This release has been a capability which has generated a lot of interest with my customers going with Office 365 Education.  I have put together a quick FAQ to help with this.

What is Azure Active Directory Dirsync with Password Sync?

Formerly known as Dirsync, this tool has been updated to allow for the synchronization of local Active Directory passwords to Azure Active Directory. in addition to the syncing of users, groups and contacts.  This new feature will allow for Same Sign In with Microsoft cloud services such as Office 365 Education powered by Azure Active Directory since the username and the password from local AD will by synced up to Azure AD.  See here on TechNet for more details.

Where can I get the new Dirsync with Password sync bits?

You can grab the latest version of Dirsync here or it is available in the Office 365 portal under ‘users'  and then Dirsync.

What version of Dirsync has Dirsync with Password sync?

Dirsync with password sync is available in versions 1.0.6385.12 or newer version.

How can I quickly tell if I have the right version downloaded?

The first way you can tell is by size. The file size is about 183+MB vs. the older version is 99MB.  The other way you can tell is by the icon. The application icon should be our new Windows logo with the four blue squares. The final way to confirm this is by hovering over the dirsync download and check the version the version with Dirsync with password sync or later is: 

note: I renamed the default ‘dirsync’ filename since I already had the older dirsync in the same directory.

What do I need to do to replace my older dirsync?

You do have to remove the existing installation of Dirsync prior to installing the new version with password sync.

You don’t need to remove other components such as SIA or SQL express. I left everything else in place. Here is the setup I did on an existing Dirsync Server:

1) Important: If using ADFS with federated ID, you must first convert your domain namespace to managed ID PRIOR to installing and running Dirsync with password sync. See steps below under “What if I am federated…”

2) Remove existing Dirsync application from control panel.

3) I took screenshots of the rest:

What if I am federated and using ADFS and want to switch to Dirsync with Password Sync?

You will need to convert your domain from federated to managed.  Using the

convert-msoldomaintostandard –domainname foo.edu –skipuserconversion $false –passwordfile c:\password.txt 

Azure AD cmdlet.   See here on TechNet for more details.  Note: the password file is for dumping all users temporary passwords into.

How can I tell if it is configured correctly for Dirsync with Password Sync?

You should see event ID 656 and 657 in your application event log to show that it is syncing the password hash to the cloud.

What are the advantages of Dirsync with Password Sync vs. ADFS?

There are a couple of advantages of using Dirsync with Password Sync over using ADFS 2.1 with Dirsync:

1) A single server is needed vs. redundant and scaled out ADFS servers.

2) No dependency with on prem hardware/data center – if Dirsync with Password Sync server dies – just replace it. There is no impact accessing cloud services with an onprem outage because the identity is a managed identity in Azure AD vs. a federated identity using ADFS 2.1.

3) No complex ADFS architectures – No ADFS Proxies, load balancers, certificate management are required. It keeps the deployment less complex with fewer moving parts.

What are the disadvantages of Dirsync with Password Sync vs. ADFS?

ADFS 2.1 with federated login provides true Single Sign On (SSO) with Office 365 where as Dirsync with Password Sync allows for Same Sign On which implies users will be prompted for credentials when accessing Office 365 even in domain joined scenarios.  ADFS 2.1 also allows for better access control based on IPs, etc.

Where can I find more information on troubleshooting Dirsync with Password Sync?

There is an excellent KB article here to help you.

Office Mobile for iPhone

Today June 14 2013 Microsoft is releasing Office Mobile for iPhone in the US market and available in the Apple App Store at no additional charge for Office 365 subscribers. Starting June 18, Office Mobile for iPhone will become available in 135 international markets in 29 languages. Office Mobile for iPhone is free of charge for Office 365 subscribers, and provides a great mobile viewing and editing experience across Word, PowerPoint and Excel.  To utilize Office Mobile for iPhone it requires the user to have Office 365 Pro subscription with the A3 SKU plan (or E3 for commercial customers) as well as an Office365 SIGN IN account. Screenshots noted at Office blog HERE

Similar to Office Mobile on Windows Phone, Office Mobile for iPhone offers great Office content viewing and on-the-go content editing capabilities for Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. Compatible  with iPhone 4, 4S and 5, iPod Touch 5th Generation running iOS 6.1 or later.

