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Template Policy

The Template section empowers you to fine-tune policies for shared mailboxes, room mailboxes, equipment mailboxes, and distribution lists that lack an assigned template. This policy serves as a reminder for resource owners without templates, prompting them to streamline the classification of resources within your tenant. This policy is particularly valuable when delegating the classification of resources to users of resources that have not yet been managed in EasyLife. It prompts resource owners to assign templates, providing an organized framework for classification.

Key benefits of the template policies include:

  • Seamless Guidance: EasyLife simplifies the template assignment process by providing step-by-step guidance for users. Bid farewell to missing information and incomplete metadata.

  • Enforced Consistency: Introducing template assignment policies ensures a heightened level of consistency across shared mailboxes, room mailboxes, equipment mailboxes, and distribution lists. This contributes to an organized environment, fostering improved collaboration and productivity across all fronts.

Example​

This example demonstrates the process of crafting a template policy tailored for distribution lists. Subsequently, you can allocate this policy to specific resources, initiating the essential workflow and enabling users to efficiently streamline and manage the environment.

Prerequisites​

To complete this exercise, there are a few things we will need to have.

  • Complete the onboarding.
  • You will require a Notifications Email Address to which the policies will be configured to send notifications.
  • Log in to the EasyLife 365 Admin to create policies and templates.
  • Log in to the EasyLife 365 Mail App to use these policies and templates to create resources.
  • Log in to the Exchange Admin Center to create resources outside EasyLife 365 Mail that will be used for this exercise.
  • Observe, over a number of days, the EasyLife 365 Mail Engine applying the policies to distribution lists we created.

Create policies and templates​

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This part of the exercise is completed in the EasyLife 365 Admin. Sign in to the EasyLife 365 Admin to begin.

Create a policy​

As a first step, create a new policy to support our learning scenario.

  • In the EasyLife 365 Admin, go to Policies on the main menu and select Distribution List.
  • Click Create to create a new policy and hit save once you've filled out the sections below.

Card​

We will begin by configuring the basic details for the policy we want to create.

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You will notice that some sections are invalid, as indicated by a warning icon ⚠. The Save Changes button will remain inactive until all validation issues are resolved. In this case, the validation is highlighting required values that we have not yet supplied. We will proceed to complete the missing information.

  • In the Card section, set the Title to Learning Template Policy.
  • Enter a Description in the Description field.
  • As you fill out the details, data validation automatically checks if all required entries are completed. The warning icon on the Card section will no longer be displayed.
  • Set the policy to be active by checking the Active box and leave the Default box unchecked.

Owners​

In the owners section, we will configure the basic details needed to ensure the policy is valid:

  • In the navigation section on the left side, select Owners.
  • Select all of the options on the Auto-heal tab. The Auto-heal feature will be responsible for handling the ownerless policy.
  • On the Escalations tab, enter the Notifications Email Address that will get alerted if a distribution list is left without owners.

Template Policy​

We will now configure the template policy. This policy will ask owners of the resource without a template to assign a template. By assigning a template, the template's policy will be assigned to the resource. This policy helps you to assign templates, metadata, and policies to resources that have been created prior or outside of EasyLife.

  • In the navigation section on the left side, select Template.
  • Turn on the template policy by enabling the Enable policy toggle.
  • Click Reminders.
  • Set Number of reminders to 2 and Interval between reminders (days) to 1.
  • Click Actions.
  • Choose the radio button none.
tip

When configuring the above policies, under Triggers, we do not provide an option to determine the trigger timeframe as the policy is supposed to become effective with immediate effect.

Create a template​

After creating the policy, continue and create a new template for our learning distribution list.

  • In the EasyLife 365 Admin, go to Templates on the main menu.
  • Select Distribution Lists.
  • Click Create to create a new template.

Card​

  • In the Card section, set the Title to Learning Template - Template Policy.
  • Enter a Description in the Description field.
  • As you fill out the details, data validation automatically checks if all required entries are completed. The warning icon on the Card section will no longer be displayed.
  • Choose a nice color for the card.
  • Set the template to active by checking the Active box.
  • Leave the text box below Audience empty.

Execute the learning guide​

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This part of the exercise is completed in the EasyLife 365 Mail App. Sign in to the EasyLife 365 Mail App to begin.

Now you can start with the following steps of the learning path.

Day One​

On Day One, we create a new distribution list and remove an owner to make it non-compliant with our policies. This will allow us to see how the EasyLife 365 Mail Engine will notify of this non-compliance and allow us to rectify this.

Creating a Distribution List in the Exchange Admin Center​
  • Log into the Exchange Admin Center if not already logged in.
  • In the left navigation, click on Recipients.
  • Select the Groups tab.
  • Click on + Add Group to create a new distribution list.
  • Choose the Distribution group type.
  • Fill in the required details for the distribution list:
    • Display name: Enter a name for the distribution list - Learning List - Template Policy.
    • Alias: Provide a unique alias for the list (e.g., sales_team).
    • Organizational unit: Select the location where you want to store the distribution list if applicable.
  • Optionally, you can add a description to provide more information about the distribution list.
  • Under the "Membership" section, click on Add members to add members to the distribution list. You can select members from your organization's address book or add them manually.
  • Review the settings to ensure they are correct.
  • Click Save to create the distribution list.

Your new distribution list is now created. It may take up to an hour for the created distribution list to become available and accessible in the EasyLife 365 Mail App and Admin.

Applying Template policy

Once the distribution list is now visible in EasyLife 365 Admin, it can now be assigned the Learning Template Policy.

  • In the EasyLife 365 Admin, go to the Manage on the main menu and press it, and on the page that loads then press Equipment Mailbox. A list of all distribution lists in your tenant will be shown along with their assigned template, policy, and compliance status.
  • In the name filter, filter for the distribution list that you created in the Exchange Admin Center on Day One by its name.
  • Select the checkbox beside the mailbox name in the filtered results.
  • Click on the Change Policy button.
  • A list of policies and select the Learning Template Policy policy, and then click Next.
  • A summary of the policy that will be applied will be loaded, once you have gone through it you can click the Do it button to complete the process.

Day Two​

On Day Two, we receive a notification from the EasyLife 365 Mail Engine and attempt to rectify the issue. The Template policy marks the distribution list as not compliant because no template has been assigned.

A template can be added to the distribution list using the following steps:

  • In the EasyLife 365 Mail App, select Distribution Lists on the main menu.
  • After the resources page has loaded, look for the distribution list we created in the Exchange Admin Center in Day One.
  • Navigate to the Policy section on the left.
  • Select the Policies tab and wait for the data to update.
  • The template policy should show non-compliance.
  • Click on the Let's apply a template button.
  • The templates selection page will be loaded and will show the list of distribution list templates available. Select the Learning Template and wait for the data to update.
  • Click next and on the next screen click Let's do it.

The distribution list now shows the template policy as being compliant.

Cleanup​

Congratulations! You have completed the EasyLife 365 Mail Distribution List learning path. Please go back to the EasyLife 365 Admin and delete the Template Learning Template - Template Policy and the policy Learning Template Policy.

Considerations of a template Policy​

Template policies can be created for different types of resources in EasyLife 365 Mail, and it is important to consider the following before creating the policy:

  • The number of templates you would like to use for a given resource.
  • Whether you want to have a default template policy for a given resource that will be automatically applied if there are no policies assigned to a template.