XADM: Disabling Proxy Address Generation Does Not Work

The Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.0 and 5.5 Administrator programs have the ability to disable the generation of proxy addresses for certain address types. This is done on the Site Addressing page of the Site Addressing object under the Configuration object.

This functionality only works on Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.0 or above.

Therefore, if an Exchange Server site contains both version 4.0 and 5.0 or above servers, mailboxes that were created on the version 5.0 or above server, will not have the proxy addresses automatically created because the option was disabled. However, if a mailbox is created on a version 4.0 server, the mailbox will have all the proxy addresses automatically created.

The same results occur, when mailboxes are modified using the Import/Export functionality of the Administrator program. If the import is done on a version 5.0 or above server, the disabled proxy addresses are not added to the mailboxes, however, if the import is done on a version 4.0 server, the disabled proxy addresses will be added to the server.

The problem occurs because the functionality to disable certain proxy addresses from being generated was added in version 5.0.

The System Attendant service is responsible for generating proxy addresses. It does so by calling the proxy generators registered with the Exchange Directory, for the current hardware platform. To confirm which proxy generators are registered, double-click "Configuration\Addressing\E-Mail Address Generators" in the right pane of the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program.

In version 5.0 and above, the System Attendant service looks at the "Disabled-Gateway-Proxy" attribute on the Site Addressing object and does not call the proxy address generators corresponding to the address types listed in the above attribute.

In version 4.0, the System Attendant does not use the "Disabled-Gateway- Proxy" attribute, and calls each proxy address generator registered for the current hardware platform. This results in the generation of proxy addresses for address types that have been disabled.

In a site with a mixture of version 4.0 and 5.0 or above servers, the easiest way to generate mailboxes or custom recipients without proxy addresses of a certain type, is to make all the additions or modifications are performed on a version 5.0 or above server.

In version 4.0, the only way to prevent the generation of an address is to remove the proxy address generator.