Office 365

There are 16 entries in this Category.

MDM in Office 365 Getting Closer to the Big Stage

After Microsoft announced that they would be rolling out the Mobile Device Management integration within Office 365 back in April, we’re finally starting to see the Mobile link show up into client’s portals.

Once Microsoft is done “setting things up for you” (which in the most recent case for me was a few days before it was done) you’ll see the MDM “dashboard”

There are still a few final steps that are required before you’re ready to start connectivity: setup DNS records & configure an APN (Apple Push Network) certificate

The keys to enabling this functionality rest in the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) license, which essentially gives you:

  • Azure AD Premium
    Full AD management from the cloud. Allows IT to manage on premise password sync / write-back (here now) with self-service, user/group/device creation & attribute change (in preview with AD Connect), and provide multi-factor authentication
  • InTune
    Manage device policies and software, as well as access to corporate resources
  • Azure Rights Management
    Encrypt files, control access, and email encryption (in conjunction with Exchange online)

You’ll see the Mobile Device Management license type in the Office 365 portal

This backends in conjunction with the EMS license you’ll find in the Azure AD portal

Microsoft has been giving customers renewing their EAs a sweetheart deal by providing them the Enterprise Cloud Suite license, which includes the E3/G3 license as well as the EMS licenses bundled together. They’re trying to gain some hot & heavy traction in the MDM space this year, getting their foot in the door with the Gartner quadrant!

For for about the toolset available within the Office 365 portal, Microsoft has gone into detail with tasks as well as capabilities of MDM on the MDM TechNet page. Further capabilities are extended once you start integrating InTune with SCCM.

Posted on May 27, 2015 at 9:24 am Leave a Comment

This post is filed under Office 365.

Office 365 Click-to-Run Something went wrong…

I was helping a client start to roll out their Office 365 Pro Plus click-to-run installs and some of their users were getting Error Code 30174-4

After looking around online to find anything about this error, most hits had to do with the Network connections on the machine, namely laptops with multiple network connections. In the case of this client, they had a wired LAN on one subnet and a wireless LAN on another. Plus they have multiple internet connections for redundancy.

On top of that, they also had a Cisco VPN client adapter, and several notorious Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapters. Once all of these were disabled besides the wired LAN, the install went without a hitch!

 

Posted on May 19, 2015 at 1:17 pm Leave a Comment

This post is filed under Office 365.

Using Office 365 & Exchange Online for SMTP Relay

My current client is getting ready to migrate off of FOPE smarthosts to EOP and there were some questions around how this process goes. And thankfully I can say it’s pretty easy – just point your smarthosts to your MX record, found in the Office 365 portal.

Without delving too much into the process, a fellow O365 admin Mark Kean has written a great blog post on how this process works:

http://marckean.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/smtp-relay-using-exchange-online-protection-eop/

NOTE: You don’t have to setup anther Inbound Connector in Office 365 – this way you avoid needing another SSL certificate. Just use the Hybrid Mail Flow Inbound Connector and add your on-premise IP into the Sender IP Addresses list for the same results.

This process allows you to continue to use onsite applications, MTAs, copiers, etc to process messages from on premise. And you don’t have to setup the arduous SMTP relay through smtp.office365.com via TLS and with an existing account. This relies on the traditional, allowed IP address method to blanket accept everything sent.

I’m happy to say that it even allows you to relay messages from address that don’t even exist in the organization. So lets say you want to send out messages from no-reply@domain.com on an internal mailing system and that mailbox doesn’t exist. EOP processes these messages with no problem.

There’s another great Technet article I like to refer customers to who have questions on the different email methods EOP allows. The article references multi-function devices but this encompasses any number of devices:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn554323%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx

Posted on June 4, 2014 at 2:26 pm Leave a Comment

This post is filed under Exchange, Office 365.

Exchange Online message limits – not that cut and dry!

Update 4/15/15 – Office 365 has increased the allowed maximum message size to 150 MB, giving Office 365 administrators the ability to set the maximum message size of their choosing from 1 MB up to 150 MB. The default maximum message size for Office 365 mailboxes is still 25 MB, and they don’t plan on to changing the setting on existing accounts.
More at https://blogs.office.com/2015/04/15/office-365-now-supports-larger-email-messages-up-to-150-mb/

I’m currently on project finishing an Office 365 migration (yay – I’m finally back together with my true love: messaging!) and we’re in the process of migrating their 50+ domains off of FOPE, as they were initially a Wave 14 tenant, and over to EOP.  Technically, they were automatically migrated to EOP as part of the upgrades in Q3/Q4 2013, however they still have their MX records pointing to either the mail.messaging.microsoft.com or mail.global.frontbridge.com domains, so traffic is being first routed thru FOPE before it makes it to EOP. And if you may or may not know, it’s crunch time and Microsoft wants everyone off by June 1 (if you have an O365 domain):

http://community.office365.com/en-us/w/manage/update-to-mx-records-faq.aspx

As part of determining the impact these MX record changes will have on message flow, the big one is around accepted message size. In FOPE, if a message went over the size limit you could have it qurantined and the messaging administrator could release it to the mailbox, granted your Receive Connector allowed it, and your MaxReceiveSize on your mailbox matched according.

A large debate has come up around Exchange Online limits, as detailed below:

http://technet.microsoft.com/library/exchange-online-limits%28EXCHG.150%29.aspx

In talking with my collegues, there was a lot of confusion around message limits, and in talking with with my contacts in Microsoft, I can finally clear the air on what these limits are. And it’s actually simpler than you think :mrgreen: Continue reading “Exchange Online message limits – not that cut and dry!” »

Posted on May 16, 2014 at 2:39 pm 1 Comment

This post is filed under Exchange, Office 365.

Office 365 “Wave 15” Certifications – Part 2: 70-347

I received my results for the beta 70-346 last week and was very happy to see the passing results, so the heat was on to finish my MCSA: Office 365. After some unforeseen circumstances around being unable to take the 70-347 exam while in beta, I pulled in my notes and went today to take the test.

I’m happy to announce that I passed and without further adieu, here is a study guide to help you achieve your 70-347 as well: Continue reading “Office 365 “Wave 15” Certifications – Part 2: 70-347” »

Posted on March 12, 2014 at 12:20 pm 1 Comment

This post is filed under Office 365.

Office 365 “Wave 15” Certifications – Part 1: 70-346

Since July 2013 I’ve been getting more and more engaged in the Cloud and Microsoft’s vision of it though Office 365 deployments. And I’ve learned a lot along the way, even had to deal with some Wave 15 growing pains of performing implementations during this period of transition.
So back in December I had the opportunity to obtain vouchers from Microsoft for the next generation of Office 365 certifications:

70-346 – Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements
70-347 – Enabling Office 365 Services

During the beta period both exist under their respective 71-346 and 71-347 designations, and today I took 70-346 so I sat down Continue reading “Office 365 “Wave 15” Certifications – Part 1: 70-346” »

Posted on February 4, 2014 at 4:32 pm 5 Comments

This post is filed under Office 365.

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