How do I set up smarthosting for Office 365?

For a video version of this guide click here.

This is a 2-step process:

• Create a Conditional Connector
• Create a Transport Rule to use the New Connector

 

Create a conditional Connector:

 

1. Login to Office 365
2. Go to the "Admin Centers" > "Exchange"
3. Go to "Mail Flow" > "Connectors"
4. Press "+" to create a new connector and select the following

          From: Office 365 

          To: Partner organization

1. Press Next.
2. Complete the "New Connector" as follows:

           Name: Enter a name for your connector 

           Description: Enter a description (optional) 

           Turn On: Select this option to enable the connector 

1. Press Next
2. For "When to use Connector" select "Only when I have a transport rule setup that redirects messages to this connector".  
3. Press Next.
4. For "How do you want to route email" select "Route email through these smart hosts".
5. Click the +and enter the SmartHost servers from Step 7 (in the Customer Portal), then press Save.
6. Press Next
7. Select the following options for "How should O365 connect to your partner":

           Always use Transport Layer Security (TLS) to Secure the Connection (recommended) 

               Issued by a trusted certificate authority (CA) 

1. Click the Next button to verify your settings
2. Click the Next button to save the connector
3. The next screen will be used to validate the settings
4. Press "+" to add an external email address

           Add an email address of a recipient whose domain is external to your organization

1. Click the Validate button
2. Once Office 365 has been successfully validated, click the Save button 

 

  NOTE: If a validation test fails unexpectedly, contact Support for assistance.

The completed connector may look like this:

 

 

Create a Transport Rule to use the new connector:

This transport rule helps to prevents mail loops and ensures only your company's outbound emails (ie, not external emails sent to internal distribution lists) are routed to the connector

 

1. Go to the "Admin Centers" > "Exchange"
2. Go to "Mail Flow" > "Rules"
3. Click the +and select "Create new rule" from the drop down. This will open a new window.
4. Click "More Options" at the bottom of the screen
5. Give the rule a meaningful name
6. Select the following options:

     Under "Apply this rule if" 

       Select "The recipient..." > "is external/internal" -> "Outside the Organization".

     Under "Do the following" 

       Select "Modify the message properties" > "set a message header" 

         Set the message header 'route to' to the value 'zixserver'

1. Press Add Action
2. Select "Redirect the Message to" -> "the following connector" -> (select the connector created above for Zix)
3. Under "Except if.."
4. Press Add Exception

       Select "The sender.." > "is external/internal" -> "Outside of the organization"

1. Press Add Exception
2. Select "A message header" > "includes any of these words" -> 'routeto' header includes 'zixserver'
3. Press Save
4. Open the rule and set the rule "Priority" to "0" (zero) if it isn't already. Note: If you have Email Archiving then that rule should be highest priority.
5. Click Save

• 1. Lastly, Make sure the rule is set to "On".

 

The completed transport rule may look like this:

 

 

 

The rule should take effect within 5 - 15 minutes, but can take up to an hour during busy periods on Exchange Online.