Restrict the Number of Recipients per Message

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Topic Last Modified: 2012-07-23

You can restrict the number of recipients per message at the following levels in your Exchange organization:

Mailbox
Organization
Connector (for Receive connectors only)
Transport server

Generally, it's a best practice to configure this setting at a higher level and use the mailbox-level configuration for exceptions only. For more information about the levels at which you can configure this restriction, as well as a list of default values, see Understanding Message Size Limits.

Looking for other management tasks related to managing user mailboxes? Check out Managing User Mailboxes.

Caution:
Active Directory also has a global limit for the maximum number of recipients per message. This global limit is separate from the limits that can be managed by using the EMC or the Shell. This global limit is used in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, but it also has an effect in Exchange Server 2010. If the global limit in Active Directory and the organization-level limit in Exchange 2010 are in conflict, the smaller of the two is used as the effective limit. To modify the global limit in Active Directory, you must use Exchange System Manager (in Exchange 2003) or ADSI Edit.

Caution:

Active Directory also has a global limit for the maximum number of recipients per message. This global limit is separate from the limits that can be managed by using the EMC or the Shell. This global limit is used in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, but it also has an effect in Exchange Server 2010. If the global limit in Active Directory and the organization-level limit in Exchange 2010 are in conflict, the smaller of the two is used as the effective limit.

To modify the global limit in Active Directory, you must use Exchange System Manager (in Exchange 2003) or ADSI Edit.

Use the Shell to restrict the number of recipients per message for the entire Exchange organization

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Hub Transport server" entry in the Transport Permissions topic.

Note:
You can't use the EMC to perform this task.

This example restricts the number of recipients per message to 1,000 for your Exchange organization.

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Set-TransportConfig -MaxRecipientEnvelopeLimit 1000

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-TransportConfig.

Use the Shell to restrict the number of recipients per message on a Receive connector

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Receive connectors" entry in the Transport Permissions topic.

Note:
You can't use the EMC to perform this task.

This example restricts the number of recipients per message to 300 for messages received through the Receive connector Contoso Receive Connector.

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Set-ReceiveConnector -Identity "Contoso Receive Connector" -MaxRecipientsPerMessage 300

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-ReceiveConnector.

Use the Shell to restrict the number of recipients per message on a transport server

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Hub Transport server" entry in the Transport Permissions topic.

Note:
You can't use the EMC to perform this task.

This example restricts the number of recipients per message to 200 for messages processed by the Hub Transport server Server01:

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Set-TransportServer -Identity "Server01" -PickupDirectoryMaxRecipientsPerMessage 200

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-TransportServer.

Note:
This restriction applies only to messages submitted by using the Pickup directory on an Edge Transport or Hub Transport server. For more information about the Pickup directory, see Understanding the Pickup and Replay Directories.

Use the EMC to restrict the number of recipients per message for a mailbox

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

In the console tree, click Recipient Configuration.
In the result pane, select the mailbox for which you want to restrict the number of recipients per message.
In the action pane, under the mailbox name, click Properties.
In <Mailbox> Properties, on the Mail Flow Settings tab, select Delivery Options from the list of mail flow settings, and then click Properties.
In Delivery Options, select the Maximum recipients check box, and then, in the corresponding text box, type the maximum number of recipients that can receive a message from the mailbox.
Click OK to return to the Mail Flow Settings tab.

Use the Shell to restrict the number of recipients per message for a mailbox

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

This example restricts the number of recipients per message to 100 for the mailbox user John Smith.

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Set-Mailbox -Identity "John Smith" -RecipientLimits 100

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-Mailbox.