How to find out the Exchange server name from within standard PowerShell (not EMS)?

Question

Let's say I would like to check some user mailbox properties from within PowerShell. I can run the script in Exchange Management Shell but the problem is that I have no guarantee that the end user will be running the script directly on Exchange or a machine with any Exchange tools. So, I can tell the end user to just run the script in the PowerShell (not EMS) and encode importing pssesion into the script.

However, here comes the main problem of mine, I cannot hard-code the server name into the script (it will be used in many different environments) and I would like to avoid asking the end user to provide the Exchange Server name for the pssesion.

Is there any way to obtain the Exchange Server name automatically with just vanilla PowerShell (no EMS, etc.)? The script will be ran by users with domain admin privileges, most likely there will be no Outlook on the machines (so no MAPI profiles configuration), if that is of any help.

Answer 1

I'm not sure how portable this is (it works on my E2K7 setup, but your mileage may vary)...

You can look in AD to get a list of exchange servers by doing something like the following:

$exchangeServers = [ADSI]"LDAP://contoso.com/CN=Exchange Servers,OU=Microsoft Exchange Security Groups,DC=contoso,DC=com"
$exchangeServers.Member

In my environment, this lists all of the exchange server computer accounts, plus a few other groups, but it's a starting point.