8. Configuring Transport Rules
Transport rules allow you to screen messaging items and apply actions to those that meet specific conditions. When you enable transport rules, all Hub Transport servers in your Exchange organization screen messages according to the rules you've defined.
Understanding Transport Rules
Transport rules have conditions, actions, and exceptions that you can apply. Conditions you can screen for include
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From People Allows you to screen messages from a specific recipient
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From A Member Of A Distribution List Allows you to screen messages from a member of a distribution list
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Sent To People Allows you to screen messages sent to a specific recipient
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Sent To A Member Of A Distribution List Allows you to screen messages sent to a member of a distribution list
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Sent To Users Inside Or Outside The Corporation Allows you to screen messages sent by users inside the organization or received from users outside the organization
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When Any Of The Recipients In The To Field Is People Allows you to screen messages sent to specific recipients
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When Any Of The Recipients In The Cc Field Is People Allows you to screen messages copied to specific recipients
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When Any Of The Recipients In The From Field Is People Allows you to screen messages sent by specific recipients
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When The Subject Field Contains Specific Words Allows you to screen messages that have specific words in their subject line
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When The Subject Field Or The Message Body Contains Specific Words Allows you to screen messages that have specific words in their subject line or message body
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With A Spam Confidence Level (SCL) Rating That Is Greater Than Or Equal To Limit
Allows you to screen messages that have a spam confidence level (SCL)
rating that is greater than or equal to a limit that you set
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When The Size Of Any Attachment Is Greater Than Or Equal To Limit Allows you to screen messages with attachments that are greater than or equal to the size limit that you set
When a message meets all of the conditions you specify in a
transport rule, the message is handled according to the actions you've
defined. Actions you can apply to messages that meet your transport
rule conditions include
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Log An Event With Message
Logs an event in the application logs with the message you specify
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Prepend The Subject With String
Inserts a string you specify into the message subject
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Apply Message Classification
Applies a message classification, such as Privileged, Confidential, Company Internal, or Attachment Removed
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Append Disclaimer Text
Appends disclaimer text to the message
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Add A Recipient To The To Field Addresses
Adds the recipients you specify to the To field of the message
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Copy The Message To Addresses
Adds the recipients you specify to the Cc field of the message
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Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) The Message To Addresses
Adds the recipients you specify to the Bcc field of the message
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Redirect The Message To Addresses
Redirects the message to the recipients you specify
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Send Bounce Message
Drops the message, and sends a bounce message to the sender
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Silently Drop The Message
Drops the message, and provides no notification of this action
Transport rules
can also have exceptions. Exception criteria are similar to condition
criteria. For example, you can exclude messages from certain people or
from certain members of distribution lists. You can also exclude
messages sent to certain people or to particular members of a
distribution list.
You can create a transport rule by completing the following steps:
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In the Exchange Management Console, expand the Organization Configuration node, and select the Hub Transport node.
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On the Transport
Rules tab, right-click an open area of the details pane, and then
select New Transport Rule. This starts the New Transport Rule Wizard.
(See Figure 6.)
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In the Name text box, type a descriptive name for the rule and optionally enter a descriptive comment.
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By default, transport rules are enabled. If you want to create the rule but not enable it, clear the Enable Rule check box.
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Click Next. You now need to specify the conditions for the rule. When you select a condition's check box, as shown in Figure 7,
you must then edit the rule description by clicking the link or links
provided and specifying any required value. For example, to configure
the From People condition, you select the From People check box and
then click the People link under Edit The Rule Description (Click An
Underlying Value). In the Select Senders dialog box, you then click Add
to display the Select Recipient dialog box. You use the Select
Recipient dialog box to select the recipient to which the condition
should apply, and then click OK.
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Click Next. You now need to specify the actions to take when a
message meets the conditions you specified. When you select the check
box for an action, as shown in Figure 8, you must then edit the rule description by clicking the link or links provided and specifying any required value.
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Click Next. You now need to specify any exceptions. When you select
the check box for an exception, you must then edit the rule description
by clicking the link or links provided and specifying any required
value.
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Click Next, and then click New to create the rule. On the Completion page, click Finish.
You can manage transport
rules in several different ways. You can edit their properties or
disable them. When you've created multiple rules, you can also change
their priority to determine the precedence order for application in
case there are conflicts between rules. When multiple rules apply to a
message, the rule with the highest priority is the one that your Hub
Transport server applies.
To manage transport rules, you can right-click and then select one of the following options:
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Change Priority Allows you to set the priority of the rule. The valid range for priorities depends on the number of rules you've configured.
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Disable Rule Disables the transport rule so that it is no longer applied.
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Remove Removes the transport rule.
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Edit Rule Allows you to edit the properties of the transport rule.
In the Exchange Management Shell, you can manage transport
rules using the following cmdlets: New-TransportRule,
Set-TransportRule, Get-TransportRule, and Remove-TransportRule.
