Question:
How can I define a second SMTP e-mail address, specify that the new e-mail address be the reply address, and retain the old address easily for many (>1000) users?
Answer:
Probably the easiest way to do this is to do a Directory Export in Exchange Administrator to create a .CSV file, and then open that .CSV file in Excel.
- If you don’t already have one you’ll need to add a column called “Secondary-Proxy-Addresses” (no quotes).
- Select the column with your primary SMTP addresses and drag to move those to the new column you just created.
- Now you’ll need to create the new primary addresses. Without any details of your mailboxes or what the new addresses are, I can’t really get very specific on how to create them in Excel?but Excel has a variety of tools, from the Fill Handle to nifty functions and macros that can automate (to varying degrees) the process of filling in data.
- Once you’ve got all your new primary addresses created, save that file as a .CSV file (Comma-Separated Values) and then do a Directory Import of that file back into Exchange.
I shouldn’t have to tell you that it’s a good idea to have a full backup of your Exchange server before you do things like this…but I guess I just did.
CAUTION: One thing to watch out for?be sure to use a recent version of Excel (like Excel 2000) because older versions have a limit of 255 characters in a cell, so lengthy distribution lists would get truncated.
