Set Up a Shared Mailbox in Office 365

(Post courtesy Himankini Shah)

A shared mailbox is a mailbox that multiple users can open to read and send e-mail messages. Shared mailboxes allow a group of users to view and send e-mail from a common mailbox. They also allow users to share a common calendar, so they can schedule and view vacation time or work shifts.

Shared mailboxes in Microsoft Office 365

In Office 365, shared mailboxes don’t require a license. But each user who accesses a shared mailbox must have a user subscription license. Users with Exchange Online Kiosk subscriptions can’t access shared mailboxes. Also, shared mailboxes can’t be used to archive e-mail, except for the messages that are actually sent to or received from the shared mailbox

Create and configure a shared mailbox:

After you create a shared mailbox, you have to assign permissions to all users who require access to the shared mailbox. Users can't sign in to the shared mailbox. They have to sign in to their own mailbox and then open the shared mailbox to which they've been assigned permissions.

Steps for configuring Shared Mailboxes for Office365 are as follows:

Connect Windows PowerShell to the Online Services

Once you have installed and configured Windows PowerShell v2 and Windows Remote Management (WinRM) on your computer (for more information, see Install and Configure Windows PowerShell), you have to connect the Windows PowerShell on your local computer to the cloud-based service to perform tasks in your cloud-based organization.

When you open Windows PowerShell v2 on your computer, you're in the Windows PowerShell session of your local computer. A session is an instance of Windows PowerShell that contains all the commands that are available to you.

The Windows PowerShell v2 session of your local computer, called the client-side session, only has the basic Windows PowerShell commands available to it. By connecting to the cloud-based service, you connect to the Microsoft datacenter's server environment, called the server-side session, which contains the commands used in the cloud-based service.

Connect Windows PowerShell v2 on your local computer to the cloud-based service

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Windows PowerShell > Windows PowerShell.

2. Run the following command:

$LiveCred = Get-Credential

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In the Windows PowerShell Credential Request window that opens, type the credentials of an account in your cloud-based organization. When you are finished, click OK.

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

The AllowRedirection parameter enables cloud-based organizations in datacenters all over the world to connect Windows PowerShell to the cloud-based service by using the same URL.

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Import-PSSession $Session

A progress indicator appears that shows the importing of commands used in the cloud-based service into the client-side session of your local computer. When this process is complete, you can run these commands.

After connecting to the online services, here's how you can create and configure a shared mailbox for the Printing Services department at learningdesk domain.

Create a shared mailbox: To create the shared mailbox for Printing Services, run one of the following commands:

New-Mailbox -Name "Printing Services" -Alias print -Shared

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Set-Mailbox print -ProhibitSendReceiveQuota 5GB -ProhibitSendQuota 4.75GB -IssueWarningQuota 4.5GB

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After we create a shared mailbox, we have to assign permissions to all the users who require access to the shared mailboxes. Users can't sign into their shared mailboxes. They have to sign in to their own mailbox and then opened the shared mailbox to which they have been assigned permissions.

Create a security group for the users who need access to the shared mailbox

In the Exchange Control Panel, create a security group for the staff who need access to the shared mailbox for Corporate Printing Services.

1. Select My Organization > Users & Groups > Distribution Groups > New.

2. Specify a display name, alias, and e-mail address. In this example, we'll use Printing Services Staff, printdg, and printdg@learningdesk.co.in .

3. Select the Make this group a security group check box.

4. In the Ownership section, click Add to add an owner, if necessary.

5. In the Membership section, click Add.

6. In the Select Members page, select the users you want to add. When you are finished, click OK.

7. On the New Group page, click Save.
After we create a security group, the membership is closed. When membership is closed, only group owners can add members to the security group, or owners have to approve requests to join the group. Additionally, only group owners can remove members from the security group.

Assign the security group the FullAccess permission to access the shared mailbox To enable members of the Printing Services Staff security group to open the shared mailbox, read e-mail, and use the calendar, run the following command:

Add-MailboxPermission "Printing Services" -User printdg -AccessRights FullAccess

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Assign the security group the SendAs permission to the shared mailbox

To enable members of the Printing Services Staff security group to send e-mail from the shared mailbox, run the following command:

Add-RecipientPermission "Printing Services" -Trustee printDG -AccessRights SendAs

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It may take up to an hour until users can access a new shared mailbox or until a new security group member can access a shared mailbox. Assign an Exchange Online (Plan 1) or Exchange Online (Plan 2) license to a shared mailbox if you need additional functionality.

Thanks and Regards,

Himankini

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