Elastic Outlook connector reference

The Elastic Outlook connector is built with the Elastic connector framework and is available as a self-managed self-managed connector.

Self-managed connector reference

Availability and prerequisites

This connector is available as a self-managed connector. To use this connector, satisfy all self-managed connector prerequisites.

Create a Outlook connector

Use the UI

To create a new Outlook connector:

In the Kibana UI, navigate to the Search → Content → Connectors page from the main menu, or use the global search field.
Follow the instructions to create a new Outlook self-managed connector.

Use the API

You can use the Elasticsearch Create connector API to create a new self-managed Outlook self-managed connector.

For example:

		 PUT _connector/my-outlook-connector {
  "index_name": "my-elasticsearch-index",
  "name": "Content synced from Outlook",
  "service_type": "outlook"
}

	

Note

The user needs the cluster privileges manage_api_key, manage_connector and write_connector_secrets to generate API keys programmatically.

To create an API key for the connector:

Run the following command, replacing values where indicated. Note the encoded return values from the response:

		 POST /_security/api_key {
  "name": "connector_name-connector-api-key",
  "role_descriptors": {
    "connector_name-connector-role": {
      "cluster": [
        "monitor",
        "manage_connector"
      ],
      "indices": [
        {
          "names": [
            "index_name",
            ".search-acl-filter-index_name",
            ".elastic-connectors*"
          ],
          "privileges": [
            "all"
          ],
          "allow_restricted_indices": false
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

	

Update your config.yml file with the API key encoded value.

Refer to the Elasticsearch API documentation for details of all available Connector APIs.

Usage

To use this connector as a self-managed connector, use the Outlook tile from the connectors list OR Customized connector workflow.

For additional operations, see Connectors UI in Kibana.

Connecting to Outlook

Outlook connector supports both cloud (Office365 Outlook) and on-premises (Exchange Server) platforms.

Connect to Exchange Server

In order to connect to Exchange server, the connector fetches Active Directory users with the help of ldap3 python library.

Connect to Office365 Outlook (Outlook Cloud)

To integrate with the Outlook connector using Azure, follow these steps to create and configure an Azure application:

Navigate to the Azure Portal and log in using your credentials.
Click on App registrations to register a new application.
Navigate to the Overview tab. Make a note of the Client ID and Tenant ID.
Click on the Certificates & secrets tab and create a new client secret. Keep this secret handy.
Go to the API permissions tab.
- Click on "Add permissions."
- Choose "APIs my organization uses."
- Search for and select "Office 365 Exchange Online."
- Add the full_access_as_app application permission.

You can now use the Client ID, Tenant ID, and Client Secret you’ve noted to configure the Outlook connector.

Configuration

data_source

(required) Dropdown to determine Outlook platform type: outlook_cloud or outlook_server. Default value is outlook_cloud.

tenant_id

(required if data source is outlook_cloud) The Tenant ID for the Azure account hosting the Outlook instance.

client_id

(required if data source is outlook_cloud) The Client ID to authenticate with Outlook instance.

client_secret

(required if data source is outlook_cloud) The Client Secret value to authenticate with Outlook instance.

exchange_server

(required if data source is outlook_server) IP address to connect with Exchange server. Example: 127.0.0.1

active_directory_server

(required if data source is outlook_server) IP address to fetch users from Exchange Active Directory to fetch data. Example: 127.0.0.1

username

(required if data source is outlook_server) Username to authenticate with Exchange server.

password

(required if data source is outlook_server) Password to authenticate with Exchange server.

domain

(required if data source is outlook_server) Domain name for Exchange server users such as gmail.com or exchange.local.

ssl_enabled

Whether SSL verification will be enabled. Default value is False. Note: This configuration is applicable for Outlook Server only.

ssl_ca

(required if ssl is enabled) Content of SSL certificate. Example certificate:

		-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIID+jCCAuKgAwIBAgIGAJJMzlxLMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMHoxCzAJBgNVBAYT
...
7RhLQyWn2u00L7/9Omw=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

	

use_text_extraction_service

Use self-hosted content extraction service. Default value is False.

document_level_security

Toggle to enable Document level security (DLS). When enabled:

Full syncs will fetch access control lists for each document and store them in the _allow_access_control field.
Access control syncs fetch users' access control lists and store them in a separate index.

Note: This configuration is applicable for Outlook Server only.

Deployment using Docker

You can deploy the Outlook connector as a self-managed connector using Docker. Follow these instructions.

Download the sample configuration file. You can either download it manually or run the following command:

		curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/connectors/main/config.yml.example --output ~/connectors-config/config.yml

	

Remember to update the --output argument value if your directory name is different, or you want to use a different config file name.

Update the configuration file with the following settings to match your environment:

elasticsearch.host
elasticsearch.api_key
connectors

If you’re running the connector service against a Dockerized version of Elasticsearch and Kibana, your config file will look like this:

		# When connecting to your cloud deployment you should edit the host value
elasticsearch.host: http://host.docker.internal:9200
elasticsearch.api_key: <ELASTICSEARCH_API_KEY>

connectors:
  -
    connector_id: <CONNECTOR_ID_FROM_KIBANA>
    service_type: outlook
    api_key: <CONNECTOR_API_KEY_FROM_KIBANA>1

	

Optional. If not provided, the connector will use the elasticsearch.api_key instead

Using the elasticsearch.api_key is the recommended authentication method. However, you can also use elasticsearch.username and elasticsearch.password to authenticate with your Elasticsearch instance.

Note: You can change other default configurations by simply uncommenting specific settings in the configuration file and modifying their values.

Run the Docker image with the Connector Service using the following command:

		docker run \
-v ~/connectors-config:/config \
--network "elastic" \
--tty \
--rm \
docker.elastic.co/integrations/elastic-connectors:9.0.0 \
/app/bin/elastic-ingest \
-c /config/config.yml

	

Refer to DOCKER.md in the elastic/connectors repo for more details.

Find all available Docker images in the official registry.

Tip

We also have a quickstart self-managed option using Docker Compose, so you can spin up all required services at once: Elasticsearch, Kibana, and the connectors service. Refer to this README in the elastic/connectors repo for more information.

Content Extraction

Refer to Content extraction.

Documents and syncs

The connector syncs the following objects and entities:

Mails
- Inbox Mails
- Sent Mails
- Archive Mails
- Junk Mails
Contacts
Calendar Events
Tasks
Attachments
- Mail Attachments
- Task Attachments
- Calendar Attachments

Note

Content from files bigger than 10 MB won’t be extracted by default. You can use the self-managed local extraction service to handle larger binary files.
Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elastic Deployment.

Sync types

Full syncs are supported by default for all connectors.

This connector also supports incremental syncs.

Document level security

Document level security (DLS) enables you to restrict access to documents based on a user’s permissions. Refer to configuration on this page for how to enable DLS for this connector.

Note

Refer to DLS in Search Applications to learn how to ingest data from a connector with DLS enabled, when building a search application. The example uses SharePoint Online as the data source, but the same steps apply to every connector.

Elastic Outlook connector reference

Self-managed connector reference

Availability and prerequisites

Create a Outlook connector

Use the UI

Use the API

Usage

Connecting to Outlook

Connect to Exchange Server

Connect to Office365 Outlook (Outlook Cloud)

Configuration

Deployment using Docker

Content Extraction

Documents and syncs

Sync types

Document level security

Sync rules

Advanced Sync Rules

Connector Client operations

End-to-end Testing

Known issues

Troubleshooting

Security

Framework and source