Retrieve Exchange Online Mailbox using EWS Managed API 2.2 and PowerShell

Retrieve Exchange Online Mailbox using EWS Managed API 2.2 and PowerShell

Summary

One of our clients asked for a PowerShell script which retrieves all the mailboxes Exchange Online is using EWS Managed API 2.2. Yes, like many we advised to use Exchange Online cmdlet Get-MailBox which has great parameters to drill down the data required. However, the client insisted for an alternate method and the reason is Get-Mailbox returns more data and if we use pipeline to select the required data (properties) the script takes more time or fails at times.

References

• Download EWS Managed API
• How to: Communicate with EWS using EWS Managed API
• Get started with EWS Managed API client applications
• EWS Managed API reference

Solution

Refer to the method GetSearchableMailboxes and the example is below

$Service.GetSearchableMailboxes([string]::Empty,$false).SearchableMailboxes

Here is the ugly code which uses the clear text password and no inline comments. But, it works as expected.

Import-Module 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange\Web Services\2.2\Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.dll'
$Service = [Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExchangeService]::new()
$Service.Credentials = [System.Net.NetworkCredential]::new("chendrayan@contoso.onmicrosoft.com" , "SuperSecretPassword")
$Service.Url = "https://outlook.office365.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx"
$Service.GetSearchableMailboxes([string]::Empty,$false)

Output

Full Code

function Get-xMailBox
{
    <#
    .SYNOPSIS
        A PowerShell function to list all the searchable mailboxes using EWS Managed API 2.2
    .DESCRIPTION
        A PowerShell function to list all the searchable mailboxes using EWS Managed API 2.2.
        To know about EWS Managed API check references section
    .EXAMPLE
        PS C:\> Get-xMailBox
        List all SearchableMailboxes using default credentials
 
        PS C:\> Get-xMailBox -Credential 'admin@contoso.onmicrosoft.com'
        List all SearchableMailboxes using alternate credentials
 
        PS C:\> Get-xMailBox -Credential 'admin@contoso.onmicrosoft.com'  | Select SmtpAddress
        List only the SmtpAddress of all SearchableMailboxes
    .NOTES
        @ChendrayanV
        http://chen.about-powershell.com 
    #>
    [CmdletBinding()]
    param (
        [Parameter()]
        [System.Management.Automation.CredentialAttribute()]
        [pscredential]
        $Credential
    )
    
    try
    {
        Import-Module 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange\Web Services\2.2\Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.dll'
        $Service = [Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExchangeService]::new()
        if($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('Credential'))
        {
            $Service.Credentials = [System.Net.NetworkCredential]::new($Credential.UserName,$Credential.Password)
        }
        else 
        {
            $Service.UseDefaultCredentials = $true
        }
        $Service.Url = "https://outlook.office365.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx"
        $Service.GetSearchableMailboxes([string]::Empty,$false).SearchableMailboxes
    }
    catch
    {
        $_.Exception.Message
    }
}

Usage

help Get-xMailBox

help Get-xMailBox -Examples