How to Set Up Sync via Impersonation & Configure User Mailboxes¶
For users of the Email Sidebar on:
4 min read
MS Exchange / Office 365 Impersonation is used in scenarios when a single admin service account is used to access and manage many end user accounts, to view or adjust their settings or perform various actions on these accounts’ behalf. In RGES setup context, Impersonation allows to automatically activate Revenue Grid synchronization for all relevant email accounts in an Organization in bulk, via an impersonating MS Exchange service account.
Note
The Impersonation Service email account requires a dedicated MS Exchange / Office 365 mailbox license and does not require an additional RG Email Sidebar license
While Impersonation requires performing a sequence of configuration steps on Exchange server side by the local Admin (documented in detail in this article), it has the following benefits:
- There is no need for every RGES user to enter one’s Exchange/Office 365 mailbox credentials on RG Email Sidebar setup. Instead, multiple users’ credentials are set up once, by the local Admin
- The end users don’t need to go to RG Email Sidebar settings and update the access password after mailbox password change
- Mailbox connectivity is established and monitored entirely by the Admin, removing any associated actions from the end users
Tip
To check whether an Impersonation service account was configured correctly, open this Microsoft connectivity tests page and run the test Service Account Access (Developers), as described in this article
Note
If an impersonating Service account is used for Revenue Grid Sync users authorization, the Service account must have a mailbox and a license assigned to it. If the Service Account does not have a mailbox or license assigned, rooms and other resources will not be retrieved in RG Email Sidebar via EWS
Setting up RGES Sync for multiple users via Exchange/Office 365 Impersonated Access¶
1. Open MS Exchange or Office 365 Admin center. Refer to the following articles to learn how to do that:
2. Create an MS Exchange/Office 356 service account and assign it Impersonation permissions using the following step-by-step guides:
3. Set up an Organization containing all relevant user mail accounts:
3.1. Log in to RG Email Sidebar Admin panel (the Admin credentials are provided by Revenue Grid support team)
3.2. Create an Organization in RGES Admin panel [optional; for customers not fully provisioned by Revenue Grid CSM team]
3.3. Add all relevant user accounts to the created Organization [optional; for customers not fully provisioned by Revenue Grid CSM team]
4. Proceed to the instructions below to bulk-activate RGES Sync for all relevant email accounts
Configuring RGES Sync Access to User Mailboxes¶
To bulk-activate or renew RGES Sync access for an Organization consisting of email accounts entitled to use RG Email Sidebar for MS Exchange Impersonated access:
4.1. Go to the Organizations tab and select the needed Organization, open the Email Configuration subtab
4.2. In the Mailbox Access Type picklist, select Microsoft Exchange Impersonation
4.3. In the Account Logon field, enter the Impersonating account’s name (email address)
4.4. In the Password field, enter the Impersonating account’s password
5. In the Exchange Web Services (EWS) URL field, enter the EWS URL used in your MS Exchange or click the Magic Wand icon on the right to initiate generating a standard EWS URL, if your Org doesn’t use custom ones
6. Click Check Users Exchange Impersonated Access to make sure the procedure was successful, then click Save
>>> Click to see a screenshot <<<
Service account authorization via Office 365 OAuth¶
Tip
Now this method is the only way to authorize an Exchange Impersonation service account for Office 365 mailboxes, since the old Impersonated access authorization method with login and password creds entry was removed by Microsoft in 2021
MS Office 365 OAuth authentication method is used to authorize the Service account to work with RGES end users’ O365 mail data.
To do that:
1. Go to the Organizations tab and select the needed Org configured for a group of RGES end users. Next, open the subtab Email Configuration for the Org
2. In the Mailbox Access Type picklist, select “Microsoft 365 OAuth Logon (EWS API) - Impersonated logon”, then click the button Microsoft 365 OAuth (EWS API) underneath
>>> Click to see a screenshot <<<
3. A standard Office 365 OAuth 2.0 dialog will be opened in a new browser window. In the dialog, enter the Impersonating account’s login credentials and click Sign In
Now RG Email Sidebar is authorized to work with mailbox data of all users configured in the Impersonating Service account.
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