Managing Open Exchange Mailbox as an Administrator

Some organizations depend heavily on Exchange Server as their mail and collaboration solution and have what might be referred to as a “chore” when it comes to managing Exchange mailboxes.

Statistics show that Exchange, a giant in the industry with millions of users worldwide turned out to be an effective communication tool not only providing email services but supplementing them with features such as calendar, task management, or even document storage and sharing.

But as communication structure becomes an integral element for businesses, the responsibilities of the administrators are increasing to ensure that the systems are stable and the resources are used effectively.

Exchange Server is structured in a way that users can easily enjoy messaging services from desktops, mobile devices, or the internet. This feature increases user productivity as they are able to work from anywhere and at any time.

But alongside these benefits comes the need to manage end-user accounts, control permissions, and configure mailbox options to avoid security breaches & remain compliant with the company.

In this blog we will, however, focus more on how Exchange Server works and more importantly the guidelines that are required in order to effectively manage mailboxes.

An important aspect of such a focus will be learning how to use the EAC, manage roles and permissions, and resolve the issues one might encounter in mailbox management as such skills will help administrators improve the effectiveness of the mailbox use for the benefit of communications within the organization.

1. Creating an Admin Account

The creation of an admin account in Exchange Server is a prerequisite for any organization using this powerful soft document sharing and communication tool. The creation of an admin account makes it possible to manage user and mailbox accounts, as well as be in charge of the efficiency and security of the entire system.

1.1 Importance of Admin Accounts

a). Considerations for Security and Privacy Requirements

Admin accounts serve as an important role within an Exchange environment as they allow for access to sensitive information and settings. Security measures must therefore be put in place to ensure that unauthorized personnel do not gain access to critical information. In other organizations, it is important to limit the people with admin rights only to trusted personnel.

b). Brief Summary of the Administrative Functions

These activities are a few of the many responsibilities of Administrators that include creating and modifying user mailboxes, configuring of mail flow settings, establishing permissions, and observing system speed and other areas of performance. These people also ensure compliance with the internal and external policies, thus, achieving a unified function of the Exchange Server.

1.2 Steps to Create an Admin Account

To create an admin account in the exchange server, one should follow a few easy steps:-

Logging into the Exchange Admin Center (EAC):

Please make yourself comfortable with the EAC ( https ://admin.exchange.microsoft.com) or go through your Microsoft 365 admin center online.
Please do log in using your organizational credentials which allow you to perform commands with administrative features.

Navigating to Permissions:

Once you’re logged in, identify the Permissions option on the left navigation pane of the EAC.
Here, various role groups will be shown, which are used to define different administrative abilities.

Selecting Admin Roles:

Select the respective role group which should match the level of access you intend to provide. Typical role groups are Organization Management, Recipient Management and Help Desk. Role group Structure
This role group has some Assignment Preferences with respect to designated system management features.

Adding Users to the Appropriate Role Groups:

You may add users working in administrative capacity after selecting a role group.
Edit section which is, on the role group you wish to work with. Edit option is at the top and Members button is below.
Bear in mind the permissions of every user being added to such role group either internal or external, to ensure that security is properly granted.

2. Roles and Permissions in Exchange Explained

Knowledge of roles and permissions within the Exchange Server is very important in maintaining security as well as providing users with the level of access required for their tasks. Exchange has a systemized way of managing these roles through role groups and the role assignment policy which make it easier for both the administrators and the end-users to manage permissions.

2.1 Overview of Role Groups

Role groups are integral elements under the permission classification of Exchange Server, which serves to make the management of administrative duties easier. They are universal security groups (USG) that are somewhat special and contain Active Directory users, other role groups, and USGs. Once a role is allocated to a role group, the members of the role group automatically possess due powers of that role.

Built-in Role Groups:

Organization Management: This role group enables an individual to comprehensively manage all the activities and resources of the Exchange organization since he/she has access to all Exchange objects. Due to large areas of membership bearing such powers, membership should be retained by only a few trusted administrators who deal with important organizational work.
View-Only Organization Management: This allows for members of the organization to have access to any properties within any object in the Exchange country however changes shall not be made.
Recipient Management: This role group allows administrators to create, modify, and manage recipient objects within the organization/. This comes in handy when administering user mailboxes and distribution lists.

Also worth mentioning are the built-in Compliance management, Hygiene management, records management, server management and Help desk role groups. Each one of these groups is useful to the performance of certain administrative duties so that the permissions are offered per the job and not the person.

