HiWe are running Exchange 2003.If I go to ADUC > Exchange General, there is a field for Alias.Does anyone know what this does exactly and what the effect of changing it is?

when you change one of users Alias from ADUC it changes the users exchange Aliasso you can see the changed name on outlook client mailbox name below article explains how to change mailbox name on outlookhttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/248793MCSE,CCNA,VCP,APP

Hello, Specifying an Exchange Alias or mailNickName In an Enterprise Exchange deployment, the Exchange Alias is by default the same as the User Logon Name (Pre-Microsoft Windows 2000) or Active Directory attribute sAMAccountName, and is stored in Active Directory as the mailNickName. In a Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration deployment, Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) by default builds the mailNickName based on the initial of the user's first name followed by that user's surname. So "John Chen" would have a Microsoft Exchange Server alias of "jchen". If more than one "John Chen" exists in multiple hosted organizations, the associated mailboxes will be named with duplicate Exchange aliases of "jchen". Having multiple mailboxes with the same Exchange alias will not cause problems unless you allow users to login to POP3 and IMAP services with the User Logon Name (Pre-Windows 2000). In this scenario, you should not use the default MPS behavior but instead set the Exchange Alias/mailNickName attribute to be the same as the sAMAccountName.Source:Specifying an Exchange Alias or mailNickNamehttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc539081.aspx Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

Sure, thanks guys - but I'm still unsure what the mailNickName attribute actually does? What function does it perform and what is the effect of changing it/deleting it?Thanks!

If you delete it, simply it will break the email functionality for that user. i.e you will not able to send and receive email/ but it will not break the windows functionality.Arun Kumar | MCSE - 2K3 + Messaging | ITIL-F V3

Hey Pancamo, I outlined some points in our earlier discussion and certain Exchange components are really dependable on mailNickName.... http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvradmin/thread/4d946ab0-2a48-4b8b-aca9-5dbb0760af08Amit Tank | MVP - Exchange | MCITP:EMA MCSA:M | http://ExchangeShare.WordPress.com

Sure, thanks guys...but I'm still unsure of what the effect of changing the Alias is?Say I have user who has an alias of JaneD. She gets married and I change her account name to Jane Smith. Do I need to change her Alias to JaneS? Or if I change the alias, will this lead to mail delivery issues as she has a new Alias now?I have read that if you change someone's Alias, then any internal cached entries (e.g. Outlook Auto-complete) will not work. The sender will receive an NDR and will have to choose the name from the GAL again. I did test this, however I didn't see this behavior...can someone confirm?Thanks!

~ You don't have to change exchange alias when you change display name. You can keep it as it is...~ About NDR: Internal communication of Exchange works based on legacyExchangeDN which is being created when user/mailbox is created first time. It takes value of alias at the end in its own format but that is during creation of user/mailbox and it doesn't check or change later when you cange alias. So when you cange alias, legacyExchangeDN value remain same and internal mailflow (auto-complete) doesn't affect.~ Exchange aware management tools, like ADUC on Exchange server, don't allow you to delete it or set blank value, however you can delete it with adsiedit.msc but it break certain Exchange process and you will get many errors on Server for that users, like RUS will faill to apply on it, OAB entry will be skipped for that user etc...Hope this is clear, let me know if you still have doubt. Amit Tank | MVP - Exchange Server | MCITP:EMA MCSA:M | http://ExchangeShare.WordPress.com