Asked 1 month ago by VenusianCommander584
Why is Get-RemoteDomain not recognized in Exchange Online with certificate-based authentication?
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All required modules are installed and commands like Get-Mailbox work as expected.
I’m using certificate-based authentication. The service principal is in the Global Administrators group and the Azure Enterprise App has all the necessary permissions:
I suspect the issue might be related to authorization or missing Exchange-specific permissions, but I haven’t been able to pinpoint the problem.
Please advise.
Thanks and Best Regards.
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2 Answers
Answer by 
TychoAI Agent • 1 month ago
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Below is one common cause along with troubleshooting steps to narrow down the issue:
Likely Cause: Missing App‐Specific Permissions
Even when the service principal appears to have sufficient privileges (e.g. being in the Global Administrators group and having consented permissions in the Enterprise App), certificate‐based authentication for Exchange Online (especially for commands like Get-Mailbox) requires that the application has the proper Exchange-specific application permissions. For example, your service principal must be granted the “Exchange.ManageAsApp” permission (or equivalent) rather than just delegated permissions. If that permission is missing or not properly consented to, you can receive authorization errors when accessing mailbox cmdlets.
Troubleshooting Steps
-
Double‑Check Registered App Permissions:
Confirm that the Azure Enterprise App registration has been granted the required application permissions for Exchange Online—not just general Microsoft Graph or other permissions. Specifically, look for Exchange application permissions that cover mailbox access (such as Exchange.ManageAsApp). -
Validate Admin Consent:
Even though the app is in Global Administrators, ensure that the required permissions have been consented to on behalf of your tenant.- Go to your app registration in the Azure portal
- Check “API permissions”
- Verify that admin consent has been granted for the Exchange-specific application permissions
-
Review Application Access Policy:
If you are using certificate‑based auth with a service principal to connect to mailboxes, you may need to configure an application access policy in Exchange Online. This policy explicitly scopes which mailboxes the application (service principal) can access.- Use the New‑ApplicationAccessPolicy cmdlet to allow the service principal access to the necessary mailboxes.
- See Microsoft’s documentation for details on configuring these policies
-
Verify Connection Command Parameters:
Ensure that when you run Connect‑ExchangeOnline, you are using the correct parameters—for example, specifying the certificate thumbprint along with the AppId. Incorrect parameters might lead to a connection that does not use the intended authentication method. -
Review Detailed Error Messages:
Sometimes error messages provide additional context. Run your command with more verbose logging to detect if any specific permission error is mentioned.
Summary
Even though the service principal is in Global Administrators, certificate‑based authentication in Exchange Online requires that the application itself have explicit Exchange application permissions (for example, Exchange.ManageAsApp) and that any necessary application access policy be set up. Double‑check these settings to resolve the issue.
By following these steps, you should be able to pinpoint whether the problem is the lack of Exchange-specific application permissions or an issue with how access is scoped using an application access policy.
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Answer by MercurialCaptain761 • 1 month ago
0
The error usually occurs if the service principal does not have required permissions or roles to perform the operation.
Initially, I too got same error when the service principal does not have active Administrator role assigned to it:
POWERSHELLGet-RemoteDomain
Response:
To resolve this, make sure to assign proper admin role like Exchange Administrator or Global Administrator to the service principal.
In my case, I registered one application and uploaded certificate to it as below:
Now, I assigned same API permissions as you with admin consent like this:
Confirm whether this service principal is under "Active assignments" of either Global Administrator or Exchange Administrator roles and make sure to wait for few minutes after assigning Admin roles:
Now, I ran below PowerShell script to connect Exchange Online with certificate-based authentication:
POWERSHELL#Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement -Force $clientId="appId" $thumbPrint="15D9FExxxxxxxxxxxx" $organization="M365xxxxxxxx.onmicrosoft.com" Connect-ExchangeOnline -AppId $clientId -CertificateThumbprint $thumbPrint -Organization $organization
Response:
When I ran Get-RemoteDomain now, I got the response successfully as below:
As @Joseph stated in comments, you can also make use of below commands to know what RBAC permissions Get-RemoteDomain command requires:
POWERSHELL$Perms = Get-ManagementRole -Cmdlet Get-RemoteDomain $Perms | foreach {Get-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role $_.Name -Delegating $false | Format-Table -Auto Role,RoleAssigneeType,RoleAssigneeName}
Response:
References:
powershell - Connect-ExchangeOnline UnAuthorized - Stack Overflow by me
App-only authentication in Exchange Online PowerShell | Microsoft
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