Changes made to the mail flow in EAC do not take effect immediately

Question

Recently, I have made changes of mail flow in EAC but the rules did not take effect immediately.

Sometime, I have to wait 2-3 hours or longer

How to speed up to propagate the changes and apply them across the system?

Could you provide the solutions on server setting, powershell cmd, etc.?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello, @CC,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform!

Based on your information, I understand that you are experiencing delays in mail flow rule propagation in Exchange Admin Center. Here are some steps and tips that might help speed up the propagation process:

1.Restart the Microsoft Exchange Transport Service: Restart the Microsoft Exchange Transport service is a common way to force an immediate update of the cache on a Mailbox server. You need to restart the service on each Mailbox server where you want with the Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport cmdlet to forcibly update the cache.

2.Use PowerShell to Apply Changes: Usually, making changes directly through PowerShell can be faster than using the EAC. Here are some useful cmdlets:

a. Create a new mail flow rule

New-TransportRule -Name "RuleName" -Priority 0 -From "user@example.com" -To "user2@example.com" -SetHeaderName "X-Header" -SetHeaderValue "Value"

b. Update an existing rule

Set-TransportRule -Identity "RuleName" -Priority 1

3.Prioritize Rules: Ensure that your most critical rules have higher priority. You can set the priority when creating or updating rules.

Set-TransportRule -Identity "RuleName" -Priority 0

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Thank you for your support and understanding.

Best Wishes,

Alex Zhang

Answer 2

Hi CC,

Thank you for posting in the Q&A Forums.

Confirm that the changes have been saved:

Ensure that you have clicked the Save button after making changes to the mail flow rule in EAC.

Check rule status:

In EAC, check the status of the mail flow rules to ensure that they have been properly enabled.

Check for any errors or warning messages that may provide clues that the rule is not in effect immediately.

Resynchronize or refresh:

If possible, try resynchronizing or refreshing the rule settings in EAC to ensure that the changes have been recognized and applied by the system.

This may involve restarting certain services or waiting for the system to automatically synchronize.

Consider system load:

If the system load is high, it may affect the speed of rule propagation.

Making changes during off-peak hours may reduce wait times.

Check the priority and order of mail flow rules:

Ensure that the priority of new rules is set correctly so that they are applied in the expected order.

Rules with a higher priority will be processed first, so make sure your new rules are properly prioritized.

Best regards

NeuviJ

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