Notice about certificate expiration for Exchange 2013 Hybrid customers (MUST be completed before 4/15/2016)
If you’re running Exchange 2013 and you’ve configured a hybrid deployment with Office 365, this post contains important information that might impact you. Please evaluate this information and take any necessary action before April 15, 2016. If your latest run of the Hybrid Configuration Wizard was initiated from Exchange 2010 than you are NOT affected.
On April 15 2016, the Office 365 TLS certificate will be renewed. This certificate is used by Office 365 to provide TLS encryption between Office 365 and external SMTP servers. The new certificate, which will help improve the security of mail sent to and from Office 365, will be issued by a new Certificate Authority and it will have a new Issuer and Subject.
This change has the potential to stop hybrid mail flow between Office 365 and your on-premises Exchange servers if one of the following conditions applies to you:
- Your on-premises Exchange servers are running Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 8 (CU8) or lower.
- You’ve upgraded the Exchange 2013 servers that handle hybrid mailflow to Exchange 2013 CU9 or higher. However, since upgrading to CU9, you HAVE NOTre-run the Hybrid Configuration wizard (either from the Exchange Admin Center or via the direct download link).
How to keep hybrid mail flowing (MUST be completed before 4/15/2016)
Let the new Hybrid Configuration wizard do it for you
You can use the latest Hybrid Configuration wizard (HCW) to configure your Exchange 2013 servers to work with the new TLS certificate. Just follow these steps:
- If the Exchange 2013 servers handling hybrid mail flow are running Exchange 2013 CU8 or lower, follow the instructions in Updates for Exchange 2013 to install the latest cumulative update on at least one server.
- After you install the latest cumulative update, download the new HCW application and run the wizard following the instructions here .
Manual update
If you can’t upgrade Exchange 2013 to latest cumulative update right now (although we would like to remind you of our support policy), you can manually configure your servers to work with the new TLS certificate. On each Exchange 2013 server that’s used for hybrid mailflow, open the Exchange Management Shell, and run the following commands:
$rc=Get-ReceiveConnector |where {$_.TlsDomainCapabilities -like “*<I>*”}
Set-ReceiveConnector -Identity $rc.Identity -TlsDomainCapabilities “mail.protection.outlook.com:AcceptCloudServicesMail”
Source: The Exchange Team Blog
The connection to the server ‘Server URL’ could not be completed during mailbox migration
When you try to Migrate a mailbox from Exchange On Premise to Exchange we faced the below error
to be able to get more information about this issue , open the power shell and run the below command
Test-MigrationServerAvailability -ExchangeRemoteMove -Remoteserver “Server URL”
And got the below error
We found that something is not working perfectly with the certificate published to the internet , we fix the certificate and re run the same command again but with credentials for accessing the servers URL
As you see it works fine now , after fixing the Certificate publishing issue
Storage improvements for SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business
Upload larger files, up to 10 GB each
Microsoft has increased the per file size limit to 10 GB. This applies to files uploaded to Team Sites, Office 365 Groups and OneDrive for Business, as well as for videos uploaded into the Office 365 Video portal. Office 365 customers no longer need to leave big files stranded on file shares and local hard drives.
Before it was only 2 GB
1 TB additional space for overall pooled SharePoint Online storage allocation
The amount of content in Office 365 is growing 300 percent year over year. To meet your needs for more storage, we’re increasing default storage to 1 TB plus 0.5 GB per user to use across SharePoint Online, Office 365 Groups and Office 365 Video up from the previous allocation of 10 GB. This is in addition to the unique default per-user OneDrive for Business storage space and individual storage provided for user email inboxes. Office 365 customers on our premium Enterprise, Government and Education plans will receive OneDrive for Business unlimited storage, and we’re pleased to announce that the first stage of providing 5 TB for each user is now complete.
Source : Office Blogs
Audit logging in the Office 365 Protection Center
Do you need to know who deleted, created or modified a file in One drive or SharePoint ? do you need to check an Admin activity in Office 365 ? do you wanna audit User activity in Exchange Online?
I suggest you start use the Office 365 Protection Center to search the unified audit log to view user and administrator activity in your Office 365 organization.
What you can Audit in the Unified log:
- User activity in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business
- User activity in Exchange Online (Exchange mailbox audit logging)
- Admin activity in SharePoint Online
- Admin activity in Azure Active Directory (the directory service for Office 365)
- Admin activity in Exchange Online
Before you start , you have to do the below:
- You must first turn on audit logging before you can start searching the Office 365 audit log. To turn it on, just click Start recording user and admin activity on the Audit log search page in the Protection Center. After you turn it on, a message is displayed that says the audit log is being prepared and that you can run a search in a couple of hours after the preparation is complete. You only have to do this once.
