How to configure post-creation rules for Enable Mailbox web action

Summary: By default, Cayosoft Administrator is configured to apply cloud mailbox settings to newly created accounts as part of account creation or mailbox enablement as part of license assignment. As it can take more than 15 minutes for Microsoft 365 infrastructure to provision a mailbox in Exchange Online after the license is assigned, such an approach might not be an optimal solution. Instead, it would be preferable to complete the creation or license assignment operation immediately, and then apply mailbox settings on schedule to newly created or newly mailbox-enabled accounts.

Cayosoft Administrator provides the AD Users | Set Office 365 Mailbox Settings rule that can be scheduled to apply mailbox settings in the Exchange Online.

When configuring this rule to apply to only newly created or newly mailbox-enabled accounts, two main challenges should be addressed:

• How to identify newly created or newly mailbox-enabled accounts.

• How to re-try attempt to apply mailbox settings in case of a temporary issue (like network disconnect), but that the same time does not retry indefinitely in case of permanent error, for example for accounts that do not exist in the cloud.

This article contains step-by-step instructions on how to configure Cayosoft Administrator to apply mailbox settings to new accounts, addressing both challenges mentioned above.

Applies to: Cayosoft Administrator 7.4.0 and later.

Overview

The solution includes these steps:

1. In the Cayosoft Administrator console, navigate to Configuration > Web actions.

2. Modify the Enable Mailbox Web Action to set Run mailbox post creation tasks to No.

3. Pick two unused user attributes in AD, that will be used in this solution to mark accounts that need mailbox settings to be applied. We will use ExtensionAttribute13 and ExtensionAttribute14 in this guide. The ExtensionAttribute13 will hold the timestamp when the account was created or mailbox-enabled. This timestamp would be used to control retry attempts on accounts when the rule is failing to process an account. The ExtensionAttribute14 would hold the flag that the account needs to be processed for mailbox settings. This flag would be used to quickly filter accounts for processing.

4. Create two AD Users | Set Attribute Value rules that will set the attributes ExtensionAttribute13 and ExtensionAttribute14 on the Enable Mailbox Web Action.

5. Create the AD Users | Set Office 365 Mailbox Settings rule. This rule will check if the mailbox was enabled and the victim attribute is set for the user and if its' Microsoft 365 mailbox is created then apply defined mailbox settings. It doesn't wait for the mailbox creation.

6. Create the AD Users rule. This rule will list user accounts whose mailbox was not created after 24 hours. This rule would report on accounts with permanent issues. The administrator will have to monitor for any accounts that appear in this report, review the list and check account status on-premise and in the cloud.

Video tutorial

From this video, you will learn what is the best way to set up Microsoft 365 mailbox settings for new users:

Configuration

Configuring Active Directory Extension and Web Actions

1. In the Cayosoft Administrator Console, navigate to Configuration > Connected Systems Extensions > Active Directory.

2. Open the Other User Provisioning Settings section.

3. Set Run mailbox post creation tasks to No.

4. Save changes.

5. Check that Run mailbox post creation tasks is set to Use Default in these Web Actions:

   • Home > Configuration > Web Portal > Web Actions > Active Directory > New User

   • Home > Configuration > Web Portal > Web Actions > Active Directory > Enable Mailbox

   • Home > Configuration > Web Portal > Web Actions > Active Directory > New Linked Mailbox

   • Home > Configuration > Web Portal > Web Actions > Active Directory > New User with Linked Mailbox

Configuring AD Users | Set Attribute Value rules to run with Enable Mailbox web action

1. In the Cayosoft Administrator Console, create the AD Users | Set Attribute Value rule that will update ExtensionAttribute13:

   1. In the Limit scope, set User created in Web UI.

   2. In the Query criteria, set ObjectGUID of User Created in Web UI.

   3. In the Attributes, select extensionAttribute13.

   4. In the Values, specify this script:

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      ([DateTime]::UtcNow.ToString("yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'.'fff'Z'"))

   5. Save changes.

2. Create the AD Users | Set Attribute Value rule that will update ExtensionAttribute14:

   1. Repeat steps 1, 2 described above

   2. In the Attributes, select extensionAttribute14.

   3. In the Values, specify 1.

   4. Save changes.

Add created rules to Rules to run after this rule section in Enable Mailbox Web Action.

Configuring Create AD Users | Set Office 365 Mailbox Settings rule

1. In the Cayosoft Administrator Console, create the AD Users | Set Office 365 Mailbox Settings rule.

2. In the Query Criteria, set {extensionAttribute14 -eq "1"}.

3. In the Action section set:

   • Wait for Microsoft mailbox creation (minutes) = 0

   • In the Other Properties section > Other AD properties to clear, select ExtensionAttribute13, ExtensionAttribute14.

4. Schedule this rule.

5. Save changes.

Configuring AD Users reporting rule

1. In the Cayosoft Administrator Console, create the AD Users rule.

2. Add ExtensionAttribute13 to Properties to display.

3. In the Filter, specify this script:

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   {$_.extensionAttribute13 -ne $Null -and [DateTime]::Parse($_.extensionAttribute13) -le ([DateTime]::Now.AddDays(-1)) }

4. Save changes.