iOS 9 Outlook App & Lync 2013 App Issues


iphone6After Apple released iOS 9 to the public yesterday. From an Exchange or Office 365 perspective, iOS 9 supports the enhanced calendar features of Office 365 and Exchange 2016 when that is released. Unfortunately, incidents have been reported with the Outlook app and the Lync 2013 App.

Regarding the Outlook App, iOS9 users might not be able to start the Outlook App or the Outlook app will just crash. The far from ideal workaround offered by the Outlook team, is to reinstall the Outlook app.

outlookappcrash

Of course, this also requires users to reconfigure accounts and Outlook App settings, so organizations can expect some calls to the service desk by users who upgraded. Organizations can report on the currently registered iOS8 devices that syned in the last 30 days, using:

Get-MobileDevice | Where-Object {$_.DeviceOS -like 'iOS 8*' -and $_.whenChanged -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-30)} | Select UserDisplayName, FriendlyName, DeviceModel, DeviceOS, whenChanged

This will product a list of users, the name of their device, the device model and OS and when it last synced with Exchange. This information can be useful when you want to proactively approach users with iOS8 devices.

For Lync 2013 users, there are sign-in issues when they have configured different region and language settings on their iOS device. Those users will be presented the following:

Lync2013SignInIssue1

The issue has officially been confirmed through publication of KB3096704, which states:

“This problem is fixed in the Microsoft Skype for Business for iOS app that will replace Lync for iPhone and Lync for iPad when it’s released. No fix for this issue is scheduled for the current releases of Lync for iPhone and Lync for iPad”.

Since the Skype for Business app is not available yet, this is not good news. Mitigation is possible by matching the region with the language setting (or the other way around), after which you need to reinstall the Lync 2013 app from the store.

With all this in mind, should organizations wish to first test the new iOS against their Exchange environment for potential other issues, you can block iOS 9 from accessing your Exchange 2013 environment, or Office 365 tenant if you must, using the Access/Block/Quarantine feature. First you need to retrieve the reported DeviceOS string for iOS 9 for a device:

Get-MobileDevice | Where-Object {$_.DeviceOS -like “iOS 9*”} | Select DeviceModel, DeviceOSLanguage, DeviceOS

The reported DeviceOS strings then is used to create an ActiveSync device rule. For example, my iPhone 6 reports DeviceOS as “iOS 9.0 13A344”. To block these devices with iOS 9.0 and put them in quarantine, run the following:

New-ActiveSyncDeviceAccessRule -QueryString "iOS 9.0 13A344" -Characteristic DeviceOS -AccessLevel Quarantine

If you would like to know more about the Access/Block/Quarantine option, check out this article.

The UC Architects Podcast Ep55


iTunes-Podcast-logo[1]Episode 55 of The UC Architects podcast is now available. This episode, which was recorded live at the Modern Workplace Summit and Skype Days in Oslo, is hosted by Steve Goodman, who is joined by StĂĄle Hansen and Tom Arbuthnot. Special Guests are Johan Delimon, Thomas Poet, and Fabriazo Volpe. Editing was done by Andrew Price.

Some of the topics discussed in this episode are:

  • Introducing the Microsoft Office 365 Hybrid Configuration Wizard
  • Set up Skype for Business Online for Skype Meeting Broadcast
  • Overview of Modern Workplace Summit
  • Exchange 2016 new features
  • Lync 2013 multi-tenant upgrade path
  • How do I convince the firewall team to open ports 50-59k?
  • Extensive reporting statistics on room bookings and internal message stats
  • Move Public Folders to room mailboxes
  • What are the technical challenges and business challenges and opportunities for Cloud PBX
  • Skype – in place upgrade with Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Lync Room System (LRS) upgrade route
  • UCDAY UK meeting

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 2013 and .NET Framework 4.6


Ex2013 LogoA quick heads-up that when you are running Exchange Server 2013, you should not install or update to .NET Framework 4.6. This version of the .NET framework is not only not supported, it may also cause your Exchange 2013 server to stop functioning correctly.

When you have updated from a previous version, a suggested workaround is to uninstall .NET Framework 4.6. However, with all the dependencies on the .NET Framework by Exchange Server, it maybe preferred, when you did install version .NET Framework 4.6, to migrate contents, i.e. mailboxes etc., to a new Exchange 2013 server, and decommission the one you installed .NET 4.6.

More information can be found in KB3095369.