- You can search the Office 365 audit log for activities that were performed within the last 90 days
- It takes up to 15 minutes after an event occurs in SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business for the corresponding audit log entry to be displayed. It takes up to 12 hours for events in Exchange Online and Azure Active Directory.
Now let’s go and see how can we run an audit report
Step 1: Run an audit log search
- Go to https://protection.office.com.
- Sign in to Office 365 using your work or school account
- In the left Pane go to Reports –> View Reports and then choose Office 365 Audit log report as below
- Now you will get the below screen
- Click on Search and the result will appear like below
- You can now filter the search for some events, you can filter by Date, User, Activity or Details
- Now it’s the time to export your results
See , it is too easy to retrieve the Audit logs
Now, one last thing lets go back to step 4 and check what kind of activities we can audit, Click on the below to get more details
Invitation and access request activities
Site administration activities
User administration activities
Group administration activities
Application administration activities
Role administration activities
Directory administration activities
For More Details: Search the audit log in the Office 365 Protection Center
Skype for Business for Android now available
Microsoft has announced availability of the Skype for Business app for Android.
A new dashboard design brings the contact search bar, your upcoming meetings and most recent conversations to one place. Simply tap the Quick Join icon to the right of your appointment name to join your meetings with one touch, or tap the name of the meeting to see its details. Your recent conversations are at your fingertips, no matter which device you had the conversation on. Additionally, full-screen video as well as larger call-control buttons to mute and add participants to a meeting make it easy for you to collaborate on the go
The contact search bar allows you to search your Global Address List by name, email or even a phone number. You can also easily search for a contact within your organized Skype for Business groups and add or remove a contact.
The Skype for Business Android app now supports modern authentication, which is utilized by other Office clients and allows for a consistent authentication experience for your users. Moreover, since modern authentication is based on access tokens, user’s credentials are not stored on their device.
Modern authentication also enables IT admins to configure multi-factor authentication for users of the Skype for Business Android app, increasing the security beyond just a user name and password. With multi-factor authentication, users are required to acknowledge a phone call, text message or an app notification on their device after correctly entering their user name and password.
The new Skype for Business app for Android is now available in the Google Play store. Android users with Lync 2013 will be automatically updated to the Skype for Business app based on their device settings. If you are an IT admin, use theSkype for Business for Android productivity guide to learn more and prepare your users.
ٍSource: Office Blogs
Office 365 Planner preview for Admins
Microsoft recently announced Office 365 Planner—a new experience in Office 365 that offers a simple, visual way to organize teamwork. Planner makes it easy for your team to create plans, organize and assign work, share files, chat about what everyone is working on and get updates on progress.
Microsoft has started rolling out Planner preview to Office 365 First Release customers. Office 365 administrators who have opted into First Release will receive an email with instructions on how to set up the preview once it is available for their tenancy. Once administrators take the necessary actions, users can start using Planner by launching it from the Office 365 app launcher.
One of the most valuable aspects of Planner is that it helps teams organize their work visually. Each plan has its own Board, and within each Board, each work item or task is represented by a Card that can have due dates, attachments, categories and conversations associated with it. Team members receive an email notification whenever they are assigned a new Card or added to a conversation.
Every Card can have documents (or pictures) attached that automatically get rich image previews, so it is easy to understand what the Card is about at a glance. In addition, Cards can be organized on the Board into customizable columns called Buckets, which can be prioritized and tagged with colored labels.
Planner also gives you views to keep your work on track. The Hub view lets you track overall progress across all plans, while the “My tasks” view lets you filter down to see just what you need to do across every plan. In addition, the “Charts” view includes interactive charts for visualizing people’s progress against deadlines. Click a red segment on the histogram to quickly see which aspects of a plan are behind schedule and use the Board to rebalance work across the team. With Planner, everyone is always on the same page. A single glance of the Charts view is all it takes to know where things stand.
Planner preview is available to First Release customers on the following plans: Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E4, Office 365 Enterprise E5, Office 365 Education, Office 365 Education E3, Office 365 Education E4, Office 365 Business Essentials and Office 365 Business Premium
Source: Office Blogs
Cloud PBX and PSTN meetings in Skype for Business Online
Now, with Skype for Business Cloud PBX, you can eliminate separate PBX systems for users and move the functions of the PBX into the cloud, assign and manage phone numbers using Skype controls within your Office 365 admin console, and easily enable dial-in telephone numbers for your Skype meetings. Microsoft explains how this works and demonstrate everything in this week’s Microsoft Mechanics.
