Exchange 2007 anti-spam function conversion tool

In Exchange 2003, some basic anti-spam features were integrated, enabling system administrators to reduce unwanted commercial spam (UCE), viruses and malware in general. These functions include:

• List of real-time removal service provider support.

• List of rejection and extended acceptance.

• Function of filtering mail by sender name.

• Filter function by name of internal network recipient.

• Ability to limit advanced submissions and relaying on an SMTP virtual server.

• Convert with Outlook 2003, Outlook Web Access Block and Safe Lists.

• Smart Exchange mail filter (SP2).

Although these configuration settings are stored in Active Directory, they will not be converted directly to Exchange 2007 if you decide to upgrade to this new version. But nothing to worry about, the Anti Spam Migratioin Tool can help you handle the problem with a huge amount of information. This tool reads settings from Active Directory and converts them to the corresponding Windows PowerShell script, including Exchange 2007 activities that can be run on Exchange Server 2007's Edge Transport or Hub Transport.

The following table shows you the list of conversion settings this tool supports:

Connection Filtering • Global Accept and Deny List Configuration: This tool converts the information on the accepted list and rejects the corresponding Exchange 2007 parameter. IPAllowList Entry (IP address list allowed) and IPBlockListEntry (list of excluded IP addresses). For each list, there is a corresponding Add-IPAllowListEntry or Add-IPBlockListEntry written for the output script.

• Block List Service Configuration: Convert the corresponding remove list service to the Exchange 2007 Add-InBlockListProvider activity.

• Exception list to block list service rules: This setting is converted to BypassedRecipients parameter on IPBlockListProvidersConfig object using Set-IPBlockListProvidersConfig. Recipient Filtering • Filter recipients who are not in the directory (Filter recipient without name in directory): This setting is converted to RecipientValidationEnabled parameter on RecipientFilterConfig object using Set-RecipientFilterConfig.

• Block messages that are sent to recipients: This setting is converted to BlockListEnabled and BlockedRecipients parameters on the RecipientFilterConfig object using Set-RecipientFilterConfig. Sender Filtering • Filter messages with blank sender: This setting is converted to the BlankSenderBlockingEnabled parameter on the SenderFilterConfig object.

• Drop connection if address match filter (Disconnect if address matches filter): This setting is not converted because it is not supported in Exchange Server 2007.

• Archive filtered messages: This setting is not converted because it is not supported in Exchange Server 2007.

• Accept messages without notifying sender of filtering (Receive messages without notifying the sender filter): Setup is not converted because it is not supported in Exchange Server 2007.

• Block messages from senders: The setting is converted to BlockedSenders, BlockedDomains, BlockedDomainsAndSubdomains and Action parameters on the SenderFilterConfig object using Set-SenderFitlerConfig. Sender ID Filtering • Sender ID validation failure action (Acknowledgment of error from sender ID): This setting is transferred to the SpoofedDomainAction parameter on the SenderIdConfig object using Set-SenderIDConfig. Intelligent Message Filtering • Gateway Blocking Configuration: This setting is converted to one of three SCL thresholds and one of three SCL parameters on the ContentFilterConfig object using Set-ContentFilterConfig. For example, if the SCL threshold is set to 6 and the operation is set to Delete, the corresponding task is

Set-ContentFilterConfig -SCLDeleteThreshold: 6 -SCLDeleteEnabled: $ true -SCLQuarantineEnabled: $ false -SCLRejectEnabled: $ false

• Custom Weight Entries: In Exchange Server 2003, these parameters are described in an XML file MSExchange.UceContentFilter.xml, located at the same location as the file Intelligent Message Filter DAT. To convert these settings, the tool can be invoked with a switch, allowing you to describe the file location. It then reads these parameters and converts each parameter to Add-ContentFilterPhrase. General settings • Perimeter IP List and Internal IP Range Configuration (Configure the range of internal IP address and list of IP address): This setting is converted to InternalSMTPServers parameter on the object. TransportConfig uses Set-TransportConfig.

Setting

Before installing this tool, you must ensure that all of the following requirements are met:

• Use one of the operating systems: Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003;

• Install Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 or newer;

• The account used to run this tool needs to have read access to the AD configuration container and has access to the MSExchange.UCEContentFilter.xml file.

The process of installing this tool is quite easy:

1. Download Exchange 2007 Anti Spam Migration Tool.

2. Run Exchange2007AntiSpamMigration.msi, it will retrieve the corresponding tools and documents from the destination directory (set by default at C: Program FilesExchange2007AntiSpamMigration).

This tool does not add any icons to the Start menu, so you will have to run it from the command line. Use the following:

Exchange2007AntiSpamMigration [/ f:] [/ o:] [/?]

/ f: Optional full path to MSExchange.UCEContentFilter.xml file. Nếu không rõ, tùy chọn từ hoặc từ ngữ này không được chuyển đổi.

/ o: Optional output file name. Nếu không ghi rõ, xuất được ghi vào MigratedSettings.ps1 trong hiện mục thư.

/? Displays usage.

Exporting Anti-Spam Settings

To test and run the tool, it is necessary to include the anti-spam settings of the Exchange 2003 environment. So you need to add some values ​​that can be converted later. The figure below illustrates the settings of the Exchange 2003 environment.

Figure 1 : List of perimeter IP addresses.

Figure 2 : Setting up mail filtering by sender.

Figure 3 : Filter connection.

Figure 4 : Filter by recipient.

Figure 5 : Smart mail filtering.

Figure 6 : Filter sender ID.

After filling out the Exchange 2003 anti-spam settings with some random values ​​and running the tool, you will get a PowerShell script as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 7 : Running the tool.

Figure 8 : Result file.

In the test environment we used only a single Exchange 2007 Server, with three roles: Client Access, Mailbox and Hub Transport.

Since the Hub Transport server only needs to be used when the Edge Transport does not perform anti-spam functionality, it is not allowed by default (Figure 9). Adding this functionality to the Hub Transport server is a fairly simple process. Just launch the Exchange Management Shell and in the Scripts folder created (C: Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerScriptsinstall-AntispamAgents.ps1), you just need to find a PowerShell script to install the Anti-spam agent.

After completing these steps, you will see the Anti-spam tab allowed in the Exchange Management Console (Figure 11).

Figure 9 : Hub Transport without the Anti-spam tab

Figure 10 : Installing the Anti-spam agent.

Figure 11 : Hub transport with Anti-spam tab.

We now have a Hub Transport server with anti-spam agents and only have to run the export script (the results section) from Anti Spam Migration Tool (Figure 12). As you can see in the pictures below, all settings are successfully imported:

Figure 12 : Run the tool to enter the settings.

Figure 13 : Filter recipient.

Figure 14 : List of address filtering providers.

Figure 15 : Filter senders.

Figure 16 : Filter recipient.

Conclude

Exchange Server 2007 provides several advanced anti-spam functions. If you are switching from Exchange 2003 to the current version, you will find this tool very valuable.

The output script (results section) in PowerShell takes into account most of the previous settings and makes the conversion process quite easy. If you're curious a little bit more, you'll find that Exchange organizations in the example in the article aren't even in the same forest. So it can be affirmed that this tool works perfectly in the most general cases.