FAQ: Connect Service Manager to Office 365

Q: How do I set up the Exchange Connector 3 with System Center Service Manager to connect to Office 365?

A: The Exchange Connector 3 for System Center Service Manager fully supports Office 365 and is fairly easy to set up to receive email. Make sure you're using the Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.dll file from the Exchange Web Services Managed API 1.2.1, which you can download from the Microsoft Download Center. If you try to use a newer version, it won't work.

Run the standard Create Connector wizard but with the following changes in the Server Settings section, as the figure shows:

When you click Test Connection, your connection should work.

If you want to send outbound email from Service Manager, you can't directly use Office 365 because Office 365 doesn't allow anonymous connections. You therefore need to install a local SMTP server and configure it as a relay that can then send to the Office 365 subscription with a credential.

Assuming you're using Windows Server 2012, once you install the SMTP Server feature, launch IIS 6.0 Manager and set up the machines you want to be able to relay, including the relay details. Complete instructions are available in the Microsoft System Center blog post "Setup notification from SCSM to Exchange Online (Office365) mailboxes." However, when you configure the list of allowed IP addresses, make sure you also add 127.0.0.1 if you want to use the test suggested or you get a 5.7.1 relay failure message. You can then configure Service Manager to use your local SMTP relay, which will use Office 365.

I walk through the basic setup in the video "Example of integrating Orchestrator, Office 365 and more with Service Manager," at approximately 25:45. This video demonstrates an entire Service Manager scenario using Orchestrator, PowerShell, and Office 365.

Remember that Service Manager will process email messages only from people with email addresses in its configuration management database (CMDB); others will be ignored. The Troubleshooting section of the Exchange Connector document explains how to enable more detailed logging when necessary.