Knowledgebase RSS feeds

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Michel de Rooij

Update: Added Exchange 2016 and Skype for Business 2016 feed.

Note: This is an update of an article from January, 2010.

Like most people I still use RSS feeds to keep track of news and updates from various sources. But did you know you can also keep track of Microsoft’s knowledgebase articles per product using RSS feeds? Great for keeping track of updates in RSS readers like Outlook or sites like Feedly, or creating triggers on sites like IFTTT (If-This-Then-That) to automatically send e-mail notifications.

Here are some RSS feeds on knowledgebase articles that might be of interest to you:

Exchange Server

Outlook

Office 365

Most Recent KBs for Office 365
Office 365 IP Addresses
Service Health Dashboard is specific to your tenant (how to).

Lync/Skype for Business

For a complete list of the knowledgebase articles RSS feeds check here.

Exchange 2016 and IM Integration

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Michel de Rooij

Those configuring IM integration for OWA and Lync or Skype for Business know the drill of editing the web.config files on your Exchange servers and configuring the certificate thumbprint and Lync/SfB pool? That especially became a nuisance as after each Cumulative Update those settings needed to be reconfigured, for which I wrote a Configure-IMIntegration script.

The Exchange team has obviously listened to feedback from customers and made this setting persistent in Exchange 2016. No longer is it required to dive in those web.config files after installing each CU. Instead, you now configure these settings using the Set-Override cmdlet, which will store the setting in Active Directory.

For example:

New-SettingOverride -Name '<Description>' -Server <Server/Wildcard> -Component OwaServer -Section IMSettings -Parameters @("IMServerName=<Server/Pool FQDN>","IMCertificateThumbprint=<Certificate Thumbprint>") -Reason "<Reason>" -MinVersion "<Minimum Version To Apply To>" -MaxVersion "Maximum Version to Apply To"
Get-ExchangeDiagnosticInfo -Process Microsoft.Exchange.Directory.TopologyService -Component VariantConfiguration -Argument Refresh

For example, to configure the override for all servers with a name starting with EX16, configuring lync.contoso.com as pool FQDN and a specific thumbprint, only for Exchange builds starting at 15.1.225.42 (Exchange 2016 RTM), you could use:

New-SettingOverride -Name 'IM Integration' -Server EX16* -Component OwaServer -Section IMSettings -Parameters @("IMServerName=lync.contoso.com","IMCertificateThumbprint=12345678123412341234567812345678123126789") -Reason "Configure IM" -MinVersion "15.01.0225.42"
Get-ExchangeDiagnosticInfo -Process Microsoft.Exchange.Directory.TopologyService -Component VariantConfiguration -Argument Refresh

Finally, restart the OWA App pool to have OWA reread the new settings:

Restart-WebAppPool MSExchangeOWAApppool

Exchange 2016 goes RTM!

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Michel de Rooij

Update (4nov2015): You can block creating mixed DAGs using Cmdlet Extension Agents, I blogged about that here.

Today, the Exchange Team reached a milestone for the On-Premises by releasing Exchange Server 2016. The official announcement contains information on new features and enhancements.The version number of Exchange 2016 RTM is 15.1.225.42. After extending it, the schema version should report 15317, and the forest and domain versions after preparing Active Directory should read 16210 and 13236, respectively.

Much of what’s new or requirements for coexistence scenarios were already announced during the release of the Exchange 2016 Preview, a little over 2 months ago. I did a write-up on that here. However, some features didn’t make it for the RTM release. For example, the feature that makes Search Indexer use Passive Database Copies for indexing, instead of copying indexes from the active copy, is to be expected in a later Cumulative Update. Also, the auto-expanding Archive feature, available in the Preview, has not made it in the RTM version.

Also make sure you read the Release Notes, which contain important information on potential issues. For example, Exchange 2016 does not prevent you from adding Exchange 2013 Mailbox servers to an Exchange 2016 Database Availability Group, or vice-versa. This ability is also not blocked by the Exchange Admin Center console. This is totally unsupported (the database structure is different), but more importantly also puts your data at risk. Just don’t.

Some links to get you started:

Official Announcement
Release Notes
Exchange Server 2016 Product Guide
Exhange Server 2016 Online Documentatation (TechNet)
Exchange 2016 Active Directory Schema changes
Download the Exchange 2016 RTM bits here.
UM Language Packs for Exchange 2016

The first Cumulative Updated is to be expected in Q1’16.

