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Exchange Online

Rencore monitors Exchange Online across 31 governance policies, 14 reports, and 35 segments, detecting mailbox security risks, storage issues, and inactive accounts automatically.

Published For M365 Product Owner, IT Admin
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Definition

Rencore Exchange governance is a set of 31 policies, 14 reports, and 35 segments that continuously audit Exchange Online mailboxes for security violations, operational risks, and license waste. It detects redirect rules that forward email to external domains, mailboxes approaching storage quotas, and inactive accounts still consuming licenses, then triggers approval-based automations to remediate each issue.

See Exchange Online in Rencore

Step 1 of 4

117 governance capabilities: 22 inventories · 31 policies · 14 reports · 35 segments · 15 automations

Why govern Exchange Online with Rencore

Detect mailbox security risks

Identify mailboxes with external redirect rules, excessive forwarding rules, or transport rules that bypass compliance policies. Each violation includes severity and recommended action.

Recover wasted licenses

Find inactive mailboxes (90+ days without send/receive activity) and shared mailboxes without active users. Reclaim Exchange Online licenses by archiving or removing unused accounts.

Prevent storage surprises

Monitor mailboxes approaching their prohibit-send quota and large mailboxes without online archives enabled. Get alerted before users lose the ability to send email.

Enforce naming and configuration standards

Check for mailboxes without required retention policies, rooms without booking restrictions, and distribution lists with stale membership.

What Rencore discovers

Rencore automatically inventories these Exchange Online object types.

Mailbox
All Exchange mailboxes of your users, rooms & equipment
Redirect Rule
All registered Exchange mailbox redirect rules
Calendar Permission
Permissions configured on Exchange mailbox calendars (sharing and delegation).
Exchange Organization Configuration
Tenant-wide Exchange Online configuration settings.
Remote Domain
Exchange remote domain entries that govern message handling for specific external domains.
Journal Rule
Exchange journal rules that capture copies of messages to a journal recipient (compliance / legal hold).
Exchange Online inventory card in Rencore

How Exchange governance works in Rencore

Rencore connects to Exchange Online via Microsoft Graph API and inventories every mailbox, distribution list, and transport rule in the tenant. Policies run on a scheduled basis and compare each object against governance rules, flagging violations with severity levels (High, Medium, Low) and providing actionable descriptions.

Who uses Exchange governance

IT administrators use Exchange governance to stay ahead of storage quota issues and mailbox sprawl. Security teams use it to detect redirect rules that could exfiltrate email data. Compliance officers rely on the reports to demonstrate that inactive mailboxes are being cleaned up per retention schedules.

Getting started

Connect your Microsoft 365 tenant to Rencore, and Exchange policies activate automatically. No agent installation required | Rencore reads data through Microsoft Graph with read-only permissions and applies all 31 policies within the first scan cycle.

Policies

31 governance rules that detect violations and risks.

Exchange Online policies card in Rencore
Mailboxes with external redirect rules
Shows mailboxes which have redirect rules that redirect to external domains
High Security
Mailboxes near storage quota
Shows mailboxes that have used more than 80% of their prohibit-send quota.
High Operation
Tenant allows external auto-forwarding
Detects when the outbound spam policy 'AutoForwardingMode' is not set to 'Off', allowing users to auto-forward mail externally.
High Security
Remote domain permits auto-forward
Detects remote domains where automatic forwarding is allowed.
High Security
Admin audit log disabled
Detects when the Exchange admin audit log is disabled, preventing forensic reconstruction of admin actions.
High Security
Journal rule sends to external recipient
Detects Exchange journal rules whose journal mailbox is in an external domain.
High Security

Need a rule that isn't listed? Rencore's Policy Builder lets you create custom policies tailored to your organization.

Reports

14 analytics views and dashboards.

