MS Exchange Setup
Updated over a week ago

The Microsoft Exchange feature allows you to push calendar information from Penelope to your agency’s Exchange server or Office 365. If you enable this feature calendar information will appear in the Microsoft Outlook calendars of your staff.

Penelope supports the following versions of Microsoft Exchange:

  • 2010 SP3

  • 2013

  • Office 365

To setup MS Exchange in Penelope, you will need to be logged in with a System Administrator account.

Changing from EWS (Web Services) to MS Graph

Microsoft no longer supports the current EWS (Web Services) method of synchronizing events to MS Exchange/O365.

We recommend all customers using Penelope 4.21.1.0 and above use MS Graph to synchronize events with MS Exchange/O365. If you have any questions please contact the Penelope Support Team.

Information

MS Exchange integration for a dedicated Exchange Server is compatible with Penelope versions 3.3.15.1 and later. MS Exchange integration for Office 365 is compatible with Penelope versions 4.1.2.2 and later.

Setting Tab

The settings tab allows you to configure your MS Exchange General and Event Detail settings in Penelope as well as test your MS Exchange connection.

Error Tab

The error tab provides a detailed overview of all synchronization errors. On this page, you have the option to Test Connection, Back-Populate Appointments and Synchronize by clicking the links.

MS Exchange User Guides

Further information regarding MS Exchange configuration can be found in our user guides linked below or at further steps for Dedicated Exchange Server (SaaS):


CONFIGURE MS EXCHANGE INTEGRATION WITH YOUR DEDICATED EXCHANGE SERVER (SaaS or ASP)

ABOUT ENABLING THE MS EXCHANGE FEATURE IN PENELOPE

THE BASICS

The MS Exchange feature allows you to push calendar information from Penelope to your agency’s dedicated Exchange Server. If you enable this feature, calendar information will appear in the the Microsoft Outlook calendars of your staff.

COMPATIBILITY

MS Exchange integration for a dedicated Exchange Server is compatible with Penelope versions 3.3.15.1 and later. If you are interested in enabling the MS Exchange feature in Penelope and you are running a version older than 3.3.15.1, please submit a ticket to our Support Team to request the upgrade

PROCESS FLOW: ENABLING THE MS EXCHANGE FEATURE

If your Penelope database is installed on your own server, please complete the following steps:

1. Set up an impersonation account on your dedicated Exchange Server

2. Set up MS Exchange in Penelope

a) Configure your MS Exchange settings

b) Update worker profiles

c) Push events to MS Exchange calendar

SET UP AN IMPERSONATION ACCOUNT

THE BASICS

An impersonation account is a special type of account in MS Exchange that has read (view all) and write (add, delete and modify) privileges for other accounts in Exchange. When Penelope pushes scheduling data to your dedicated Exchange Server, the impersonation account takes that information and impersonates each worker in the Exchange Server in order to push the information to their calendars. It is very important that you guard the credentials for your impersonation account.

ADD A NEW ACCOUNT TO THE EXCHANGE SERVER

STEP 1

In the Exchange Management Console, browse to Recipient Configuration > Mailbox.

STEP 2

In the Actions section, click New Mailbox.

STEP 3

Click User Mailbox.

STEP 4

Click Next.

STEP 5

In the User Type section, click New User.

STEP 6

Click Next.

STEP 7

In the User Information section, complete the fields as required.

Note: The User logon name and Password will be required in a later step.

STEP 8

Click Next.

STEP 9

In the Mailbox Settings section, in the Alias field, type an alias for the impersonation account.

STEP 10
Click Next.

STEP 11

In the Archive Settings section, leave the default settings.

STEP 12

Click Next.

STEP 13

Click New.

STEP 14

After the account is successfully created, click Finish

CONFIGURE IMPERSONATION RIGHTS

STEP 1

On your Start menu, search for the Exchange Management Shell program

STEP 2

When prompted, type the following:

New-ManagementRoleAssignment –Name:impersonationAssignmentName –Role:ApplicationImpersonation –User:Impersonation where the name after ‘-User:’ is the name of the account you just created

STEP 3

Click Enter.

Note: The account you just created now has impersonation rights.

CONFIRM THAT OWA AND EWE ARE SET TO BASIC AUTHENTICATION

STEP 1

On your Start menu, search for the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager program.

STEP 2

In the Connections section, browse to the Exchange Server > Sites > Default Web Site > owa.

STEP 3

In the IIS section, double-click Authentication.

STEP 4

Verify that Basic Authentication is set to Enabled.

Note: If Basic Authentication is set to Disabled, right-click Basic Authentication and click Enable.

STEP 5

In the Connections section, browse to the Exchange Server > Sites > Default Web Site > EWS.

STEP 6

In the IIS section, double-click Authentication.

STEP 7

Verify that Basic Authentication is set to Enabled.

Note: If Basic Authentication is set to Disabled, right-click Basic Authentication and click Enable.

SET UP MS EXCHANGE IN PENELOPE

STEP 1

Using System Administrator credentials, log in to Penelope.

STEP 2

In the System Setup section, click Agency.

STEP 3

On the Setting tab, ensure the Use MS Exchange option is set to Yes.

Note: If Use MS Exchange is set to No, click Edit. Select the Use MS Exchange option and click Save

STEP 4

On the homepage, click MS Exchange

STEP 5

Click Edit.

STEP 6

Enter the details for your impersonation account:

a) In the URL field, paste the URL for your dedicated Exchange Server, including /EWS/exchange.asmx. For example, https://exchange.ath.x/EWS/exchange.as mx.

b) In the Domain Suffix field, type the domain for your Exchange Server. For example, companyname.com.

c) In the User Name field, type the user name for your impersonation account. For example, impersonation@companyname.com.

d) Select the Change Password option and enter the password for your impersonation account.

e) In the Admin E-mail Account field, enter the user name for the admin account for your Office 365 services.

f) In the Sent Alert to drop-down list, select the User Category to which Penelope should send messages regarding the Exchange feature.

g) Click Save.

STEP 7

Click Test Connection.

STEP 8

In the Email Address field, type the email address that you want to send a test message to.

STEP 9

Click Save.

STEP 10

Once you have a successful test connection (i.e. no error messages) click Resynchronize.

Important Information: The Resynchronize link will not appear until the MS Exchange Synchronization Enabled checkbox is enabled (this checkbox can be found in step 6).

You should see Last Successful Attempt appear with the date and time that you clicked Resynchronize.

UPDATE WORKER PROFILES

STEP 1

To update each worker’s profile with their email settings, click Search.

STEP 2

Click Go.

STEP 3

In the Results section, click a worker’s name.

STEP 4

On the Worker Profile, click Edit.

STEP 5

In the Email field, type the email address associated with the worker’s MS Exchange account.

STEP 6

Click Save.

PUSH EVENTS TO MS EXCHANGE CALENDAR

STEP 1

To push previously scheduled events to a worker’s calendar, navigate to System Setup > MS Exchange.

Note: Penelope will automatically push all newly booked events to a worker’s calendar

STEP 2

Click Back-populate Appointments.

Note: A confirmation message will appear asking you to confirm that you want to back-populate previously added appointments to Exchange. Click okay to continue having the previously scheduled events populated.

AFTER YOU FINISH

Each worker should now see their events from Penelope appearing in their Exchange Calendar.

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