Configuration of Exchange Online Inventory

Owned by
Phillip Hanegan
Last updated: Aug 09, 2023
4 min read

This article only applies if you are not using EmpowerID SaaS.

If you are not using EmpowerID SaaS and want EmpowerID to manage one or more of your Exchange tenants, you need to configure one of those tenants as described in this article for EmpowerID to inventory your Exchange Online (EXO) data. Please note that you must also deploy the Exchange Online microservice in each of your Exchange tenants as depicted in the Deploying the Exchange Online microservice topics.

Step 1 – Create a CosmosDB account

  1. Create a Cosmos DB account with the following settings:

    • Account Name – Enter a name for database account

    • API – Core (SQL)

    • Location – Select the appropriate geographic location

    • Capacity mode – Provisioned throughput

Step 2 – Create a Storage Account

  1. Create a storage account with the following settings:

    • Secure transfer required – Enabled

    • Allow Blob public access – Enabled

    • Allow storage account key access – Enabled

    • Minimum TLS version – Version 1.2

    • Blob access tier (default) – Hot

    • Large file shares – Disabled

    • Replication – Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)

    • Azure Active Directory Domain services (Azure AD DS) – Disabled

    • Data Lake Storage Gen2 – Disabled

    • NFS v3 – Disabled

  2. Copy the connection string for later use.

Step 3 – Create a Service Bus

  1. Create a service bus with the basic pricing tier and copy the connection string for later use.

Sep 4 – Create an App Service for the AzGeneralServices Microservice

  1. Create a Linux app service plan.

  2. Add an app service for the AzGeneralServices microservice to the Linux app service plan with the following general settings:

    • Stack – .NET

    • Major version – .NET Core 3

    • FTP state – All allowed

    • HTTP version – 1.1

    • Web sockets – Off

    • Always on – Off

    • ARR affinity – Off

    • Debugging – Off

    • Client certificate mode – Ignore

  3. Turn on system managed identity for the app service and download the publish profile from the overview blade.

  4. In EmpowerID, publish the AzGeneralServices microservice to Azure.

  5. Create a service principal in Azure active directory with the following settings:

    • Secret – Create a secret for the service principal and copy the value for later use.

    • Configure the service principal for Azure AD authentication.

  6. Return to the Cosmos DB account created earlier and create a new container and DB for the AZ General Services microservice with the below settings. The DB will be used by the service to persist data whenever EmpowerID makes a call to the service.

    • Database Id – AzureGeneralService

    • Container Id – AzureGeneralService

    • Partition key – id

Step 5 – Create a Key Vault

  1. Create an Azure Key Vault for the Azure General app service with all the default settings.

  2. Create an access policy for the key vault with the following settings:

    • Key permissions

      • Get

      • Decrypt

      • Unwrap

      • Verify

    • Secret permissions

      • Get

      • List

      • Set

      • Delete

      • Purge

    • Service principal – Azure General service app

  3. Add the following config settings to the AzGeneral service app service:

    • CosmosDbAuthKey – Primary key of the cosmos db account

    • CosmosDbContainerId – Container Id that was created in the above steps

    • CosmosDbEndpoint – URI of Cosmos db account

    • CosmosDbDatabaseId - Container Id that was created in the above steps

    • KeyVaultUrl – Vault Uri of the Key vault created in the above steps

  4. Create config necessary for EXO Inventory using Azure General service.

    • Generate a unique GUID and keep it for reference. This Id is called config settings id.

    • Request URL of the Azure General service to call: <Azure general service app service url>/app/config/GetById/<unique guid generated above>

    • Body of the request is shown below – Please change the details according to the comments.

    • Add a new item to the Cosmos DB

Step 6 – Create an Azure Function app

  1. Create an Azure Function app with the following general configuration settings: Select .NET Core 3.1 as the runtime stack

    • Platform – 32 bit

    • Managed pipeline version – Integrated

    • FTP state – All allowed

    • HTTP version – 1.1

    • Web sockets – Off

    • Remote Debugging – Off

    • Client certificate mode – Ignore

    • Runtime version – 3

  2. Turn on system managed identity for the app service and download the publish profile from the overview blade.

  3. In EmpowerID, do the following to publish the Azure Function to Azure:

    1. Navigate to Azure License Manager > Configuration > Tenants Tab and click the Publish Azure App Service action to start the AzPublishMsAppToAppService workflow.

    2. For Application Type, select Azure Functions and click Submit.

    3. Search for and select SPO Inventory Functions and click Submit.

    4. Select the publish profile file for the Function app you downloaded from Azure and then click Submit.

    5. Confirm that you want to publish the function.

    6. Click OK to close the publish message.

  4. In Azure, create an Azure Key Vault for EXO inventory and store the secret created for the service principal configured earlier. Name the secret AzGeneralServiceAuthSecret.

  5. Create an access policy for the key vault with the following settings:

    • Key permissions

      • Get

      • Decrypt

      • Unwrap

      • Verify

    • Secret permissions

      • Get

      • List

      • Set

      • Delete

      • Purge

    • Service principal – Azure Function app

  6. Add the following config settings to the Azure Function app service:

    • AzureWebJobsDashboard – Connection string of any storage account in that tenant

    • AzureWebJobsStorage – Connection string of any storage account in that tenant

    • AzureGeneralServiceConfigGetByIDUrl – <Azure general service app service Url>/app/config/GetById/>

    • AzureGeneralServiceAuthVaultUrl – Vault URL of the key vault created in the above step.

    • AzureGeneralServiceAuthKeyvaultSecretName – The secret's name created in the above step.

    • AzureGeneralServiceAuthClientID – Client ID of the service principal configured to authorize Azure general app service.

    • ConfigSettingsID – Config settings ID created earlier.

    • AzureGeneralServiceAuthTenantID – Tenant ID of this tenant

    • AzureGeneralServiceMultitenantValidateSKeyUrl – <Azure general service app service Url>/app/multitenant/IsSubscriptionValid/

Step 7 – Create an Azure App service for Web jobs

  1. Create an app service with the following settings:

    • Runtime stack – .Net Core 3.1 Windows

    • Stack – .NET

    • .Net version – .NET Core (3.1, 2.1)

    • Platform – 32 Bit

    • Managed pipeline version – Integrated

    • FTP state – All allowed

    • HTTP Version – 1.1

    • Web sockets – Off

    • Always on – On

    • ARR affinity – On

    • Remote debugging – Off

    • Incoming client certificates – Ignore

  2. Scale out the app service for two instances.

  3. Ensure that the Always on option in the General settings of the app service is enabled.

  4. Turn on system managed identity for the app service and download the publish profile from the overview blade.

  5. Open Workflow Studio and from Cloud Explorer, deploy the following files to Azure:

    • ExchangeInventoryWebJobV6_MicroserviceV6.zip

    • ExchangeMailboxPermissionsInventoryJob_WebJobV3.zip

  6. Create an access policy in the key vault created in step 5 above with the following settings:

    • Key permissions

      • Get

      • Decrypt

      • Unwrap

      • Verify

    • Secret permissions

      • Get

      • List

      • Set

      • Delete

      • Purge

    • Service principal – Azure Web Jobs app service

  7. Configure the app service with the app config settings created in step 6.