Implementing the SigParser On-Premises Engine can enhance your organization's ability to maintain accurate and comprehensive contact records while ensuring data remains within your secure environment; all email and calendar data is processed within your organization's network.
Note: You must coordinate with the SigParser team before proceeding with these steps. They will enable the On-Prem functionality for your account and schedule a call to guide you through the setup process.
⚠️ SigParser's On Premises Engine uses Exchange Web Services (EWS) to communicate with Exchange.
Overview
Virtual Machine Deployment: Install the On-Premises Engine on a virtual machine within your network. This VM will handle the processing of emails and calendar data.
Configuration: Adjust settings to connect the engine to your Microsoft Exchange. This includes setting up necessary permissions and specifying which mailboxes to monitor.
Scheduled Tasks: Configure tasks to run the engine at desired intervals, ensuring continuous and up-to-date data extraction.
Estimated Time to complete: 1 hour with help from SigParser team.
To Start
You must have access to the following:
Access to your organization's SigParser account
Admin access to your organization’s Exchange
Note: You will need to be able to define users and roles.
A list of email addresses you wish to connect and scan in SigParser
Connected mailboxes require active licenses to be scanned
Prepare a Windows Virtual Machine to run the SigParser application
If not using the appsetting.json for storing secrets, configure alternative Secret Storage
Create a Windows Virtual Machine
Create a new Windows virtual machine (VM). The VM is where all the scanning and processing of emails and calendar meetings will be done.
See Virtual Machine Sizing for more information.
Configure Virtual Machine Settings
Operating System
Windows Operating System
OS-orchestrated patching: patches will be installed by OS
Network Access
Outbound:
ipaas.sigparser.com - port 443
time.windows.com - port 123
Suggested Settings
Backup the server daily
Hard drive should be encrypted at rest
Storage: 100GB - A small amount of data is stored on the server and over time Windows patches take up space. Additionally there will be times when data is temporarily stored on the server if the API is rejecting requests from the client.
Run the SigParser app under an admin service account that won't stop working if an employee leaves the company.
Open a Notepad file on the VM to temporarily store ID values
Create a new Notepad file
Copy and paste the following into the file
USERNAME:
PASSWORD:
SIGPARSER API KEY:
You will fill in these values in the following steps. These values will be used to create and test the MS365 connection and configure the On Premises engine settings.
Create an Exchange “SigParser” User And Setup Mailbox Access
Some companies have hybrid setups (Microsoft 365 + Exchange) while others have pure Exchange setups. How you define users and access will depend on the type of environment you are running.
Create a User
Create a user that that your On Premises Engine will use to connect to mailboxes.
We suggest:
Display Name: SigParser
Username: sigparser
Password: save the password you create for following steps.
Pick 1: Impersonation or Delgation
Impersonation Option
If using Impersonation you don't need to setup a mailbox. But you'll need to somehow restrict the access for the SigParser service account down to just the desired mailboxes. There is probably a UI for doing this but you can do it through Powershell as well.
# 1. Create the security group
New-DistributionGroup -Name "SigParserAllowedMailboxes" -Type Security
# 2. Add mailboxes to the group that you want SigParser to access
Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "SigParserAllowedMailboxes" -Member "user1@mycompany.com"
Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "SigParserAllowedMailboxes" -Member "user2@mycompany.com"
# 3. Create the management scope
New-ManagementScope -Name "SigParserScope" -RecipientRestrictionFilter "MemberOfGroup -eq 'CN=SigParserAllowedMailboxes,OU=Groups,DC=mycompany,DC=com'"
# 4. Assign the role with the scope to your service account
New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Name "SigParserImpersonation" -Role "ApplicationImpersonation" -User "sigparser@mycompany.com" -CustomRecipientWriteScope "SigParserScope"
⚠️ Must disable MFA for this user.
Delegated Access Option
You'll create a user and then need to make sure that user has a mailbox. We suggest using the following email address for the mailbox: sigparser@mycompany.com.
If using a hybrid Microsoft 365 setup and if you need to purchase a mailbox license then the cheapest license is Exchange Online (Plan 1).
⚠️Must disable MFA for this user.
Grant the sigparser@mycompany.com account Read and Manage Permissions to each of the mailboxes you want to monitor.
Alternatively, you can run the PowerShell command found in THIS help article.
Add "SigParser" User Credentials to Notepad
On your Notepad file, add the username and password for the SigParser user in the corresponding fields.