Mailboxes by type
Distribution of mailboxes by user purpose (user, shared, room, equipment).
Pie Chart · Operation
Top mailboxes by storage
Top 10 mailboxes by total storage used.
Bar Chart · Operation
Mailboxes with most redirect rules
Top 10 mailboxes ranked by the number of redirect rules they have.
Bar Chart · Security
Distribution groups by type
Distribution of Exchange distribution groups by group type.
Pie Chart · Operation
Transport rules by state
Distribution of Exchange transport rules by enabled or disabled state.
Pie Chart · Security
Security policies by type
Distribution of Defender and EOP security policies by policy type.
Pie Chart · Security
Exchange Online reports card in Rencore

Automations

15 automated remediation workflows.

Disable Transport Rule
Disables an Exchange transport rule that redirects or BCC's to external recipients
Block External Auto-Forwarding
Sets the outbound spam filter AutoForwardingMode to Off to block tenant-wide external forwarding
Disable Remote Domain Auto-Forward
Disables auto-forwarding on a remote domain entry to prevent mail exfiltration
Enable Admin Audit Log
Enables the Exchange admin audit log to ensure forensic traceability
Disable Journal Rule
Disables a journal rule that sends copies to an external recipient
Remove External Mailbox Permission
Removes a mailbox delegation (FullAccess/SendAs) granted to an external user
Reset Calendar Permission
Resets a mailbox folder permission to None, revoking external or anonymous calendar sharing
Enable DKIM Signing
Enables DKIM signing on an accepted domain to prevent email spoofing
Restrict Distribution Group to Internal
Enables sender authentication so only internal senders can deliver to the distribution group
Remove Audit Bypass
Disables audit bypass on an account so all mailbox activity is logged
Disable Safe Links Click-Through
Prevents users from clicking through Safe Links warnings on phishing URLs
Disable Auto-Reply
Disables the automatic reply (out-of-office) on a mailbox
Restrict Auto-Reply Audience
Restricts auto-reply external audience to None to prevent information leakage to external senders
Enable Mailbox Archive
Enables the online archive on a large mailbox to offload older content
Remove Mobile Device
Removes a stale Exchange ActiveSync device partnership

Segments

35 data groupings for targeted filtering.

User mailboxesShared MailboxesInactive MailboxesMailboxes Near QuotaLarge MailboxesArchived MailboxesRoom & Equipment MailboxesMailboxes with Auto-ReplyDLs accepting external mailDLs without ownersDLs hidden from GALDynamic distribution groupsEnabled transport rulesAudit-mode transport rulesRules with external redirectInbound connectorsOutbound connectorsConnectors without TLSStale mobile devicesBlocked or quarantined devicesPolicies drifting from StandardDisabled security policiesFull Access delegatesExternal delegatesDefault/Anonymous permissionsPermissions with write accessRoom mailboxesEquipment mailboxesResources without delegatesDirect role assignmentsDomains without DKIMAudit-bypassed accountsDomains allowing auto-forwardJournal rules to externalExternal calendar sharing

Frequently asked questions

What is Exchange governance?
Exchange governance covers the policies, monitoring rules, and automations that keep Exchange Online mailboxes secure, compliant, and cost-efficient. It includes detecting mailboxes with unsafe redirect rules, tracking storage quotas, identifying inactive mailboxes consuming licenses, and enforcing transport rules.
How many Exchange governance policies does Rencore offer?
Rencore provides 31 Exchange-specific governance policies covering security risks (external redirect rules, forwarding rules), operational issues (storage quotas, large mailboxes without archives), and sprawl reduction (inactive mailboxes, unused shared mailboxes). Each policy runs automatically and flags violations for review or automated remediation.
What is Rencore governance?
Rencore governance is a SaaS platform that continuously monitors your Microsoft 365 tenant for policy violations, configuration drift, and security risks across SharePoint, Teams, Power Platform, Copilot, and AI Agents. It automates compliance evidence collection, surfaces oversharing and sprawl, and provides actionable remediation workflows, reducing manual audit effort by up to 80%.

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