Ok,

I have a Windows Server 2012 DC with AD, DNS, and DHCP, SCCM 2012 running on a VM, and Lync  server running on another VM.  I would like to add Exchange 2010 to this on a third VM.  I have gone over the prereqs and am happy to install it. But, I am a bit unsure over the following aspects:

1) My AD domain is called home.biz however I own several internet domain names setup to point to a VPS I rent. Can I configure Exchange 2010 to send/receive mail on multiple domain names on the one server?  So for example, at the moment I use the mail server on the VPS (IMAP) and have multiple mailboxes on these domains and can access them all in Outlook as separate nodes. Would this functionality be possible with the setup above?

2) I have looked into this but could do with some pointers. I would like to use the VPS as a middle-man/relay between my Exchange box in my home network and the outside world. Can anyone advise me on how to do this?  The VPS is running Centos with Plesk control panel and I have the ability to modify and create DNS records on this box.

I know I will have to create/edit send and receive connectors but DNS - would it be a case of creating NS and MX records on my home AD domain to point to the IP of the VPS and then create records on the VPS to point to my public static IP?

This is really only for my learning and testing but would this configuration open my home LAN to oodles of spam and vulnerabilities/attacks?

Hope you gurus help! :)

Hello,

I'm sorry. I'm not familar with VPS.

For exchange server, If you want to send messages to these domains, you need to add these domain names to remote domains in your exchange server.

From you description, I consider you can use the VPS as a middle-man/relay.

By default, when an Exchange 2013 Client Access server is installed it is pre-configured with a Receive Connector named Default Frontend <servername> that allows Anonymous Users to connect. So you needn't configure your receive connector.

For your send conenctor, you can choose use DNS MX record to route message or use a smart host to route message.

If you use DNS MX record to route message, you can refer to the following article to configure the record.

Manually Configuring DNS Lookups for Exchange Server 2013

http://exchangeserverpro.com/exchange-2013-manually-configure-dns-lookups/

Additional article for your reference.

Configuring Outbound Mail Flow in Exchange Server 2013

http://exchangeserverpro.com/configuring-outbound-mail-flow-in-exchange-server-2013/

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1) My AD domain is called home.biz however I own several internet domain names setup to point to a VPS I rent. Can I configure Exchange 2010 to send/receive mail on multiple domain names on the one server? 

Most certainly can. In Exchange you can set up multiple "authoritative" domains as accepted-domains. You can then assign these domain names to any user in your organisation.

All you would need to do then is point your MX records to the Exchange server, and you should receive your email providing your receive connectors are set up correctly!

Thanks guys - I appreciate your time and knowledge.

I think I have all the different bits floating about in my head but I need to make sense of them.  A VPS by the way is a virtual private server. In this case, it is a Linux box running CentOS configured primarily for web hosting services. 

I imagine the process to achieve what I want is generally as follows:

1) Create a MX record in Windows DNS to point to the Exchange box

2) Create a SmartHost send-connector that points to my VPS (If this doesn't work or requires additional Linux/sendmail config I think I could use my ISP's mail relay)

3) I have a static IP but I am not sure how to point the relay/VPS back to the Exchange box however.... so for inbound email, how does it get from A to B through the relay/VPS?

Many thanks,
Tony

Hello,

For inbound email, you can add the VPS ip address under network property for your receive connetor.

I recommend you create a new receive connetor to do this.

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That's exactly what I have done and I can send/receive mail so thank you. I still have a couple more loose ends to tidy up though if anyone can assist:

• On the VPS I have created a couple of MX records for my .co.uk domain pointing to the hostname assigned to my public static IP address.  This seems to route the mail correctly but I would like a situation where if the Exchange box on my LAN went down, any mail sent to my email addresses would "sit/wait/queue" on the VPS until the Exchange box was back up.  At the moment, if I shut down my Exchange server any mail sent gets a bounce-back saying something along the lines of "this is not in my allowed list of recipients
  ****Correction - this only seems to happen if I send something immediately after the Exchange box is shut down ****

• Lastly, is there a way to setup Outlook webmail/Outlook Anywhere using my stated configuration?  I am not quite sure where to start if I'm being honest. Am I correct in thinking the clients (phone, iPad etc) would need to connect directly to my box inside my network? Does this mean I need some sort of DNS record on my VPS to point the Outlook webmail URL to my public IP and then another record(s) in my AD DNS to point to the Exchange server? 
  
  

Many thanks again for all your time and advice,

Tony

Hello,

I consider if the Exchange box on my LAN went down, any mail sent to my email addresses would queue on the VPS and generate NDR information.

If you want to access your mailbox from internet, you need to use TMG/UAG to publish your owa or outlook anywhere.

Here is the blog for your reference.

Publishing Exchange Server 2013 using TMG

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/11/21/publishing-exchange-server-2013-using-tmg.aspx

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Thank you Cara,

What I would like to do is be able to go to webmail.mydomain.co.uk and access my email from the internet. Are TMG/UAG absolute requirements for this? How does my internet domain name link back in to my internal Exchange server (hopefully this makes sense) when accessing webmail?  Would I need additional DNS records on my VPS to point towards my LAN and Exchange server for the webmail.mydomain.co.uk subdomain?

Many thanks,
Tony

Hello,

If you want to access your mailbox from the internet, you must use TMG/UAG to publish owa or outlook anywhere.

If you use TMG/UAG to publish owa or outlook anywhere, the TMG/UAG will proxy user requests to your CAS server.

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