transport rule to redirect mail sent to a distribution group

Question

On MS Exchange Server 2010 SP3 there is a distribution group with address group1@example.com.

The organization gave that address to some third parties for some correspondence but they have recently started sending some automated messages to that address. The manager of that group would like that those automated messages get filtered on the Exchange server so that they are redirected to a single user inside the organization. The automated messages are always sent from particular senders.

I tested a transport rule that does the following: messages sent from a particular sender to the group address are redirected to particular user. The rule can be created with the following command in the Exchange Management Shell:

New-TransportRule -Name 'test' -Comments '' -Priority '0' -Enabled $true -From 'foo.bar@gmail.com' -SentTo 'group1@example.com' -RedirectMessageTo 'user1@example.com'

Although the command created the rule successfully (and it can be seen in the EMC > Organization Configuration > Hub transport), the redirection of messages doesn't work: the messages are delivered to all members of the group as before. Does anyone know why is that?

I read the following MS TechNet articles but didn't find any reason why the above rule would not work:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124737.aspx
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638183.aspx
Ibid. /aa997187.aspx
Ibid. /bb124703.aspx

I also created a similar rule that uses the "sent to a member of distribution list" condition:

New-TransportRule -Name 'test' -Comments '' -Priority '0' -Enabled $true -From 'foo.bar@gmail.com' -SentToMemberOf 'group1@example.com' -RedirectMessageTo 'user1@example.com'

With that rule the redirection of messages works but the rule has a side effect that it also redirects messages sent from the sender explicitly to a member of the distribution group.

If I add an additional exception in that rule:

New-TransportRule -Name 'test' -Comments '' -Priority '0' -Enabled $true -From 'foo.bar@gmail.com' -SentToMemberOf 'group1@example.com' -RedirectMessageTo 'user1@example.com' -ExceptIfSentTo 'groupmember1@example.com','groupmember2@example.com'

then the redirection of the messages does not work and they are delivered to all members of the group.

Sembee · Answer

I am not surprised that your rule "Sent to a member of distribution list" didn't work as that rule type is to allow you to apply the same rule to members of a group, not to the group itself.

I would use the rule where text appears in the header to capture the messages instead. That will be more reliable than the sent to - that is of course presume the rule address appears in the header!

transport rule to redirect mail sent to a distribution group

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