Configuring user aliases

The User Alias tab lets you configure email address aliases for protected domains.

Aliases sometimes act as distribution lists; that is, they translate one email address into the email addresses of several recipients, called members. An alias can also be a literal alias; that is, it is an alternative email address that resolves to the real email address of a single email user.

For example, groupa@example.com might be an alias that the FortiMail unit will expand to user1@example.com and user2@example.com, having the effect of distributing an email message to all email addresses that are members of that alias, while john.smith@example.com might be an alias that the FortiMail unit translates to j.smith@example.com. In both cases, the FortiMail unit converts the alias in the recipient fields of incoming email messages into the member email addresses of the alias, each of which are the email address of an email user that is locally deliverable on the SMTP server or FortiMail unit.

Members of an alias can include the email address of the alias itself.

Aliases can contain both or either local and non-local email addresses as members of the alias. For example, if the local protected domain is mail.example.com, you could create an email address alias whose members are:

• user1@mail.example.com, which is locally deliverable to the protected domain
• user1@external.example.net, which is not locally deliverable to the protected domain

Alternatively to configuring aliases locally, you can configure the FortiMail unit to query an LDAP directory. For details, see Configuring LDAP profiles.

Unlike address maps, aliases can be one-to-many relationships between the alias and its members, but cannot be bidirectional — that is, recipient email addresses that are aliases are translated into their member email addresses, but sender email addresses that are members are not translated into aliases.

To access this part of the web UI, your administrator account’s access profile must have Read or Read-Write permission to the Others category.

For details, see About administrator account permissions and domains.

To view and configure alias addresses

1. Go to Domain & User > User Alias > User Alias.

GUI item	Description
Domain	Select the name of a protected domain to view email address aliases for that protected domain. You can see only the domains that are permitted by your administrator profile.
Alias Name	Displays the email address of the alias, such as teama@example.com.
Members	Displays the email addresses to which the alias will translate, which may be the email addresses of one or more local or non-local email users. Multiple email addresses are comma-delimited.
Count	Displays the number of members.

2. Either click New to add an alias or double-click an alias to modify it.
3. A dialog appears. Its features vary with the operation mode.
4. For a new alias in all operation modes, enter the local-part (the part before the '@' symbol) of the email address alias in Alias name.
5. If the FortiMail unit is operating in gateway or transparent mode, do the following:

• Select the name of its protected domain from the drop-down list next to Alias name.
• For example, for the alias group1@example.com, you would enter group1 and select example.com.
• To add members to the alias, in the field to the left of the right arrow button, enter the email address, then click the right arrow button. The email address appears in the Members area.
• To remove members from the alias, in the Members area, select one or more email addresses, then click Remove Selected.

If the FortiMail unit is operating in server mode, do the following:

• Select a protected domain in Select an internal domain.
• The email addresses of users from the selected domain (that is, local users) appear in the Available users area.
• To add local email addresses as members to the alias, select one or more email addresses in the Available users area, then click ->. The email addresses are moved to the Members area.
• To add non-local email addresses as members to the alias, enter the email address in the External Email address field, then click -> next to the field. The email address appears in the Members area.
• To remove members from the alias, select one or more email addresses in the Members area, then click <- arrow. The email addresses are removed from the Members area. Local email addresses return to the Available users area.

Click Create or OK.

See also

Configuring address mappings

Configuring LDAP profiles (User Alias Options)

Configuring LDAP profiles (Mail Routing Options)