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GertjanA's avatar
GertjanA
Moderator
5 years ago

O365 + SMTP Archiving + Alternate Journal Recipient

Hello all,

Looking for advise/experience.

We have O365 configured to use EV SMTP archiving (on prem) for Journal messages. In O365 you can/need to define an Alternate Recipient. This AR is only used if the connection between O365 and the on-prem target smtp addresses is broken (for whatever reason). As example, the normal route is to send O365 journal messages to Journal@gertjan.net. If that connection breaks, the journal messages need to be send to Journalbackup@alink.net

when using this, the messages which go to journalbackup are NEW messages (basically NDR's), having the actual Journal Message as an attachment. This means you cannot simply forward these messages to journal@gertjan.net, as the EV SMTP server would not recognize the target-email-address. You will therefor need to somehow extract the attachment, and then send that as a message to the target smtp address.

Does anyone have any experience with that? What did you use to configure the AR? We've been looking at Postfix, but that proved to be challenging. Do you use the AR, or do you rely on O365 being able to re-astablish the connection quick?

This LINK describes the feature in detail.

  • Saswatab1979's avatar
    Saswatab1979
    5 years ago

    Hi Sheldon,

    Good to hear from you. Regarding automation of the re-submission process there is no out of the box solution available. You will need to develop a Outlook macro script or a EWS script to mimic the manual process. Our company uses a in-house developed Powershell and EWS based script to re-process the NDRs back to their journal targets. 

  • I hope by AR you are actually referrring to the Exchange  Alternate Journal Mailbox (AJM) here. In our organisation using o365 and Exchange 2013 hybrid setup we are using a on-prem Exchange 2013 mailbox as a AJM. To be able to re-send the original Journal report inside the NDR back to the original journal recipient (i.e Journal@gertjan.net in your case) you will need follow the NDR re-submission process. You can re-submit the NDR either through Outlook or OWA. 

    For Outlook 

    1. Open the AJM using Outlook with the AJM's mailbox credentials. Don't use full mailbox access.
    2. Open the NDR inside the AJM -> Click "Send Again" in the NDR window.
    3. A new windows open showing the Journal report with the original email embedded as attachment.
    4. Click Send and the journal report will be delivered to original journal recipient (i.e Journal@gertjan.net in your case)

    Do let me know if you have any further questions around the AJM.

    • SheldonDsouza's avatar
      SheldonDsouza
      Level 4

      Hello Saswatab1979 (after a long time)

      I guess the process you mentioned is a manual one needing intervention, time to time, correct. If I have understood the post correctly, they want an automated process, correct GertjanA ?

      • Saswatab1979's avatar
        Saswatab1979
        Level 3

        Hi Sheldon,

        Good to hear from you. Regarding automation of the re-submission process there is no out of the box solution available. You will need to develop a Outlook macro script or a EWS script to mimic the manual process. Our company uses a in-house developed Powershell and EWS based script to re-process the NDRs back to their journal targets.