Exchange Server 2007 Interview Questions & Answers - Recipient Objects

This part includes the interview Questions and Answers on Exchange Server 2007 Recipient Objects and the recipient options introduced in Exchange Server 2007.

1. What is an Exchange recipient in Exchange Server 2007?

Exchange recipient is an Active Directory Object, to which Exchange Server can deliver or route messages. Recipients in Exchange 2007 are comprised of mailbox users, mail-enabled users, mail contacts, distribution groups, security groups, dynamic distribution groups, and mail-enabled public folders.

2. What are the recipient objects available in Exchange 2007?

These recipient objects are supported in Exchange 2007. User Mailbox, Room Mailbox, Equipment Mailbox, Linked Mailbox, Shared mailbox, Distribution Group, Dynamic Distribution Group, Mail User and Mail contact

3. How you manage recipients in Exchange Server 2007?

In previous versions of Exchange Server, you performed recipient management tasks in Active Directory Users and Computers. In Exchange 2007, you can perform these management tasks in both the Exchange Management Console and the Exchange Management Shell. However, although you can perform all recipient management tasks in the Exchange Management Shell, only some are performed in the Exchange Management Console.

In Exchange 2007, Exchange Server related attributes will not be shown in Active Directory user’s properties.

4. What are the mailbox types available in Exchange 2007? Explain them?

A recipient is any mail-enabled object in the Active Directory to which Exchange Server can deliver or route messages.

User mailbox: A mailbox that is assigned to an individual user in your Exchange organization. It typically contains messages, calendar items, contacts, tasks, documents, and other important business data.

Linked mailbox: A mailbox that is assigned to an individual user in a separate, trusted forest

Shared mailbox: A mailbox that is not primarily associated with a single user and is generally configured to allow logon access for multiple users

Legacy mailbox: A mailbox that resides on a server running Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server.

Resource mailboxes are mailboxes that represent conference rooms or shared equipment. Resource mailboxes can be included as resources in meeting requests, providing a simple and efficient way to utilize resources for an organization.

Two types of Resource Mailboxes available in Exchange 2007

Room mailbox: A resource mailbox that is assigned to a meeting location, such as a conference room, auditorium, or training room. Room mailboxes can be included as resources in meeting requests, providing a simple and efficient way of organizing meetings for your users

Equipment mailboxes are assigned to a resource that is not location specific, such as a portable computer projector, microphone, or company car

5. What is a mailbox-enabled object? And what is mail-enabled object?

With Mailbox enabled object, Users can log on to networks and access domain resources. Users can be added to groups and appear in the global address list (GAL).

Mailbox-enabled users can send and receive messages and store messages on their Exchange server.

Mail-enabled users can receive messages at an external e-mail address only. They cannot send or store messages on Exchange.

6. What is mail contact?

Mail contacts are mail-enabled Active Directory directory service objects that contain information about people or organizations that exist outside your Exchange organization. Mail contacts are ideal for representing people external to your Exchange organization who do not need access to any internal resources

There are two types of mail contacts in Exchange 2007: mail contacts and mail forest contacts. Mail forest contacts are read-only recipient objects that are updated only through Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) or a similar custom synchronization. You cannot remove or modify a mail forest contact by using the Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell.

7. What is the difference between Mail contact and Mail user?

Mail contacts are mail-enabled Active Directory directory service objects that contain information about people or organizations that exist outside your Exchange organization. Mail contacts are ideal for representing people external to your Exchange organization who do not need access to any internal resources.

Mail users are similar to mail contacts. Both have external e-mail addresses, contain information about people outside your Exchange organization, and can be displayed in the GAL and other address lists. However, unlike a mail contact, mail users have Active Directory logon credentials and can access resources to which they are granted permission. If a person external to your organization requires access to resources on your network, you should create a mail user instead of a mail contact

8. What is a Distribution group? What are the supported distribution groups in Exchange Server 2007?

Distribution groups are mail-enabled Active Directory directory service group objects that are created to expedite the mass sending of e-mail messages and other information within an Exchange organization.

