Cisco Email Security Plug-In Installation Using Custom Configuration Files

Introduction

This document describes the process for using custom configuration files in order to install the Cisco Email Security Plug-in.

Cisco Email Security Plug-In Installation Using Custom Configuration Files

Install the Cisco Email Security Plug-in

1. Download and install the latest version of the plug-in.  (Download files are available from the Products Page.)
2. Install the plug-in via standard installation.  (See Administrator Guide for Cisco Email Security Plug-in for details.)
3. Load the Business Class Email (BCE) signed XML configuration file.  
4. Confirm that the plug-in works as expected for encryption.  (This would be assuring custom configurations to the BCE XML for decrypt/flag/encrypt, and then also additional custom configuration for CommonComponentsConfiguration XML.)

Construct a Custom Configuration Config Directory

1. On a Windows host or Network Server, create a custom installation directory.  (For this example, using a network share: \\172.18.250.59\share\my_plugin_install)
2. On the Windows host, navigate to the standard installation directory:

   1. C:\ProgramData\Cisco\Cisco IronPort Email Security Plug-In\

3. Copy the 'Common' directory from the standard installation directory to the custom installation directory.
4. On the Windows host, from the standard installation directory, open the user_id directory:

   1. C:\ProgramData\Cisco\Cisco IronPort Email Security Plug-In\<user_id>

5. Copy the existing config_1.xml and CommonComponentsConfig.xml files to the custom installation directory, into the 'Common' directory.
6. From the custom installation directory, in the 'Common' directory that is being constructed for custom installation, delete the used_configs.bin and cachedFolders.xml files, if present. 

At this point, the custom installation directory structure should be similar to the following:

Edit the CommonComponentsConfig.xml

Edit the CommonComponentsConfig.xml file to to be user agnostic, allowing any user to load the configuration to their Outlook profile.

1. Using a text editor, from the custom installation directory, in the 'Common' directory that is being constructed for custom installation, modify the CommonComponentsConfig.xml file.
2. Find the accountFileNames tag:

   1. <accountFileNames>
       <accountFileName filePath="config_1.xml" emailAddressAndKeyServer="user@domain.com res.cisco.com" defaultReportAccount="true" defaultEncryptAccount="true" profileName="[Cisco Enterprise Exchange]" />
      </accountFileNames>

3. Edit the accountFileNames section, removing the pre-exisiting emailAddress and profileName entries:

   1. <accountFileNames>
       <accountFileName filePath="config_1.xml" emailAddressAndKeyServer="*" defaultReportAccount="true" defaultEncryptAccount="true" />
      </accountFileNames>

Note: Assure that the accountFileName syntax is properly formatted.  If the accountFileName configuration line is incorrect, Outlook will set the plug-in to default values and will also mark the plug-in as Inactive for Outlook Add-ins:

Deploy the Custom Configuration Files

Un-install the standard installation of the plug-in that was performed from the beginning of this article.  This can be done via normal un-install from Windows: Control Panel > Programs and Features > Cisco Email Security Plug-In, and selecting Uninstall/Change.  Complete the steps as prompted.

At this point the custom configuration files are ready to install.  From the Windows CLI, run the following syntax to install:

Cisco Email Security Plugin.exe /exenoui /qn UseCustomConfig="\\{SHARED_DIR}\{CONFIG_FOLDER}

Where the directory after the "=" specifies the directory to the customized configuration files.

Other switch parameters used during the .exe installation:

Switch	Description
/exenoui	Launches the EXE setup without UI
/qn	q , qn - No UI

Continuing with the example constructed above, using the following:

C:>CiscoEmailSecurity-7-5-2-009.exe /exenoui /qn UseCustomConfig="\\172.18.250.59\share\my_plugin_install"

The installation usually takes ~30 seconds to complete.  Once the install has finished, after opening Outlook, final product installation in the Outlook ribbon bar would be similar to:

From New E-mail, the Encryption option should be highlighted and ready for use:

The encryption option will be set based on the original BCE XML configuration:

 <!--
 Plugin related configuration. Valid type edition values are:
 decrypt - Plugin can only decrypt PXE envelopes.
 flag - Plugin can decrypt and flag a message for encryption.
 encrypt - Plugin can decrypt and encrypt a message on the device.
 -->
 <plugin edition="flag">

Troubleshooting

• UseCustomConfig must be in proper case and is not plural. UseCustomConfigs will not work and cause Outlook to not read the configuration properly.
• Do not end the custom configuration installation command referring to the custom configuration file directory with a "\".
• The custom configuration directory and files must have permissions set as such to allow the end user running Outlook to be allowed to read/write the files.  If not, this may also cause Outlook to not read the configuration properly, and the end user will be presented errors during Outlook startup.
• Review the CiscoEmailSecurity.log file in the end user's directory for more detail on errors generated and associate to the plug-in operation:

• C:\ProgramData\Cisco\Cisco IronPort Email Security Plug-In\<user_id>\CiscoEmailSecurity.log