Managing mail accounts
This page describes how you can set up, edit, deactivate, and further manage email accounts for your domains in MailAdm.
After successfully logging in and selecting the domain to be managed, the show mailboxes menu item is displayed by default.
Show mailboxes
After successfully logging in and selecting the domain to be managed, this menu item is displayed by default..
This is the first menu item under the Mailboxes menu item and can also be selected manually by clicking on Display mailboxes in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen.
The Show mailboxes menu item displays all active mailboxes belonging to the selected domain (in this example, @rz-test.rwth-aachen.de).
- The search function (1) can be used to search for mailboxes by name.
- The overview displays the primary e-mail-address, active alias-addresses, mailbox type, quota, and mailbox status by default.
- The Layout button (2) can be used to customize what is shown in the overview. All options can be manually shown or hidden:
- Primary address
- Alias addresses
- First name
- Login name
- Last name/display name
- Mailbox type
- Quota (MB) (Hovering over the mailbox shows you how much storage space it has in total and how much space is already used.)
- Owner
- Status (An explanation of the color coding can be found via the exclamation mark icon (!) to the right of the Status column header.)
- The three-dot icon (3) allows you to open the action menu and reassign or disable a mailbox or get backlinks associated (these show assigned full access and send-as permissions).
- Reassign can be used to assign functional mailboxes to new owners.
- Mailboxes can be edited using the small arrow (4) at the beginning of the respective row.
- By checking the box (5) in front of the primary e-mail-address, multiple mailboxes can be selected for actions.
- If multiple selection is active, multiple mailboxes can be disabled, reassigned, or exported (6) at the same time.
- The Create Invitation (7) option can be used to create a new mailbox and send the invitation to the user.
Create mailboxes
To create a new mailbox, please follow these steps.
Step 1
Click on the Create invitation button in the upper right corner.
You can choose between personal, functional, room, and equipment mailboxes. The personal mailbox type is selected by default.
A personal mailbox is intended for use by a natural person. Functional, room, and equipment mailboxes are not intended for personal use, but always serve a business purpose. An example of a functional mailbox could be Secretariat@sampleinstitution.rwth-aachen.de. The function of this mailbox would be to support the administration of secretarial services. Functional mailboxes can be managed by several people.
Step 2
When creating mailboxes, certain fields must be filled in. The information required varies depending on the mailbox type.
If you forget to fill in a mandatory field, you will receive a message and cannot continue with the creation process until the field has been filled in.
Once you have entered all the information, click Continue.
The following fields can be filled in when creating mailboxes:
- First name / Last name (personal mailboxes)
- Display name (functional / room / equipment mailboxes)
- Primary Address
- The email / sender address can only contain supported characters. Certain special characters, such as the plus sign “+”, are not supported.
- Manage aliasaddresses
- An email alias is an alternative email address that refers to an existing mailbox.
- Any number of alias addresses can be set up for an existing email address.
- The alias addresses must always be in the same domain. It is not possible to create an alias outside the domain!
- Alias addresses can be created according to the following instructions.
- Manage Member Of
- In this field, you can specify membership in one or more distribution lists.
- Quota pool:
- By clicking on the arrow at the right end, you can select from a drop-down menu in which quota the mail account data should be stored.
- Storage space:
- Here you can specify the storage space available for the mail account.
- Manage Full Access Permissions (functional/room/equipment mailboxes)
- This field can be used to grant another mail account full access to this mail account.
Step 3
After entering the necessary information, you have the option of linking the mailbox to an existing PVZID (RWTH employees) or matriculation number (RWTH students) from Identity Management.
However, this is not mandatory, and this step can be skipped if the data is not known.
- The PVZID can be viewed in RWTHcontacts as soon as a person has been entered in the person directory.
- The PVZID is displayed as part of the link for a person's entry and always begins with “PER”: https://rwthcontacts.rwth-aachen.de/person/PER-AB12CDFE
- Employees can view their PVZID and students their matriculation number in IdM Selfservice under RWTH Data.
Step 4
The confirmation email for creating the new mailbox will be sent to the contact-e-mail-address entered in Identity Management if it is linked immediately.
