Mapping a drive to OneDrive for Business

When you visit OneDrive for Business these days you get a ‘simplified’ interface like that shown above. What you may not appreciate is that you can map a network drive to your OneDrive for Business. Doing so makes it easier for people who are familiar with using only drive letters as well as for bulk uploads. Here’s how to do that.

You’ll firstly need to temporarily revert back to the original, or ‘classic’, OneDrive for Business interface. You’ll find an option for that in the lower left of the screen.

Once you’ve selected that you should be a more ‘SharePoint-like” OneDrive for Business interface as shown above. Don’t worry, the next time you visit your OneDrive for Business site it will have reverted back to the new ‘simplified’ interface. The ‘classic’ interface is only valid for the current browsing session.

Even the interface here is somewhat simplified, so to display the Ribbon Menu you’ll need to select the COG in the top right of the screen to reveal a menu as shown above.

From this menu select the first option Ribbon. Doing so will enable the standard SharePoint Ribbon Menu at the top of the page.

Now you should see the additional tabs Browse, Files and Library displayed just above the search box as shown above.

Select Library to reveal the Ribbon Menu.

In the section Connect & Export, select the icon Open with Explorer.

You may be prompted with some security messages like the above. If so, select Allow to permit the connection.

In a moment or two you should see Windows Explorer open with the files from OneDrive listed as shown above.

If you look closely at the directory location you should find it in the format of:

https://tenantname-my.sharepoint.com/personal/first_last_domain_com/Documents

where the users Office 365 login = first.last@domain.com

If you take a look down in the network area of Windows Explorer you will see the above mapping matching your office 365 tenant details.

You can now map a drive letter to OneDrive for Business. To do this right mouse click on Network and select Map network drive from the menu that appears.

In the Folder field enter the following, substituting your own configuration:

\\tenantname-my.sharepoint.com@ssl\davwwwroot\personal\first_last_domain_com\documents

Then press the Finish button.

You will then see the mapped drive and if you select you’ll see the files within from your OneDrive for Business as shown above.

Now, if you reboot your machine without doing anything further the drive will not automatically be reconnected because re-authentication to Office 365 needs to occur. I’ll cover off how to set that up in a future post but for now have a look at this option using PowerShell:

OneDrive Mapper automatically map your OneDrive for Business upon login

As I have said before, the trend is away from static drive letters to plain storage to full collaboration environments. Yes, drive letters may be convenient for those who don;t want to change but I’d suggest they need to phased out because they are so limiting. But that is a topic for another blog post!

Need to Know Podcast–Episode 100

Holy flying sharks Batman, the Need to Know Podcast has reached 100 regular episodes! Who would have ever thought back in 2010 when I kicked the podcast off, that I’d still be putting it out? Although the episodes haven’t been as regular as I would have liked over the years I thank everyone who has taken the time to listen and especially those people who have been guests. My guests have given both their time and knowledge to listens which I really appreciate.

So now it is onwards and upwards to the next 100 episodes. If you haven’t already, I’d really appreciate you leaving a review on iTunes or just dropping me a line (director@ciaops.com) and letting me know what you think and importantly if there is anything I can do to improve the podcast. Once again, thanks to everyone who has supported the podcast over its first 100 episodes and I’ll work hard to make sure the next 100 are even better.

As a follow on from our last episode on Azure storage, Marc and I now focus on the different storage options in Office 365 and how to take advantage of each. We consider best practices for data migrations as well as what experience has taught us when moving information to Office 365.

You can listen to this episode at:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-100-office-365-storage/

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.

Resources

Marc Kean – @marckean

Robert Crane – @directorcia

Azure via CSP

Where to put data in Office 365

Microsoft Build Conference

Azure VMs Backup

Azure Resource Manager Virtual Networks

Office 365 Connectors

A while back I wrote about how Microsoft was bringing PowerApps to Office 365 to provide improved automation and connectivity with information outside Office 365. Microsoft has now extended those options further into Office 365 with the new Office 365 Connectors which it has announced here:

Announcing Office 365 Connectors

Here’s how to set up a connector for Twitter.

From the app launcher navigate to Outlook.

From the options on the left locate the Groups heading. Under that locate the Create option as shown above to create a new group and select.

You can add a connector to an existing group but in the list case I’m going to create a new dedicated group. This allows people to work with this specific information rather than mixing it in with other stuff. However, if you perhaps already have a marketing group, it makes sense to connect these to your favourite external service.

The Office 365 Group creation option now appears on the right. Give the new group an appropriate name (here ‘Twitter’), set the Privacy and finally whether messages from the Group will be sent to members inboxes. Beware of using this option if you expect a lot of information to flow from the external source.

When complete, select Create to continue.

Next, add the desired members to this group by typing their name.

When complete, select Add to continue.

The new group will now be displayed on the screen.

Across the menu at the top of the group select Connectors.

This will open a new Connectors window as shown above.

Scroll down the list until you locate the connector you wish to add. In this case, the Twitter connector is located. Select the Add button.

You’ll now be prompted to login to the external service. Select Sign In to continue.

Enter the details for the service and select Sign In to continue. This authorisation page may vary slightly depending on which external services you are connecting to.

The next configurations will vary depending on the external service you connect to. For Twitter, you can select Twitter accounts to follow (@office365) as well as hastags to follow (here #office365).

You then set the Notification options as well as the Frequency.

When complete, select Save.

You’ll then be returned to the Connectors page where you should see the connectors you just added at the top of the page.

If you select the My Accounts option at the top of the page you will see all the external connectors you have configured as shown above.

