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Manage Microsoft Exchange Online when using AAD Connect

Few weeks ago I had to implement Microsoft Exchange Online for a customer who didn’t used Exchange in the past. For a simple user management, I decided to install and configure Azure AD Connect. So the user accounts from local Active Directory will be synchronized to Azure AD.

There are several advantages of this scenario:

  • you have a single point for user management, your local Active Directory
  • if configured, user passwords (or better to say password hash values) are automatically synchronized to Azure AD
  • the user has a Single-Sign-On Experience for Office 365 services
  • Office 365 license assignment based on local AD groups

After setting up Azure AD Connect and enabling all users for Exchange Online, I started to configure some Exchange settings: configure distribution lists, shared mailboxes and second mail addresses. But wait, what’s that? After submitting the change and error message pops-up:

The operation on mailbox "Daniel" failed because it's out of the current user's write scope.
The operation on mailbox “Daniel” failed because it’s out of the current user’s write scope.

What da hack? After some research in the web and reading several blog entries, it was clear: When using AAD Connect and synchronized accounts in Office 365, you have to install an on-premises Exchange Management server for changing some Exchange Online settings. Even you don’t have an on-premises Exchange server installed yet. Very disappointing and frustating. That’s why a customer decides to use cloud service: they wan’t have to install and maintain the system on-premises.

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Microsoft Teams – Busy here

I guess it’s more an issue for European Microsoft Teams users but we European loves our busy signalling 😉

If you enable PSTN calling features in your Microsoft Teams environment, you will very fast recognize that there is no busy on busy for PSTN.

Arrives a second call while you are in a call with Microsoft Teams, there is actually no “Busy here”-signalling for the caller.

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Missing Music on Hold for PSTN Calls on a Polycom VVX Phone

Some days ago I had a request from a customer about missing Music on Hold on Polycom VVX Phones and an Audiocodes SBC. The customer infrastructure:

  • Mixed Lync 2013 and Skype for Business  infrastructure on-premises
  • Audiocodes Mediant 2600 SBC
  • Enterprise SIP Trunk by Deutsche Telekom
  • 5.000 Users are enabled for Enterprise Voice features
  • Some are using Polycom VVX IP Phone (411 and 601)
  • Most users are using the Microsoft Skype for Business Client 2015 or C2R (2016)

The customer reported me, that for PSTN calls by Polycom VVX users the Music on Hold (MoH) was missing. When the same user calls someone in the company, the MoH is played to the other user. So, only PSTN calls are facing this issue. Furthermore, the customer told me that for users with Skype for Business softclient the problem doesn’t exist.

So,  in consequence it seems that we have to do a deeper look onto the Polycom VVX configuration because only these users are facing the problem. And only if the call was routed to or from the PSTN.

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Hello world! – First blog post

Since years I had this wish to write an own blog. Topic of the blog should be Microsoft Lync and surrounding stuff.

There were several reasons why I never started my blog. Even everything is there: enough free web space with a managed WordPress installation and for sure, enough topics to write about.

And last but not least: the clear intetion to do it.

But it takes several years to get the intent comes true.

Now the technology itself is calling Skype for Business. Also there is a new communication and collaboration platform called Microsoft Teams.. So I switched my plan from writing a dedicated UC blog to a more generalized Office 365 blog. Because I’m focused on Unified Communication, also this blog will be focused on the communication art of Office 365.

Even if I say “I’m a UC consultant”, I can’t get around all the other Office 365 topics like Azure AD, Azure AD Connect, Messaging with Exchange Online or collaboration with SharePoint. I will try to blog to all topics regarding Office 365. So, stay tuned.