Using a real exchange account for 'impersonated connector' account

[MrGeezer]

Hello,

Am a new 3cx user with a working setup but I am investigating the possibility of integrating my MS Exchange contacts with the 3cx phonebook. The documentation states that I need to create an 'impersonated connector' account on my exchange server and use those credentials for 3cx to connect and sync.

We are a very small company and our exchange is hosted. To create another account would mean we incur an additional monthly fee, which I am of the opinion is too expensive to justify this one feature.

I am wondering what the implications would be if I used my own exchange account credentials for 3cx to connect. Has this been done and are there any issues with doing so?

Any advice gratefully received as it would certainly be a nice bonus to have if possible.

Thanks

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Are you running on a privately owned Exchange server hosted by a private company or is it hosted via Office 365 Exchange?

If it's the latter then you don't need an impersonated account, as this uses APIs on Microsoft's cloud platform. https://www.3cx.com/docs/office-365-integration/

If it's a former you will need an impersonated account. https://www.3cx.com/docs/how-to-create-impersonated-user/

Some things to consider:
The impersonated account can theoretically be your own account, if set up correctly as an impersonated account. But consider the possible legal implications since this may be giving you access to mailboxes you should not have access to as a matter of privacy. Having a separate impersonated account will also make for better logging of actions, if you need to troubleshoot it may be more difficult looking at logs and separating your actions from the PBX actions. This is not the recommended way nor considered a good practice. You may be better off using O365 exchange in this case and skipping the impersonated account altogether.

 

[MrGeezer]

Thanks. It's hosted exchange 2013 provided by a cloud host (cobweb) not Office 365.

As there are only two mailboxes I'm not overly concerned about privacy issues I just don't want to break my PBX.

I guess I'll have to try it and see what happens!