In a Hybrid deployment, lately I had experienced that:

1. On-premise users can see cloud users’ free/busy

2. Cloud users cant see on-premise users free/busy

Note: the below may not solve your problem, but it should lead you to the right way to brute force your way to solve the problem lol

Resolution:

1. Try out the Hybrid Free/Busy Troubleshooting Tool.

2. Check out: User can’t view free/busy information for a remote user in a hybrid deployment of on-premises Exchange Server and Exchange Online in Office 365

3. Did an IISRESET as recommended: http://jesperstahle.azurewebsites.net/?p=242

4. Update/Refresh the Federation Metadata. See this blog for more information.

•  Connect to Exchange Online in PoweShell
• Execute:
• Get-FederationTrust | Set-FederationTrust -RefreshMetadata

5. Execute the free/busy test from Microsoft Remote Analyzer

6. Ensure that in all Exchange Servers (including the inactive ones located in the DR sites), the Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory has the correct ExternalURL: https://mail.contoso.com/ews/exchange.asmx (and is routable from the internet)

Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity “ServerName\EWS (Default Web Site)”

Leave a comment if it’s still not working. No promise that I can help you fix, but I’ll try 🙂

Problem:

You have a customer. They are on Exchange on-premise. You want to implement Office 365 with Exchange hybrid. What is the Exchange Server versions that is supported in a Hybrid mode?

Answer:

Note:
1 Blocked in Exchange 2013 setup 2 Tenant upgrade notification provided in Exchange Management Console 3 Requires at least one on-premises Exchange 2010 SP2 server 4 Requires at least one on-premises Exchange 2010 SP3 server 5 Requires at least one on-premises Exchange 2013 CU1 or greater server

Bing is famous for having a different background picture whenever someone browses to Bing. However today onwards, when browsing to Bing using a HTML5 supported browser, it will show a video in the background.

What do you think? Waste of bandwidth?

Source: Bing Blog at http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/09/23/something-new-on-the-homepage.aspx?form=pgbar1

Background:

Directory sync is located in the internal network and is behind a TMG proxy. TMG Proxy has been configured to allow Directory Sync to access HTTPS of the internet.

Problem:

With Directory Sync installed, the synchronization fails from time to time after a few hours of sync (we have >10,000 objects to be synced to the cloud).

Root Cause:

Directory sync should have direct connection to the internet. It is known to create issues if it is behind a TMG Proxy.

When setting up Office365/Exchange 2010, it is very common to assist the customer to create distribution groups.

This is my way to script it to speed up the creation of the distribution groups:.

1. Create a CSV file for each distribution group. For my case, I have _AllStaff.CSV created. See below link for the sample of the file.

_AllStaff

2. Use Powershell and run the following:

$name=”AllStaff”

(The above should be the filename of your CSV file).

New-DistributionGroup -Name “_All Staff” -alias $name -primarysmtpaddress $name@abc.com -memberdepartrestriction closed

(Modify the bold items to the right Distribution Group name and domain name)

Import-csv “D:\$name.csv” | foreach {add-distributiongroupmember -identity $name@abc.com -member $_.EmailAddress}

(Point the location to the CSV file, and also specify the correct distribution group name)

What’s your way in creating the distribution group?

Recently I was doing an email migration from Exchange On-premise to Office365, and the customer’s environment is not suitable to use Dirsync.

This means that I will need to export the X500 address from my local Active Directory and import it into Office365.

Here is the brief steps if you are facing this issue:

Export the LegacyExchangeDN and mail field in your AD:
1. In your DC server, run Command Prompt
2. Run the command:
csvde -f c:\sample.csv -l legacyexchangedn,mail

Now, with that .csv file, make sure that it has a “mail” and “legacyexchangedn” under the heading. See my attached sample file: sample CSV with LegacyExchangeDN

Import the legacyexchangedn/X500 into Office365/Exchange Online using PowerShell:

1. Connect to Exchange Online. using PowerShell
2. Run the command:

Import-CSV C:\sample.csv | foreach {

$user=Get-Mailbox $_.mail
$user.EmailAddresses+=”X500:”+$_.legacyExchangeDN
Set-Mailbox $_.mail -EmailAddresses $user.EmailAddresses

}

To check if the address has been added:
Get-Mailbox $user | FL emailaddresses

Environment:

IIS Servers in a DMZ Zone, configured in a Workgroup.

Clustered File Servers in the corporate network, in a Domain environment.

All servers are running Windows Server 2008 R2.

Problem:

When IIS web app tries to access the clustered file server hosted in the domain, it shows Access Denied.

Path to Solution:

On running Procmon.exe, w3wp.exe shows that it is trying to authenticate using whichever account. So I check my IIS Config and make sure that it is using an account which has rights to access the cluster file server in the domain.

Solution 1 – Ensure that your IIS is configured correctly with a user account that has the access rights to the cluster file server.

Specify the correct user account under Identity in the Advanced Setting

Select the Application Pool that this web application should use.

If the above does not solve the problem, please continue with Solution 2.

Solution 2 – Ensure that the username and password is the same between the domain server and the Workgroup IIS Server

If my clustered file server is using the following name:

User: domain\webapp
Password: Pa$$w0rd

Then my Workgroup IIS Server should have a local user created with the following name:

User: IISSERVER\webapp
Password: Pa$$w0rd

(IISSERVER is the name of the IIS Server)

(Make sure that all of your IIS Servers have the same username and password created as well)

Solution 3 – Use ICACLS.EXE to provide the rights to the clustered files

Now that you have the same user created on both server (Domain and Workgroup), we will have to use ICACLS.exe to provide the permission (No, using the GUI does not work):

1. Map the shared cluster to Y: Drive

2. Open Command Prompt and execute the following:

icacls y:\SHAREDFOLDER /grant WEBAPP:(OI)(CI)RXW /T

(Replace the SHAREDFOLDER to the folder that your web application needs to access; Replace the WEBAPP with the username that you created in Solution 2)

Hope this helps someone out there!