If the new mailbox is not linked directly (because the PVZID or matriculation number is not yet known or available), the generated coupon code must be sent manually from the Open Invitations menu item to the person who is to access the mailbox.
Edit mailboxes
You can edit existing mailboxes at a later date. Not all data can be modified retrospectively. First and last names, as well as loginnames are retrieved from IdM when linked to an IdM account and must be modified in the source system.
Step 1
Use the search function to find the name of the mailbox.
Step 2
Click on the small arrow at the beginning of the line of the mailbox you are looking for.
A drop-down menu will open where you can edit the mailbox.
Step 3
The process is the same for all types of mailboxes - personal mailboxes, functional mailboxes, room mailboxes, and equipment mailboxes.
Depending on the mailbox type, there are additional editing options.
The following fields can be filled in when editing mailboxes:
- Displayname (functional/room/equipment mailboxes)
- Primary Address
- The email/sender address can only contain supported characters. Certain special characters, such as the plus sign “+” or umlauts, are not supported.
- Manage aliasaddresses
- An email alias is an alternative e-mail-address that refers to an existing mailbox.
- Any number of alias addresses can be set up for an existing e-mail-address.
- The alias addresses must always be in the same domain. It is not possible to create an alias outside the domain!
- Alias addresses can be created according to the following instructions.
- Quotapool
- By clicking on the arrow at the right end, you can select from a drop-down menu in which quota the mail account data should be stored.
- Storage space / Storage space used
- The storage space available for the mail account and the storage space currently already used are displayed here.
- Outgoing mail volume
- Here you can define how many emails can be sent from the mailbox per day.
- If a higher volume of outgoing emails is desired for a functioning email account, this can be configured using this option.
- This configuration is valid for 7 days and is automatically reset to the default setting after this time.
- Manage Member Of
- In this field, you can specify membership in one or more distribution lists.
- Manage Full Access Permissions (functional/room/equipment mailboxes)
- This field can be used to grant another person full access to this mail account.
- Manage Send-As Permissions (functional/room/equipment mailboxes)
- Mailboxes entered in this field can send emails using the sender address of the selected account.
Create Alias
Creating an alias address may be necessary, for example, if a person changes their name and the email/sender address needs to be changed.
The process should only be carried out once the name change is visible in IdM. After the name has been changed by the Registrar's Office or the Human Resources Department, this usually takes 24 hours.
You can check this yourself in Self-Service under Personal Data. The first and last name stored for the e-mail-address should be changed automatically at the same time.
To change the email/sender address, an alias must be created. To do this, follow these steps:
Step 1
Go to the menu item Show mailboxes and find the mailbox for which you want to create an alias.
Then click on the small arrow at the beginning of the line.
Step 2
In the Edit Mailbox drop-down menu, first copy the original name before the @ in e-mail-address to the clipboard.
Step 3
Now change this name to the desired new email/sender address.
Then click on the Save button at the bottom of the menu.
Step 4
Now search for the mailbox with the newly assigned name and click on the small arrow at the beginning of the line again.
Step 5
Once you are in the Edit Mailbox window, open the Manage Aliasaddresses menu item.
Here you can see whether an alias address has already been entered.
Step 6
Click on the New Aliasaddress button and enter the original email/sender address or paste it if it is still in your clipboard.
Step 7
Then click on the blue Save button.
The alias address is now set up. The procedure described above means that the new email/sender address will be used as the primary sender address and outgoing emails will be sent immediately from the new sender address.
All emails sent to the old or new email address will arrive in the user's mailbox.
Nothing changes when logging in to the RWTH-e-mail-address. The username and password remain the same.
Set up full access rights
In the case of functional mailboxes that are to be accessed by several colleagues, you can configure access rights.
In MailAdm, you have the option of defining full access for the entire mailbox and the right to Send as to the functional mailbox.
Full access includes the right to read and write the entire contents of the functional mailbox. Emails cannot be sent.
With the Send as permission, the person for whom this right is configured can send emails with the sender address of the functional mailbox. In contrast to proxy rights, the recipient of this email can no longer trace who originally sent the email, as the attachment “[...] on behalf of [...]” is not included, only the sender address of the functional mailbox.
