The UC Architects Podcast Ep58

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Michel de Rooij

iTunes-Podcast-logo[1] Episode 58 of The UC Architects podcast is now available. This episode is hosted by Pat Richard, who is joined by Steve Goodman, John Cook and Tom Arbuthnot. Editing was done by Andrew Price.

Topics discussed in this episode are:

Microsoft Press Lets Editorial Staff Go
Microsoft acquires LinkedIn
Using the Office 365 Hybrid Configuration Wizard (Six part series)
HCW Improvement: The Minimal Hybrid Configuration option
Preview of Certificate-Based Authentication (CBA) for Exchange Online
FindTime for Outlook – Doodle for Business
Virtual academies, odd questions, and MCSE recertification
Microsoft Launches New Office 365 Network Online Community; 88,000-User Yammer Network to Close
Centralised Skype for Business Event Log Viewer
Lync, OCS, Skype for Business Persistent Chat requires port 8011. Missing from Documentation
Call Flow Manager 1.3
Best Practice Upgrade to Skype for Business 2015 SBA
Configure Toll-free Numbers for Dial-In Conferencing in Office365 (NextHop!)
Device Updates with Skype for Business Online
Skype for Business Mac Preview adds contacts, presence and IM
Microsoft announces Skype Meetings, a new free group collaboration tool
Offline IM is now in Skype4B CU3
Skype for Business June 2016 CU (3) gives video based Screensharing
New “Busy Options” Be sure to run Update-CsAdminRole after installing
June 7, 2016, update for Skype for Business 2016 (KB3115087)
Skype for Business EdgeInternal Certificate Automatic Renewal sample
Skype for Business 2015 Resource Kit tools released
bounSky 2015
Office Online Server now available
Skype for Business App SDK preview is now available for download
Skype for Business Hybrid Handbook, Version 2.0 (Josh Blalock)
Polycom VVX Alternate Ringtone Bundle (Unofficial)
Microsoft Ignite
UC Day UK (Oct24)
UC Birmingham User Group (Aug 9-10)
Unity Connect (Nov16-18)

You can download the podcast here or you can subscribe to the podcasts using iTunes, Zune or use the RSS feed.

About
The UC Architects is a community podcast by people with a passion for Unified Communications; our main focus is on Exchange, Skype for Business or related subjects.

Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator 7.9

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Michel de Rooij

The Exchange team published an update for the Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator, the tool to aid you in properly sizing your Exchange Server 2013 or Exchange Server 2016 deployment. The new version number is 7.9, and it contains mainly bug fixes.

Functionality changes and bug fixes since version 7.8:

Added support for 1.8TB disk capacity
Added color formatting for when memory exceeds the maximum recommended value
Fixed calcNumDBCopyInSDC formula to take into account proper number of lagged copies
Fixed calcActDBPDCWorst formula to take into account non-HA deployments
Fixed an issue where ReplayLagManager calculated field did not take into account the user disabling JBOD
Fixed version mismatch and added Add-PartitionAccessPath in Diskpart.ps1 script
Fixed issue with export CreateDAG.ps1 script where it defined Alternate Witness in single datacenter deployments
Fixed diskpart.ps1 script to sleep 10s after creating partition but prior to formatting to minimize error condition
Fixed RetainDeletedItemsUntilBackup to be set to $false for NDP deployments

You can download the calculator here. For more information, please consult the list of changes here or Read Me here.

The UC Architects Podcast Ep57

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Michel de Rooij

iTunes-Podcast-logo[1] Episode 57 of The UC Architects podcast is now available. This episode is hosted by Pat Richard, who is joined by Steve Goodman and Tom Arbuthnot. Editing was done by Andrew Price.

Topics discussed in this episode are:

Microsoft is rolling back the mailbox anchoring change for remote PowerShell that was introduced in 2013 CU11
Exchange 2013 and 2016 Exmon tool is now available
A friendly reminder that WMF (PowerShell) 5.0 is currently not supported with any version of #MSExchange
Exchange says no to .NET Framework 4.6.1
Hybrid Shared Mailbox access is now supported
Announcing the new Office 365 admin center
Office 365 Reporting web service and Windows PowerShell cmdlets
Office 365 Hybrid Configuration wizard for Exchange 2010
Bulk provisioning Office 365 licenses and services script
Mitel Networks (MITL) to Acquire Polycom (PLCM) in ~$1.96B Deal
Lync 2010 transitioning from mainstream to extended support
Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition Released
Thomas Poet’s Office Cloud Connector Edition
Cloud Connector Edition Skype for Business Online Planning and Migration Guide
Microsofts Free StatsMan Released for Skype for Business and Lync
Configure OAuth between Skype for Business Server and Exchange Online
Microsoft’s Skype now works without plug-ins with Windows 10’s Edge browser
Skype for Business Hybrid–Additional Office 365 Domain
Announcing content viewing for Skype for Business on Android and updates to iOS
Skype for Business SDN Interface 2.4 Released with PowerShell Provisioning
Skype for Business Client Update Video Webcast: Announce Offline Messaging!
Skype for Business Server 2015, Capacity Calculator
CMS Changes in Skype for Business 2015
Quick Tip: SLA Errors – Just Ignore Them
Technical diagrams for Skype for Business Server 2015
Microsoft to eliminate Skype Managed Accounts feature by March’s end (Regular Skype, not Skype4B)
Displaying Network and Building Information in Call Quality Dashboard (CQD) Online
Lync 2013 Client Update Feb 2016 (KB3114732) 15.0.4797.1000.
Lync Server 2013 CU
Skype for Business Server 2015 CU2 (March)
Pat’s Get-CsUpdateVersion script
.NET Framework 4.6.1 and Skype for Business/Lync Server Compatibility
StatusKey for Skype for Business
Lync 2013 / Skype for Business Call Pickup Group Manager Version 2
UC Birmingham User Group (5/11)
UC Day mailing list for more information about a dedicated UC and cloud conference happening on 24th October in the UK
IPExpoManchester (5/19)

