Brian Reid – Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Master
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Office 365 ProPlus XML Config Files Are Case Sensitive
The XML file used for the configuration of Office 365 ProPlus is case sensitive. In a client I have been working with the UpdatePath value in the install XML file was accidently specified using “Updatepath” and not “UpdatePath” (case sensitive). This resulted in the UpdateUrl in the registry (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\ClickToRun\Scenario\INSTALL\UpdateUrl) not being set correctly, and even…
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Creating Mailboxes in Office 365 When Using DirSync
This blog post describes the process to create a new user in Active Directory on-premises when email is held in Office 365 and DirSync is in use. With DirSync in use the editable copy of the user object is on-premises and most attributes cannot be modified in the cloud. Creating the User Open Active Directory…
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Continuing Adventures in AD FS Claims Rules
Updated 20th April 2017 There is an excellent article at http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2012/06/26/an-adfs-claims-rules-adventure.aspx which discusses the use of Claims Rules in AD FS to limit some of the functionality of Office 365 to specific network locations, such as being only allowed to use Outlook when on the company LAN or VPN or to selected groups of users.…
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Intermittent Error 8004789A with AD FS and WAP 3.0 (Windows Server 2012 R2)
This error appears when you attempt to authenticate with Office 365 using AD FS 3.0 – but only sometimes, and often it was working fine and then it starts! I’ve found this error is due to two things, though there are other reasons. The full list of issues is at http://blogs.technet.com/b/applicationproxyblog/archive/2014/05/28/understanding-and-fixing-proxy-trust-ctl-issues-with-ad-fs-2012-r2-and-web-application-proxy.aspx. I found that this…
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Exchange Web Services (EWS) and 501 Error
As is common with a lot that I write in this blog, it is based on noting down the answers to stuff I could not find online. For this issue, I did find something online by Michael Van “Hybrid”, but finding it was the challenge. So rather than detailing the issue and the reason (you…
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Changing AD FS 3.0 Certificates
I am quite adept at configuring certificates and changing them around, but this one took me completely by surprise as it has a bunch of oddities to consider. First the errors: Web Application Proxy (WAP) reported 0x80075213. In the event log the following: The federation server proxy could not establish a trust with the Federation…
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Getting Exchange Message Sizing Raw Data
On the internet there are a number of resources for collecting the raw data needed to size Exchange Server deployments. These include: http://blogs.technet.com/b/neiljohn/archive/2011/08/09/user-profile-analysis-for-exchange-server-2010.aspx (Neil Johnson – User Profile Analysis for Exchange Server 2010 ) http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/bb94b422-eb9e-4c53-a454-f7da6ddfb5d6 (“mjolinor” – the primary source of the script used here) This blog outlines my process for collecting the data needed…
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Enabling Microsoft Rights Management in SharePoint Online
This article is the fifth in a series of posts looking at Microsoft’s new Rights Management product set. In an earlier previous post we looked at turning on the feature in Office 365 and in this post we will look at protecting documents in SharePoint. This means your cloud users and will have their data…
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Using Microsoft Rights Management from Microsoft Office
This article is the second last in a series of posts looking at Microsoft’s new Rights Management product set. In an earlier previous post we looked at turning on the feature in Office 365 and in this post we will look at protecting documents and emails in Microsoft Office 2010 or later. This means your…
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Creating Microsoft Rights Management Templates and Policies
This article is the sixth in a series of posts looking at Microsoft’s new Rights Management product set. In the previous post we looked at turning on the feature in Office 365 and in a later post we will see how to integrate this into your on-premises servers. In this post we will look at…
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Configuring Exchange On-Premises to Use Azure Rights Management
This article is the fifth in a series of posts looking at Microsoft’s new Rights Management product set. In an earlier previous post we looked at turning on the feature in Office 365 and in this post we will look at enabling on-premises Exchange Servers to use this cloud based RMS server. This means your…
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Is Your SenderID/SPF or DKIM Record Correctly Configured
With Microsoft having just announced that DKIM is coming to Office 365 soon (release notes here) and SenderID is already available, I thought this is a good time to write a blog on the use of DMARC to show if your records are correct. DMARC is a protocol that allows you to see the effect…
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Updating Exchange 2013 Anti-Malware Agent From A Non-Internet Connected Server
In Forefront Protection for Exchange (now discontinued) for Exchange 2010 it was possible to run the script at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2292741 to download the signatures and scan engines when the server did not have a direct connection to the download site at forefrontdl.microsoft.com. To achieve the same with Exchange 2013 and the built-in anti-malware transport agent you…
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DLP Templates
At the Microsoft Exchange Conference 2014 in Austin, Texas I ran a session on DLP templates. This blog post was linked from the slides and contains the examples I used in the session. To download any of the samples click the links below: ContosoPharma.xml – the DLP data classification file to add the ability to detect…
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Exchange DLP Rules in Exchange Management Shell
This one took a while to work out, so noting it down here! If you want to create a transport rule for a DLP policy that has one data classification (i.e. data type to look for such as ‘Credit Card Number’) then that is easy in PowerShell and an example would be as below. New-TransportRule…
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An “Inexpensive” Exchange Lab In Azure
This blog post centres around two scripts that can be used to quickly provision an Exchange Server lab in Azure and then to remove it again. The reason why the blog post is titled “inexpensive” is that Azure charges compute hours even if the virtual machines are shut down. Therefore to make my Exchange lab…
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Highly Available Office 365 to On-Premises Mail Routing
This article looks at how to configure mail flow from Office 365 (via Exchange Online Protection – EOP) to your On Premises organization to ensure that it is highly available and work in disaster recovery scenarios with no impact. It is based on exactly the same principle to that which I blogged about in 2012:…
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Slow Virtualization Networking
I had a complaint from a customer today that there new virtual server with lots of resources was too slow on copying files and could I take a look. So I did! The virtual server was connected to a 1GB switch via two different network cables. One was configured in the Hyper-V virtualization software as…
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Errors in Moving Exchange Archive Mailboxes to Office 365
I was trying to move an Archive mailbox to the Office 365 service from my demo environment the other day when I came across an error I thought I would note down here for completion. I could not find the error elsewhere on the internet An archive mailbox must be enabled before it can be…
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Enabling and Configuring AADRM in Exchange Online
This article is the fourth in a series of posts looking at Microsoft’s new Rights Management product set. In the previous post we looked at turning on the feature in Office 365 and in this post we will look at how to manage the service in the cloud. In this series of articles we will…
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Creating an Azure VPN with a Draytek Router
The Microsoft Azure cloud operating system can be connected to your network by way of a virtual private network or VPN. Azure lists some supported devices and provides configuration scripts for them, but does not include the Draytek range of devices. Draytek devices are common in the small business market and for techy home users.…