How to change an Azure region

Problem:

You would like to change the Azure region of the CodeTwo cloud service for your tenant.

Solution:

Changing the Azure region of your CodeTwo service is a multi-step process that needs to be completed exactly in the order specified below.

Moving to a different Azure region step by step:

• Export configuration and deregister your tenant from the current region:
  • Step 1: back up all your rules & templates
  • Step 2: back up CodeTwo cache
  • Step 3: back up one-click surveys
  • Step 4: back up conditional placeholders
  • Step 5: deregister your tenant
• Register your tenant and import configuration to the new region:
  • Step 6: register your tenant with a new region
  • Step 7: import all your rules & templates
  • Step 8: reconfigure and import CodeTwo cache
  • Step 9: restore one-click surveys
  • Step 10: restore conditional placeholders
  • Step 11: publish imported rules

Step 1: back up all your email signature / autoresponder rules & templates

You can easily export all your rules (rule settings + email signature & auto-reply templates) configured in CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 to your local device. Once you register your Microsoft 365 tenant in a new region later on, you’ll be able to import all the rules and templates from the exported file.

1. Sign in to the Signatures app.
2. Click the … (ellipsis) button and select Export all rules.

   
   Fig. 1. Exporting rules in CodeTwo Email Signatures 365.

3. Provide a password that will be required to import your rules later. The password must meet the complexity requirements shown on the screen (Fig. 2.).

   Warning

   You are responsible for remembering or securely storing your password. We will not be able to help you restore your rules if you forget the password.

   
   Fig. 2. Setting up a password for the exported file.

4. Click EXPORT to proceed. All your rules will be compressed to a single .c2ex file and saved to your default downloads folder.

If you want to export selected rules only, see our manual for more info.

Step 2: back up CodeTwo Azure AD cache (user attributes and CodeTwo custom attributes) 

If you've used Attributes manager to manage user details shown in CodeTwo email signatures and autoresponders, you need to back up the changes you made to users' Entra ID (Azure AD) attributes as well as your custom CodeTwo attributes (if any). Here's how to do it:

1. Sign in to the Attributes manager app.
2. Take a screenshot(s) of your configuration on the Attribute visibility tab (Fig. 3.). This is to make sure you can recreate all your attributes' visibility and editability settings plus CodeTwo custom attributes later on.

Fig. 3. Taking screenshots showing your settings in the Attributes manager app.

3. Next, go to the Import/Export tab and click Export to CSV (Fig. 4.) to export all the attributes along with the values you customized for your end users. Open and review the exported CSV file to make sure all the data has been exported correctly.

Fig. 4. Exporting attribute values to a CSV file.

Step 3: back up one-click surveys (settings) 

If you use one-click surveys in your email signatures or automatic replies, be sure to back up their settings before deregistering your tenant from the current region. These settings are not included in the rule export file. 

Here's how to perform the back up:

1. Sign in to the Signatures app, hover your mouse over any template thumbnail and click Edit signature (or Edit reply message) to open the template editor (Fig. 5.).

Fig. 5. Launching the template editor.

2. Click One-click survey on the editor's ribbon (the Insert group).
3. Click the … (ellipsis) button next to the first survey and choose Edit survey (Fig. 6.).

Fig. 6. Opening a one-click survey for editing.

4. Take a screenshot of each step of the survey configuration wizard.
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 for each of your surveys. 

   Tip

   It might be a good idea to save the screenshots to separate subfolders, where each subfolder stores screenshots for each one-click survey.

 Step 4: back up conditional placeholders (settings)

If you have set up any conditional placeholders, be sure to back their settings before deregistering your tenant from the current region. These settings are not included in the rule export file.

Here's how to perform the back up:

1. Sign in to the Signatures app and open the template editor as shown in Fig. 5.
2. Click Conditional placeholder > Manage on the editor's ribbon.
3. In Conditional placeholders manager, click the name of the first conditional placeholder (Fig. 7. A) and take a screenshot of its settings (Fig. 7. B).

Fig. 7. Taking a screenshot of conditional placeholder settings.

4. If the exact settings are not shown (e.g. in the Placeholder value column), click the edit () button in each row (Fig. 8.) to preview the settings and take more screenshots.

