• Can I split OneDrive for Business in the cloud and SharePoint 2013 server sites on prem?

    I had a public school in Denver ask me this question since they had a rich student portal on prem but wanted to take advantage of the new 1TB quota which is no cost for faculty, staff and students with the A2 Office 365 Education SKU plans.

    This is how we currently leverage OneDrive for Business (ODB) at Microsoft with the split hybrid SharePoint scenario with OneDrive for Business in Office 365 and sites locally. We are also creating net new SharePoint sites inside of SharePoint Online as well.

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    With the newly released SP1 for SharePoint 2013 Server, there is a hybrid OneDrive for the Business in Office 365 and SharePoint sites on premises option.

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    Please see steps to configure this SharePoint 2013 hybrid scenario here.

  • Can I create a single PowerShell session for Lync Online, SharePoint Online, Azure AD, and Exchange Online?

    The answer is yes you can however I couldn’t find this documented so I decided to write a post on how to create a Super Office 365 PowerShell script to get connected to all four PowerShell services in a single PowerShell session with Office 365 Education.

    What PowerShell options do I have for Office 365?

    You have four remote PowerShell options to help administer your Office 365 tenant:

    • Azure Active Directory PowerShell
    • Exchange Online PowerShell
    • SharePoint Online PowerShell
    • Lync Online PowerShell

      What do I need to do to get everything setup?

      You will need to configure all four Office 365 Online PowerShell sessions as shown below:

      Azure Active Directory PowerShell

      1) Setup Azure AD PowerShell first:

      See instructions here you will need to install Sign In Assistant and the 32 or 64 bit Azure AD PowerShell module. After those two steps are completed:

      Add these two lines to your super PowerShell script:

      $msolcred = get-credential
      connect-msolservice -credential $msolcred

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      Exchange Online PowerShell (EOP powershell also)

      Good news here is you don’t need to install anything to make Exchange Online PowerShell or  Exchange Online Protection PowerShell run.

      Just add two lines in your Super Office 365 Powershell script:

      $ExSession = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $msolcred -Authentication Basic –AllowRedirection

      Import-PSSession $ExSession

          

      SharePoint Online PowerShell

      The good news for SPO powershell is you don’t need to install anything.

      You can just add this to your super powershell script:

      Connect-SPOService -Url https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com –credential $msolcred

      note: you need to put in the specific tenant name in place of ‘contoso’ in the script.

      More on SharePoint Online powershell setup and list of cmdlets here.

      Lync Online

      Install the Lync Online PowerShell module here and run.

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      Add these two lines to your super powershell script:

      $lyncsession=New-CsOnlineSession –credential $msolcred

      Import-PSSession $lyncsession

      See more info here.

      See list of Lync Online cmdlets here.

      Is there a sample script you can use to get everything in one?

      Yes, follow the steps below (be sure to change ‘yourtenantname’ to your tenant name):

      0. Open local PowerShell with ‘Run As Administrator’ and run Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned. This is required to allow the running of local .PS1 files within your powershell.

      1. Grab sample Super PowerShell for Office 365 snippet I put together below:

      $msolcred = get-credential
      connect-msolservice -credential $msolcred
      $ExSession = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $msolCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
      Import-PSSession $ExSession
      $lyncsession = New-CsOnlineSession -Credential $msolcred
      Import-PSSession $lyncsession
      Connect-SPOService -Url https://yourtenantname-admin.sharepoint.com -credential $msolcred

      2. Save code as connect.ps1 or whatever
      3. Create a shortcut to launch this such as:
      powershell.exe –noexit c:\path\connect.ps1
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      and pin it to the taskbar for quick access
      4. Launch your shortcut and login with Tenant Admin credentials:
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      4. To make sure the Super PowerShell script worked, verify you can run the following cmdlets within your single PowerShell session:
      Get-msoluser (Azure AD) PowerShell:
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      Get-mailbox (Exchange Online PowerShell):
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      Get-CSactiveuserreport (Lync Online PowerShell):
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      Get-SPOactiveuserreport (SharePoint Online PowerShell):
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    • Mobile Entrée 365 for SharePoint released!!

      The Office 365 Education team is very excited that H3 Solutions  Mobile Entrée 365 is now available in the Office Store . EDU Office 365 customers obtain incremental value from their SharePoint Online while being productive while  mobile.

      Office 365 users can download at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/store/mobile-entree-365-WA104323552.aspx (a 15 day free trial is available)   I found their  Press Release  offers a great overview of what is now available with more information on H3's  web site  or  blogs

      Mobile Entrée provides SharePoint customers and partners the unrivaled tools for a rich SharePoint mobility experience  in Office 365

      Benefits include

      • Premium out of the box mobile user experience to access SharePoint content and apps

      • Cross Platform/BYOD support – all Windows, iOS, Android, Blackberry smartphones and tablets devices supported.

      • Simple to setup, can be up and running in a matter of minutes

      • Ability to brand and customize the Office 365 SharePoint mobile experience

      • Full set of tools to provide custom web mobile apps

       

      Also published http://sharepointpromag.com/office-365/office-365-app-store-reveals-new-sharepoint-mobile-tool

    • Can I toggle on and off Sites, Newsfeed, OneDrive inside of SharePoint Online?

      This is a very popular request in education where you may want to hide a subset of SharePoint Online functionality such as newsfeeds or sites for example. The good news is we now just shipped this update to SharePoint Online that provides this capability to toggle on and off SharePoint features in the Portal navigation bar:

      Where is this feature?:

      1) Visit Office 365 portal

      2) Visit ‘SharePoint’ administration

      3) Visit ‘Settings’

      4) Select features to enable/disable within the navigation bar

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      Portal Nav bar before toggle:

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      Portal Nav bar after toggle hiding Newsfeed and Sites (note must exit browser fully and restart):

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    • Synchronize passwords for federated users to reduce downtime in case of an emergency

      Office 365 now supports Password Synchronization as a temporary backup for Single Sign-On (federation).

      From the TechNet Wiki, "At General Availability, the Password Synchronization feature did not support the synchronization of passwords for users in a Federated namespace. We have recently updated the service code to allow this. This enables the added possibility of running Password Sync while using Single Sign-On and temporarily switching over to use synchronized passwords for login if you experience availability issues with your SSO infrastructure!"

      Read complete article

      Switching from Single Sign-On to use Synchronized Passwords for Sign-In is not instantaneous, but it just might be the thing you need to protect against a catastrophic failure or natural disaster.

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      Thanks for joining us today!

      Zion Brewer

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