Office 365, Email Administration, Support, and Best Practices for the IT Pro
Email Administration
Unified Group
Anyone can create a Unified group. These can be made from Outlook or Outlook a number of other Office 365 features. Unified groups get a shared mailbox and calendar, and ownership is controlled by the creator of the group and anyone they delegate ownership to. More information on Unified Groups is available here.
User Mailbox
Operates as a normal mailbox. Good for shared access.
Room Mailbox
Rooms in Exchange can be reserved for meetings and other events. This includes conference rooms and other meeting spaces. Has additional booking features called Resource Scheduling available through Outlook on the web and is listed as type "Room" in the Global Address List.
Equipment Mailbox
Equipment can also be reserved through Exchange. This typically includes things like laptops and projectors, but could include any type of equipment. Has additional booking features called Resource Scheduling available through Outlook on the web and is listed as type "Equipment" in the Global Address List.
Rooms and equipment can be set up to handle reservation requests in one of two ways:
- Moderated - Requests to reserve the resource must be approved or denied by a person (delegate).
- Auto-Accept - Requests to reserve the resource are automatically accepted, based on availability.
A room or equipment resource has its own calendar, which can be viewed and modified just like a person's calendar. When a request for a room or piece of equipment is accepted in Exchange, an event is added to the resource's calendar.
Moderated
If a room or piece of equipment is set up as a moderated resource, requests to reserve the room or equipment must be accepted or declined manually. This provides you with oversight to the resource and allows you more control over who has access to the resource and at what times.
A moderated resource must have at least one delegate who is responsible for accepting or declining reservation requests, and it can have many delegates associated with it if you desire. When a request to reserve a room or piece of equipment is made, an email is sent to the delegate(s) for the resource. A delegate can accept or decline requests to reserve the resource, just like a person accepts or declines meeting requests for his or her own calendar. Delegates will also need to approve or deny updates to the meeting that change date and/or time.
Auto-Accept
A room or piece of equipment which is configured to auto-accept reservation requests handles its own calendar automatically. No one is responsible for accepting or declining reservation requests on behalf of the resource. This provides you with an easy way to manage resources that are up for grabs in a first-come, first-serve way.
Exchange will always accept reservation requests so long as the following criteria are true. If one or both of the criteria cannot be met, Exchange will automatically decline the request.
- The room or piece of equipment is available (i.e. someone else has not already booked the resource for the requested date and time).
- The request falls within the resource's booking window.
Booking Window
As indicated above, if a room or piece of equipment is configured to auto-accept and a request is made to reserve the resource outside of the booking window, Exchange will decline the request.
For example, if you try to reserve a room one year from now (i.e. 365 days from now) and that room is set up to auto-accept, your request will be denied because it falls outside the booking window (which is 180 days by default). However, if you try to reserve that same room three months from now (i.e. 90 days from now), Exchange will automatically accept your request because it falls within the booking window.
Resource Scheduling
As an owner of a resource, one of your first responsibilities is to set the required options/settings/permissions for the resource. Outlook clients will only allow you to set read/write permissions for a resource calendar. Many of the other options/settings (eg. available hours, length of events, who can schedule, etc.) must be set via Outlook on the web.
Scheduling Options
| Process event invitations and cancellations | Enables or disables all options below as well as the options under Scheduling Permissions. If checked, all options below are enabled.
Important: If automatic processing is enabled and a delegate has been set, the setting for the delegate must be set to “Both my delegate and me” for invitations to be processed by the resource. |
| Turn off reminders | Enables or disables reminders for events in this calendar. This applies only for the resource; the organizer and attendees will still receive reminders if they have elected to do so. |
| Maximum number of days in advance resources can be booked | Limits how far in advance an event can be scheduled. The default is 180 days. 1080 is the maximum.