Some of the key benefits:

• ·         Consistent Office Experience. Your formatting and documents remain intact when viewing, editing, or adding comments, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics, and shapes.  And when you return to your PC or Mac, your document looks like it should.
• ·         Easy Access. We made it easy access your Office content in the cloud on SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro.  Also, because Office Mobile is connected to your Office 365 subscription, you’ll see the content you recently viewed on your computer in the Recent Documents panel on your phone. And, of course, you can view and edit Office documents sent in email.
• ·         Optimized for What You Want to Do on a Small Screen. An example, the Slide Navigator allows you to page through PowerPoint presentations fast, while Speaker Notes help you practice presentations on the go. And, when moving Word documents from your PC to your phone, the Resume Reading feature takes you to the exact point in the document where you last left off, so you never miss a beat. 
• ·         Sharing Built-in. You can make quick edits and share your documents, right from your phone with Office Mobile. When working with others, you can review comments in Word and Excel documents on your phone and add your own. When you’re done, you can share your files with others on SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro or just send your document as an email attachment.
• ·         View & Edit: Office Mobile for iPhone allows you to access, view, and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on the go from your smartphone. You can also create new Word documents and Excel spreadsheets.
• ·         Formatting: Document elements and formatting remain intact when viewing, editing, or adding comments, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics, and shapes.

How do I get Office Mobile for iPhone?

Office 365 subscribers can download the application in 2 ways:

1.       Go directly to the Apple App Store and search for Microsoft Office Mobile, and then download it. 

2.       Or go to your Office account page, select their type of phone, operator, and mobile number and we’ll send a text message to their phone with a link to Office Mobile in the app store.

What about the iPad or Android?

• ·         We built Office Mobile for iPhone to ensure a great Office experience when using a small screen device, similar to Office Mobile on Window Phone.  If you have an iPad, we recommend using the Office Web Apps which provide the best Office experience on a tablet.  We have made lots of enhancements to Office Web Apps including a touch experience for tablet users.
• ·         Office also provides additional iOS and Android capabilities for the things people want to do most on their mobile devices – email, real-time communications and note-taking. We provide native apps for OneNote, Lync and SharePoint, in addition to supporting Exchange Active Sync for email, calendar and contacts.

Enjoy!!

I have several customers in education getting upgraded to the Office 365 Service Upgrade for 2013. Most have migrated smoothly but a few customers have seen some issues after upgrade so I decided to post some guidance/FAQ to help make it a better upgrade experience.

What does the Office 365 Service Upgrade for 2013 upgrade mean?

If you have been on Office 365 Education prior to February 27th 2013 this means you are you are on previous technology of cloud services (2010 technologies). We shipped a new Office 365 Education offering in February based on the 2013 technologies. We have been upgrading 2010 (wave14) customers to 2013 (wave15).

Where can I read more information on what new capabilities are in the Office 365 Service Upgrade for 2013?

Exchange Online here

Lync Online here

SharePoint Online here

Office 365 Pro Plus here

I also recommend you read and understand the new Office 365 service descriptions here as this is like the detailed functional specification of each service.

Is there end user or power user training available on these new capabilities?

Yes, it is available here.

Is there administrator training or guides on this new 2013 tenant?

Yes, great information available here and on my other blog post here.

Do I need to change anything on my side prior to this upgrade?

Potentially yes if you are not current on the latest service packs and cumulative patches for Office, XP or Exchange. This 2013 Service Upgrade has newer patch requirements that were not required in the 2010 version.

I have had customers experience Outlook client connectivity issues if they are not patched on the client or on the hybrid server for example. Please read here on the latest requirements for this upgrade. I strongly urge you to follow these requirements closely and not skip this step to keep your upgrade clean.

The other high priority item to remediate/evaluate prior to the 2013 upgrade is you also need to check your DNS, Outlook, and Autodiscover settings prior to the upgrade. Several other Outlook client connectivity issues may occur if you any of these are misconfigured prior to upgrade. See here.

Is there a 2013 upgrade step by step guide I can follow?

