In multi-Domain Forests you may encounter a situation where the Exchange Management Shell is not displaying the results you are expecting for some Get- queries.  The reason for this is what is known as the Recipient Scope.

[PS] C:Admin>Get-Mailbox

Name           Alias          ServerName  ProhibitSendQuota
----           -----          ----------  ---------------
Administrator  Administrator  exchserv    unlimited

The Recipient Scope is the portion of Active Directory that the Exchange Management Shell or Console will use when managing recipients.  For example, you may set the scope to a single Domain, OU, or to the entire Forest.

You can view the current Recipient Scope in the Exchange Management Shell.

[PS] C:Admin>$AdminSessionADSettings

ViewEntireForest              : False
DefaultScope                  : resource.contoso.com
PreferredGlobalCatalog        :
ConfigurationDomainController : dc1.resource.contoso.com
PreferredDomainControllers    : {}

You can also modify the scope.  For example, to modify the scope to the entire Forest you would issue this shell command.

[PS] C:Admin>$AdminSessionADSettings.ViewEntireForest = $true
[PS] C:Admin>$AdminSessionADSettings


ViewEntireForest              : True
DefaultScope                  :
PreferredGlobalCatalog        :
ConfigurationDomainController : dc1.resource.contoso.com
PreferredDomainControllers    : {}

Notice now that the entire Forest is enabled and the scope is not limited to a single domain. Get- cmdlets for recipient management will now return all recipients in the multi-Domain Forest.

About the Author

Paul Cunningham

Paul is a former Microsoft MVP for Office Apps and Services. He works as a consultant, writer, and trainer specializing in Office 365 and Exchange Server. Paul no longer writes for Practical365.com.

Comments

  1. Kabhir

    In 2010 Exchange server 2010 Set-ADServerSettings applies only to the current session, is there a way to set in every session By Default

  2. Michael Woods

    Can I enable the ViewEntireForest for the EAC? (Exchange 2016). Certain functions (like export to PST) do not work for mailboxes in other domains within my forest. They work in the shell if I include the -domaincontroller parameter

  3. vladg

    In case you’re still wondering – no, you cannot modify the ‘read’ scope but (in Exchange 2010 and later) you can modify write scope via RBAC

  4. Kelvin Teang

    Is it possible to disable “modify recipient scope” based on permission?

  5. Marty van Doorninck

    Paul – when I run the $AdminSessionADSettings in the EMS I don’t get the nice output you show here… displays no results. Any idea what I’m doing wrong? Thanks!

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