Note: If you schedule an event beyond the maximum number of days specified, the event will be automatically declined. |
| Always decline if the end date is beyond this limit | Requests beyond the maximum number of days specified will be automatically declined. Valid values are between 0 (today) and 1080 (about 3 years). |
| Limit event duration and maximum allowed minutes | Limits the amount of time for which a room can be scheduled within a single day. Unchecking the box will mean a meeting has no limit. Checking the box allows for a limit between 0 to 1440. |
| Allow scheduling only during working hours | If checked, an event can only be scheduled during the hours specified under Calendar Work Week in the Calendar tab. Events outside of working hours will be automatically declined. |
| Allow repeating meetings | Allows booking of the resource room at a regular interval; the event can be set to repeat over a specified duration of time (also called recurring). |
| Allow conflicts | Allow or prevent conflicting meeting requests (Double Booking). If 'Repeating meetings' and 'Allow conflicts' are both enabled, this will only allow conflicts on repeating meetings. Additionally, in order for the resource to allow conflicts, when the resource is invited it will need to be entered into the Attendees field as opposed to being chosen with the Add Rooms button. |
| Allow up to this number of individual conflicts | This setting specifies the maximum number of conflicts that are allowed for new repeating meeting requests. When set to 0, a recurring event will fail to schedule if one or more conflicting appointments already appear. If the number is greater than 0, a recurring event is allowed that many conflicts before being denied. |
| Allow up to this percentage of individual conflicts | This setting specifies the maximum percentage of meeting conflicts that are allowed for new repeating meeting requests. The same idea as with the individual conflicts field applies, but in this instance a percentage of conflicts allowed is specified. |
Scheduling Permissions
| These people can schedule automatically if the resource is available | By default, Everyone can schedule this resource without manual approval by the resource. If Select users and groups is selected, only the users and groups specified can schedule automatically. All other users or groups will receive a decline message. If Select users and groups is selected but no users or groups identified, this option will be ignored. |
| These users can submit a request for owner approval if the resource is available | If Everyone is selected, then all requests must receive manual approval by the resource. If Select users and groups is selected, only the specified users and groups require manual approval by the resource. Select users and groups is selected and left blank by default so that all requests are approved automatically. |
| These people or groups can schedule automatically if the resource is available and can submit a request for owner approval if the resource is unavailable | When Everyone is selected (default) any request during an open time frame will be automatically approved. If the room is booked at the requested time, a form is submitted to the resource for manual approval. If Select users and groups is selected, only those specified will have the option to have the request manually approved; all others will have a conflicting request denied without the option of manual approval by the resource. |
Configuring Resource Scheduling options
The settings in the Outlook web app allow you to set the booking options for room and equipment mailboxes:
- Login to https://outlook.office365.com. (Note: you must login using account credentials; full access rights will not be sufficient.)
- Click the gear icon to open the quick setting menu.
- Scroll down and click on Calendar
- In the left column, click on Resource scheduling
This will give you most of the options needed to configure booking for room and equipment mailboxes.
The default action is for resource mailboxes to use Auto-Accept. If the resource is being moderated and you want to switch to Auto-Accept, then you will need to check the box next to Automatically process event invitations and cancellations.
Best Practices for Creating, Managing, and Deleting Email Resources
How to create and request a resource mailbox (User, Room, & Equipment)
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Create an object in your UOFI OU that will be associated with your resource. Name this object in accordance with the following rules:
- An object name must be nine characters or longer and/or contain a hyphen so it does not conflict with a NetID.
- An object name may not have spaces. (Hyphens are a recommended substitute for spaces.)
- An object name SHOULD adhere to the format of dept-building-resource or dept-resource.
- Examples include: TechSvc-DCL-L532, TechSvc-dcl-l410projector, etc.
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Decide if you want separate groups for full-access and send-as permissions (details on these two permissions here). Create a Universal Security group or two in your OU that will contain user objects and be granted full mailbox access and/or send as rights over the resource object.
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For example, if your resource object is named
tech-svc-dcl-l410, your groups should be namedtech-svc-dcl-l410-FA,tech-svc-dcl-l410-SA, or similar. The FA represents full-access and SA represents send-as.
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Populate the FA and SA groups with the user objects you wish to have full control and/or send as rights over this object.
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Send an email to exchange@illinois.edu and request that your resource account be mailbox-enabled and that the group(s) that you have created be given full control/send as rights to that mailbox.
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Please be sure to specify the type of resource (user, room, or equipment) that you would like created. Please note that all resource accounts have @mx.uillinois.edu email addresses unless otherwise requested.