Yes, there a very useful Office 365 Service Upgrade 2013 guide here which I strongly recommend you follow closely to avoid issues.

How long does it take for me to get upgraded?

On average each tenant upgrades takes about 48 hours to complete. No loss of email connectivity or productivity will occur during this time. The end user will be asked to restart Outlook and assuming you followed the patching and configuration steps above there should be no further client touch required. SharePoint and Lync will not be interrupted either.

What do I have to do post upgrade?

You have still migrate all of your SharePoint 2010 site collections to SharePoint 2013 including your ‘My Site’ site collection to enable SkyDrive Pro for your end users. See here for site collection upgrade steps.

Do I need to install new clients?

No, there are no client upgrades are required. You can continue to use Outlook 2007, Office 2010, and Lync 2010 against the new 2013 upgrade provided you have patched them appropriately in the link provided above.

For more information on the upgrade please visit the Office 365 Service Upgrade Center for Enterprise here.

When Office 365 Education was launched, and the ability to provide seamless single sign-on to the service was realised, a lot of my customers were emailing asking me how they could have all the benefits of ADFS without the infrastructure burden. After all, many education customers, particularly schools, do not have the funds to invest in on-premises hardware and have to be as efficient as they can with what they already have.

The truth is that in order to provide a highly available, properly sized, secure ADFS infrastructure some customers would have to deploy extra servers, and surely part of anybody’s cloud strategy is to reduce on-premises hardware not add to it! That’s where the Office 365 Adapter can help – by utilising the power of Windows Azure.

With the introduction of Windows Azure Virtual Machines, institutions who require Active Directory federation have another Microsoft-supported choice for hosting these services.

Aside from the obvious benefit of moving to Windows Azure being reduced on-premises hardware, there are many other ways it can be an advantage:

• Continuity - your students and staff can continue to sign in to Office 365 Education from outside school, even if your school broadband link goes down.
• Flexibility – components can be relocated, load-balanced and distribute across the world.
• Resilience and disaster recovery – Windows Azure can host redundant critical services, enabling failover in case of an on-premises disaster.

Download the Office 365 Adapter guide today to see how it all works!

Of course, even the Office 365 Adapter requires some time and effort to set up and configure. With the IT manager’s time already divided too many different ways, it might be nice to pay somebody else to sort SSO out for you. Helpfully, there are partners like IAM Cloud who offer similar cloud-hosted solutions to provide ADFS without the on-premises infrastructure to go with it!

Don't forget to check out the new password synchronisation options there are, too! When ADFS is just out of reach, DirSync & Password Sync can keep your student and staff identities the same between Active Directory and Office 365, without the single sign-on capabilities.

On July 10th at our UK HQ in Thames Valley Park, Reading, Berks, we’ll be holding an event in conjunction with the University of West London to bring all interested parties together to showcase and discuss Office 365 Education, and how by harnessing its power institutions can provide a better social learning environment.

In the summer of 2012 The University of West London set out to harness the immense potential of the free cloud-based suite of collaboration tools, provided by Office 365 Education, to create a personalised, interactive, social platform to support the institution’s mission to raise aspiration through the pursuit of excellence. Allowing students to combine social learning with academic study.  The University won the UCISA Award for Excellence, 2012 for the service they have created.

This event will provide detail on what UWL wanted to achieve, how they accomplished it and a demonstration of capability and features. In addition Microsoft will share latest features of Office 365 Education.

9:30am –             Arrive and refreshments

9:50am –             Welcome to Microsoft

10:00am –           Introduction by VC of UWL

10:15am –           Office 365 latest information– Microsoft

10:45am –           UWL – Highway to Heaven– Adrian Ellison CIO UWL

11:30am –           Break

11:45am -            UWL – Presentation/Demonstration of environment

12:45pm –           Lunch and networking

1:45pm –             Fulcrum – Developing the portal (partner who worked with UWL)

2:30pm-               Open Questions on UWL environment and Office 365

2:45pm-               Break

3:00pm-               Janet Amendments for Office 365 and Janet/Microsoft Alliance Agreement

3:20pm –             Office 365 user group – introduction – Group discussion                          

3:45pm-               Close

Places for this event are very limited to register today using invite code 7EA736 to avoid disappointment!