USERNAME: sigparser@yourdomain.com
PASSWORD: xxxxxxxx
Wait for user propogation
Depending on our setup it can take 10 minutes to an hour for the changes to fully propogate to any replicas across the world. You can continue with the rest of the steps while you wait.
Generate a SigParser Application API Key
Log into your organization's SigParser application at https://app.sigparser.com/
Go to Settings > Developers
Select "New API Key"
Name the API Key "On Premises Engine" > select all checkboxes > select Generate Key
Copy the API Key value and paste into the Notepad file
SIGPARSER API KEY: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Note: The SigParser team must enable this functionality on your account.
Download On Premises Engine to Virtual Machine
Log into your Virtual Machine
Make sure that Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge are installed
In Windows Explorer turn on visibility of file extensions
Download the SigParser On Premises Engine zip file to the Virtual Machine
Right click on the Zip file > select Extract All…
Enter the following file location: C:\sigparser
Select Extract
Wait for the extract to finish
Note: The SigParser On Premises Engine zip file will be provided by the SigParser team.
Create Mailboxes Text File
Follow these instructions to find members of a Distribution Group and add to a mailboxes.txt file.
See section: Exchange - Find contacts in Distribution Group and add to mailboxes.txt file.
Configure On Premises Engine Settings
Go to C:\sigparser\EmailFetcher folder
Rename the file appsettings-template.json to appsettings.json
Once renamed, open the file appsettings.json.
Within the file, input the following values into the corresponding fields. Values must be placed within the double quotes. Reference the values in your notepad.
EmailProvider: Exchange
Instance: Enter your company name
Example: “Acme Corporation”
AllowedPatterns: Enter which email domains should be allowed.
Use * for all domains, which is best for most installations.
DenyPatterns: Enter which email domains will not be processed
Enter your own company domains here so internal emails aren't processed. Separate multiple domains with commas.
SubjectLines: Should subject lines be transmitted to SigParser?
If SendSubjectLines is true, update the SubjectLineType to "Meetings", "Emails", or "All"
AddressBooks: Transmit Address Book contacts to SigParser?
Disabled by default. To enable, update to true.
Note: if enabled, you will need to configure sync rules via the Connectors page.
SigParser API Key: [from notepad]
ServerUrl: Enter your Exchange ServerURL
The URL must end with /EWS/Exchange.asmx
Email Address: [from notepad]
Enter the email address for the Microsoft 365 “SigParser” user account you created
Password: [from notepad]
Enter the password for the Microsoft 365 “SigParser” user account you created
Don't want to store in plain text? This article explains how to use various secret storage options for storing the password. The key would be "Exchange.Password"
UseImpersonation: true
If using impersonation to access any mailbox use this. Otherwise, set to false.
ExchangeVersion: Enter the version of Exchange your server is running. Choose the highest version that is less than or equal to your version.
Example: "Exchange2016"
MailboxFileList: Enter the file path for the mailbox list text file
Example: "../mailboxes.txt"
Once the values are entered, Save the updated appsettings.json file.
Test Email Fetcher
Within the EmailFetcher folder, right click on the background > select Open in Terminal
Type cmd > select Enter
Type emailfetcher.exe > select Enter
Once the command begins running successfully, select Ctrl + C or close the Terminal
Configure Scheduled Task to Automatically Run On Premises Engine
Open Task Scheduler
Select Create Basic Task
Configure the task:
Name the task: SigParser Email Fetcher
Description: Optional > select Next
Task Frequency: Daily > select Next
Start: leave default date
Recur every: 1 days > select Next
What action do you want the task to perform: Start a program > select Next
Program/script: select Browse > select C:\sigparser folder > scroll down and select the EmailFetcher Application
Add arguments (optional): leave blank
Start in: C:\sigparser\EmailFetcher > select Next
This must match the first part of the Program file path exactly.
Select Finish
Additional Settings
It is recommended to create a designated Service Account to run the task scheduler. This ensures that the task will run even if the employee is not logged in or leaves the company.
Right click on the task > select Properties
Select: Run whether user is logged on or not > select OK
Enter credentials for the designated service account
Test the Scheduled Task
Right click the task from the list > select Run
View Logging
Open Event Viewer > select Windows Logs > select Application
Setup Complete
The setup is now complete.
If you have any questions, send us an email at support@sigparser.com. You can also book a demo session HERE.