   Embedded images in conditional placeholder settings

   If you used an embedded image in your conditional placeholder settings, you won't be able to see the image after clicking the edit () button. To see the image, open a template that contains the conditional placeholder, launch the Signature preview feature in the editor, and choose a user that fulfills the conditional placeholder's condition to show the image. Now that you know what the image is, locate it on your disk and save it preferably to the same location as screenshots you take for the conditional placeholder. 

Fig. 8. Previewing the details of conditional placeholder settings.

5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 for each conditional placeholder.

   Tip

   It might be a good idea to save the screenshots to separate subfolders, where each subfolder stores screenshots for each conditional placeholder.

Step 5: deregister your tenant

Once you’ve backed up your rules, templates and other settings, you can proceed to deregistering your tenant.

For specific deregistration steps, click a link that corresponds to the mode in which you’re using CodeTwo Email Signatures 365:

• Cloud (server-side)
• Outlook (client-side)
• Combo

Step 6: register your tenant with a new region

Next, you need to register your tenant, choosing the desired region for the CodeTwo service. To do it, sign in to the CodeTwo Admin Panel, click Add tenant on the Tenants page, and follow these instructions to complete the tenant registration wizard.

When running the wizard, make sure to choose the correct Azure region in the Region step. Learn more

Once the initial configuration is finished, you can start importing and reconfiguring your CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 setup.

Step 7: import your email signature / autoresponder rules & templates

1. Sign in to the Signatures app.
2. Click the … (ellipsis) button and select Import rule(s), as shown in Fig. 9.

   
   Fig. 9. Importing rules in CodeTwo Email Signatures 365.

3. In the pane that opens, select the .c2ex file with your exported rules and provide the password set for the file (Fig. 10.). If the file contains multiple rules, they will all be imported at once. Click IMPORT to proceed.

   
   Fig. 10. Providing a password to import rules.

4. Once the rules are imported, click FINISH.
5. All imported rules are unpublished and have the - imported phrase added at the end of their names.

If you need to restore additional elements that you have backed up earlier (CodeTwo cache, one-click surveys or conditional placeholders), proceed with the next steps.

If you want to publish your rules immediately and enable CodeTwo signatures / automatic replies in your organization, go directly to Step 11. 

Step 8: reconfigure and import CodeTwo cache

1. Sign in to the Attributes manager app.
2. Open the screenshot(s) you've prepared and recreate 1:1 configuration on the Attribute visibility tab. Depending on your setup, select the appropriate checkboxes and create an identical set of CodeTwo custom attributes, following these instructions.
3. Next, go to the Import/Export tab, click Import from CSV, browse to the folder where you saved your CSV file and select it. In the pop-up, choose Selective import and click IMPORT (Fig. 11.).

Fig. 11. Importing attributes to the CodeTwo cache.

That's it. Your CodeTwo cache data is now restored and will show up in your email signatures (and automatic replies).

Step 9: restore one-click surveys

1. Sign in to the Signatures app, hover your mouse over any template thumbnail and click Edit signature (or Edit reply message) to open the template editor (Fig. 12.).

Fig. 12. Launching the template editor.

2. Click One-click survey on the editor's ribbon.
3. Click Create new survey and complete the wizard. Be sure to recreate survey settings based on the screenshots you took in Step 3.
4. In the last step, click Save (Fig. 13.) just to save the configuration, without inserting the survey to a template yet.

Fig. 13. Saving a one-click survey configuration.

5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 for each one-click survey you want to recreate.
6. With all the surveys recreated, open each signature/autoresponder template that includes a one-click survey (as shown in Fig. 12.), remove the 'old' survey from the template and insert a 'new' one in its place, following these instructions.

Step 10: restore conditional placeholders

1. Sign in to the Signatures app and open the template editor as shown in Fig. 12.
2. Go to Conditional placeholder > Manage on the editor's ribbon.
3. Based on the screenshots you took in Step 4, add new conditional placeholders and recreate their exact configuration. To learn more about configuring conditional placeholders, see our manual.
4. Finally, click SAVE in the main Conditional placeholders manager window to save the placeholders.
5. With all the conditional placeholders recreated, open each signature/autoresponder template that originally included them, remove the 'old' instances of the placeholders from the template and insert the 'new' placeholders in their place, following these instructions.

Step 11: publish imported rules

When you're all set, you can publish your imported rules one by one or all at once by selecting them and clicking Publish or Publish selected, respectively, above the rule list (Fig. 14.).

Fig. 14. Publishing imported rules.