Our office is closing for the holidays, and I want to setup an auto reply if anyone attempts to email. Rather than get everyone to do it individually I want to set a blanket message on the Exchange 2010 server.
Looking around here I found hub transport rules can be used, but I don't want to send a rejection message, like in this post I want to keep the message but just say that we won't get back to you fora couple of weeks.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Best Answer
I can think of a bit of a hacky way to do this, but it might leave you with undesired results (read: run this command at your own peril). You don't specify the size of your organization, but this is probably only really appropriate for a small number of mailboxes.
You can manipulate the mailbox auto reply configuration (out of office) using PowerShell, which means you are able to change the OOF message and turn it on in bulk.
I'll put the warnings about running the command before actually posting the command, just so you read them.
User 1 <==> User 2
(User 1 forwards to User 2, and User 2 forwards to User 1)In the Exchange Management Shell, run
Get-Mailbox -OrganizationalUnit "Acme Widgets Users" | Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -AutoReplyState Enabled -ExternalMessage "The office is now closed until <<some time>>. Your email will be dealt with on my return."
Change the message as desired, and if you're feeling particularly adventurous you can change the condition (the preceding
Get-Mailbox
) to something more suitable. Please also test the command without theSet-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration
to see what users will be affected.