question

AdamTyler-3751 avatar image
0 Votes"
AdamTyler-3751 asked RobertSparnaaij commented

Get-RemoteDomain and AutoReplyEnabled, AutoForwardenabled options

Hello, I had a couple of questions regarding the AutoReplyEnabled and AutoForwardenabled settings which can be viewed by running the Get-RemoteDomain command. This is an on premise single Exchange 2016 server.

First, I notice in our environment that AutoForwardEnabled is equal to True which doesn't appear to be the default setting. Management is concerned that end users may be using Outlook Rules or the "Text messaging" feature to automatically forward all of their inbound email to an external email address.

Before I flip this over to False, I wanted to better understand the impact. Am I correct in assuming that a False setting for AutoForwardEnabled would disable any Outlook rule or this text message feature from automatically forwarding mail to an external address? Any other impacts? For example, if we have a Transport rule configured by an admin, this would continue to function? I assume out of office replies would continue to work if AutoReplyEnabled is left at True?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/set-remotedomain?view=exchange-ps
121230-image.png


Example of Text messaging dialogue from OWA.
121253-image.png


office-exchange-server-administration
image.png (199.8 KiB)
image.png (146.7 KiB)
· 1
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

Hi Adam,

Forgot to say, for your first question, if the remote domain was created by yourself with New-RemoteDomain command, then it is defaultly set to true for the AutoReply & AutoForwardEnabled. The false is only for the default remote domain of the on-prem servers. So, $True will be set automatically for three part: new created remote domains from On-Prem servers, default and new created remote domains from Exchange Online.
You could use Get-RemoteDomain Default | FL to check the default remote domain settings.

Best regards,
Lou

0 Votes 0 ·
RobertSparnaaij avatar image
0 Votes"
RobertSparnaaij answered RobertSparnaaij commented

That is correct.

If you still need to forward emails from a mailbox to an external recipient, you can use Set-Mailbox -ForwardingAddress.

Note that Set-Mailbox -ForwardingSmtpAddress will stop functioning as well when you set AutoForwardEnabled to $false.

· 12
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

Thanks anonymous userSparnaaij

Is there any combination of settings that would disable automatic forwarding for all users, but allow you to enable it for a specific user if needed?

Regards,
Adam Tyler

0 Votes 0 ·

Not via those settings.

A Transport Rule as ZhengqiLou-MSFT suggested would be one solution.

If you only want to allow specific people to set up automatic forwards to specific domains themselves (like domains from partners or other companies within your holding), then you could define those domains as Remote Domains and set them to allow forwarding.

Which way to go would depend on how strict you want to enforce it and how much administrative overhead you can handle.

Transport Rules are usually my "last resort" solutions as they can quickly add confusion to your mail flow and can even slow it down when you've got multiple rules with lookups (like for users in large groups or with specific properties/attributes).

1 Vote 1 ·

Thanks anonymous userSparnaaij and @ZhengqiLou-MSFT..

So in order to allow auto-forward for certain users only, I would have to leave the -AutoForwardEnabled setting set to $True. Then leverage a TransportRule (type is .... > Auto-forward, block) that would apply to all users except those I wish to allow?

Regards,
Adam Tyler

0 Votes 0 ·
Show more comments
ZhengqiLou-MSFT avatar image
0 Votes"
ZhengqiLou-MSFT answered RobertSparnaaij commented

Hi @AdamTyler-3751 ,

Some mail flow rules could block auto forwarding.
Condition:
The message type is .... > Auto-forward
Action:
Block...

If you want to enable it for specific users, add exception.

Best regards,
Lou


If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

· 4
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

Hello @ZhengqiLou-MSFT & anonymous userSparnaaij , just some follow up from this forwarding change. Today I created an auto-forward Outlook rule before disabling "-AutoForwardEnabled" on the Default and only Remote-Domain in our Exchange environment. I sent an email and watched it work. Then went and set -AutoForwardEnabled:$False and watched it break. Great, that is exactly what we were expecting.

One issue though. At the same time I was testing the text messaging auto-forward option that can be accessed in OWA. I noticed that even after setting -AutoForwardEnabled:$False this text message forward continued to function. Are there any knobs to also disable this if need be?

Regards,
Adam Tyler

124814-image.png


124851-image.png


0 Votes 0 ·
image.png (49.0 KiB)
image.png (56.1 KiB)

Hi @AdamTyler-3751 ,

Actually the Forward in exchange is about a method of emails transportation, the phone messages are not included.

If you want to organizationally disbale this, you may need some scripts to disable the rules or set the recipient phone number to null for every user in your organization.

Best regards,
Lou

0 Votes 0 ·

@ZhengqiLou-MSFT & anonymous userSparnaaij ,

It looks like you can just turn it off in the "owa (Default Web Site)" virtual directory config window... Wonder if doing this would disable the forward for those that have already enabled this feature? Or does it simply hide the option from OWA and already established txt forward remains functional....

125085-image.png


0 Votes 0 ·
image.png (55.3 KiB)
Show more comments