Entra ID Only Accounts, Creating New User, Set Delay for Custom Attributes

Question

Hello,

We are using Adaxes to manage our Cloud Only infrastructure, and one of the problems we have run into is when creating a NEW user, we need to fill out some Custom Attribute fields that are used by other applications, however, when we use Adaxes to fill in those fields, they are empty when the user created.

It seems that when Adaxes (Or M365 for that matter) creates a user it takes several minutes for their mailbox to provision. Custom Attributes are a feature of a user mailbox, and when the account is in this pre-mailbox-creation phase, the data entered for the Custom Atributes is lost, so we have to manually go through all of our newly created users and re-add the info to the Custom Attribute fields.

How can we create a script/onboarding automation that will temporarily store and then write the data meant for the Custom Attributes field when the mailbox is ready?

Comments

Hello,

How exactly do you provision mailboxes? Is it done by assigning Microsoft 365 licenses in Adaxes itself?

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No, licenses are assigned by membership to a license group. For example we have an assigned group that has selected licenses and services for Office E3, EMS E3. This way if we need to update license types or features, it can be done in one place.

The new user is added to these groups at the time of creation.

Answer 1

Hello,

In this case, the behavior is expected. As an option, you can set Adaxes custom attributes (e.g. CustomAttributeText1) to the values you need and then use a scheduled task that will set the values to the Exchange attributes and clear the custom Adaxes ones. For details on how to create scheduled tasks, see https://www.adaxes.com/help/ScheduleTasksForDirectoryManagement. Finally, you should have something like the following:

Comments

Hmmm seems like a very viable work around. I will give this a try!

Thank you for the advice!

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Ok, seems that is working, however I have several hundred users with data in the Custom Attributes in Exchange Online I want to copy that data into the adm-CustomAttributes so that when we run a regular task against the directory it all syncs up and doesn't clear or overwrite what is existing.

However Adaxes doesn't appear to see it in the ExtensionAttribute so if I were to create a reverse action where I populate adm-CustomAttributeText1 with what is currently in a users ExtensionAttribute1 online, it appears blank and just clears the adm-CustomAttribute as it doesn't see anything in ExtensionAttribute

But the Attributes are blank

But if I drill down into User Properties/Exchange/General/Custom Attributes, they're shown

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Hello,

I want to copy that data into the adm-CustomAttributes so that when we run a regular task against the directory it all syncs up and doesn't clear or overwrite what is existing.

There is no need to do that. If you configure the scheduled task as we suggested, it will never do anything for accounts with empty custom attributes. Moreover, the task clears them in the end.

However Adaxes doesn't appear to see it in the ExtensionAttribute

It is not that Adaxes does not see them. The thing is that Exchange Online works differently from on-premises one. You can request extension attributes only as part of Exchange properties, not just as account attributes.

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There is no need to do that. If you configure the scheduled task as we suggested, it will never do anything for accounts with empty custom attributes. Moreover, the task clears them in the end.

I think you misunderstand. As it sits right now, I have several users that has data in ExtensionAttribute1 in Exchange Online. If I run the schedule task as described, the blank adm-CustomAttributeText1 will CLEAR ExtensionAttribute1 because adm-CustomAttributeText1 is blank.

Here's an example:

Here is the Scheduled Task

Here is a user with data in ExchangeOnline in their CustomAttribute4 and CustomAttribute5 fields;

but NOTHING in adm-CustomAttributeText4 and adm-CustomAttributeText5

Now when I run the scheduled task against this user, those fields clear out

These clear out because the Logic is checking ExtensionAttribute4 and ExtensionAttribute5 which according to Adaxes, is empty

You can see the Test User's CustomAttribute4 is now Empty in Exchange

I need Adaxes to either properly populate ExtensionAttribute from Exchange or a way to back-fill all adm-CustomAttributeText with existing values from ExtensionAttribute

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Hello,

Your statement is correct with the configuration you made, but that is not what we suggested. The conditions in the scheduled task should relate only to Adaxes custom attributes, not the Exchange ones. Also, it is Adaxes custom attributes to be cleared in the end of the scheduled tasks, to avoid second runs on the same accounts.