Exchange 2007 supports the following types of distribution groups:

Mail-enabled universal distribution groups   These are Active Directory distribution group objects that are mail-enabled. They can be used only to distribute messages to a group of recipients.

Mail-enabled universal security groups   These are Active Directory security group objects that are mail-enabled. They can be used to grant access permissions to resources in Active Directory and can also be used to distribute messages.

Mail-enabled non-universal groups These are Active Directory global or local group objects that are mail-enabled. In Exchange 2007, you can create or mail-enable only universal distribution groups. You may have mail-enabled groups that were migrated from previous versions of Exchange that are not universal groups. These groups can still be managed by using the Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell.

Dynamic distribution groups   These are distribution groups for which membership is based on specific recipient filters rather than a defined set of recipients. Dynamic distribution groups were called query-based distribution groups in Exchange 2003.

9. How to view the members of the Dynamic distribution Group?

Open the Exchange Management Console to preview the list of members for a dynamic distribution group that uses a pre scanned filter

Start the Exchange Management Console. -> In the console tree, expand Recipient Configuration, and then click Distribution Group. -> In the result pane, select the dynamic distribution group for which you want to preview the list of members. -> In the action pane, under the dynamic distribution group name, click Properties. -> In <Dynamic distribution group> Properties, click the Conditions tab. ->Click Preview

10. What are the administrative permissions available in Exchange Server 2007?

We have four administration permission models in Exchange Server 2007, they are Organization Administrator, Server Administrator, Recipient Administrator and Public Folder Administrator

11. What permission is required to create a recipient type?

To create a Recipient in Exchange Server 2007, you should have the following permission

• Exchange Recipient Administrator role


• Account Operator role for the applicable Active Directory containers

12. What is Microsoft Exchange recipient?

The Microsoft Exchange recipient is a special Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 recipient object that provides a unified and well-known message sender that differentiates system-generated messages from other messages. The Microsoft Exchange recipient is functionally equivalent to an internal postmaster. The Microsoft Exchange recipient replaces the "System Administrator" sender that was used for system-generated messages in earlier versions of Microsoft Exchange Server. Messages from the Microsoft Exchange recipient display "Microsoft Exchange" as the sender. The types of messages that are sent by the Microsoft Exchange recipient include the following:

DSN messages, Journal reports, Quota messages and Agent-generated messages

13. How to manage Microsoft Exchange Recipient?

The Microsoft Exchange recipient isn't a typical recipient object, such as a mailbox, mail user, or mail contact. The Microsoft Exchange recipient isn't managed by using the typical recipient tools that are found in Microsoft Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell.

Like Exchange Server 2003, we cannot manage Exchange recipient related properties in Active Directory account

14. What is a Recipient scope?

Recipient scope refers to the specified portion of the Active Directory directory service hierarchy that the Exchange Management Console and the Exchange Management Shell uses for recipient management. When you set the recipient scope to a specific location within Active Directory, you can view and manage all recipients stored in that location and all of the containers under it.

15. What is MIME and MAPI?

MIME = Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions It defines non-ASCII message formats. It is a coding standard that defines the structure of E-Mails and other Internet messages. MIME is also used for declaration of content from other Internet protocols like HTTP, Desktop environments like KDE, Gnome or Mac OS X Aqua. The standard is defined in RFC 2045.

With MIME it is possible to exchange information about the type of messages (the content type) between the sender and the recipient of the message. MIME also defines the art of coding (Content-Transfer-Encoding).

