Microsoft Exchange sync

Microsoft Exchange calendar sync helps you coordinate your work schedule with two-way synchronization between Severa and Microsoft Exchange server/Microsoft 365.

User email addresses must be the same in both systems for the sync to work correctly.

Once the sync has been established for an organization, individual users can enable and initiate the sync themselves.

Calendar sync transfers activities as Microsoft calendar events and calendar events from Microsoft are transferred as activities.

Activities created as project tasks are not supported and these entries will not be synced.

To setup the calendar sync, you need admin permissions to both systems.

• If your organization is using Microsoft 365, you can do all the required steps directly from Severa.
• If your organization is using Exchange server, start by creating a delegate user in Microsoft Exchange/AD.

The steps to create a delegate user differ based on the Exchange server version used. Below you can find a few examples.

Exchange server administrator access is required to perform the steps.

First you need to create a delegate user in Exchange/AD and then,

• Add impersonation extended right to that user on all client access servers
• Add impersonation extended right to that user on all mailbox databases

After you have created the delegate user, you need to run a script in Exchange Management Shell to give the delegate user access to the mailboxes of all users in the domain.

Example: Grant permissions for Sync Delegate user

Get-ExchangeServer | Where {$_.ServerRole -match "ClientAccess"} | Add-ADPermission -User "Sync Delegate" -ExtendedRights ms-Exch-EPI-Impersonation -InheritanceType None

Get-MailboxDatabase | Add-ADPermission -User "Sync Delegate" -ExtendedRights ms-Exch-EPI-May-Impersonate -InheritanceType All

First you need to create a delegate user in Exchange/AD and then

• Add full access right to that user
• Create management scope for impersonation user with mailbox recipient filter
• Grant that user impersonation role for the management scope

With Exchange 2010 it is possible to limit the delegate access to a group of users.

The following items are needed to set this up:

<OrganizationalUnitIdParameter> <Fqdn> <serviceAccount> <scopename> <recipientFilter> <impersonationAssignmentName> <ApplicationImpersonation>

Example: Grant full access permissions for Sync Delegate user

Get-Mailbox -OrganizationalUnit <OrganizationalUnitIdParameter> -DomainController <Fqdn> | Add-MailboxPermission -User <serviceAccount> -AccessRights Fullaccess -InheritanceType all

Example: Create the management scope with recipient filter

New-ManagementScope -Name <scopename> -RecipientRestrictionFilter <recipientFilter>

Example: Impersonation role assignment

New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Name <impersonationAssignmentName> -Role <ApplicationImpersonation> -User <serviceAccount> -CustomRecipientWriteScope <scopeName>

For more information on impersonation, please see the MSDN Article Configuring Exchange Impersonation.

After creating the delegate user, continue setting up the sync in Severa.

Admin permissions are needed to access calendar sync settings.

To get started, go to Settings > Integrations > Microsoft Exchange and select Office 365 as the Exchange version.

For a successful authentication, the logged in user must be a Microsoft admin for the domain.

1. Click Grant permissions
2. A pop-up will open asking for your Microsoft credentials
   • Use the user account that has admin access for the domain for which the Exchange sync is activated to
3. Review the permissions request
4. Accept the request to return to Severa
5. Click Enable Microsoft Exchange toggle to activate sync

When you have done all the mandatory steps in Microsoft side, you can configure sync settings in Severa.

To get started, go to Settings > Integrations > Microsoft Exchange and select Exchange server as the Exchange version.

1. Enter the Domain : Organization NetBIOS domain name
2. Enter the Exchange URL : Exchange WebServices (EWS) URL, which has been set on the Exchange server (example format of the URL: https://outlook.domain.net/EWS/Exchange.asmx)
3. Enter the user name for the delegate user
4. Enter the password for the delegate user
5. Select what activity types are synced from Severa to Exchange server

It is not possible to restrict what calendar entries are synced from Microsoft Exchange to Severa.

Private entries from Microsoft Exchange are matched to activity type Personal if such an activity type exists in Severa. All other entries get the default activity type.

When finished with setting up the sync, use the toggle in the top right corner to enable the integration. If there are errors, verify that you have completed all the settings in Microsoft admin tools and that both email address and password are correctly written.

Now that the sync is enabled for your organization, users can enable the sync in My profile for themselves.

When the sync is enabled in settings, users can enable the sync. It is not possible to activate sync for others so users need to activate the calendar sync for themselves.

1. Click your name in the top navigation and select My profile
2. Go to Calendar & activities > Calendar synchronization
3. Use the toggle to enable the sync
4. When enabled, calendars will automatically be synchronized

All calendar events from Microsoft will be synced to Severa, and all activities that are marked to be synced (a list of activity types can be opened by clicking the link) will be synced from Severa to Microsoft.

Initial sync tries to match existing entries based on Subject/Activity name, Start date, Start time, End date, End time and Recurrence.

In the initial sync, entries older than 30 days are not synced, unless there are recurring activities with occurrences in future. After the initial sync, only changes are synced.

Sync is triggered by certain actions in Severa. If user is not logged in, sync is not started.

• When navigating from a section to another
• When calendar entry is modified in Severa
• If some other user in your company is using calendar sync and you are a participant or owner of the entry. Entry will be synced even though you do not have calendar sync in use.

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