Creating Bulk of Mailboxes

CloudBlue Commerce allows you to create Exchange mailboxes in bulk using information from CSV file. This procedure, so-called, bulk mailboxes importing, may be useful if you want to move your organization from existing mail service to Hosted Exchange or create multiple mailboxes just in a few steps.

To import a bulk of mailboxes, follow these steps:

1. Go to Exchange > Mailboxes, the list of existing mailboxes opens.
2. Click on the Import Mailboxes button.

   Note: To create multiple mailboxes at once you have to use information taken from the CSV (Comma-Separated-Value file format) file. CSV file is used to provide mailbox data for bulk importing.
   
   In the Help area you can get a description of supported CSV fields by clicking on the View link and download a sample CSV file containing all supported field names and few sample records by clicking on the Download link.

   Specify the following Import Source parameters:

   • CSV file – Specify the path to the CSV file by clicking on the Browse button or type it manually. .
   • Separator – As CSV is a delimited text file, it uses a comma to separate values. CloudBlue Commerce allows alternate CSV separators to be used. Here select a separator symbol from the drop-down menu.
   • Encoding – Select a required encoding from the drop-down list.

     Note: If you use Microsoft Excel to create CSV file and your data contains international symbols, select the Save as type: Unicode Text option to save data in Unicode encoding and preserve international symbols. In case you select the Save as type: CSV (Comma delimited) option, data will be saved in ANSI encoding and international symbols may get lost.

3. Click Next to validate the content of CSV file. The system validates the following conditions:

   • All specified email addresses are based on the domain that is enabled for Exchange.
   • All specified email addresses are unique and do not conflict with existing mailboxes.
   • Available limit of the Mailboxes resource is less or equal to the number of importing mailboxes.
   • Size limit of each importing mailbox is less or equal to the Maximum Allowed Mailbox Size resource limit.
   • Sum of size limits of all importing mailboxes is less or equal to the available value of Diskspace resource.
   • For each mailbox option (OWA, Outlook, IMAP, POP3, ActiveSync) the total number of importing mailboxes having this option enabled is less or equal to the available value of corresponding resource.

   There are two possible types of mailbox validation result:

   • Success – all records passed validation without errors.
   • Failed – validation completed with errors.

     Note: If your subscription includes mailbox templates, the set of columns will differ. Size of mailbox and protocol-related columns will be replaced by "mailbox template" column (see section about mailbox templates).

4. Review the results of CSV file validation.

   • If the validation is successfully passed, review mailbox records and click Finish.
   • If the validation is completed with errors, specify the valid CSV file or perform necessary corrections of mailbox data.

     You may fix errors automatically by selecting one of the following Import Options:

     • Force generate unique values – Select this checkbox if you receive an error that the value is not unique within the system/file (for example, email address indicated in the CSV file belongs to a mailbox already existing in the system). This value will be replaced by a unique one automatically.
     • Ignore invalid values in optional fields (mandatory fields are marked with *) – Select this checkbox if you receive any error, prefer to ignore invalid values and use the default ones.
     • Skip records not passed validation – Select this checkbox if you want to skip records containing incorrect values.
     • Skip unrecognized fields – If your CSV file contains fields that are not supported for mailbox importing, the Unrecognized field error appears. Select this checkbox if you want such fields to be skipped.
     • Click Finish.

Mailbox data is imported into the system and mailboxes creation process is initiated. You can review importing summary – which mailboxes are imported and which are skipped. Newly created mailboxes are fully functional and can be accessed by users after they get the Ready status.