Mailbox (Discovery): Permissions, Open without “Full Access” Permission – Office 365

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Tests as on 27 November 2014.

Objective: Providing non-Full Access Permission on a Discovery Mailbox (Exchange Online) and opening it in outlook.

You can have one of the following "Access Rights" on a Discovery Mailbox.

  • FullAccess
  • ExternalAccount
  • DeleteItem
  • ReadPermission
  • ChangePermission
  • ChangeOwner

 

Create a discovery mailbox

This example creates a discovery mailbox named SearchResults.

New-Mailbox -Name SearchResults -Discovery

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-Mailbox.

To display a list of all discovery mailboxes in an Exchange organization, run the following command:

Get-Mailbox -Resultsize unlimited -Filter {RecipientTypeDetails -eq "DiscoveryMailbox"}

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Get-Mailbox.

 

Assign permissions to a discovery mailbox

You have to explicitly assign users or groups the necessary permissions to open a discovery mailbox that you've created. Run the following command to assign a user or group permissions to open a discovery mailbox and view search results:

Add-MailboxPermission <Name of the discovery mailbox> -User <Name of user or group> -AccessRights FullAccess -InheritanceType all

 

For example, the following command assigns the Full Access permission to the Litigation Managers group, so members of the group can open the Fabrikam Litigation discovery mailbox.

Add-MailboxPermission "Fabrikam Litigation" -User "Litigation Managers" -AccessRights FullAccess -InheritanceType all

 

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Add-MailboxPermission.

 

However, viewing the content of a Discovery Mailbox, when the user does not have a full mailbox access has been a bit tricky.

One of the ways that I have tried is by providing a per folder "Reviewer" access.

 

For instance, if I were to provide Mailbox-Folder permission to Ashlyn (UPN: ashlyn@microsoftace.onmicrosoft.com), I can do so with the following command

Add-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity SearchResults -User ashlyn@microsoftace.onmicrosoft.com -AccessRights Reviewer

 

 

However, the above provides permission on the Information Store (Root) Folder. To assign a more granular permission (to rest of the folders) – execute the below command.

foreach($item in (Get-MailboxFolderStatistics SearchResults |where { ($_.foldertype -ne "ConversationActions") -and ($_.foldertype -notlike "Recoverable*") -and ($_.FolderPath -notlike "/Sync*")})){$fname = "SearchResults:" + $item.FolderPath.Replace("/","\"); Add-MailboxFolderPermission $fname -User ashlyn@microsoftace.onmicrosoft.com -AccessRights Reviewer}

 

 

 

The AccessRights (for Add-MailboxFolderPermission ) parameter specifies the permissions for the user with the following access rights:

  • ReadItems   The user has the right to read items within the specified folder.
  • CreateItems   The user has the right to create items within the specified folder.
  • EditOwnedItems   The user has the right to edit the items that the user owns in the specified folder.
  • DeleteOwnedItems   The user has the right to delete items that the user owns in the specified folder.
  • EditAllItems   The user has the right to edit all items in the specified folder.
  • DeleteAllItems   The user has the right to delete all items in the specified folder.
  • CreateSubfolders   The user has the right to create subfolders in the specified folder.
  • FolderOwner   The user is the owner of the specified folder. The user has the right to view and move the folder and create subfolders. The user can't read items, edit items, delete items, or create items.
  • FolderContact   The user is the contact for the specified folder.
  • FolderVisible   The user can view the specified folder, but can't read or edit items within the specified folder.

The AccessRights parameter also specifies the permissions for the user with the following roles, which are a combination of the rights listed previously:

  • None   FolderVisible
  • Owner   CreateItems, ReadItems, CreateSubfolders, FolderOwner, FolderContact, FolderVisible, EditOwnedItems, EditAllItems, DeleteOwnedItems, DeleteAllItems
  • PublishingEditor   CreateItems, ReadItems, CreateSubfolders, FolderVisible, EditOwnedItems, EditAllItems, DeleteOwnedItems, DeleteAllItems
  • Editor   CreateItems, ReadItems, FolderVisible, EditOwnedItems, EditAllItems, DeleteOwnedItems, DeleteAllItems
  • PublishingAuthor   CreateItems, ReadItems, CreateSubfolders, FolderVisible, EditOwnedItems, DeleteOwnedItems
  • Author   CreateItems, ReadItems, FolderVisible, EditOwnedItems, DeleteOwnedItems
  • NonEditingAuthor   CreateItems, ReadItems, FolderVisible
  • Reviewer   ReadItems, FolderVisible
  • Contributor   CreateItems, FolderVisible

The following roles apply specifically to calendar folders:

  • AvailabilityOnly   View only availability data

LimitedDetails   View availability data with subject and location

 

Opening the Discovery Mailbox in Outlook

And now you will be able to open the Discovery Mailbox in Outlook.

You may run into issues there. Follow the screenshots.

Click on File

 

Click on "Open & Export" and then on "Other User's Folder"

 

 

Click on "Name" Button

 

Click on "Advanced Find"

 

Type in the name of the discovery mailbox

 

If it does not yield any results, click on the "Address Book" drop down and select "Global Address List"

 

Type in the name of the discovery mailbox in the search field and click on "Go"

The discovery mailbox should appear – and thereof can be selected.

 

Click on "OK"

 

 

And the discovery mailbox opens up.

 

Live long and prosper!

_Anshuman

 

 

Anshuman Mansingh

Technical Consultant, Microsoft

Anshuman joined Microsoft as an Electronics and Communications' Engineering fresher. He has over 2 years' experience, working with Microsoft Partners plan, sell and deploy Microsoft Online Services.

You can reach me at anshu.man@live.com or https://aka.ms/anshu