Microsoft Online Services launched in Malaysia for quite a while. This means that Malaysia companies can finally use Exchange Online, Sharepoint Online, Live Meeting and Office Communicator hosted on Microsoft’s data center.

Before we talk further, it’s always about the cost which entices the readers/bosses. Let me do a quick $$ breakdown:

(Sorry – the following will be in Ringgit Malaysia.)

SME (50 users)

– Decent System Administrator: RM3000 (monthly), or RM36,000 (yearly)
– Server hardware (with server redundancy, with license for 50 users): Rm15,000 (one time)
Total: RM51,000

For Microsoft Online Services (with Exchange, OCS, Live Meeting and Sharepoint)

– Rm33/user/month x 50 users x 12 months = Total: RM19,800

As you can see, Microsoft Online is a cheaper alternative to maintain your own IT infrastructure.

This is just a rough estimation.

What do you think?

For more information about Microsoft Online Services, you can click on this link.

Note: This calculation is very subjective and may not reflect everybody’s opinion.

Folks! Good news for the consumers of Windows, and bad news for anti virus vendors.

In the next version of Windows 8, anti virus application will be integrated together with Windows Defender, which is used to block spyware and protect from slow performance due to certain applications. However, Windows Defender will be extended to include anti virus in Windows 8.

This would potentially means that, there is not necessary to purchase and install a third party anti virus software like Norton, McAfee or Sophos anti virus.

In the Windows XP and older era, consumers and businesses would purchase firewall applications for all PCs, until Windows XP SP2 introduces both incoming and outgoing monitoring, purchasing firewall application becomes an optional item for enterprise customers.

With integrated anti virus in Windows 8, would this further decrease the profit and growth of major security vendors out there?

What’s your thoughts?

Background:
Lync for Android and iOS were launched recently. However, automatic sign in does not work for Lync/Lync Online (Office365).

Problem:
Using Lync client on PC and Mac, it signs in fine; however, when trying to sign onto Lync using Lync Server or Lync Online, it fails to sign on.

Solution:
As part of setting up the domain in Office365, it is missing a few CNAME records for Lync.

Add the following 2 more CNAME records into the DNS of your domain:

If your customer has an environment that can’t setup Dirsync (perhaps they are not on Windows Server 2003 DC and above), and you would want to create users manually, here is what you should do:

1. Create a CSV and use Administrative Portal | Users | Add Bulk Users to import the users.

2. Export the X500 addresses from Exchange 2003 server (You can refer to this link on how to do it).

3. Import the X500 addresses that you have exported from your local Exchange 2003 to Office365. You will have to do the following in Exchange Online Powershell:

$foo = get-mailbox jabez
$foo.emailaddresses += “X400:C=Malaysia;DC=domain;DC=com”
$foo | set-mailbox

If you are doing a temporary co-existence without using the recommended approach (Exchange 2010 Hybrid), you may also want to:

1. Create mail-enabled users with external email addresses to @tenant.onmicrosoft.com. If you have 100 Exchange on-premise users, then you will have to create 100 extra mail-enabled users that points to the @tenant.onmicrosoft.com email account.

2. Create a forwarding from the Exchange on-premise to Office365

Again, with the importance of having a fast connectivity speed to cloud offerings, there are extra links for you to have a more accurate speed details to the cloud.

Use the following appropriate links to do your own speed test based on your Office365 service location:

APAC: http://speedtest.apac.microsoftonline.com/

EMEA: http://speedtest.emea.microsoftonline.com/

US: http://speedtest.microsoftonline.com/

For Lync:

• Amsterdam, NL: http://trippams.online.lync.com
• Blue Ridge, VA: http://trippbl2.online.lync.com
• Dublin, IE: http://trippdb3.online.lync.com
• Hong Kong: http://tripphkn.online.lync.com
• San Antonio, TX: http://trippsn2.online.lync.com
• Singapore: http://trippsg1.online.lync.com

Let me know if this helps!

Problem: You are using Quest Notes Migrator for Exchange (NME) to migrate from Lotus Dominos to Exchange Online/Exchange On-premise, and on migrating the user accounts, new emails are no longer entering Lotus Dominos.

Problem Statement: You want to have a copy of the new email stored in Lotus Dominos and have a copy forwarded to Exchange Online/Exchange On-premise.

Solution: To be exact, there is no solution to this, as Quest NME tool doesn’t allow the support to have a copy left on the Lotus Dominos before forwarding it to Exchange Online/Exchange on-premise. However it might be possible (correct me if I’m wrong) to configure Lotus Dominos directly to leave a copy before forwarding it, if NME tool modifies Lotus Dominos parameters directly.

I stumbled across a quirky issue today which was causing scheduled TFSBuild jobs to fail with the following error: “Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host”. When executing the build definition manually I could not reproduce the issue; the build would run through without any errors.

After a bit of searching it turns out there is a small bug in IIS 7.5 (introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2) which prevents TFS downloading files larger than 2MB over a slow network connection; IIS will expire the idle connection time-out and disconnect mid-transfer.

Installing KB981898 from Microsoft Support will fix this bug and allow TFS builds to run-through without any issues.

-Patrick

If you are just like me, who has a Blackberry with your emails hosted on Office365, this is for you: BES is coming to Office365 very soon!

Details as following:

Oct 2011: Blackberry Business Cloud beta starts
Jan 2012:Blackberry Business Cloud goes public

Are you excited just like me? Read here for more information: http://richfrombechtle.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/office-365-blackberry-beta-available/