Configure BEMS to communicate with the Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Exchange Online, or hybrid environment

If your BEMS environment uses Microsoft Graph to communicate with Microsoft Exchange Online, see Configure BEMS to communicate with a Microsoft Exchange Online environment using Microsoft Graph API. You must allow BEMS to authenticate to Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft Exchange Online to access users’ mailboxes and send notifications to users’ devices when new email is received on the device. A hybrid modern authentication environment (for example, both on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Exchange Online), allows the on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server to use a more secure user authentication and authorization by consuming OAuth access tokens obtained from the cloud. For more information, see the Microsoft resource How to configure Exchange Server on-premises to use Hybrid Modern Authentication.
Note: For information on configuring email notifications for BlackBerry Work using BEMS Cloud, see the BlackBerry Work administration content.
Verify that you have the following information and completed the appropriate tasks.
  1. In the BlackBerry Enterprise Mobility Server Dashboard, under BlackBerry Services Configuration, click Mail.
  2. Click Microsoft Exchange.
  3. In the Select Authentication type section, select an authentication type based on your environment and complete the associated tasks to allow BEMS to communicate with the Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft Exchange Online:
    Note: The Passive authentication type has been deprecated due to Microsoft's deprecation of the Application Impersonation permission in Microsoft Exchange Online environments. To avoid email notifications interruptions for users in the environment, you must configure BEMS to use certificate-based authentication for modern authentication, or Microsoft Graph to communicate to user's mailboxes. The passive authentication type will be removed in a future release.

    Authentication type

    Environment

    Description

    Task

    Integrated

    On-premises Microsoft Exchange Server

    This option uses the Windows authentication credentials Good Technology Common Services service to authenticate to the Microsoft Exchange Server using Basic Authentication.

    No additional actions are required.

    Credential

    On-premises Microsoft Exchange Server

    This option uses a defined BEMS username and password to authenticate to the Microsoft Exchange Server using Basic Authentication.
    1. In the Username field, enter the username of the BEMS service account. Use the format <domain>/<username>.
    2. In the Password field, enter the password for the service account.

    Client Certificate

    This option uses a client certificate to allow the BEMS service account to authenticate to the Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft Exchange Online.
    1. For the Upload PFX file, click Choose File and select the client certificate file. For instructions on obtaining the .PFX file, see Associate a certificate with the Entra app ID for BEMS.
    2. In the Enter PFX file Password field, enter the password for the client certificate.
  4. In a Microsoft Exchange Online environment that uses Client certificate authentication, enable Modern Authentication and use mutual TLS authentication. When you configure Modern Authentication, all nodes use the specified configuration. Note that the "use Credentials if Modern authentication fails" option has been deprecated due to Microsoft's deprecation of the Application Impersonation permission for users' mailboxes that are on Microsoft Exchange Online, enabled for modern authentication, and configured to use credential or passive authentication methods. The option will be removed in a future release. Complete the following steps:
    1. Select the Enable Modern Authentication checkbox.
    2. In the Authentication Authority field, enter the Authentication Server URL that BEMS accesses and retrieve the OAuth token for authentication with Microsoft Exchange Online (for example, https://login.microsoftonline.com/<tenantname> or https://login.microsoftonline.com/<tenantid>). By default, the field is prepopulated with https:// login.microsoftonline.com/common.
    3. In the Client Application ID field, enter the Entra app ID. For instructions, see Obtain an Entra app ID for BEMS with certificate-based authentication.
    4. In the Server Name field, enter the FQDN of the Microsoft Exchange Online. By default, the field is prepopulated with https://outlook.office365.com.
    5. Optionally, select the Use Mutual TLS Authentication check box to allow BEMS to respond to mutual TLS authentication requests. This step requires that the mutual TLS certificate is imported into BEMS. For instructions, see Import the trusted mutual TLS certificates into the BEMS keystore.
  5. Under the Autodiscover and Exchange Options section, complete one of the following actions:

    Task

    Steps

    Override Autodiscover URL

    If you select to override the autodiscover process, BEMS uses the override URL to obtain user information from the Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft Exchange Online. For more information about best practices when enabling autodiscover, see Best practice: Enabling autodiscovery.

    1. Select the Override Autodiscover URL checkbox.
    2. In the Autodiscover URL field, type the autodiscover endpoint (for example, https:// autodiscover<domain>.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.svc).

    Autodiscover and Microsoft Exchange Server options
    1. Select the Swap ordering of <domain.com>/autodiscover and autodiscover. <domain.com>/autodiscover check box to assist in resolving the autodiscover URL. Consider selecting this option if the order results in timeouts or other failures.
    2. Optionally, modify the TCP Connect timeout for Autodiscover url (milliseconds) field as required to prevent failures when autodiscovery takes too long. By default, the timeout is set to 120000. The recommended timeout for the Autodiscover url is between 5000 milliseconds (5 seconds) and 120000 milliseconds (120 seconds).
    3. By default, the Enable SCP record lookup checkbox is selected. If you clear the checkbox, BEMS does not perform a Microsoft Active Directory lookup of Autodiscover URLs. This option is not available when Override Autodiscover URL is selected.
    4. Optionally, select the Use SSL connection when doing SCP lookup check box to allow BEMS to communicate with the Microsoft Active Directory using SSL. If you enable this feature, you must import the Microsoft Active Directory certificate to each computer that hosts an instance of BEMS. This option is not available when Override Autodiscover URL is selected.
    5. By default, the Enforce SSL Certificate validation when communicating with Microsoft Exchange and LDAP server check box is selected. If you clear this setting and use an un-trusted certificate, then the connection to the on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server fails.
    6. By default, the Allow HTTP redirection and DNS SRV record check box is selected. If you clear the checkbox, you disable HTTP Redirection and DNS SRV record lookups for retrieving the Autodiscover URL when discovering users for BlackBerry Work Push Notifications.
    7. Optionally, select the Force re-autodiscover of user on all Microsoft Exchange errors checkbox to force BEMS to perform the autodiscover again for the user when the Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft Exchange Online returns an error message.
  6. In the End User Email Address field, type an email address to test connectivity to the Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft Exchange Online using the service account. Click Test. You can delete the email address after you complete the test.
    If the service account is correctly configured and the test fails, BEMS is attempting to communicate with a Microsoft Exchange Server that is not using a trusted SSL Certificate. If your Microsoft Exchange Server is not set up to use a trusted SSL certificate, see "Importing CA certificates for BEMS" in the BEM-Core content.
  7. Click Save.