Service Update: November 2009 Release Availability, Features Announced
The Microsoft Online Services Service Update for November 2009 is currently being deployed into production data centers and is scheduled to be available to all customers in early December. Updates to the deployment status will be posted to the comments section of this blog post.
Upgrades and Enhancements
The following features and capabilities are included in this Service Update:
Mailbox Access Permissions
PowerShell commandlets will be added to provide a range of mailbox permission setting, including granting Full Mailbox Access permissions plus Delegate Send As and Send on Behalf permissions. These mailbox permissions provide administrators a range of capabilities, such as setting up shared mailboxes, granting “send as” permissions for administrative assistants, and enabling full mailbox access for third party applications, such as archiving applications and fax servers.
Previously, granting these permissions required opening a ticket with Microsoft Online Services Technical Support.
Mailbox permission commandlets added in this Service Update are:
· Add-MSOnlineMailPermission
· Remove-MSOnlineMailPermission
The mailbox permission commandlets require an update to the Microsoft Online Services Transporter Tools (aka Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools), which will be made will be available for download at the Microsoft Download Center upon completion of the deployment of this Service Update into production data centers for all regions. Please watch this Team Blog for the availability of the updated Transporter Tools.
Bulk User Management
Adding and removing users is streamlined with the addition of another set of PowerShell commandlets. The bulk user management commandlets give administrators a new option for adding groups of users. Together with the bulk activation commandlets provided in the previous Service Update, administrators have a rich set of tools for automating user management.
Bulk user management commandlets added in this Service Update are:
· Add-MSOnlineUser
· Set-MSOnlineUser
· Remove-MSOnlineUser
· Get-MSOnlineUser
The bulk user management commandlets require an update to the Microsoft Online Services Transporter Tools, which will be made will be available for download at the Microsoft Download Center upon completion of the deployment of this Service Update into production data centers for all regions. Please watch this Team Blog for the availability of the updated Transporter Tools.
SharePoint Auditing
The SharePoint Auditing feature is being enabled for SharePoint Online. This feature gives administrators the ability to view data and report about activities occurring within a site collection, such as items added to a shared documents list, changes to permissions, and documents that have been viewed and read.
Partner Name on Microsoft Online Services Invoice
Customers that have a relationship with a Microsoft Online Services Partner and have designated that partner as their “partner of record” will now see the name of their partner on their subscription invoice. Partners are technical and business professionals who specialize in Microsoft products, and they are an important part of Microsoft’s delivery of your software services.
New countries for trials and commercial availability
As was announced earlier this week, customers in the following 14 countries can sign up for Microsoft Online Services trial accounts: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Taiwan.
In addition, customers Singapore can purchase Microsoft Online Services subscriptions.