Accompanying the launch, Microsoft also published a number of videos highlighting certain aspects or features. One of them is the ever charming Greg Taylor talking about Exchange Server 2016 – Performance, architecture and compliance updates:

Other videos from the Exchange Team and Office Garage:

2015 Microsoft MVP Award

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Michel de Rooij

I am proud and happy to announce I got re-awarded the Microsoft MVP Award for Exchange Server for the third year in a row:

MVP awards are given to individuals by Microsoft in recognition of their contributions to the technical community, such as this writing on blogs or books, presenting, forum contributions or The UC Architects podcast.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my readers, followers, fellow MVPs and of course the Microsoft employees that have encouraged, helped and supported me over years.

My MVP profile can be found here.

IT/DEV Connections 2015 Wrap-Up

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Michel de Rooij

Note: For those that attended Jaap and my workshop on Monday, Managing Exchange On-Premises and Exchange Online using PowerShell, the slidedeck is available here and the sample code is available here.

Last weekend, I returned from one of the largest, independent conferences on Microsoft technologies, IT/DEV Connections. The conference, which took place in the city of Las Vegas, is spread over a 3-day period on popular topics, like Exchange, Windows, SQL or SharePoint, and has a track for Infrastructure as well as Development (hence the ‘IT/DEV’). Apart from the many speakers, most of them experienced Microsoft Valuable Professionals, Microsoft celebrities like Tim McMichael were also presenting sessions.

Like many conferences nowadays, IT/DEV Connections took off with several pre-conference workshops on Monday. One of these workshops was done by fellow Exchange MVP and countryman Jaap Wesselius and myself. We talked a whole day about ‘Managing Exchange On-Premises and Exchange Online using PowerShell’. The turn-up was above expectation, which is always nice, and we had good interaction with, and feedback from the audience. This made our session, from a presenter’s viewpoint, very worthwhile.

Since I had no sessions after the workshop, I was free to attend sessions by fellow presenters. Tony Redmond kicked off with a keynote, analyzing the current landscape for Exchange and Office 365, and making references to sessions later that week, should people be interested in those topics. It’s also where you learn who is running what, and as it turned out most attendees are running Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2013 On-Premises, but with an increasing interest in Office 365.

During the week, apart from the excellent contents presented, I was very humbled to learn lots of presenters made references to several of my scripts, e.g.

Install-Exchange15.ps1, the Exchange 2013/2016 Unattended Installation script.
Connect-Office365Services.ps1, the script for profile inclusion, providing Office 365/Exchange Connect Functions.
Configure-IMIntegration.ps1, to configure IM integration.
Reference to my NTFS vs ReFS article.

This conference is also the place where Exchange MVP fellows Tony Redmond, Michael van Horenbeeck, Paul Cunningham and Jeff Guillet presented their 2nd edition of their book, ‘Office 365 for Exchange Professionals’. Congratulations to them reaching this milestone, looking at the non-stop amount of changes happening in the Office 365 environment. You can get your own copy of the updated book here.

It’s becoming a tradition that the last Exchange session of the conference is a ‘Ask the Experts’ panel session, where the audience can ask a panel of presenters questions, or where the current landscape for Exchange or Office 365 can be discussed. It’s a great way to close the conference, before everyone gets back to their corners of the world, back from the crazy city that is Las Vegas to reality.

If you didn’t consider IT/DEV Connections before, you should. The conference is a must-visit, especially with Microsoft having consolidated MEC, MMS etc. in a single, huge event which is Ignite now. Connections is not small, but the more intimate setting allows you to catch up with peers more easily, have discussions over a pint, great catering, and without the need to max out your step counter. The Aria resort is very nice place to host this event, great for business with a pleasant conference area without too much of the distractions like the other hotels. If you plan on visiting next year, save the date: September 19-22, 2016!

I also want to thank ENow for again hosting an epic Scheduled Maintenance party. Location this time was the Ghostbar at the 55th floor in Palms Resort, which gave an amazing view over the city of Las Vegas and the Strip. I wore my ENow-branded NFL jersey to the party, a gift from ENow last year. This lead to funny moments, as this is ENow’s event gear, and many people mistook me for an employee, thanking me when leaving the party.

Finally, here are some of the other Exchange Connections wrap-ups: