I got an email today asking whether there are more than two types of connectors in Exchange 2010. That got me to think that there are admins who think that only “send” and “receive” connectors exist in 2010.
Linked Connector is a receive connector that is linked to a send connector. It is linked in such a way that any emails that comes in through the receive connector is sent out immediately through the send connector. It is mainly used when you want to accept all incoming emails and send it to a third party for message hygiene. There are a few points to note while configuring a linked connector.
- Only one receive connector can be linked to one send connector.
- The receive connector must exist before it can be linked to a send connector.
- A linked send connector must route messages to a smart host.
You need to use the Shell to create a linked connector. The command below links my receive connector “From Internet” to a new send connector named “Message hygiene”.
New-SendConnector -Name “Message Hygiene” -LinkedReceiveConnector “Exch1\From Internet” -SmartHosts 1.2.3.4 -SmartHostAuthMechanism ExternalAuthoritative -DNSRoutingEnabled $False –MaxMessageSize Unlimited
You will get an error message if the dns routing isn’t set to false and max message size set to unlimited.
Once the command completes successfully, you can see the connector in EMC.
Make sure you specify the address space once the send connector is created or add the parameter in the command above.
Bob Miller August 13, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Can you have a single receive connector linked to multiple send connectors? I have 30 domains that I need to routed differently TLS and ByPass Edge Encryption appliance.
Rajith Enchiparambil September 17, 2012 at 10:20 am
Hi Bob,
I think it is a one to one relationship, as the settings will be different.
Gamal September 27, 2012 at 7:25 pm
If the message destination is to an internal exchange mailbox will it still be sent to the smarthost?
Rajith Enchiparambil September 27, 2012 at 8:14 pm
Hi Gamal,
If it is internal only email, NO. But if the email comes from outside to an internal user, most definitely yes. It all depends on how you configure it. It is mostly used for virus/spam scanning purpose.