Transport Rule Actions

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 describes the transport rule actions that are available for a computer that has the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Hub Transport server role or the Edge Transport server role installed. This topic also describes the action properties and values. Both the Hub Transport server role and the Edge Transport server role can apply transport rules to e-mail messages that pass through the server roles. However, the actions that are available for each server role are different.

Actions and Action Properties

Actions are applied to e-mail messages that match the conditions and none of the exceptions that are present on transport rules, which are configured on Transport Rules agents. Each action affects e-mail messages in a different way. For example, an action can cause an e-mail message to be redirected to another address or to be dropped. Each action consists of the action itself, its action property, and the value of the property.

To assign a value to an action, you must determine the available action property for a specific action. For example, you must use the Address action property together with the RedirectMessage action. See Table 2 for the action properties that you must use for Hub Transport servers. See Table 3 for the action properties that you must use for Edge Transport servers.

Some actions require that you set two or more predicate properties, because some actions modify specific fields within sections of an e-mail message, such as the message header fields. When you specify an action to modify a message header, one action property specifies the specific header field to modify, and a second action property specifies the new value of the message header. In these cases, you must also specify a value for the second action property from the Additional Action Property column in Table 2 or Table 3, depending on the server role. For example, you can configure an action to modify the X-Test-Message-Source header field to a specific string, such as contoso.com.

Table 1 lists the action properties that you can use with transport rules that are configured on a Hub Transport server or an Edge Transport server.

Table 1   Action properties for transport rules on a Hub Transport server or an Edge Transport server

Supported Actions on a Hub Transport Server

Table 2 lists the actions that can be used with transport rules that are configured on a Hub Transport server.

Table 2   Supported actions for transport rules on a Hub Transport server

Supported Actions on an Edge Transport Server

Table 3 lists the actions that can be used with transport rules that are configured on an Edge Transport server.

Table 3   Supported actions for transport rules on an Edge Transport server

Matching Multiple Rules

If a message matches the criteria for multiple rules, the actions are applied based on priority. Rules that have a lower priority are processed first. Then, rules that have a higher priority are processed. The resultant action depends on the rules that have been configured.

For example, consider the following scenarios.

Scenario 1

• You have two transport rules, each of which is configured to add disclaimer text to a message.

• A message matches both rules.

In this scenario, the lower priority rule is processed first. Therefore, the disclaimer that is specified by the lower priority rule is added to the message. Then, the higher priority rule is processed. Therefore, the disclaimer that is specified by the higher priority rule is added to the message.

In this scenario, the received e-mail message will have both disclaimers added.

Scenario 2

• You have two transport rules, each of which modifies the Spam Confidence Level (SCL) value of a message.

• A message matches both rules.

In this scenario, the lower priority rule is processed first. Therefore, the SCL value of the message is modified to what is specified by the lower priority rule. Then, the higher priority rule is processed. Therefore, the SCL value of the message is modified to what is specified by the higher priority rule.

In this scenario, the received e-mail message will have the SCL value of the highest priority rule.

Assigning Addresses on a Hub Transport Server

The Addresses action property on a Hub Transport server requires that you pass a full mailbox, contact, mail-enabled user, or distribution group object to the property. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) e-mail addresses aren't valid values for this property. Values that are assigned to the Addresses action property must be in an array.

To pass a mailbox, contact, mail-enabled user, or distribution group object to the Addresses action property, you must call the appropriate Exchange Management Shell command from within the array and supply the command with the identity or name of the object. You must enclose the command name and identity in parentheses. Use the following command syntax:

$Action.Addresses = @((Get-Mailbox <Mailbox Name>), (Get-MailContact <Contact Name>), (Get-MailUser <Mail-Enabled User>), (Get-DistributionGroup <Distribution Group Name>))

To assign values to the Addresses action property

• Run the following command to assign a single mailbox object:

  $Action.Addresses = @((Get-Mailbox "Ted Bremer"))
  

• Run the following command to assign a single mail contact object:

  $Action.Addresses = @((Get-MailContact "Masato Kawai"))
  

• Run the following command to assign a single mail-enabled user object:

  $Action.Addresses = @((Get-MailUser "Pilar Ackerman"))
  

• Run the following command to a single distribution group object:

  $Action.Addresses = @((Get-DistributionGroup "Sales Group"))
  

• Run the following command to assign a mix of mailbox, user, and distribution group objects:

  $Action.Addresses = @((Get-Mailbox "Ted Bremer"), (Get-Mailbox "Kim Akers"), (Get-MailContact "Pilar Ackerman"), (Get-MailContact "Adam Barr"), (Get-MailUser "Chris Meyer"), (Get-DistributionGroup "Marketing Group"), (Get-DistributionGroup "Research Group"))
  

Assigning Addresses on an Edge Transport Server

The Addresses action property on an Edge Transport server requires that you pass an SMTP e-mail address to the property. This is because Edge Transport servers do not have access to the recipient objects contained in the Active Directory directory service and because you may want to specify an e-mail address that is not within your Exchange organization. Values that are assigned to the Addresses action property must be in an array.

To pass an SMTP address to the Addresses action property, you must call enclose the SMTP e-mail address in double quotation marks. Use the following command syntax:

$Action.Addresses = @("<SMTP e-mail address 1>","<SMTP e-mail address 2>", "< SMTP e-mail address...>" )

To assign values to the Addresses action property

• Run the following command to assign an array of SMTP e-mail addresses:

  $Action.Addresses = @("sales@contoso.com", "research@contoso.com", "investors@nwtraders.com ")
  

For More Information

For detailed syntax and parameter information about each command, see the following topics:

• Get-TransportRuleAction

• Get-Mailbox

• Get-MailContact

• Get-MailUser

• Get-DistributionGroup

For more information about transport rules, see the following topics:

• How to View a Transport Rule

• How to Create a New Transport Rule

• How to Modify a Transport Rule

  • How to Modify Transport Rule Conditions and Exceptions in the Exchange Management Shell

  • How to Modify Transport Rule Actions in the Exchange Management Shell

• How to Remove a Transport Rule

• How to Configure a Disclaimer

• Transport Rule Predicates

• Regular Expressions in Transport Rules