Email is one way your customers can open support tickets, as well as communicate with you to get their issues resolved. Additionally, your support email can be set to automatically create tickets within the platform. Accepting support requests via your own Domain external email addresses is supported. If you already have an email address for support, you can forward emails received at those addresses to your Atera-provided email address. For example, you can receive support requests at support@your-domain.com which will be forwarded to companyname@ticketing.atera.com.
Create contacts for automatic ticket creation
First, we will need to create a Contact in o365 for automatic ticket creation via email.
1. From the Microsoft 365 admin center, access Exchange:
2. In the Exchange admin center, click on Contacts in the Recipients tab. Then click on Add a mail contact.
The Set up the basic information window appears.
3. Add the Display name that you want, the Alias, along with the External email address.
Note: the external email address is the Auto-Generated Support Address, which is found in your Atera Dashboard, in Admin > Email settings.
4. On Mail contact information (Optional), click on Next
5. Click on Create, in Review mail contact.
6. The contact is created, click on Done.
The contact now appears in Contacts under the Recipients tab.
Distribution group forward (1st method)
To create a distribution list for automatic ticket creation:
1. From the Microsoft 365 admin center, access Exchange:
2. In the Exchange admin center, click on Groups in the Recipients tab. Then click on Add a group.
3. Select Distribution as a group type, then click on Next.
4. Add the Name and the Description of the Distribution list.
5. Assign the owner of the group, then click Next.
6. In the Add members section, click on Add members and select one mailbox as the owner of the DL.
7. After selecting the contact, click on Add and then on Next.
8. In the Edit settings section, add the Group email address and select the domain. Make sure to check the Allow people outside of my organization to send email to this Distribution group box and click on Next.
9. On the Review and finish adding group page, click on Create group, to finish the Distribution list creation.
10. Go to Groups under the Recipients tab, then go to the Distribution list tab.
Here you will find the Distribution list created for automatic ticket creation in the previous step. Click on the distribution list name.
11. On the next page, go to the Settings tab and click on Edit delivery management.
12. In Delivery management, select the option Allow messages from people inside and outside my organization, then click on Save changes.
13. Now, we will have to access the Atera Dashboard, to edit the email settings. Go to Admin > Email settings.
14. In Email settings, add your Distribution list in the Primary Customer Support Address field and click on update.
If everything is set up correctly, all emails sent to your Primary Customer Support Address will now create tickets in Atera.
Note: For this method to work, you need to Enable external forwarding.
Configure email forwarding for a mailbox (2nd method)
To enable email forwarding to a User Mailbox:
1. From Microsoft 365 admin center, access Exchange:
2. In the Exchange admin center, click on Mailboxes in the Recipients tab, then select the Mailbox that you want to use for automatic ticket creation in Atera.
3. On the next page, go to the Mailbox tab and click on Manage email forwarding.
4. Set the option Forward all emails sent to this mailbox, to On.
In the Forwarding address field, add the contact that was created in Create contact for automatic ticket creation. Enable the option Keep a copy of forwarded email in this mailbox and click on Save.
5. Now, we will have to access the Atera Dashboard, to edit the email settings. Go to Admin > Email settings:
6. In Email settings, add the email address in the Primary Customer Support Address field and click on update.
If everything is set up correctly, all emails sent to your Primary Customer Support Address will now create tickets in Atera.
Note: For this method to work, you need to Enable external forwarding.
Customize the support email address (SMTP)
By default, all emails sent from Atera appear under the email address noreply@atera.com. You can customize the email address using SMTP settings from one of your own email addresses.
1. In the Atera console, click on Admin > Email Settings
The Email Settings page appears. For full instructions on completing this page, click here.
2. In the Customize SMTP Settings section, enter the Server Address, Port, Username, and Password.
3. Specify whether you wish to use secured SMTP (SSL/TLS) using the toggle.
4. Click on Test Email Settings.
5. A confirmation message will appear to let you know that the test was successful.
6. Once the confirmation message appears, you will be able to click on Update.
The email update will be configured.
To learn how to set up and add dynamic fields to email templates click here.
Use different emails for the Primary Customer Support Address and SMTP
In case, you want to use a different email address for SMTP settings than the one you have as your Primary support address, you will have to set up Send as permissions in the Exchange admin center.
The mailbox used to customize the SMTP settings will need Send as permissions to the mailbox used as the Primary support address.
1. Access the Exchange admin center, go to Recipients > Mailboxes, and click on the mailbox used as the Primary support address.
2. On the next page, go to the Delegation tab, and click on Edit, under Send as.
3. Provide the mailbox used for SMTP settings in Atera, with the Send as permissions, and save the settings.
Note: Ticket emails sent from Atera will now appear to come from the Primary support address instead of noreply@atera.com.
Enable external forwarding
External forwarding will have to be enabled for your organization in order for the email forwarding rules to work.
1. Log in to your Office 365 Security & Compliance portal for Microsoft 365 and select Threat management > Policy
2. Under Threat policies > Policies, click on Anti-spam.
3. Click on the Anti-spam outbound policy (Default) and scroll to click the Edit protection settings link at the bottom of the sidebar.
4. Go to the Forwarding rules section and select On - Forwarding is enabled under Automatic forwarding rules, then click on Save.
Now external email forwarding is enabled.
Incorrect sender
For cases where the tickets show an incorrect sender, it is advised to disable the option Show "via" tag.
1. From the Microsoft admin center, access the Security menu.
2. Then go to Policies & rules.
3. Access your policy, then access Anti-phishing.
4. Open the policy and click on Edit actions.
5. Uncheck the option Show "via" tag, then click on Save.
Important notes
- If all the settings are correct and you are still not receiving tickets from forwarded emails or in case you receive the following error: 550 5.7.520 Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding. Please contact your administrator for further assistance. AS(7555), you may need to disable the email forwarding rule and create a transport rule (mail flow rule) instead.
- Double forwarding cannot be set up for your support email address as only one redirection is allowed based on Microsoft guidelines
- For SMTP settings, please add app.atera.com to the allowed list in your email server as well as the following subnets:
52.157.0.0/16
40.113.0.0/16If you cannot whitelist an IP address range of /16, please use add the following:
52.157.175.0/24
40.113.216.0/24
40.113.221.0/24
40.113.222.0/24
54.240.3.0/24
51.144.126.0/24
40.122.130.0/24
54.240.106.94
54.240.106.95
172.201.250.210
172.201.250.75
57.153.14.140
20.83.59.240
20.83.57.243
4.249.232.110
- The email white labeling will apply to ticket replies only. Reports and invoices will still be sent from noreply@atera.com
- The SMTP settings for Office 365 can be found in this Microsoft guide. While option 1 is recommended, depending on your email configuration, you may be required to use the other options described in the article.
- "Number of times a message is redirected: The number of times a message will be redirected, forwarded, or replied to automatically based on Inbox rules. For example, User A has an Inbox rule that redirects messages to User B, based on the sender. User B has an Inbox rule that forwards messages to User C based on keywords in the subject line. If a message satisfies both of these conditions, the message is only sent to User B; it's not forwarded to User C because only one redirection is allowed. In this case, the message is dropped without sending a non-delivery report (NDR) to User B indicating that the message wasn't delivered to User C. We make use of the X-MS-Exchange-Inbox-Rules-Loop header to determine the number of times that a message was redirected. This header remains also across Exchange organizational boundaries."
