what is the alias field for?

[fredmaine]

Exchange 2010, when I create a mailbox recipient object, then open it, one of the fields in the General tab is "Alias"

Help says alias is where you put an alias.

MS Technet article says alias is aka MailNickname and explains how it's default is arrived at but doesn't say what it's for.

I created a test mailbox, set the alias to something unique and tried sending an email to it; nothing.

Googled it even, and can't find out what the real purpose of "alias" is.

Does anyone know??

Fred

 

[zbnet]

The Alias is the one mandatory 'name' field that you have to specificy for a mailbox. It has to be unique, as it is used to exclusively identify that mailbox. The new mailbox wizard in SP1 of Exchange 2010 will suggest one for a new mailbox, unless you have any other dependencies on the Alis field it's usually fine to go with the suggested default.

Think of it as Exchange's way of keeping track of the mailbox, and still add the information that us humans need to identify the mailbox (Display Name, sensible email address, etc etc)

 

[fredmaine]

I understand, I guess, although you'd think they could key off the user login. alias defaults to that anyway. Thanks for your help.