KB - Changing the filtering order (Exchange 2019/2016)

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Changing the filtering order (Exchange 2019/2016)

Article was last updated on April 24, 2020. View products that this article applies to.

In most cases, ORF is not the only software scanning emails on your server: other components (like the email filtering module of your resident anti-virus scanner, Content Filtering feature of Exchange, etc) may reject, alter or divert the email before ORF could test it.

By default, ORF has lower priority than other components. If you want ORF to filter emails first, the priorities have to be changed.

Changing Priorities on Exchange 2019 and Exchange 2016

The filtering order depends on the so called Transport Agent priorities. To change these:

Edge Server installation

  1. Start the Exchange Management Shell

  2. To check the priorities on the Edge Server role, enter the following command:

    Get-TransportAgent -TransportService Edge| Format-Table

  3. To change the priority of the Vamsoft ORF SMTP Receive Agent on the Edge role, enter the following command:

    Set-TransportAgent -Identity "Vamsoft ORF SMTP Receive Agent" -TransportService Edge -Priority 1

  4. Finally, restart the MSExchangeTransport Service to apply the changes:

    Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport

Mailbox Server installation

  1. Start the Exchange Management Shell

  2. To check the priorities on the Mailbox role, enter the following commands:

    Get-TransportAgent -TransportService FrontEnd | Format-Table
    Get-TransportAgent -TransportService Hub | Format-Table

  3. To change the priority of the Vamsoft ORF SMTP Receive Agent on the Mailbox role, enter the following commands:

    Set-TransportAgent -Identity "Vamsoft ORF SMTP Receive Agent" -TransportService FrontEnd -Priority 1
    Set-TransportAgent -Identity "Vamsoft ORF SMTP Receive Agent" -TransportService Hub -Priority 1

  4. Finally, restart the MSExchangeFrontEndTransport and MSExchangeTransport services to apply the changes:

    Restart-Service MSExchangeFrontEndTransport
    Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport

Please note that the priorities are restored to their default state after you upgrade or re-install ORF. Other software may also change the priorities without prior notice (e.g., Exchange updates).

Applies To

The article above is not specific to any ORF versions.

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