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If you want an @illinois.edu departmental shared email you need to request it via https://go.illinois.edu/SharedEmail. Once the departmental shared email has been approved and created by Identity and Access Management, the Exchange team can update the primary SMTP to have a proper @illinois.edu address. The IT Pro will want to make sure the Illinois departmental shared email points to the @mx.uillinois.edu address in the Electronic Directory.
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Deleting a Resource Mailbox
Deleting a mailbox can be done by simply deleting the User AD Object.
The Object will be soft deleted for 30 days and can be recovered by submitting a ticket to the IDM team.
If however, you still need the AD User object for functions besides email and only want the mailbox removed, send a ticket to exchange@illinois.edu to have the mailbox disabled.
If you need to save the email from this mailbox you need to first load it into your Outlook client and either Archive to a local PST file or click and drag the emails or email folders into another Mailbox you have open in Outlook.
Distribution Groups, and Departmental Shared Email accounts (From Illinois KB 46781)
What's the difference between a mailing list, a group email account, and a departmental shared email?
A mailing list is a system that distributes email to a range of subscribers. Email sent to a mailing list address can be controlled and verified in various ways before it's distributed to the subscribers' personal email addresses. A mailing list is not associated with any Illinois Directory information, such as telephone or fax numbers or street addresses. Searching for a mailing list's email address in the directory is unlikely to return results. These can be requested here: Campus Mailing Lists, Request a new list
Mailing lists are best suited for:
- Communicating with interest-based groups
- Allowing individuals to join and leave a group of their own volition
- Communicating with groups that include non-University members
A group email account is a single email account that can be accessed by a range of people. In contrast, a departmental shared email is an entry in the Illinois Directory with a range of information about a particular group (or unit). A group or unit alias can have telephone number, fax number, street address, email address, web, and other information associated with it.
A departmental shared email (formerly known as group alias) can have only one email address associated with it. That associated email address can belong to an individual, to a mailing list, or to an email account that a department accesses. However, a group alias cannot directly handle email distribution services to a range of people.
How do I create a mailing list or distribution group?
- Create a new universal security group in the UOFI domain.
(See "Why Universal Security Groups?" below for the reason behind this choice.) - Populate the new group with the correct user membership.
- Email exchange@illinois.edu with the following information:
- The distribution group name
- Desired delivery restrictions (none, UIUC email addresses, group members only)
- (Optional:) Any additional email addresses that should be added to the group (such as @illinois.edu or @dept.illinois.edu)
Note: The Default Delivery Restrictions for Distribution Group will Reject email from External Sources.
Why Universal Security Groups?
When you create a distribution group in Active Directory, you have three choices for scope (domain-local, global, or universal) and two choices for type (security or distribution).
The only group scope that Exchange can mail enable is Universal. Exchange can mail enable a Universal Security or Universal Distribution group type.
A Universal Security group can be mail enabled AND used for permissions. A Universal Distribution group can only be mail enabled, it cannot be used for permissions. So Tech Services asks for new groups to be created as Universal Security groups since that option offers the most flexibility.
How do I create a departmental shared email?
Email Delegates
Similar to having an assistant that helps you manage your incoming paper mail, another person, known as a delegate, can receive and respond to email messages and meeting requests and responses on your behalf. You can also grant the delegate additional permissions to read, create, or change items in your mailbox.
How to add and manage delegates:
Windows: See Microsoft's page.
Mac: See Microsoft's page.
Note: Delegates can only be edited if you are logged into an account as the account itself from Outlook Desktop or in Outlook on the Web. If you are only viewing a shared calendar, you will not be able to manage Delegates.
Using your delegate permissions:
For instructions on how to manage someone else's email and calendar, see here.
Note: Delegation does not mean you have Mailbox access to view the mailbox of your Delegator. If the delegate needs to actually see the mailbox and folders it contains, the delegator needs to add permissions manually to all the folders the Delegate needs to see. If they need to see the Entire mailbox and all the folders then permissions need to be added to the NetID@illinois.edu top folder that sits above the Inbox folder: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/share-and-access-another-person-s-mailbox-or-folder-in-outlook-a909ad30-e413-40b5-a487-0ea70b763081#PickTab=Classic_Outlook
Can I convert a distribution group to a shared mailbox?
Unfortunately, unlike a user mailbox, a distribution group cannot be changed directly into a shared mailbox.
You will need to delete the existing distribution group mailbox and recreate the object as a shared mailbox.