Create Linked Mailbox Exchange Server 2010/13/16

Hello Guys today I am going to discuss about conversion process of a linked mailbox to simple user mailbox. In my previous blog post I had discussed about Google Apps to Office 365 Migration process. It is really a good work for me to share my experiences with all of you, which is also helpful for Exchange and Office 365 Community.

Lets first discuss about Linked Mailboxes and user mailboxes. Linked Mailboxes are not necessary for an organization but it might be necessary at time of deployment of Exchange Server in a resource Forest which allow to centralize all exchange server in a single forest. User can access Linked mailboxes separately in a trusted forest.

As you can see in above image, there is a Trust between Forest A and Forest B. There is also one condition for trusted forest that at least one user account should be created in both forest for creating a linked mailbox. In above fig you may also see that there is one way trust link which is going from Exchange Forest (Forest B) to Account Forest (Forest A). It is also necessary that there should be at least one trusted connection between forests for creation of a linked mailbox.

Create Linked Mailboxes

Linked Mailboxes can be created by using EAC and PowerShell Commands. Therefore I am going to describe first by using Exchange Admin Centre (EAC) and then using PowerShell Commands.

Create Linked Mailbox using EAC

Just go through below steps for linked mailbox creation:

1. Run EAC and then go to Recipients and then choose Mailboxes.
2. Select New and then select Linked Mailbox.
3. Now in New Linked Mailbox page go to Trusted forest or domain and select Account Forest which is having the user account for which you want to create linked mailbox.
4. Now you have to enter Admin Credentials if there is One Way Trust is created. If there is two way trust between Exchange Forest and Account forest then it won’t prompt for entering credentials.
5. Now select Linked Domain Controller from Account forest and then Browse for selecting a user account.
6. Now you will have landed on General Information page. Here enter user name firstly then select Organizational Unit by clicking on Browse button. After selecting OU type User Logon Name, it is required for linked mailbox creation.
7. Now click on More Options and enter new Alias first which should be unique in the forest. After Alias enter Initials, First Name & Last Name. Then Select a mailbox database by clicking on Browse button and then assign Address book policy.
8. After going through all above steps click on Save and now the linked mailbox have created.

Create Linked Mailbox using PowerShell Commands

Linked Mailbox can also be created using Commands, you just have to run commands in PowerShell and Exchange Management Shell. Run below command for Creating a Linked mailbox:

Command: New-Mailbox -Name “mailboxName” -LinkedDomainController “Dcname” -LinkedMasterAccount “Maname” -OrganizationalUnit Users -UserPrincipalName mailidofuser -LinkedCredential:(Get-Credential AdminAccount)

Check Linked Mailbox Status

For checking about Linked Mailboxes just run EAC and go to Recipients and then select Mailboxes. You will see all linked mailboxes in a list and check whether your created mailbox is in the list or not.

You can also check for Linked Mailbox using PowerShell commands. Just run below command in PowerShell or Exchange Management Shell.

Command: Get-Mailbox | FL Name, RecipientTypeDetails, IsLinked, LinkedMasterAccount

Conclusion

In this post we discussed about Creation of Linked Mailboxes using EAC and PowerShell Commands. We also discussed about the usage of Linked Mailboxes, Benefits of Linked Mailboxes and the trust factor between Account Forest and Exchange Server Forest.

In my next post I am going to discuss about how we can convert linked mailbox to user mailbox in hosted exchange server environment.

If you have any queries regarding Linked Mailboxes then you can write in comment section.