You can get phone numbers directly from Microsoft or port existing phone numbers into Skype for Business and assign or re-assign them to your users as needed. If your organization has hundreds or thousands of users, all of this can be automated via PowerShell scripting. So all of the communication needs of a new user—from email and collaboration to meetings and phones—can be automated and delivered straight from Office 365. Additionally, with PSTN Conferencing, an administrator can easily enable phone numbers to be added to their users’ Skype meetings, so anyone who receives the meeting request can dial in via a land line or mobile phone.
Cloud PBX also works with your existing carrier circuits with on-premises PSTN connectivity. In this configuration, you connect Skype for Business software to communicate between your existing PBX or PSTN Gateway and Cloud PBX in Office 365. This allows you to continue to use your carrier contract and circuit for phone calls while the users are hosted in Office 365.
Ideally, the connection between anything on-premises and online would be done using Azure Express Route for Office 365, but you can use a normal Internet connection as well.
Cloud PBX and PSTN Conferencing are included in Office 365 E5 or can be purchased standalone. In the coming months, we’ll be expanding the number of countries where calling plans will be offered. And because this is a cloud service, you’ll see more and more features added to the service soon.
Source: Office Blogs
Announcing ExpressRoute for Office 365
Azure ExpressRoute for Office 365 enables organizations to establish a private, managed network connection to Office 365 as an alternative to connecting over the Internet. This direct connection offers customers more predictable network performance, an SLA for guaranteed availability and additional data privacy. As more organizations depend on Office 365 for document collaboration and communications, they will come to depend more and more on the network connectivity they have between their users and Office 365.
Depending on your network configuration, here’s how you can work with network operators offering ExpressRoute for Office 365 to establish a connection between your network and Office 365:
- If your organization already uses Azure ExpressRoute, your network operator can simply turn on the connectivity for you. Since use of Office 365 generates additional network traffic, you should discuss the requirements for additional bandwidth with your network operator.
- Organizations using IP VPN technology for a WAN provided by a network operator can ask the network operator to add Office 365 as a node on your WAN. Once Office 365 connectivity is added, Office 365 services appear as if they are on your WAN—like an offsite datacenter.
- ExpressRoute can also support large or point-to-point network connections. If you have a large broad network, then you may already have a network connection in a co-location facility where Azure ExpressRoute is available. You should work with your network provider to identify the best way to connect to Azure ExpressRoute.
For More Clarification
Users can connect from anywhere in the world that your network operator provides access. Each network operator connects to the Microsoft network at specific locations. They can provide networking from the user location to the Microsoft network connection. You should discuss the options with your network operator. The locations where they will connect to Microsoft’s network are listed here.
Organizations interested in purchasing ExpressRoute for Office 365 should have an Azure subscription and should discuss details of the connectivity with an Azure ExpressRoute partner.
Source: Office Blogs
Exchange 2016 RTM is finally here
Microsoft has released Exchange Server 2016 RTM, available for download now. A public preview of Exchange Server 2016 has been available for customers to test and evaluate since July 2015.
You can download from here : Exchange server 2016 RTM
The Office 365 Service Trust Portal (STP)
The regulatory compliance and business risk landscape is continuously evolving. At Microsoft, we appreciate our customers’ need to understand the Office 365 architecture and compliance with regulations to help them evaluate moving to Office 365. We also know you need to understand how we keep your data secure on the service on an ongoing basis.
Insights from this portal help you evaluate how Office 365 maintains compliance with your regulatory requirements and how you can mitigate the risks with moving to Office 365.
Through the STP you can get direct access to a wide variety of compliance reports and trust resources, including:
- Office 365 SOC 1 / SSAE 16 / ISAE 3402 Independent Audit Reports
- Office 365 SOC 2 / AT 101 Independent Audit Report
- Office 365 ISO 27001 (including 27018 controls) Independent Audit Report
- Various compliance reports, such as Office 365 Information Security Management System (ISMS)
- Various GRC and Trust resources, such as whitepapers, FAQs, security assessment, risk assessment and other reports that will help you perform your own risk assessment
You can access the STP through the URL https://trustportal.office.com
First Thing to do is to choose your Region and Industry your tenant belong to as below
Now you can select the compliance report and trust documents , for your industry and region as below
If you have a comment or question on this post, or need a detailed on boarding guide to STP,email us at O365STPApprovals@microsoft.com
Source: Office Blogs
