http://community.office365.com/enus/office365/b/microsoft_office_365_blog/archive/2011/03/16/office-365-and-blackberry.aspx

So, if you are currently a hoster, you should probably contact RIM and discuss with them on similar BlackBerry Services. :)

Cheers,

Kip

When we released SP1, we brought in multi-tenant mode but obviously as most of you know, that's primarily geared towards hosters. If you are someone who do not wish to do commercial hosting but you want some form of GAL segmentation, you are out of luck in Exchange Server 2010, at least, until they release SP2.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2011/01/27/457820.aspx

So, what does that mean, it means you have to wait if you want GAL Segmentation in Exchange Server 2010.

It is this time of the year where everything seems to just slow down to almost a complete stop. Yes, it is this time of the year where we will rest and have some fun time with family and friends. As passionate as I am with technologies, I can't help it but to apply the brake and stop, play with my kids, my Xbox 360 with Kinect, my new Windows Phone 7 and just enjoy the holiday. I wish everyone a very happy holiday and I will see you guys in January. I have a few artiles lined for January. Enjoy your holiday, folks.

Cheers

Just in case you missed this. Lync 2010 has gone gold or RTM. Fun time ahead... :)

http://blogs.technet.com/b/uc/archive/2010/10/27/microsoft-lync-released-to-manufacturing.aspx

Official Lync Site.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/default.aspx

Here is hte Press Release...

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2010/oct10/10-19Office365.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

Starting from next week onwards for the next 1-2 months, I will be walk through the migration guide and will be discussing on some of the planning activities and etc. on this topic. I will take one of my test environments, execute the migration steps accordingly. So, hang on tight, folks.

If you are interested to walk through this together with me, the first thing you need to do is to prepare yourself a HMC 4.5 environment in your test lab and provision bunch of users in it. Your HMC 4.5 environment should have a minimum of,

1. MPS Engine
2. MPS Front End
3. MPS SQL Server
4. Exchange 2007 SP2

We will talk about what do you need to configure for the mailbox migration as we go.

Let's walk through this together. :)

Now, for the past 1-2 months, I am seeing many are beginning to plan for their migration from HMC to Exchange Server 2010 SP1. One of the main topics that come up is about Service Plan and Mailbox Plan. I am in the midst of writing a blog post(s) that will walk through each of the elements and where it is being configured when you set that in. I was also thinking of writing a post that talks about how you can manage your service plan, such as having multiple mailbox plans, updating it and how you can workaround some of the limitations. Of course, I just need to find time to do it.

Firstly, let me talk about this error,

Service plan MyHostingAllFeatures is in an inconsistent state. Service plan dependency check failed. Feature "!PerMBXPlanRoleAssignmentPolicyEnabled" is set to "True". It depends on feature "MailboxPlans", which is set to "False".

  + CategoryInfo          : Invalid Argument: (:) [], Argument Exception

  + FullyQualifiedErrorId :79F7EE63

If you are one of those who are testing Service Plans and Mailbox Plans, you probably realize that while the concept is simple and it seems highly sophisticated (as in there are a lot of things you can configured), it doesn't seem that flexible. Well, to some extends, I tend to agree, out of the box, there are some limitations. One of those will result in the error above.

If you see the above error, it means it has detected the following,

1. Your Service Plan has more than one MailboxPlans or no MailboxPlans element in a the Service Plan
2. If there is more than one MailboxPlans, you have configured Permissions elements on both mail box plans.

For example, you have a plan that looks like the following,

...

...

  <MailboxPlans>
    <MailboxPlan Name="PlatinumMailboxPlan" MailboxPlanIndex="0" ProvisionAsDefault="true">

      <!-- Boolean Elements -->
      <ActiveSyncEnabled>true</ActiveSyncEnabled>
     ...
      <!-- Permission Elements-->
      <ActiveSyncDeviceDataAccessPermissions>true</ActiveSyncDeviceDataAccessPermissions>
      <ActiveSyncPermissions>true</ActiveSyncPermissions>
     ...
      <SMSPermissions>true</SMSPermissions>
      <UserMailboxAccessPermissions>true</UserMailboxAccessPermissions>

      <!-- Quotas Elements -->     
     ...
     
    </MailboxPlan>

    <MailboxPlan Name="GoldMailboxPlan" MailboxPlanIndex="1" ProvisionAsDefault="false">

      <!-- Boolean Elements -->
      <ActiveSyncEnabled>true</ActiveSyncEnabled>
     ...
      <!-- Permission Elements-->
      <ActiveSyncDeviceDataAccessPermissions>true</ActiveSyncDeviceDataAccessPermissions>
      <ActiveSyncPermissions>true</ActiveSyncPermissions>
     ...
      <SMSPermissions>true</SMSPermissions>
      <UserMailboxAccessPermissions>true</UserMailboxAccessPermissions>

      <!-- Quotas Elements -->     
     ...
     
    </MailboxPlan>

  </MailboxPlans>

...

...

Note the above has 2 Mailbox Plans, one is Platinum and one is Gold. And please also take note that, both have Permissions elements defined in their mailbox plans. This Service Plan will result in the error above. Yes, out of the box, the Service Plan CANNOT have 2 Mailbox Plans with both having Permissions Elements. It means, you can only have 1 set of Permissions elements for one Organization. In order to get pass the error, your Service Plan needs to be like the following,

...

