Send Welcome Email to New Mailbox / New Users.

*** Updated to include Enable-Mailbox and use PrimarySMTPAddress ***

Take Away:

- There are many ways to send welcome emails in Exchange 2010/2013.

- Using Cmdlet Extension is one of the ways to send welcome email.

- The blog explains how to setup Welcome email thru Cmdlet Extension.

Let’s understand how to configure Exchange Server to send welcome email:

What is Cmdlet Extension Agents?

Cmdlet extension agents are components in Microsoft Exchange Server 2013/Exchange Server 2010 invoked by Exchange 2013/2010 cmdlets when the cmdlets run. Every time an Exchange cmdlet is run, the cmdlet calls the Scripting Agent cmdlet extension agent. When this agent is called, the cmdlet checks whether any scripts are configured to be called by the cmdlet. If a script should be run for a cmdlet, the cmdlet tries to call any APIs defined in the script. Cmdlet extension agents are available on any server role.

For more information on this please refer the link : https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335054.aspx

Implementation:

As you got an idea on the Cmdlet Extension Agent, I will go ahead and explain how we can use the feature to generate welcome email for the new mailboxes that we create.

When we create new mailbox in Exchange 2010/2013, new-mailbox command is used (whether it is Exchange Management Shell or Exchange Management Console). You can enhance the behavior of the command by using Cmdlet Extension. It is like triggering a script whenever new-mailbox command is used.

In order to use the feature, we need to,

- Deploy XML file on all the exchange servers.

- Enable “Scripting Agent”.

How to deploy XML files?

On all the exchange servers, the exchange setup copies the file "ScriptingAgentConfig.xml.sample" to <installation path>\Bin\CmdletExtensionAgents\. The file is a kind of sample/template. We can modify the file to meet our requirement or we can make our own XML file. I have detailed the steps to modify the sample file to send welcome email.

Note: The sample XML contains other feature blocks. If you are appending the below steps as it is without making changes to other feature blocks, you may receive unexpected warning while create new mailbox. If you are not using cmdlet-extension sample file for any other purpose/tasks, I would suggest you keep only the Welcome Email Feature block as it is in XML file provided in the attached zip file. 

Step #1:

Create a welcome email template in html format that will be sent as welcome email or use the exiting template attached to the blog to suit your requirement. Easiest way to create welcome email template would be, open new message in Outlook, compose the email and save it as HTML.

Step #2:

Make a copy of the existing XML file and rename it to ScriptingAgentConfig.xml. Keep the file in <installation path>\Bin\CmdletExtensionAgents\.

Step #3:

Copy and paste the below script into appropriate location inside the XML file and Save it. It can be inserted between </feature> …. <Feature Name ….> or at the beginning of the XML file (after <Configuration Version=”1.0”>).

# Script to send new email starts here

<Feature Name="Welcome Email" Cmdlets="New-Mailbox,Enable-Mailbox">

  <ApiCall Name="OnComplete">

   if($succeeded)    {

                if ($provisioningHandler.TaskName -eq "New-Mailbox") {

# Replace place holder.

                $USRdname=$provisioningHandler.UserSpecifiedParameters["Name"]

                $tempmsg= [string] (get-content ("c:\welcome\WelcomeMSG.htm"))

                $tempmsg = $tempmsg -replace "NewUser00",$USRdname

                # Picking Primary SMTP address,saving to $pSMTP to send email.

                $Ualias=$provisioningHandler.UserSpecifiedParameters["Alias"]

                $pSMTP = (get-mailbox $Ualias | select-object PrimarySMTPAddress | Format-Wide | Out-String ).trim()

}              

elseif ($provisioningHandler.TaskName -eq "Enable-Mailbox") {               

# Picking Primary SMTP address,saving to $pSMTP to send email.

                $eUalias=$provisioningHandler.UserSpecifiedParameters["Alias"]

                $dName = (get-mailbox $eUalias | select-object Name | Format-Wide | Out-String ).trim()        

                $pSMTP = (get-mailbox $eUalias | select-object PrimarySMTPAddress | Format-Wide | Out-String ).trim()

                # Replace place holder.

                $tempmsg= [string] (get-content ("c:\welcome\WelcomeMSG.htm"))

                $tempmsg = $tempmsg -replace "NewUser00",$dName

}

                # Please give the correct HUB serve IP address in the following line.

                $HUBServer="20.1.1.2"

                $EMail =new-object net.mail.mailmessage

                $HUBTask = new-object net.mail.smtpclient($HUBServer)

                # Email with attachment will be sent from the address given in the following line.

                $EMail.From="administrator@exchange2010.com"

                # Email with attachment will be sent TO the address given in the following line.

                $EMail.To.add($pSMTP)

                # Email Subject and Body details are specified in following lines

                $EMail.Subject="Welcome to Contoso IT !!!"

                $EMail.Body= $tempmsg

                $Email.IsBodyHtml = $true

                $HUBTask.send($EMail)

   }

  </ApiCall>

</Feature>

# Script to send new email ends here

Step #4:

Make the necessary changes in the script to suite your environment.

**** Give the path of the template file you created in Step #1. ****

$tempmsg= [string] (get-content ("c:\welcome\WelcomeMSG.htm"))

**** Give your HUB server IP address and Make sure that the HUB server accept connection ****

$HUBServer="10.1.1.2"

**** Give email address from which you want to send welcome message ****

$WelcomeEMail.From=administrator@e2k10.com

**** Change the subject of the welcome message, if you wish ****

$WelcomeEMail.Subject="Welcome to Contoso IT !!!"

What the script does?

When a new mailbox is created either with new-mailbox or enable-mailbox, on its successful completion, the script will be called. The script works along with email template available in "c:\welcome\WelcomeMSG.htm". It can be modified to meet your requirement.

