so for now it isn't much of an issue. I suppose it is also a personal preference not to have SBS show 3 versions of a user for cleanliness. (Thus the question about creating a Mail User / Mail Contact instead) As for the mailboxes, we are placing the Exchange databases on separate hard drives since our companies have different requirements for data retention, backup, and disaster policies.
June 1st, 2011 5:53am

What you are doing is a more advanced configuration. You can't avoid the Exchange 2010 management console for this kind of use. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.
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June 1st, 2011 3:32pm

This should be my last question. Do you have a preferred method for keeping delgates "send from" email in the actual mailbox that they are sending from?
June 2nd, 2011 12:24am

http://blog.sembee.co.uk/post/Sent-Items-Storage-for-Shared-Mailboxes.aspx Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.
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June 2nd, 2011 3:58pm

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