Exchange 2007 Split-Delivery

Question

Hi,
One of the child domains in our Forest wants to move to Google Apps (GA) for email and I have some question about split-delivery from Exchange 2007. 
The child domain's smtp domain is bluecrayon.com. I think the steps are:
Change bluecrayon.com from Authoritative to Internal domain
Create a send connector for bluecrayon.com address space to send to the GA smarthost.
If both the bluecrayon and default (*.*) send connector both have priorities of 1 Exchange should favor the bluecrayon connector for bluecrayon.com mail, correct?
For MX:
GA is able to forward unresolved recipients to our Edge servers. 
Shouldn't I then point the external bluecrayon.com MX to GA, which would then forward to our Edge servers?
Is any configuration necessary on the Edge to receive bluecrayon.com mail from GA or is this covered because bluecrayon.com is listed as an internal relay domain? 
Lastly, how is a mail loop prevented if a bluecrayon.com address isn't found on Exchange or GA?
Thank you,
Robert

Answer 1

The more specific send connector, i.e., the one with the bluecrayon.com address space, will take precedence regardless of cost.
It makes sense to change the MX record because it will get your server out of the loop, since it really doesn't add any value.  Don't forget to add the appropriate GA strings to the bluecrayon.com SPF record.
No change to the Edge is required for exactly the reason you cite, but changing the MX record makes this moot.
You would need to change each mailbox to either a mail user (if the user still needs domain authentication) or a mail contact, each with a @bluecrayon.com target address if you still want them in your GAL.
Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."