To start with,

It checks whether new-mailbox or enable-mailbox command is used. If new-mailbox is used, Name parameter value will be stored in variable $USRDname.In addition, we also store the primaySMTPAddress to the variable $pSMTP. When enable-mailbox is used, Alias value will be stored in $eUalias instead of Name. As we need to send email, we use get-mailbox command to retrieve name,primarySMTPAddress and store those in $dName,$pSMTP variables.

Then it reads the content of template "c:\welcome\WelcomeMSG.htm" and stores in the variable $tempmsg. As the template is set with place holder "NewUser00", the script uses “-replace” to update the place holder “NewUser00” with the display name.

Later we create new message object and SMTP client object to send out email. Before we send the email, we compose the email with From address, To address, Subject and Body.

Welcome Email Template with Place Holder:

I have created template as shown in the Picture #1. The template is with place holder “NewUser00”. This will be replaced with display name when the email is sent (as shown in Picture #2).

Picture 1

Welcome Email after place holder replacement:

Picture 2

How to manage/enable Cmdlet Extension Agent?

After the XML file updated with script, you need to enable the agent to call the XML file and the script whenever new-mailbox used. You can view the agent status by running the command: Get-CmdletExtensionAgent | FT Name,Enabled

By default,“Scripting Agent” is disabled. You can enable it using the command,

Enable-CmdletExtensionAgent "Scripting Agent"

When you wanted to disable the “Scripting Agent” , run the command ,

Disable-CmdletExtensionAgent "Scripting Agent"

Enabling or disabling CmdletExtension does not require restart of the server or exchange services in a normal scenario. It is a global command and applicable to all the exchange servers in the organization. So you have to update the XML file on all the exchange servers. If the XML files is not updated on any of the exchange server and you run any non-Get cmdlets, the cmdlet will fail.

 For More Information on managing Cmdlet Extension, please refer the link : https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298143.aspx

Test:

As both script and agent are in place, you can create new mailbox using EMC or EMS and check how it works. You may notice that the mailbox creation is taking little bit longer than it used to. That’s because the additional activities are done along with new-mailbox.

Related articles :

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/library/dd297951(v=exchg.141).aspx

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/library/dd335067(v=exchg.141).aspx

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298143(v=exchg.141).aspx

WelcomeMSG.zip

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The html file can be any where on the exchange server, but make sure that the location his updated in $tempmsg= [string] (get-content ("c:welcomeWelcomeMSG.htm")). If the files are in place and still is not working, please check, whether you have enabled Scripting Agent agent by running the command : Get-CmdletExtensionAgent | FT Name,Enabled.

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  SUKUM-MSFT. Hi Sen, Yes. You can use cmdlet extension to email when you use set/add commands including the command that you will run in your example. The Scripting agent cmdlet extension agent isn't invoked when cmdlets with the Get verb are run. Refer the link for details - technet.microsoft.com/.../dd335054(v=exchg.150).aspx.

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  How could i put in Username and email adress in the welcome mail. ??

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  You can use all the variables that you are giving/entering at the time of mailbox creation to identify the new mailbox. The email id formation should be based on the format that you use. I hope I could answer your query, Variables.

• Anonymous
  April 16, 2013
  What the list of all "variables" to use, for example: SamAccountName

• Anonymous
  April 16, 2013
  I can't get this to work on my exchange 2010 server. Do all the files in the WelcomeMSG.zip go into the c:welcome folder ? Is there away to test after making all the changes?

• Anonymous
  June 18, 2013
  Do I need to make this change on all Exchange Servers to get this work?

• Anonymous
  July 14, 2013
  I'm sorry for the delayed response. Yes. You have to make the change on all the exchange 2010 servers as the agent enabling is global settings. I hope I could answer your questions

• Anonymous
  July 17, 2013
  Is there any way, it could be customized to send a welcome email to a user, when he/she is granted with Full access permission over a shared mailbox? To clarify, when user A is granted with full access permission over SharedMBX1, an acknowledgement/welcome email has to be sent to UserA summarizing the permission. Like how it happens when a user is granted with delegate permissions in outlook. Hope I was able to spread my idea! Any comment would be appreciated.

• Anonymous
  July 30, 2013
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 06, 2013
  I've got the same thing like alex said. Did you solved you problem? One more question, I'm creating users in AD UC, after that I'm enabling-mailbox over EMC. I was trying to modify this script, make another one: <Feature Name="WelcomeEmail_new" Cmdlets="enable-mailbox">  <ApiCall Name="OnComplete">   if($succeeded)   { blah blah blah.. } But it won't work. What did I wrong?

• Anonymous
  August 07, 2013
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 08, 2013
  Hi! Your second script works for me. Thank you. That's what i need.

• Anonymous
  August 09, 2013
  Hi, alex. It's working only when user created from EMC (new-mailbox command), if you create user in AD UC and then enable mailbox for it, this script will give you an error ;(( can't make it work!

• Anonymous
  September 03, 2013
  I think I solved the problem with "Enable-Mailbox" in my article. Try this: itnuts.wordpress.com/.../exchange-2010-automatic-welcome-message-for-a-new-user

• Anonymous
  September 04, 2013
  Thanks Andrey, worked for me! Just made some changes in the script and enable-mailbox started to work like it should be!

• Anonymous
  October 18, 2013
  Hi Albert What changes have you made? I tried the script, but no luck

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2013
  This is absolutely brilliant. Well-written, to the point. Worked in first go. Thank you!

• Anonymous
  December 10, 2013
  Hi Team, Can anyone provide us script where we have created user through AD UC mode. Thanks in Adv.

• Anonymous
  February 10, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 11, 2014
  Also...Pls let me know how to use this script for MailEnabled users...