Exchange 2013 CU10 & Exchange 2010 SP3 RU11


Ex2013 LogoThe Exchange Team released Cumulative Update 10 for Exchange Server 2013 (KB3078678) as well as Rollup 11 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 (KB3078674). These version levels will be required for co-existence with Exchange Server 2016, which is to be released at a later date. The updates raise the version numbers to 15.0.1130.7 and 14.3.266.1, respectively.

Cumulative Update 10 contains the following fixes for Exchange Server 2013:

  • KB 3087126 MS15-103: Description of the security update for Exchange Server: September 8, 2015
  • KB 3094068 Permissions for a linked mailbox are added to an account in the wrong forest in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
  • KB 3093884 The link in a quarantined email shows an empty list for ActiveSync-enabled devices in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3093866 The number of search results can’t be more than 250 when you search email messages in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3088911 Inline attachments are sent as traditional when you smart forward an HTML email in an iOS device in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3087571 Can’t edit or resend a delayed delivery message when you open the message from the Outbox folder in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3087293 “550 5.6.0” NDR and duplicated attachments when an encrypted email is sent in Outlook in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3080511 HTML forms aren’t available when the DisableFilter parameter is enabled in Outlook Web App in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3080221 LegacyExchangeDN attribute is displayed when you use Outlook Web App to view an appointment in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3079217 Outlook Web App replies to the wrong email address when an email has more than 12 recipients in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3078966 Outlook 2011 for Mac client displays emails as they come from the same senders in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3078443 Incorrect results are displayed when you search for an email that has a certain attachment name in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3078438 Performance issues occur in an Exchange Server 2013 environment that’s running BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5
  • KB 3078404 Can’t access a shared mailbox after you migrate from Exchange Server 2010 to Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3076257 EWS returns a Success response code even if a batch deletion request isn’t completed in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3074823 No Send As audit events are logged when you use Send As permission in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3071776 “A problem occurred” error when you access shared folders in Exchang Server 2013 mailbox by using Outlook Web App
  • KB 3069516 Mailbox size and quota information are reported incorrectly in Outlook and Outlook Web App in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3061487 “FailedToGetRootFolders” error when you run an eDiscovery estimate search for archive mailboxes in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3058609 Wrong recipient is specified in an inbox rule that has the ForwardTo or RedirectTo option in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3009631 Advanced Find against the Sent Items folder in Outlook returns no result in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 2999011 Documents are partially indexed by Exchange search when they embed other documents in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 2983161 Organization unite picker is missing when you create a Remote Mailbox in Exchange Admin Console in Exchange Server 2013
  • KB 3091308 Can’t install cumulative updates or service packs when MachinePolicy or UserPolicy is defined in Exchange Server 2013

For Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Rollup 11 contains the following fix:

  • KB 3092576 Exchange 2010 Information Store crashes randomly

Notes:

    • When using Exchange hybrid deployments or Exchange Online Archiving (EOA), you are required to stay current.
    • If you want to speed up the update process for systems without internet access, you can follow the procedure described here to disable publisher’s certificate revocation checking.
    • This Cumulative Update does include Active Directory changes when compared to the previous Cumulative Update. If you have deployed a version earlier than CU10, make sure you run setup /PrepareAD.
    • If you got an Exchange 2010 DAG, and want to properly update the DAG members, check the instructions here.

Note that Cumulative Updates can be installed directly, i.e. no need to install RTM prior to installing Cumulative Updates. Note that once installed, you can’t uninstall a Cumulative Update nor any of the installed Exchange server roles. The order of upgrading Exchange 2013 servers is irrelevant, unlike with previous generations of Exchange. Exchange 2010 Rollups are cumulative per service pack level, i.e. they contain fixes released in earlier updates.

You can download Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 10 here and Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 11 here. The Exchange 2013 CU10 Language Packs are available here.

IT/Dev Connections 2015


imspeakingatdevconnections[1]I am in Las Vegas at the moment for the IT/DEV Connections conference which will take place in Las Vegas this week. Looking at the schedule and list of speakers, the conference is bound to be a success. If you’re not in Las Vegas, you can follow the conference on Twitter. The designated hashtag is #ITDEVCON.

itdevconMany thanks to Penton Media for giving me the opportunity to co-host the “Managing Exchange On-Premises and Exchange Online with PowerShell” workshop in the Enterprise Collaboration with Jaap Wesselius, on September 14th in Bluethorn 4. I will be present at the conference the whole week, so if you have questions or just want to say hi, look me up or ping me on Twitter or e-mail.