Exchange online mode

Overview

The implementation of ‘Graph’ as an email protocol has allowed us to offer a new ‘Exchange online’ mode of operation. This new mode removes the previous reliance on email journaling, which is specifically of benefit to customer using Microsoft 365.

Creation and configuration

Before creating an Exchange online path, you must first create an Azure active directory graph application and enter the required configuration settings in Global settings > Email. This provides the authentication necessary to access Microsoft 365 resources. Please refer to the guide above on how to create a graph application.

 

A new ‘Exchange online’ menu option has been added under Email settings.

  1. After clicking Create, the following screen will be shown.

 

Mail account sync

Unlike existing journaling-based configurations, for Exchange online paths, Email director needs to maintain a list of mailboxes to be polled.

The ‘Mail account sync’ option determines which mailboxes are included in that polling:

Aside from the configuration above, the ultimate ability of Email director to successfully process a given mailbox is determined by both the security scope of the Azure active directory application and the licencing status of the mailbox with Microsoft 365.

Upon saving changes to an Exchange online path, an automatic re-sync of the mailbox list will be performed. If required, the ‘re-snc’ button can be used to perform a manual synchronisation at any time.

 

Email processing

In existing journaling-based scenarios, the journal configuration would be responsible for determining whether internal emails are included for Email director processing. For exchange online paths, this configuration is now managed in email director itself, alongside the related ‘Process sent items’ checkbox which determines if sent items are included in the processing.

The Internal/External Email Processing option configures which emails are to be processed by the email path:

 An Internal email is defined as either:

An External email is defined as either:  

Internal domains can be defined in Global Settings > Email Settings.

 

Duplicate email detection

When operating in Exchange Online mode, Email Director prevents duplicate processing of identical emails. Where an identical email is received into multiple mailboxes, only one copy of the email will be indexed.  

Folder and processing options

Processing options remain largely the same for Exchange Online paths as for existing journal based paths, with the following exceptions:  

Maintenance and testing

For security reasons, when using Exchange Online paths, only the current user’s mailbox can be accessed for either rules testing or maintenance purposes. The current user must therefore have a valid contact email address within their IDM user account and that email address must also be included within the security scope of the Azure Active Directory Application.  

When testing rules, a new option has been added that allows the user to select the required folder (or sub folder) to be used for testing purposes.