You can download the podcast here or you can subscribe to the podcasts using iTunes, Zune or use the RSS feed.

About
The UC Architects is a community podcast by people with a passion for Unified Communications; our main focus is on Exchange, Skype for Business or related subjects.

Exchange 2016 & Office Online Server

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Michel de Rooij

pptxicon Update (May 9th): Office Online Server is now also available through MSDN here.

Update (May 4th): Office Online Server became available today. OOS is available on VLSC, language packs are on MSDN as well (perhaps a clue OOS will be available later on MSDN as well). Document modification option comes with additional licensing requirements, consult the release article for more information.

On April 26th, I gave a session on Exchange 2016 and Office Online Server – or OOS. Creating the session contents proved to hold some challenges. After agreeing on the session around the January timeframe, when OOS was still in Technical Preview, OOS got pulled a few weeks ago without notice. It was expected it would become Generally Available (GA) shortly after the release of SharePoint 2016, but that didn’t happen. To make matters more interesting, OOS was moved to Volume Licensing Service Center only, where its predecessor was freely available on the Microsoft download center. Currently, the status of OOS is that it is GA, and available on the VLSC site. The session and demo were based on the Technical Preview.

Back to the event, which was hosted by the always friendly and hospitable people from the Belgian E-Communications Community. At the office of Microsoft in Zaventem, Belgium, sessions were presented by 8 Microsoft MVP’s, Microsoft and sponsors, divided in 2 tracks: one Exchange-oriented track, and one track with Skype for Business related topics. Around a total of 60 people turned up in person for the event, and sessions were also streamed live through Skype Meeting Broadcast. Excellent usage of available technology.

(picture by Michael van Horenbeeck)

After the opening keynote, Tony Redmond kicked off talking about Office 365 Groups, followed by fellow countryman Dave Stork talking about using Tools to deploy and manage Exchange. After the break, it was time for my session on Exchange 2016 and Office Online Server. Unfortunately, in the category 1st world problems, lack of an HDMI connector – required for presenting as well as streaming – on my laptop prevented me from doing the demo, and the remaining time was filled by a improvised Ask the Experts session on Exchange and Office 365, in which I was joined by the other Dutch MVP’s present. After that, Michael van Horenbeeck talked in his session about Advanced Identity & Authentication scenarios for Office 365. Jaap Wesselius closed the Exchange track with a session on the Do’s and Don’ts when using Exchange 2010 for Hybrid deployments.

The links above lead to the session recordings; a complete session overview including links to the recordings for the Skype for Business related sessions can be found here. My slidedeck – with caps of the demo – can be downloaded here. A page with links to all the slidedecks and recordings can be found here.

iOS 9.3 fixes Multiple Response issue

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Michel de Rooij

iPhone 6 iOS Update 5/31/16: The glitch has been addressed in iOS 9.3.1.

Note: Be advised that iOS 9.3 contains a glitch which might prevent users from opening links from applications like Safari or other browsers, Mail or Outlook. The glitch causes the link not to work or the app to hang. Apple is aware of the issue and a fix is in the works. It is reported that, as a temporary workaround, disabling Javascript support in Settings > Safari > Advanced makes links work again in Safari.

Apple released iOS 9.3 today, which contains lots of enhancements and fixes. One of these fixes solves an issue with the Calendar app (for those still not using the Outlook app), where it would send multiple responses for an invite.

The release notes of iOS 9.3 mention:

Resolves an issue for some Exchange users that caused Calendar to send multiple responses to the same invitation

The fix supposedly solves issue 1.15 from the “Current issues with Exchange ActiveSync and 3rd-party device” overview (KB2563324), “Meeting organizer receives multiple responses from attendee. The related KB article, KB3108212, also contains instructions on how to identify users experiencing this problem. Note that the problem has also been addressed server-side in Cumulative Update 1 for Exchange 2016.

It’s almost a law that, for every bug that is fixed, new ones are introduced. So, some organizations may therefor want to test and accept this iOS update before giving it the green light for their Exchange environment. To block a specific version of iOS from Exchange, consult the instructions here.