If you have done a number of Exchange migrations, or have a large number of servers to migrate in a single migration, I am sure you have run into the pain of replicating the receive connectors to the new server. Lots of settings to copy down and move over plus there is the headache of explicit permissions granted on the connector in the case of relays or other special use connectors. That can waste a lot of time that you would much rather spend on the finale of Sherlock season 3. Let’s see if we can simplify that today with this script for Copy-ReceiveConnector. You call the script as follows:

Copy-Receive Connector -SourceConnector "EXCHANGE\Alternate Receive Connector" -DestinationServer NEWEXCHANGE -DomainController dc01

This will create a new receive connector on the destination server with all of the settings specified on the old receive connector. It will then loop through all of the non-inherited permissions on the connector and copy those over. You can also specify a new name for the connector via -Name. Onto the code.

<# .SYNOPSIS Copy-ReceiveConnector - Copies a receive connector from a source server to a  destination server .DESCRIPTION Takes the source receive connector a creates a copy on the destination server with values populated from the source receive connector. .PARAMETER SourceConnector Identity of the source receive connector .PARAMETER DestinationServer Server name of the destination Exchange server .PARAMETER DomainController Target domain controller for setting the configuration .PARAMETER Name Optional new name for the connector .EXAMPLE Copy-Receive Connector -SourceConnector "EXCHANGE\Alternate Receive Connector"  -DestinationServer NEWEXCHANGE -DomainController dc01 #>
[CmdletBinding()]
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)][string]$SourceConnector,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)][string]$DestinationServer,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)][string]$DomainController,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$False)][string]$Name
)
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
# Get the values for the old connector
$Source = Get-ReceiveConnector -Identity $SourceConnector
# Update the name if specified
if($Name)
{
 $Source.Name = $Name
}
# Custom permission group is not allowed in Exchange 2013 so we need to remove it
# Nothing to be concerned about since the ACEs are explicitly copied over.
$TempArray = @($Source.PermissionGroups) -split ", " | Select-String -Pattern "Custom" -NotMatch
$TempString = "$($TempArray)"
$Source.PermissionGroups = $TempString.Replace(" ", ", ")
# Copy all the values over to create the new connector on the 2013 server
New-ReceiveConnector -Bindings $Source.Bindings -Server $DestinationServer -DomainController $DomainController -Name $Source.Name -RemoteIPRanges $Source.RemoteIPRanges -AdvertiseClientSettings $Source.AdvertiseClientSettings -AuthMechanism $Source.AuthMechanism -Banner $Source.Banner -BinaryMimeEnabled $Source.BinaryMimeEnabled -ChunkingEnabled $Source.ChunkingEnabled -Comment $Source.Comment -ConnectionInactivityTimeout $Source.ConnectionInactivityTimeout -ConnectionTimeout $Source.ConnectionTimeout -DefaultDomain $Source.DefaultDomain -DeliveryStatusNotificationEnabled $Source.DeliveryStatusNotificationEnabled -DomainSecureEnabled $Source.DomainSecureEnabled -EightBitMimeEnabled $Source.EightBitMimeEnabled -EnableAuthGSSAPI $Source.EnableAuthGSSAPI -Enabled $Source.Enabled -EnhancedStatusCodesEnabled $Source.EnhancedStatusCodesEnabled -ExtendedProtectionPolicy $Source.ExtendedProtectionPolicy -Fqdn $Source.Fqdn -LongAddressesEnabled $Source.LongAddressesEnabled -MaxAcknowledgementDelay $Source.MaxAcknowledgementDelay -MaxHeaderSize $Source.MaxHeaderSize -MaxHopCount $Source.MaxHopCount -MaxInboundConnection $Source.MaxInboundConnection -MaxInboundConnectionPercentagePerSource $Source.MaxInboundConnectionPercentagePerSource -MaxInboundConnectionPerSource $Source.MaxInboundConnectionPerSource -MaxLocalHopCount $Source.MaxLocalHopCount -MaxLogonFailures $Source.MaxLogonFailures -MaxMessageSize $Source.MaxMessageSize -MaxProtocolErrors $Source.MaxProtocolErrors -MaxRecipientsPerMessage $Source.MaxRecipientsPerMessage -MessageRateLimit $Source.MessageRateLimit -MessageRateSource $Source.MessageRateSource -PermissionGroups $Source.PermissionGroups -PipeliningEnabled $Source.PipeliningEnabled -ProtocolLoggingLevel $Source.ProtocolLoggingLevel -RequireEHLODomain $Source.RequireEHLODomain -RequireTLS $Source.RequireTLS -ServiceDiscoveryFqdn $Source.ServiceDiscoveryFqdn -SizeEnabled $Source.SizeEnabled -SuppressXAnonymousTls $Source.SuppressXAnonymousTls -TarpitInterval $Source.TarpitInterval -TlsDomainCapabilities $Source.TlsDomainCapabilities -TransportRole $Source.TransportRole
# Next we need to copy over all of the explicity created permissions
$ConnectorPermissions = Get-ReceiveConnector -Identity $SourceConnector | Get-ADPermission | where {$_.IsInherited -eq $false}
$ConnectorPermissions | foreach {
 Get-ReceiveConnector "$($DestinationServer)\$($Source.Name)" | Add-ADPermission -DomainController $DomainController -User $_.User -Deny:$_.Deny -AccessRights $_.AccessRights -ExtendedRights $_.ExtendedRights
}

And as a bonus here’s a script for just copying over the permissions configured on a connector, in case you wanted to roll your own connector but didn’t want to spend the time on redefining all of the permissions. Usage is not quite the same as above as you are just specifying a source and destination connector.

Copy-ReceiveConnectorPermissions -SourceConnector "EXCHANGE\Alternate Receive Connector" -DestinationConnector "NEWEXCHANGE\New Receive Connector"
<# .SYNOPSIS Copy-ReceiveConnectorPermissions - Copies the permissions from the source  connector to the destination connector .DESCRIPTION Takes the source receive connector, retrieves all of the explicitly defined  permissions, then applies them to the destination receive connector .PARAMETER SourceConnector Identity of the source receive connector .PARAMETER DestinationConnector Identity of the destination receive connector .EXAMPLE Copy-Receive Connector -SourceConnector "EXCHANGE\Alternate Receive Connector"  -DestinationConnector "NEWEXCHANGE\New Receive Connector" #>
[CmdletBinding()]
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)][string]$SourceConnector,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)][string]$DestinationConnector
)
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
# We need to copy over all of the explicity created permissions
$ConnectorPermissions = Get-ReceiveConnector -Identity $SourceConnector | Get-ADPermission | where {$_.IsInherited -eq $false}
$ConnectorPermissions | foreach {
 Get-ReceiveConnector "$($DestinationConnector)" -DomainController $DomainController | Add-ADPermission -User $_.User -Deny:$_.Deny -AccessRights $_.AccessRights -ExtendedRights $_.ExtendedRights
}