Handling Core Connector Administration Tasks

Updated : September 4, 2001

from Chapter 12, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant by William R. Stanek.

Regardless of which type of connector you use, you'll perform a common set of administrative tasks. This section examines these tasks.

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Designating Local and Remote Bridgeheads

Designating Local and Remote Bridgeheads

Bridgehead servers act as the communication relays for routing groups, and you define them locally and remotely. Local bridgehead servers serve as the originator of message traffic, and remote bridgehead servers serve as the destination for message traffic. Each connector has a slightly different way of handling bridgehead servers.

With routing group connectors, you can have multiple local bridgeheads but only a single remote bridgehead, and you can designate the bridgehead servers as described in Steps 6 and 7 of the section of this chapter entitled "Installing Routing Group Connectors."

With SMTP connectors, you can have one or more local bridgehead servers. These bridgeheads are identified using the SMTP virtual servers that are available on the local server for which you're configuring the connector. You don't specifically define remote bridgehead servers, however. Instead, you designate a smart host or use DNS MX records to locate remote mail servers in a specific routing group. These mail servers then act as remote bridgehead servers. To specify bridgeheads for SMTP connectors, follow Steps 5-8 in the section of this chapter entitled "Installing SMTP Connectors."

With X.400 connectors, you have one local bridgehead server and one remote bridgehead server. Because of this, you can build fault tolerance and load balancing into the connector configuration only by configuring multiple connectors. You specify bridgeheads for X.400 connectors through the local and remote X.400 names you designate for the connector.

Setting Delivery Restrictions

Delivery restrictions enable you to accept or reject messages before transferring them over the connector. You accept or reject messages based on the sender's e-mail address. By default, no delivery restrictions are set, and as a result connectors accept all messages from all senders.

To configure the connector to accept messages only from specific senders, follow these steps:

1. Start System Manager, and then navigate to the Connectors tab.

2. Right-click the connector you want to work with, and then click Properties.

3. Click the Delivery Restrictions tab, as shown in Figure 12-15.

   

   Figure 12-15: . Use the Delivery Restrictions tab to determine whether connectors accept or reject messages from particular users.

4. Under Accept Messages From, click Add, and then use the Select Recipient dialog box to choose users, contacts, and groups from which messages can be accepted. All other senders are rejected automatically.

5. Under Reject Messages From, select any name listed, and then click Remove. Repeat this process for all other names listed under Reject Messages From.

6. Click OK.

To configure the connector to reject messages from specific senders and to accept all other messages, follow these steps:

1. Start System Manager, and then navigate to the Connectors tab.

2. Right-click the connector you want to work with, and then click Properties.

3. Click the Delivery Restrictions tab, as shown in Figure 12-15.

4. Under Reject Messages From, click Add, and then use the Select Recipient dialog box to choose users, contacts, and groups from which messages are rejected. All other senders are accepted automatically.

5. Under Accept Messages From, select any name listed, and then click Remove. Repeat this process for all other names listed under Accept Messages From.

6. Click OK.

Setting Content Restrictions

Content restrictions determine the allowed priorities, types, and sizes for messages transferred by a connector. By default, no content restrictions are set.

To set content restrictions, follow these steps:

1. Start System Manager, and then navigate to the Connectors tab.

2. Right-click the connector you want to work with, and then click Properties.

3. Click the Content Restrictions tab, as shown in Figure 12-16.

   

   Figure 12-16: . Use the Content Restrictions dialog box to determine what types of messages you want a connector to transfer.

4. Use the options provided to set allowed message priorities and types. System messages include nondelivery reports and other types of system messages. Nonsystem messages include all messages sent by users.

5. To restrict the size of messages that can be transferred by the connector, select Only Messages Less Than (KB), and then type the maximum message size in kilobytes.

6. Click OK.

Setting Routing Cost for Connectors

Routing cost plays a key role in optimizing message routing. When two or more connectors link the same servers or routing groups, the connector with the lowest routing cost has preference over the other connectors. If the connector with the lowest cost is unavailable for any reason, Exchange Server uses the connector with the next lowest routing cost. By having multiple connectors and setting routing costs, administrators can ensure that messages are delivered even when a primary connector fails.

You can also use routing cost to balance the messaging load over two or more servers. In this example, you configure multiple connectors with the same routing cost, which tells Exchange Server to distribute the load as evenly as possible among the connectors.

To set routing cost for a connector, follow these steps:

1. Start System Manager, and then navigate to the Connectors tab.

2. Right-click the connector you want to work with, and then click Properties.

3. For routing group connectors, you set the routing cost using the Cost field in the General tab.

4. For SMTP and X.400 connectors, each address space and connected routing group has an associated cost. You configure these costs in the Address Space and Connected Routing Groups tabs respectively.

5. Click OK.

Setting Public Folder Referrals

Public folder referrals allow users on remote servers to access public folders on local servers. Public folder referrals are made possible through transitive affinities, which are enabled by default in Exchange 2000 Server. If you don't want users in other routing groups to be able to access public folders through a connector, you'll need to disable public folder referrals. You can do this by completing the following steps:

1. Start System Manager, and then navigate to the Connectors tab.

2. Right-click the connector you want to work with, and then click Properties.

3. On the General tab, select Do Not Allow Public Folder Referrals.

4. Click OK.

Disabling and Removing Connectors

Connectors can be disabled or removed at any time. To disable a connector, follow these steps:

1. Start System Manager, and then navigate to the Connectors tab.

2. Right-click the connector you want to work with, and then select Properties.

3. In the Schedule tab, select Never as the connection schedule.

4. Click OK.

To remove a connector, follow these steps:

1. Start System Manager, and then navigate to the Connectors tab.

2. Right-click the connector you want to work with, and then select Delete.

3. When prompted to confirm the action, click Yes.

   Note: In most cases you'll want to disable a connector instead of removing it. The advantage of disabling a connector instead of removing it is that you can later enable the connector if you need to and you won't have to reconfigure its settings.

from Microsoft Exchange 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant by William R. Stanek. Copyright © 1999 Microsoft Corporation.

Please note: In order for Connector restrictions to work, you have to enable the CheckConnectorRestrictions in the registry. For more information, please refer to this article in our Knowledge Base: 279813 XCON: Restriction Settings Are Not Applied After Configuring the Delivery Restrictions Option.

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