Once full access rights have been configured, the mail account no longer needs to be explicitly integrated, but is automatically opened in the Outlook profile when a person with full access rights logs on to the email system. In this case, it is also important that the Download shared folders option is disabled.
Reassign mailbox
To assign functional mailboxes to a new owner, they must be transferred. All settings and assigned permissions (full access and send as) remain unchanged.
After the transfer, the new owner must set a new password for the functional mailbox in RWTH Selfservice.
Step 1
Go to the menu item Show mailboxes and search for the mailbox you want to reassign.
It must be a functional (room and equipment) mailbox (see Mailbox type).
Step 2
Then click on the three-dot icon and select Reassign from the action menu.
If you want to reassign multiple accounts, check the box in front of the respective email addresses and click on the Reassign button. It is possible to reassign up to 10 accounts at the same time.
Step 3
By clicking on Mailboxes that can be reassigned, you can check which mailboxes have been selected and add more.
Step 4
In the Select mailbox field, enter the e-mail-address of the person who is to become the new owner of the functional mailbox. Account will soon own, and click on Create.
If you leave the field blank, no email will be sent. In this case, you will find the coupon under the Reassigned mailboxes menu item and can send the coupon to the person manually.
Open Invitations
The Open Invitations menu item contains a list of all coupon codes that have not yet been redeemed or that were not linked to an existing PVZID (RWTH employees) or matriculation number (RWTH students) when they were created.
In addition to each coupon code, further information about the created mailbox is displayed. By default, the primary address, quota, quota pool, mailbox type, and creation date are listed.
- The search function can be used to search for invitations to mailboxes by entering the last name/display name.
- Via Layout it can be customized what is displayed in the overview. All options can be manually shown or hidden:
- Coupon
- Last name/display name
- First name
- Primary address
- Quota (MB)
- Quota pool
- Mailbox type
- Created on
- You can open the action menu and delete an invitation using the three-dot icon.
- By checking the box in front of the coupon, you can delete multiple invitations at once.
Disabled Mailboxes
If an RWTH email mailbox has not been accessed for more than 180 days, it will be automatically disabled.
For more information, please refer to the article on the e-mail-address lifecycle. Mailboxes can also be disabled manually.
The Disabled Mailboxes menu item displays all accounts that have already been deactivated and can currently still be reactivated without loss of data.
180 days after deactivation, the mailbox data is automatically and permanently deleted. It is not possible to recover the data.
Deactivated mailboxes no longer count toward the quota pool.
- The search function can be used to search for deactivated mailboxes by entering the last name/display name.
- The view can be customized to show what is displayed in the overview. All options can be manually shown or hidden:
- Primary address
- Alias addresses
- Mailbox type
- Quota (MB)
- Deactivated since
- You can open the action menu using the three-dot icon and restore or permanently delete a mailbox.
- By checking the box in front of the mailbox, you can reactivate or permanently delete multiple mailboxes at the same time.
- If a previously deactivated mailbox is reactivated, the user must change the mailbox password in Self-Service before they can access it again.
Delete Mailbox
To permanently delete a mailbox, it must first be deactivated.
If you have then performed the early deletion action in the Disabled mailboxes menu item, you will receive a pop-up with a deletion coupon.
To confirm the deletion, a confirmation code will be sent to your e-mail-address or the contact-e-mail-address of the mail administrator for the respective domain.
The deletion coupon code must be entered under Delete mailbox. This extra step is intended to prevent mailboxes from being deleted accidentally.
The mailbox will then be automatically deleted in all systems (Exchange and Identity Management).
- From this point on, the mailbox can no longer be restored.
- The deletion process can take up to 10 minutes.
Reassigned Mailboxes
The Reassigned Mailboxes menu item provides an overview of all functional mailboxes that are in the process of being transferred.
If an e-mail-address is displayed, a coupon code has been sent to it, which can be redeemed in the IdM self-service portal after approx. 10-15 minutes.
If no e-mail-address is displayed, no e-mail-address was entered in step 4. The coupon must then be issued manually to the new user.
The person who has been provided with the coupon can redeem it and thus gain access to the functional account.
