Need to Know podcast–Episode 85

I’m joined once again by Tas Gray as well as Long Tran from AxiomIT to talk Office 365. In this episode we talk about using Azure AD that is part of all Office 365 subscriptions to manage identity for third party applications. We also talk about using Azure Active Directory Single Sign on portal as a better way to manage web application access in a business.

You can listen to this episode at:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-85-tas-gray-and-long-tran/

or subscribe to this and all episodes in iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2

The podcast is also available on Stitcher at:

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send me any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show. I’m also on the hunt for some co-presenters so if you are interested on being a regular part of the show please contact me.

Resources

Skype for Business preview

PowerShell for Office 365

Changing Office 365 plans

Azure AD Connect gets released

Office 2016 for Mac is here

Skype for Business Windows Phone app

Cloud Business Blueprint

Azure AD Connect tool – the basics

Azure AD Connect tool–the basics

Microsoft recently announced that Azure AD Connect has come out of preview and is now generally available. This now means that Azure AD Connect is the preferred tool for synchronizing on premises AD to Office 365 replacing DIRSYNC and Azure AD Sync Services.

I detailed how to install the preview of Azure AD Connect here:

https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/06/azure-ad-connect-previewinstall.html

and the process is pretty much identical for the released version so I’ll only detail the express install here. Refer to my previous post if you need more details of all the options available but not really required for Office 365.

The first thing you’ll need to do to configure synchronisation with your on premises AD and Office 365 is login to the Office 365 portal as an administrator. You’ll then need to select the Users area and then the Active Users.

At the top of the page you’ll find an option Active Directory synchronization as shown above. Here you select the Set up hyperlink.

On the page that is displayed you need to select the option to Activate synchronization as shown above.

You’ll be promoted to confirm that you wish to Activate.

After which you should now see that synchronization is activated.

Next, you’ll need to downloaded the released version of Azure AD Connect which you can do from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=47594

After you have downloaded the software you can install it. It is best practice to install Azure AD Connect onto a member server in your domain but installation on the domain controller is supported.

At the Welcome screen select Continue in the lower right.

In this case we simply want to configure synchronisation with Office 365 so select Use express settings. If you want to learn about the other options available to you with azure AD Connect check out the following documentation:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/documentation/articles/active-directory-aadconnect/

The express options will automatically:

– Configure synchronization of identities in the current AD forest

– Configure password synchronization from on premise AD to Azure AD

– Start an initial synchronization

– Synchronize all attributes

The installation will now commence.

You’ll be prompted for your Azure AD credentials, these are the credentials for the Office 365 global administrator account that will be used to connect to Office 365. Remember, Office 365 allows you to have accounts that are global administrators without them having to have a license for the Office 365 services.

The account details you provided will now be verified.

You’ll now be prompted for credentials for a local on premise administrator for your AD.

These credentials will be verified and you’ll now see a summary of the actions that will take place.

You’ll then see SQL Express being installed as part of Azure AD Connect.

You’ll then see the Synchronization Service being configured.

Then the Directory connector.

You should then see it connecting to you Office 365 tenant.

Then your local AD (here kumoalliance.org)

Finally, you should see the Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant restarting.

You should then receive a message that the process is complete.

After a short while, if you compare you local on premises AD users

to those in Office you should find local users have synchronised to Office 365 as expected. You will see their status as Synced with Active Directory as shown above.

As usual, the synced users won’t have been assigned an Office 365 license. You’ll need to do this via the browser or PowerShell to allow users access to Office 365 services.

If you look at the machine you just installed Azure AD Connect onto you’ll see the above new program group as shown above.

If select Synchronization Service from this list you’ll be taken to the sync troubleshooting tool to help you see what is happening underneath the covers and perform and diagnostics.

If you need to force a synchronisation at any stage navigate to:

\program files\microsoft azure ad sync\bin

and run the file

directorysyncclientcmd.exe

So there you have it. No more DIRSYNC. No more Azure AD Sync Services. Azure AD Connect is you preferred option when it comes to syncing an on premises AD to Office 365.

Need to Know podcast–Episode 84

In this episode I’m joined by Office 365 MVP Martina Grom to talk Yammer. We cover what Yammer is, how to implement it as part of Office 365 and how to ensure it is a success within a business. Martina shares her experience and technical knowledge on how to make Yammer a success.

