Exchange 2010¶

There are a couple quick and easy methods which can be used to return the round-trip SMTP tests.

Either way no extra software or plug-ins are required.

Method 1.¶

Set up a contact with SMTP address to return messages to mailive01@knowledgefront.com

Fast and always works whether or not the store is online.
Captures complete incoming and outgoing message headers
This method has proven to provide more consistent round trip times for testing pure mail receipt and delivery.

This method always returns the test message, even when the exchange storage is offline.
Should be used purely as a mail flow monitoring mechanism and not for testing the exchange store.

Setup a full mailbox with a server side rule to return and then delete messages

Tests the Exchange store and will fail if the store goes offline.

In previous versions of Exchange it has been noticed the rule may not trigger or be processed in a timely fashion causing delays with test messages that may not exist otherwise. This has been traced back to busy systems dealing with heavy loads of messages.
Only provides outbound headers for later inspection. The response is created as a completely new message in this method and inbound headers are not retained.