In this article we will have a look at the system generated mailbox and steps to modify system generated mailbox in Exchange 2013.

By default the system generated mailbox comes from sender “Microsoft Outlook”. Sometimes we might need to change the display name of the system generated mailbox because some of the users might use Non-Microsoft clients like MAC, Linux etc., and cannot understand if system generated emails are why sent from “Microsoft Outlook”  sender and this could create confusion for end users if they have configured outlook on multiple PC’s thinking  that could cause trouble in sending email to few users.

In these kinds of scenarios we can specify identical display for Microsoft Exchange Recipient, so that it would be easily understandable by all client users in domain that the message is sent from the server and not from outlook. Also there could be scenarios where users would reply for an ndr message received  if he/she is not aware of these system generated emails. It could be better if we have a mailbox setup which is monitored by admins so that users can reply for these ndr’s and can be addressed.

Now let’s have a look into few of these parameters involved first.

Basically there are 2 types for system generated Mailbox in a  organization that exchange server can send. It can send NDR’s for internal users for mailbox limit quota warning, non-deliverable reports for internal senders. MicrosoftExchangeRecipientPrimarySmtpAddress attribute is involved in sending ndr’s to the internal users. Also it can send external NDR for external recipients as well who is not part of accepted domain in our organization. Externalpostmasteraddress attribute is involved in sending ndr notification to users who are not part of our domain. Both these attributes are in organizational level and can’t be altered from server level.

We can use the below command to check the value of the MicrosoftExchangeRecipientPrimarySmtpAddress

Get-OrganizationConfig | FL MicrosoftExchangeRecipientPrimarySmtpAddress

When we run this command it shows a default value with alphanumeric@domain.com as shown below

We can use the below command to check value of Externalpostmasteraddress

Get-TransportService | FL Identity, ExternalPostMasterAddress

By default the Externalpostmaster address value is not set to any value. Which means by running this command usually the result will be null as shown below.

In my case it is just showing the list of hub transport server , transport service(exchange 2013) and edge server without any values  since  I have not set any specific mailbox.

So what happens if there is no value set for ExternalPostMasterAddress.

The NDR for external users will be sent in postmaster@domain.com format from our domain if we have only mailbox and cas servers. It will use edge server to send out these external ndr’s if we have edge configured and the value will be postmaster@edgeserverfqdn.

So if you need to change this value run the below command

Set-TransportConfig -ExternalPostMasterAddress postmaster@contoso.com

To change the value of MicrosoftExchangeRecipientPrimarySmtpAddress  is little bit tricky. We can change this value to a different mailbox however if we make any organizational changes by running set-organization command then it reverts back this value to default value Microsoft Outlook.

First we need to change the value by running the below command

MicrosoftExchangeRecipientEmailAddressPolicyEnabled $False

And then we need to set an appropriate email address from which it can send out NDR’s to the internal users.

Set-TransportConfig MicrosoftExchangeRecipientPrimarySmtpAddress localit@exchangequery.com

Note:

MicrosoftExchangeRecipientEmailAddressPolicyEnabled –   If this parameter is set to $false, you must manually add new e-mail addresses to the Microsoft Exchange recipient when e-mail address policies are added or modified.

There is an alternative way by which we can achieve this setting. We can change the display name alone through ADSI edit

To make this change in the adsiedit follow the below instruction

• Open ADSIEdit.msc
• Configuration – Services – Microsoft Exchange
• Open the properties of “CN=MicrosoftExchange329e71ec88ae4615bbc36ab6ce41109e” in right hand side pan.
• Locate the display name attribute and Make sure that it is displaying “Microsoft Exchange” if not then change it to Desired Display name that users want to see when they receive an NDR.
• Close ADSIEdit.

If you need the internal ndr’s to be copied to a mailbox and if a user reply back to an ndr and if that email needs to be delivered to a mailbox and monitored then we need to set value for the attribute MicrosoftExchangeRecipientReplyRecipient.Run the below command

Set-OrganizationConfig -MicrosoftExchangeRecipientReplyRecipient localit

After you run the above command you can see the value as below when you run

Get-OrganizationalConfig |FL

If we want the external ndr’s to be sent to the above email address  we can run the below command

Set-TransportConfig -GenerateCopyOfDSNFor 5.1.0, 5.1.1

Above is an example for getting a copy of DSN only for 2 ndr codes. We can add multiple ndr codes as well.