Exchange Online Management
Microsoft Entra ID can be used to manage Exchange online mailboxes, distribution lists, and mail-enabled security groups. The Microsoft Entra ID connector uses Exchange Online PowerShell Module through IQService to support this feature.
Exchange Online Management supports the following operations:
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Aggregation of Exchange Online Mailbox attributes for users
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Aggregation of Shared Mailbox as an entitlement for users
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Modification of Exchange Online Mailbox attributes
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Adding and Removing Shared Mailboxes from users
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Aggregation of Exchange Online attributes for groups
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Adding and Removing Exchange Distribution Lists and Mail-Enabled Security groups from users
Note
Delta Aggregation does not capture changes in Exchange Online Attributes and Shared Mailbox assignments.
Objects/Attributes |
Aggregation |
Modification |
Add/Remove User |
Exchange Online Mailbox attributes for users |
Yes |
Yes |
N/A |
Shared Mailbox as an entitlement for users |
Yes |
N/A |
Yes |
Exchange Online attributes for groups |
Yes |
N/A |
N/A |
Distribution List |
Yes |
N/A |
Yes |
Mail-Enabled Security Group |
Yes |
N/A |
Yes |
Prerequisites
The following are required host values by the IQService to interact with the managed service, whitelist/allow the URLs from the IQService machine:
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https://graph.microsoft.com
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https://login.microsoftonline.com
Basic Authentication
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Basic authentication in Exchange Online is deprecated by Microsoft. For more information, refer to deprecation of basic authentication in Exchange Online in Microsoft documentation.
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It is recommended to utilize Certificate Based Authentication for Exchange Online management.
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Configure IQService
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Install Exchange Online PowerShell Module: EXO V3 (version 3.0.0 or later) on the same IQService machine.
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Create a user in Microsoft Entra ID with the Exchange Administrator role.
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Select Manage Exchange Online on Application Configuration page.
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Provide username and password of user created in step 3
Note
Due to a limitation on PowerShell sessions, SailPoint recommends using separate IQService instances and a separate exchange admin user for different Microsoft Entra ID applications, which are defined to manage exchange online.
Note
The connector uses PowerShell sessions to manage Exchange Online Mailboxes. Due to restrictions on the number of concurrent PowerShell sessions allowed by Microsoft, there may be a delay or occasional failures when the connector processes Exchange Online requests.
Certificate Based Authentication
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The following additional API permission needs to be added to the already registered Microsoft Entra ID Enterprise Application. Refer to the Prerequisites section regarding application registration and API permissions, if necessary.
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Permission
Exchange.ManageAsApp
, for Office 365 Exchange Online -
The steps to assign API permissions to an application are listed here: Assign API permissions to the application.
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Assign the following roles to the application:
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Exchange Administrator
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The steps to assign roles to an application are listed here: Assign Microsoft Entra roles to the application.
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-
To ensure modern authentication:
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A certificate key-pair needs to be generated for the IQService machine. This will be used by the Exchange PowerShell module to connect to the Exchange Online.
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The certificate must be uploaded to the registered Microsoft Entra ID Enterprise Application under Certificates and Secrets.
-
-
The steps to generate a self-signed certificate and attach it to the Microsoft Entra ID application are listed here:
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Use Exchange Online PowerShell Module: EXO V3 (version 3.0.0 or later).
Schema Configurations
You must add Exchange attributes that you want to aggregate to the account or group scheme with the prefix EXO_.
For example, to aggregate EmailAddresses
attribute, add it to the schema as follows:
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Name: EXO_EmailAddresses
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Type: String
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Property: Multivalued
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To aggregate shared mailbox attributes as an Entitlement, add
sharedMailbox
as an account attribute. -
Example Name:
sharedMailbox
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Type: String
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Property: Multivalued, Entitlement
Aggregate Exchange Online Groups
By default, the Microsoft Entra ID connector aggregates Mail-Enabled Security groups. To aggregate Distribution List groups Aggregate All Groups
configuration parameter.
Note
Aggregation of Distribution List group with basic group details does not need Exchange Online IQService configuration.
Add/Remove Exchange Distribution Groups from Users
When adding a user to, or removing a user from, a Mail-Enabled Security group, the user configured in the Manage Exchange Online configuration must be the owner of the group. The Distribution does not have the same restriction, but SailPoint recommends that the user in the Manage Exchange Online configuration is the owner of the group.
Note
When the Exchange Online Authentication Type is set to certificate-based authentication, BypassSecurityGroupManagerCheck
entry gets added by default. If you don't want to use BypassSecurityGroupManagerCheck
, add enableByPassSecurityManagerCheck
entry to the
Provisioning Policy Changes
To update the Exchange Mailbox attribute value, the attribute must be added to provisioning policy with the prefix EXO_.
For example, to update the Alias
attribute, it must be added in provisioning policy as follows:
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Name: EXO_EmailAddresses
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Type: String
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Type Setting: Multivalued: true, Review Required: true
Note
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It is important to add with proper attribute type and property, which meets exchange attribute definition for successful update operation.
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Attributes to be added in provisioning policy must be present in account schema.
Shared Mailbox As Entitlement
An Exchange user can be a member of a Shared Mailbox. Along with membership, the user obtains permission on the mailbox. This permission has to be selected while adding the user to the shared mailbox. The following permissions are categorized as Recipient and Mailbox:
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Recipient: SendAs
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Mailbox: ChangeOwner, ChangePermission, DeleteItem, ExternalAccount, FullAccess, ReadPermission
In order to provide flexibility to select the permission to be assigned, mailbox entitlements are created one per permission per mailbox as shown in the following example:
User Mark Taylor has SendAs, FullAccess and ReadPermission permissions on shared mailbox called O365Support. After account aggregation following entitlements would be created:
O365Support: SendAs
O365Support: FullAccess
O365Support: ReadPermission