AMS and Microsoft Exchange

[ehavemann]

Our company uses AMS for all 200+ email accounts, running on a Windows 2003 R2 server. Another server (Windows 2003 SBS, same LAN, same subnet) has Microsoft Exchange loaded, but not being used. A handful of managers would prefer to use Exchange to take advantage of shared calendars, contacts, etc. Is there any way to configure both AMS and Exchange so that I can accommodate those management users? One idea might be to have Exchange perform a POP3 retrieval against the AMS server, that might work. Ideally I'd have AMS "push" the emails for the selected accounts to Exchange to make it appear real time, with managers still able to use the same address@mydomain.com they have with their AMS accounts.

[m1byo]

Hello,

To impliment your request, it will take some time to set up, but there is no reason why it wouldnt work, I have done something similar before.

I would configure a suedo domain in exchange which has similar naming to the real name e.g. companyname.exchange rather than companyname.com

The exchange setup is then simple
1. You configure the specific users you would like on Exchange (note on the companyname.exchange domain)
2. Have exchange operating as its own email domain (companyname.exchange)
3. Configure the outgoing mail to use a smarthost, the smarthost should be set to your AMS server.

The AMS setup requires a little more time, but still relatively simple.
1. you configure an outgoing static route in AMS for companyname.exchange to route directly to the IP address of your exchange server. This will ensure the emails sent to the exchange server go to the right place and are not lost in DNS issues!
2. you configure each user which you are using on exchange to redirect their email to their exchange email address (e.g. ian@companyname.com will be redirected to ian@companyname.exchange), you then also have the option of also delivering to the AMS mailbox if you want the user to have access to both, however this could potentially lead to full mailboxes.
3. you set a content filtering rule for emails received which changes the SENDER header AND FROM header addresses from companyname.exchange to companyname.com on their way through to the outside email system. (Sadly this may be 1 rule per person as I dont think you can replace part of a header, Chris/Rob will correct me if you can)
This third point is to ensure you are still sending emails from the correct domain name.

I hope this helps, and it should work.

Best

Ian

[ColinABQ]

m1byo's suggestion is better, but I thought I'd mention that you can have the the SBS system do what really equates to POP3 retrievals from the AMS server. I've tinkered with it, and it can be made to work. Sort of. Being on a LAN, and the same subnet at that, I assume that security concerns would not prevent the use of the POP3 protocol, which is inherently insecure. But be forewarned about two things:

1. There does not appear to be a way to make Exchange leave the messages on the other server, AMS or otherwise.
2. It would not be real time; you would have to set up a schedule for each such account. Even approaching real time would mean quite a bit of all but nonstop spinning.

The settings are found in the Exchange System Manager, Connectors, Properties. Then click "Add" and I think it would be self-explanatory from there, but you would also have to go back and set a schedule for each such mailbox.

If that sounds clunky and low end, it is. Again, m1byo's suggestion is much better for any number of reasons. So, maybe I really only posted this to express my ongoing annoyance with Exchange; the lack of that "leave it on the other server" feature is just the tip of the mailberg. AMS gives us that option, of course : )

[Code Crafters]

m1byo covered a lot of detailed setup and is right in what he says. Here is a simple summary of what I recommend.

1) Set up email accounts on exchange for each of your management users. Exchange allows you to use the original domain email address and also add alias email addresses. Add an alias email address like domain.exchange or whatever so that Ability Mail Server can deliver to it more easily.
2) Set up a users on AMS with user redirections to the domain.exchange email address and don't tick to deliver locally as well or you will get a build up of mails. You can use content filtering to do almost anything you want but this is the simpler solution.
3) Set up a static route for domain.exchange which uses relay mode to relay directly to the exchange mail server.
4) If this is the only way exchange receives mail then you mgiht want to limit its SMTP to a special port (e.g. 2525) or even limit the IP access so that mail not from AMS isn't delivered to it by mistake. Exchange can then use IMAP4, POP3 and outgoing mails as normal to send mail back out (relay outgoing mail via AMS if necessary).