MAPI = Messaging Application Programming Interface It’s the programming interface for email. It is a Microsoft Windows program interface that enables you to send e-mail from within a Windows application and attach the document you are working on to the e-mail note. Applications that take advantage of MAPI include word processors, spreadsheets, and graphics applications. MAPI-compatible applications typically include a Send Mail or Send in the File pulls down menu of the application. Selecting one of these sends a request to a MAPI server

16. What are the client options available to access the mails?

Outlook 2003/2007

Outlook web access

Outlook Mobile access

Outlook voice access

IMAP4/POP3

17. What is OWA?

OWA is to access the mail via browser from outside the corporate network. The Outlook Web Access (OWA) client is now nearly indistinguishable from the full Outlook client. The one major component missing is offline capability, but nearly every other Outlook functionality is part of OWA.

18. What is Exchange Active sync?

ActiveSync provides for synchronized access to email from a handheld device, such as a Pocket PC or other Windows Mobile device. It allows for real-time send and receives functionality to and from the handheld, through the use of push technology.

19. What is Outlook Anywhere?

Outlook Anywhere (previously known as RPC over HTTP) is a method by which a full Outlook client can dynamically send and receive messages directly from an Exchange server over an HTTP or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) web connection. This allows for virtual private network (VPN)–free access to Exchange data, over a secured HTTPS connection.

20. What are the requirements to use RPC over HTTP?

Server Requirement

RPC over HTTP/S requires Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003. RPC over HTTP/S also requires Windows Server 2003 in a Global Catalog role.

Client Requirement

The client computer must be running Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later. The client computer must be running Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or later

21. What is the procedure to configure RPC over HTTP?

Verify that your server computer and your client computer meet the requirements to use RPC over HTTP/S.

Configure Exchange to use RPC over HTTP/S.

Configure the RPC virtual directory in Internet Information Services.

Configure the RPC proxy server to use specific ports.

Configure your client computers to use RPC over HTTP/S

22. What is catch-all mailbox?

A catch-all mailbox is typically a mailbox in your organization that is used to collect all of the e-mail messages that are sent to your organization. Depending on your preferences, the catch-all mailbox may receive all messages or only messages that are sent to mailboxes that do not exist. Transport rules on Edge Transport servers are used to copy or redirect messages that are received by your organization to the catch-all mailbox.

24. How to assign a Full Access and Send-As Permission in Exchange Server 2007?

In exchange management console, right click on a selected mailbox will give an option to assign full access and send as permission

In exchange management shell, we can use the below two shell commands

Add-MailboxPermission –Identity MailboxName –AccessRights FullAccess –User UserwhoneedsPermission

Add-AdPermission –identity MailboxName –ExtendedRights Send-As –User Username –AccessRights readproperty, writeproperty

25. Newly created mailbox not showing in outlook, what are the troubleshooting steps that you will do?

Check whether the mailbox is assigned with the email address based on the email address policy

If email address is assigned, I will check for both the email address in active directory account and the exchange properties are same.

If it same, then I will check whether the OWA is showing the newly created account

If it is showing then, the user OAB is not updated in outlook, I will perform a manual OAB full download. If it is not showing, I will wait for next day’s system maintenance schedule task to run

26. In your work experience, did you find any issues related to recipients in Exchange Server 2007?

We had an issue where, the mailbox moved from exchange server 2003 and users assigned with full mailbox access are not able to access it from outlook. We tried to reconfigure the outlook profile it failed and remove and re add the permission didn’t work, so we try to run this switch and it worked perfectly

Set-Mailbox –Identity MailboxName –ApplyMandatoryProperties

27. What is the difference between user mailbox and resource mailbox?

Both are mailboxes in Exchange Server 2007, where the User Mailbox Active Directory account will be in enabled state and Resource Mailbox Active Directory account will be disabled by default.

Resource Mailbox needs to be accessed by assigning full access permission to owner of it.

28. What is the difference in Disabling and Removing mailbox?

Disabling a mailbox will disable only the exchange related properties for a user account, and the disabled account will be leaved in a disconnected state. It will leave the active directory account to exist.

Removing a mailbox will completely remove the active directory account and the exchange related properties.

We have to be careful when disabling or removing a mailbox in exchange server 2007.

Another 4 Q&A will be added soon