Types of Resource Mailboxes:

Unified Group

Anyone can create using Outlook on the web, shared mailbox and calendar. Great for collaboration.

Unified groups can be made from Outlook on the web, or within 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

Has additional booking features available through Outlook on the web and is listed as type "Room" in the Global Address List. For more information, see Office 365, Email, Exchange, Understanding Room and Equipment (Resource) Mailboxes in Exchange.

Equipment Mailbox

Has additional booking features available through Outlook on the web and is listed as type "Equipment" in the Global Address List. For more information, see Office 365, Email, Exchange, Understanding Room and Equipment (Resource) Mailboxes in Exchange. 

How to create and request a resource mailbox (for IT pros)

1. 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.

2. 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.

   • For example, if your resource object is named tech-svc-dcl-l410, your groups should be named tech-svc-dcl-l410-FA, tech-svc-dcl-l410-SA, or similar. The FA represents full-access and SA represents send-as.

3. Populate the group with the user objects you wish to have full control and/or send as rights over this object.

4. 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.

   • Please be sure to specify the type of resource (user, room, equipment, or undergrad) that you would like created. Please note that all resource accounts have @mx.uillinois.edu email addresses unless otherwise requested.

   • 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.

Deleting a Resource/Group 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.