Hi, Just wanted to verify something in the Exchange forums (while we are doing a FIM project and Exchange provisioning/de). We can easily create an AD user account and Exchange mailbox using the standard FIM provisioning methods - thats all working. Question 1) If we want to remove a users' mailbox, but retain his AD login - we use the 'disable-mailbox' cmdlet? This user now changes to a 'Mail User' correct? Question 2) How do we get the Mail User back to Mailbox user? do we first run: 'disable-mailuser' cmdlet? then run 'enable-mailbox' cmdlet? Is it as easy as that? what should we look out for? thank you, SK

Answer:1 Once you disable mailbox then It remove that object's Exchange attributes from the Active Directory directory service. The user account associated with the mailbox will remain in Active Directory but will no longer be associated with a mailbox, SO this will not be a mail user once disbale because SMTP address will be also remove from AD account. Answer2: You just have to enable AD account to make it mailbox user.Anil MCC 2011,ITIL V3,MCSA 2003,MCTS 2010, My Blog : http://messagingschool.wordpress.com

Thanks, however - once the exchange mailbox is disabled, the AD user account remains and gets a live@edu email address - so isnt that a 'mail user'? And even though the exchange mailbox no longer exists, exchange still changes the email address based on its own email policy - and not the live@edu address (here we will need to create a new exchange email policy I reckon). so for changing mail user to mailbox user, is this still the way to do it? first run: 'disable-mailuser' cmdlet? then run 'enable-mailbox' cmdlet? thanks

Thanks, however - once the exchange mailbox is disabled, the AD user account remains and gets a live@edu email address - so isnt that a 'mail user'? And even though the exchange mailbox no longer exists, exchange still changes the email address based on its own email policy - and not the live@edu address (here we will need to create a new exchange email policy I reckon). so for changing mail user to mailbox user, is this still the way to do it? first run: 'disable-mailuser' cmdlet? then run 'enable-mailbox' cmdlet? thanks Anil has already given you the answer to your first question. When you remove the mailbox (disable-mailbox) the account does not become a mailuser. It´s just a normal user without any Exchange attributes so creating a new EAP will not do any good at all. It will never apply to a user. Question 2 To create a mailbox, yes the command is enable-mailbox but since you will not have any mailuser after running disable-mailbox, there is no need to run disable-mailuserMartina Miskovic

Re: question 1 The issue I have is that the current EAP does indeed apply to my 'mailbox disabled' user - hence my thinking that it is a 'mail user'. Also, when I search Exchange, that user actually appears as a 'mail user'. I can clearly see that the default EAP overwrites any email address I insert in the AD users email attribute.

Re: question 1 The issue I have is that the current EAP does indeed apply to my 'mailbox disabled' user - hence my thinking that it is a 'mail user'. Also, when I search Exchange, that user actually appears as a 'mail user'. I can clearly see that the default EAP overwrites any email address I insert in the AD users email attribute. You should never ever add anything manually on the e-mail field on the user account (General Tab) in ADUC. When Exchange stamps/assign an E-mail address to a Recipients (mailuser, mailboxuser etc) the primary address will be written to that attribute. To look for mailusers in EMS, use get-mailuser Martina Miskovic

Unfortunately we need to change a users email address and we're doing it via FIM. when a users exchange mailbox is disabled, they then get a live@edu account and their email address in AD must reflect that new email address. I will create a new EAP for these alumni users.

I wrote "never ever" in my previous post, that is not totally correct thou. You need to make sure that the primary Email address the recipient have in Exchange, is also added to the Windows Email address. This means, if the recipients doesn´t have "Automatically update e-mail addresses based on e-mail address policy" set, you need to do it manually. This is important for the OAB Generation process. Martina Miskovic

Hi S.Kwan, Per your description, you are using LIVEEDU of MS, right? And use the FIM to configure the account in your domain with the live@edu mailaddress, right? I think you could confirm whether the user is a mailuser, please use get-mailuser and post the information here. If it is a mailuser, the account would have a UserPrincipalName and a ExternalEmailAddress, and it also apply the EAP. And for your two questions at the beginning, the answers by others are correct. In my opinion, after you disable the mailbox for the users, and then associate it with a external emailaddress, it maybe already create a new mailuser and connect to the account through the FIM or other course, you maybe haven't realized the detaled course, so there is a mailuser type showed. Regards! Gavin TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Yes, I am using live@edu. A normal 'mailbox' user must change into a live@edu user - and they land up as 'mail users' in AD/Exchange after I run the 'Disable-Mailbox' cmdlet. I guess I will need to create a EAP for these new users with the new live@edu address.

Hi S.Kwan, Per my know, after using the disable-mailbox could not convert the mailbox user to mailuser, and I also made some tests in my lab. There must be other operations add the external address and opther properties after disabling the mailbox. Sure, you could create a new EAP for the mailusers. Regards! Gavin TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Not sure how, why or when, but it suddenly started working - we no longer see any 'mail users'. Thanks for everyone's input.