...

  <MailboxPlans>
    <MailboxPlan Name="PlatinumMailboxPlan" MailboxPlanIndex="0" ProvisionAsDefault="true">

      <!-- Boolean Elements -->
      <ActiveSyncEnabled>true</ActiveSyncEnabled>
     ...
      <!-- Permission Elements-->
      <ActiveSyncDeviceDataAccessPermissions>true</ActiveSyncDeviceDataAccessPermissions>
      <ActiveSyncPermissions>true</ActiveSyncPermissions>
     ...
      <SMSPermissions>true</SMSPermissions>
      <UserMailboxAccessPermissions>true</UserMailboxAccessPermissions>

      <!-- Quotas Elements -->     
     ...
     
    </MailboxPlan>

    <MailboxPlan Name="GoldMailboxPlan" MailboxPlanIndex="1" ProvisionAsDefault="false">

      <!-- Boolean Elements -->
      <ActiveSyncEnabled>true</ActiveSyncEnabled>
     ...


      <!-- Quotas Elements -->     
     ...
     
    </MailboxPlan>

  </MailboxPlans>

...

...

Note in the above, the second mailbox plan has no Permissions elements. In this case, it will be successful. When you create an Organization using the service plan, it automatically creates the role groups, the role management role, the role assignment policy and etc. Many of those permissions elements are defined in those and of course, it is a lot to talk about here. I will attempt to walk through some of them in the next few posts. So hang on there but if you have any question, fire away.

So, we have been mentioning the migration guide for Hosted Exchange in HMC to Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Hosting Deployment for a while. So, here it is, folks.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mhpta/archive/2010/09/15/hosted-exchange-2010-migration-guide.aspx

Cheers,

Kip

By now you probably know that when you create a new tenant organization, there are a few RBAC roles being created and there are also a few role groups created out of the box. You may also see some assignments being created by default.

So, by default, it creates the following,

Role Groups

[PS] C:\> Get-RoleGroup -Organization AlpineSkiHouse | select Name

Name

----

Discovery Management

Help Desk

Organization Management

Recipient Management

Records Management

View-Only Organization Management

If you supply the administrator password by supplying -AdministratorPassword when creating a new organization (Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Beta Hosting Deployment - First Look), it will automatically create an administrator account and it will automatically make this account a role group member of all the role groups above except for Discovery Management.

Now, it is important to note that each tenant Organization can actually have their own management roles, their own management role assignment and role groups. This is possible because in Hosting Deployment, every tenant have their own configuration unit in Active Directory. Also, because they are in their own segregated organization, the scope stays in that too.

Roles

Here are all the canned management roles created when you create a new organization,

[PS] C:\> Get-ManagementRole -Organization AlpineSkiHouse

Name                                                        RoleType

----                                                        --------

ApplicationImpersonation                                    ApplicationImpersonation

Audit Logs                                                  AuditLogs

Distribution Groups                                         DistributionGroups

Journaling                                                  Journaling

Legal Hold                                                  LegalHold

Mail Recipient Creation                                     MailRecipientCreation

Mail Recipients                                             MailRecipients

Mail Tips                                                   MailTips

Mailbox Import Export                                       MailboxImportExport

Mailbox Search                                              MailboxSearch

Message Tracking                                            MessageTracking

Move Mailboxes                                              MoveMailboxes

MyBaseOptions                                               MyBaseOptions

MyContactInformation                                        MyContactInformation

MyAddressInformation                                        MyContactInformation

MyMobileInformation                                         MyContactInformation

MyPersonalInformation                                       MyContactInformation

MyDistributionGroupMembership                               MyDistributionGroupMembership

MyDistributionGroups                                        MyDistributionGroups

MyProfileInformation                                        MyProfileInformation

MyDisplayName                                               MyProfileInformation

MyName                                                      MyProfileInformation

MyRetentionPolicies                                         MyRetentionPolicies

MyTextMessaging                                             MyTextMessaging

MyVoiceMail                                                 MyVoiceMail

Organization Client Access                                  OrganizationClientAccess

Organization Configuration                                  OrganizationConfiguration

Organization Transport Settings                             OrganizationTransportSettings

Recipient Policies                                          RecipientPolicies

Remote and Accepted Domains                                 RemoteAndAcceptedDomains

Reset Password                                              ResetPassword

Retention Management                                        RetentionManagement

Role Management                                             RoleManagement

Security Group Creation and Membership                      SecurityGroupCreationAndMembership

Transport Rules                                             TransportRules

User Options                                                UserOptions

View-Only Audit Logs                                        ViewOnlyAuditLogs

View-Only Configuration                                     ViewOnlyConfiguration

View-Only Recipients                                        ViewOnlyRecipients

Management Roles Assignment

There are a list of assignments, depending on how you configure your Service Plans. If you look at your service plan, you will find that in the Organization section, you define what kind of roles will the tenant administrator have. It will then assign the Organization Management role group to those roles. As for those permissions set in the mailbox plan, it will depend on the Role Assignment Policy as it will be applicable according to mailbox plan.

To take a look at the assignment, just execute [PS] C:\> Get-ManagementRoleAssignment -Organization AlpineSkiHouse

Cheers.

Read More on this RBAC Series.

Read all other Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Hosting Deployment blog posts.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/evalcenter/ff808407.aspx 

Cheers.