2.2 User Roles

The allocation of roles to users in exchange server management is a fundamental process of managing permissions in the exchange server. This can be done very easily using the exchange admin center, commonly known as the EAC.

Use EAC to Assign Roles:

Log into EAC: This can be done by visiting your organization’s exchange administrative center URL and signing in to the account with administrator’s privilege.
Permissions go Here: In the left menu, Permissions which is visible includes the section for assigning admin roles, and for user roles.
Admin Roles come Select: Now select the group role you want to edit or add in users. Press the Edit button to add or remove its members.
Users Add: In the tab that includes members, go to the Add (+) button and press it to insert new users in the role group chosen. After that, on the OK button and save your changes after selecting the desired users.

By performing these actions, you can effectively allocate duties to roles in such a way that roles are in line with the responsibilities of the respective administrator.

The Role Assignment Policies for the End-Users

There are also reasonably resultant role assignment policies that give end users the ability to perform certain self-service features like managing their mailboxes and or the distribution groups they own.

These policies provide permissions for activities such as changing information about contact persons, or changing the membership of a defined group, which do not need an administrator’s action to be completed.

This delegation is quite useful because it allows users to have more control, reduces places where administration will be needed, and thus reduces the amount of time it takes to perform normal mailbox management tasks.

3 . Monitoring and Troubleshooting Mailbox Problems

Some of the mailbox issues occur and monitoring and troubleshooting skills are invaluable in this case to an Exchange administrator. With the proper anticipation and resolution to such trouble spots, the end-users are better preserved and the integrity of the Exchange leaves a better touch.

3. 1 Common Mailbox Issues

In many cases, the administrators may experience a variety of mailbox-related issues that can disrupt user productivity. Some of the most common problems include:

Exceeding Mailbox Size Limits: One of the problems administrators often encounter is a failure to account for user’s opportunities until they exceed the possibilities of their mailbox space often leading to rapid exhaustion of the mailbox and failure to send or receive emails correctly. This can result in delayed replies as well as a high level of user disturbances with no easy solution.
Email Delivery Problems: Another related area is also sending problems when emails are never flown to the requested endpoints due to mistakes permanently placed during the sending i.e what we often securitize as the core email address, wrong, or if emails never land due to unavailability of such a server or upon reaching the client’s hardware, the machine failed to respond thus translated to unavailability.
Slow Performance: In accessing the mailboxes, users may notice slow performance. This may be due to a high load on the server, a high level of network delay, or inadequate resource availability.
Permission Errors: Another issue, users can be confronted with access while permissions are not configured correctly. This elicits the inability to gain access to the shared mails and delegated accounts.
Corrupted Mailboxes: Sometimes, though rarely, the mailboxes become corrupted because of hardware malfunctions or bugs in the software, and this eventually leads to the loss of some data or the inability to access the data.

Awareness of these common difficulties guides administrators to initiate preventive measures and attempt to resolve further problems without delay.

3.2 Tools for Monitoring Exchange Server Performance

Various tools and techniques may be employed by administrators in maintaining and managing Exchange Server performance and resolving mailbox issues:

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor: This tool completely monitors the Exchange Server and allows administrators to monitor various statistics such as the number of mailboxes, the health of the servers, the email queues, etc. Its dashboards are very simple which allows the performance of the server to be monitored smoothly so that any problems that crop up can be attended to quickly.
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor: PRTG is user-friendly and provides an easy interface for monitoring Exchange Server’s performance. This program offers sensors for monitoring mailbox size, mail delivery, and database health and they are all preconfigured. Custom alerts are implemented to warn users of issues that may arise in the future.
ManageEngine Exchange Reporter Plus: This tool is useful for monitoring and generating reports regarding Exchange Server activity. It assists administrators in controlling mailbox utilization trends, access rights, and compliance with the established corporate policies.
Foglight for Exchange: This application gives a detailed view of the performance of Exchange in on-premises, off-premises and hosted systems. Out-of-the-box alerts detect performance problems very quickly.

Apart from administrative processes, employing these tools allows administrators to achieve these objectives with the least amount of downtime and disruption to users as possible.

Conclusion

In other words, one of the most important roles in the organization’s communication is in the hands of an Exchange administrator. The responsibilities are numerous, such as mailbox and permissions management, performance tracking, and issue management. However, by adopting good approaches towards mailbox management, like monitoring feedback and dealing with outstanding issues, administrators can help maintain an operational email infrastructure ideal for supporting business activities.

Author

Winny M.

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