How to Modify Recipient Scope in the Exchange Management Shell

In multi-Domain Forests you may encounter a situation where the Exchange Management Shell is not displaying the results you are expecting for some Get- queries.  The reason for this is what is known as the Recipient Scope.

[PS] C:\Admin>Get-Mailbox

Name           Alias          ServerName  ProhibitSendQuota
----           -----          ----------  ---------------
Administrator  Administrator  exchserv    unlimited

The Recipient Scope is the portion of Active Directory that the Exchange Management Shell or Console will use when managing recipients.  For example, you may set the scope to a single Domain, OU, or to the entire Forest.

You can view the current Recipient Scope in the Exchange Management Shell.

[PS] C:\Admin>$AdminSessionADSettings

ViewEntireForest              : False
DefaultScope                  : resource.contoso.com
PreferredGlobalCatalog        :
ConfigurationDomainController : dc1.resource.contoso.com
PreferredDomainControllers    : {}

You can also modify the scope.  For example, to modify the scope to the entire Forest you would issue this shell command.

[PS] C:\Admin>$AdminSessionADSettings.ViewEntireForest = $true
[PS] C:\Admin>$AdminSessionADSettings

ViewEntireForest              : True
DefaultScope                  :
PreferredGlobalCatalog        :
ConfigurationDomainController : dc1.resource.contoso.com
PreferredDomainControllers    : {}

Notice now that the entire Forest is enabled and the scope is not limited to a single domain. Get- cmdlets for recipient management will now return all recipients in the multi-Domain Forest.