You can listen to the episode at:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-84-martina-grom/

or subscribe to this and all episodes in iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2

The podcast is also available on Stitcher at:

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

Resources

Martina on Twitter

Skype for Business preview

PowerShell for Office 365

Changing Office 365 plans

Azure AD Connect gets released

Office 365 PowerShell Webinar

I am currently working with Dicker Data on producing a number of training webinars around Office 365. The next one will be on Managing Office 365 with PowerShell which will show you the basics of administrating you Office 365 tenants from the command line. importantly, it will show you how to automate these tasks to reduce the time required will deliver more consistent results.

The webinar is next Wednesday the 8th of July from 11am – 11.45am (Sydney Australia) time and is free for anyone to attend.

If you do want to attend simply pop you email address below and subscribe and you’ll immediately be emailed the connection details for the Skype for Business meeting. Your email address will also be automatically added to the list of my upcoming Office 365 email newsletter due for release soon.

I hope to see you at the event.

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px helvetica,arial,sans-serif; }
/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.
We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

Subscribe to our mailing list

Watch out GotoMeeting

I do a lot of webinars. I also use Skype for Business a lot. Why do I use two tools? Typically, I use GotoWebinar to host public webinars. Why? It is generally set up to handle one to many presentations. Skype for Business has typically worked best for one to one or one to a few meetings.

You can of course use Skype for Business for general webinars but it wasn’t quite a polished a tool for that job as GotoWebinar. However, it you look at what Microsoft has just announced with the new Skype for Business preview it looks like I’ll only need one tool going forward.

One of the new features available world wide is the Meeting Broadcast option which does much of what GotoMeeting does and more! What excites me about the new Skype for Business Meeting Broadcast is the ability to have direct integration with Yammer. so people can be watching and contributing. Another impressive feature is the DVR ability. That means that individual viewers can pause, rewind, etc the presentation at any point in time independent of what other viewers are doing.

There are so many really cool features of this new preview that I’d encourage you to watch the video and sign up at:

https://www.skypepreview.com/

Hopefully my tenant get this enabled soon and I can document how it all works. In the meantime watch the video and I’m confident you’ll be impressed.

The upgrade from old Office 365 plans is coming

If you purchased Office 365 prior to October 2014 you may have an older P (Small Business) or M (Mid-sized Business) plan. Once the new Business plans (Business, Business Essentials and Business Premium) where announced pots October 2014, you could no longer purchase the P or M plan new (you could add to existing plans but could no longer buy them new).

Existing P and M plan users then had a maximum of 12 months to upgrade from these plans to new plans. If they hadn’t done so by 1 October 2015 then they would automatically be upgraded to the equivalent plan.

I details all of this in a prior blog post:

Changes to the Office 365 P and M plans

and from this blog post:

https://blogs.office.com/2014/07/09/evolving-office-365-plans-for-small-and-midsized-businesses/

The follow table outlined the automatic upgrade routes:

July 9 image 2

Microsoft has recent announced further guidance around this automatic upgrade process which you can find here:

https://products.office.com/en-us/business/moving-to-the-new-office-365-plans-for-small-and-midsized-businesses#a

which basically says:

After October 1, 2015, you will need to select one of the new plans at your next renewal date. These new plans are very similar but not identical to your current plan.

The biggest change I see is that existing M plans have RDS right but after October 1, 2015 they will be migrated to Business Premium plans which DON’T have RDS rights.

If you are yet to move from the old plans ensure you check out this new guidance website from Microsoft to understand what will happen to your tenant after 1 October 2015 and the changes in functionality that will mean.

Office 365 Settings gets a refresh

If users nos select the cog in the top right of their Office 365 web portal and then the Office 365 settings option, they will see things have changed.

The new Office 365 settings page is now very different from what it used to as you can see from the above.

It is beginning to look at lot like the Delve profile.

If you select the Edit Profile link the top right of the page you’ll be taken to the above screen with a series of entries.

If you are an Office 365 Global administrator you can edit these.

If you don’t have the rights you won;t be able to change this information as it comes from the Active users area in Office 365 admin center.

I think the interface changes look good. I would also suggest that these are point towards the trend of Delve becoming more important to the overall scheme of Office 365. I’d suggest that you stay posted for further changes like this soon!