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Convert Linked Mailboxes

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Topic Last Modified: 2011-06-21

A linked mailbox is a mailbox that's associated with an external account. The resource forest scenario is an example of when you would want to associate a mailbox with an external account. In a resource forest scenario, user objects in the Exchange forest have mailboxes, but the user objects are disabled for logon. You must associate these mailbox objects in the Exchange forest with enabled user objects in the external accounts forest.

Looking for other management tasks related to user mailboxes? Check out Managing User Mailboxes.

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

Bb201694.note(en-us,EXCHG.141).gifNote:
You can't use the EMC to convert a mailbox to a linked mailbox.
  1. To disconnect the mailbox object in the Exchange store from the user object in Active Directory, use this example.
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    Disable-Mailbox -Identity User1
  2. To create a credential object, run the following command.
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    $cred = Get-Credential
    You will be prompted for credentials. Specify an account that has permissions to access the domain controller in the forest where the user account resides. Use the LinkedDomainController parameter to specify the domain controller. This domain controller obtains security information for the account to which you are linking the mailbox object.
  3. To reconnect the mailbox object in the Exchange store to an external user object, use this example.
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    Connect-Mailbox -Identity User1 -Database "Mailbox Database" -LinkedDomainController FabrikamDC01 -LinkedMasterAccount user1@fabrikam.com -LinkedCredential $cred

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Disable-Mailbox or Connect-Mailbox.

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

Bb201694.note(en-us,EXCHG.141).gifNote:
You can't use the EMC to convert a linked mailbox to a user mailbox.

This example converts Kweku’s mailbox from a linked mailbox to a non-linked user mailbox by setting the LinkedMasterAccount parameter to null.

Bb201694.important(en-us,EXCHG.141).gifImportant:
Performing this procedure on a linked mailbox removes all permissions on the mailbox, such as Send As, Full Access, folder permissions, and calendar delegation.
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Set-User -Identity kweku@fabrikam.com -LinkedMasterAccount $null

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-User.

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make the conversion immediate
to add to Martina Miskovic's excellent tip, I suggest running:  set-mailbox -id (user in mailbox domain) -ApplyMandatoryProperties immediately following the set-user command. this will apply the linked mailbox setting immediately.
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linked mailbox removes all permissions
There is mistake:

Performing this procedure on a linked mailbox removes all permissions on the mailbox, such as Send As, Full Access, folder permissions, and calendar delegation.

All permissions are removed when we convert local mailbox to linked not as mentioned above. When we convert linked to local all permission stay the same and hold all security entries from both domains.
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"The easy way" Command did not work....
A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '-LinkedMasterAccount'
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Convert a mailbox to a linked mailbox - The easy way

Hi,
To convert a usermailbox to a linkedmailbox, there's no good reason to run disable/connect mailbox.
It's much better to run:
Set-User -id <USER> - LinkedMasterAccount sourcedomain\user -LinkedDomainController dc.sourcedomain.local -LinkedCredential(get-credential)

..That way you will not loose any Exchange attributes that are set and it only takes seconds :)

Cheers,
Martina Miskovic

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