Email Address Policies In Mixed Exchange 2003/2007 Organisations

When the first Exchange Server 2007 server is installed in an existing Exchange Server 2003 organisation, the installation automatically adds any domains that are enabled in the Exchange 2003 recipient policies to the Accepted Domains list in Exchange Server 2007.  However, domains that are not enabled (such as @test2.local) are not added to the Accepted Domains list.

This creates a warning condition when you view the Email Address Policies in Exchange Server 2007.

If you then add another domain to the Accepted Domains list in Exchange Server 2007, you are not able to remove it again while this condition is in effect.  Here I’ve added @test3.local to the Accepted Domains list, and then attempted to remove it again.  In the real world this might occur if you were adding a domain to the list for testing purposes only, and then wished to remove it.

The error also occurs if you are attempting to remove it via PowerShell.

[PS] C:\>Get-AcceptedDomain 
DomainName          DomainName     DomainType    Default 
----           ----------    ----------    ------- 
testing.local testing.local  Authoritative  True 
test1.local   test1.local    Authoritative  False 
test3.local   test3.local    Authoritative  False     

[PS] C:\>Remove-AcceptedDomain test3.local     

Remove-AcceptedDomain : The accepted domain 'test3.local' 
cannot be removed or made external because it is referenced 
by the e-mail address policy templates 'smtp:@test2.local'. 
At line:1 char:22 
+ Remove-AcceptedDomain  <<<< test3.local

The error message does not tell you which Recipient Policy is the cause of the issue, it only informs you of the disabled domains that the Recipient Policy (or policies) contain.  In a complex Exchange organisation this can make it difficult to track which ones require attention.  However you can refer to the warning message that appears when you view the Email Address Policies to give you clues as to which Exchange Server 2003 Recipient Policies contain disabled domains.

To resolve the condition, you must remove the disabled domains from the Recipient Policy.

Once this has been done you can refresh your view of the Exchange Server 2007 console and the warning no longer appears on the Email Address Policies.

You can now remove the domain from the Accepted Domains list in Exchange Server 2007 either by using the management console or via PowerShell.

[PS] C:\>Remove-AcceptedDomain test3.local 
Confirm 
Are you sure you want to perform this action? 
Removing Accepted Domain "test3.local". 
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All 
[S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): y     

[PS] C:\>Get-AcceptedDomain 
Name           DomainName    DomainType    Default 
----           ----------    ----------    ------- 
testing.local  testing.local Authoritative True 
test1.local    test1.local   Authoritative False