You can now close this window and return to the Office 365 Group.

You should now start to see the configured external information start to flow into the conversations for that group as shown above.

So, Office 365 Connectors are a way of bringing in information from external applications into an Office 365 Group. Once there, they can be shared with members of the group as well as being used a source of information to drive conversations. All of this information will also be available on Office 365 mobile apps.

Microsoft’s blog post also mentions that a similar ability to this will soon be brought directly to users inboxes and then to other Office 365 services.

Now combine these new Office 365 Connectors with Delve and you’ll see how rich an information source Office 365 will be, especially as Delve provides a single pane of glass across everything in Office 365, now including these external sources brought in via Office 365 connectors.

Delve should be the centre of your Office 365 universe

Office 365 Connectors is currently only available for those configured for First Release but will soon be standard across all tenants. More connectors to other external sources will also become available.

So go forth and connect I say!

Improvements in Office 365 Video

I’m a big fan of the productivity benefits that video can provide a business as evidenced by both my YouTube channel and my online training academy. I’m also a huge fan of Office 365 video and am excited by the new updates Microsoft have just announced here:

What’s new – Office 365 video

There are plenty of improvements and a big one for me is the improved upload experience. However, I’ll also point out the improved way with which an Office 365 video can be embedded into a Team Site.

You’ll now see a dedicated Office 365 Video button when you edit a page as shown above.

This will then allow you to select from what has been uploaded to Office 365 video quickly and easily.

Office 365 Video March 1

I also really like the improved statics you can now obtain on each video to help not only determine how popular it is but also how long people actually spend watching the content. That feedback really helps improve the quality of the video.

It really is amazing the depth of tools that Office 365 brings to any business. I think more people need to look at Office 365 Video and the benefits it can provide around on-boarding, training, etc. These improvements from Microsoft are even more reason to start using Office 365 in your business.

Where to put data in Office 365?

Office 365 has lots of choice when it comes to storing corporate information and that confuses many people. The first place to start to avoid confusion is to understand exactly where information can be placed inside Office 365 and whether that information is available to all users or just an individual by default.

Hopefully the above diagram makes things a little bit easier to understand and here’s a breakdown of what it’s all about

The large box that contains everything is Office 365.

The first box in the top left is Exchange Online. This can contain a user’s personal mailbox (which is private), shared mailboxes (which are public) and public folders (which are public). Into the Exchange box you normally store emails shared between the three smaller boxes within.

The second box on the top row in the middle is SharePoint. This contains OneDrive for Business (which is private), Team Sites (which is public) and Video (which is public). Into the SharePoint box you normally store files shared between the three smaller boxes within.

The box in the top right of the first row is Yammer into which goes conversations (or discussions) that are public.

The box on the left in the bottom row is Office 365 Groups which are composed of a public shared mailbox and a public shared OneDrive for Business. Thus, any information that goes into the Office 365 Groups box will be public. Into the Groups box you normally store files and emails that should to be stored together because they relate to a single topic.

The box on the right in the bottom row is Office 365 Planner which is comprised of public Groups and public Tasks. Thus, any information that goes into Planner will be public. Into Planner you normally store files, emails and tasks that need to be stored together (i.e projects) because they relate to a single topic.

As you can see by the colour scheme, green is shared information amongst the business while red is private information unique to an individual user.

Of course you don’t need to use every storage location in Office 365 that is available to you immediately and your usage locations may also change over time. Best practice is to start with information in Exchange, then expand into Office 365 Groups, then Planner, then SharePoint and finally Yammer. The important thing to remember is that Office 365 gives you lots of choice of where to save your information, it is up to you to work out what makes the most sense for your business.

Hopefully, that makes a little easier to understand when it comes to determining where to put different types of information. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or contacting me directly (director@ciaops.com).

Azure AD Connect is NOT supported on SBS

Been getting a few questions about integrating existing SBS servers with Office 365. The bad news is:

Azure AD Connect cannot be installed on Small Business Server or Windows Server Essentials. The server must be using Windows Server standard or better.

per:

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

Azure AD Connect is supported on a Domain Controller (DC) just not on SBS (it won’t actually install in my experience). This means that you’ll need to factor in a separate members server to install Azure AD Connect so you can synchronise the users to Office 365.

Make sure you consult that link for all the other requirements for Azure AD Connect as well!

How to fix the inability to sync Team Sites with Next Gen sync client

The unfortunate thing is not that Microsoft recently update Team Sites to 1TB of storage but it hasn’t as yet brought the ability to sync Team Sites to the Next Gen sync client.

You can find all the details on the Next Gen Sync client here:

Meet the OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client

Getting Started wit the OneDrive for Business Generation Sync Client in Windows

Deploying the OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client in an enterprise environment

This inability to sync Team Sites is causing a lot of frustration in the field and the inability to sync Team Sites has recently been announced in the roadmap map, but for many it can’t come soon enough.

If you want to do something more than simply shake with rage about this and other issues you are experiencing with the sync client I suggest you visit the OneDrive User Voice:

https://onedrive.uservoice.com/

and vote up the items you want given priority. Also don’t be shy about leaving a comment as to the impact this is having for your business.

If you want the new sync client to support Team Sites then throw as much of your votes here:

https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/10026033-new-sync-client-must-support-team-sites

Once you voted, pass the link onto others and get them to vote.

This is the most effective method of effecting change with the Next Gen sync client because just being frustrated doesn’t. You need to take action to effect change.

So if you want to fix the Next Gen Sync client, take action and encourage others to do the same. Vote,comment and then share this post.