All posts by Ben Shields

Exchange Online – Client Services moving

Client Services is currently slated to move to exchange online on Monday afternoon. This is for all of our staff/student accounts internally, not “everyone that Client Services supports”.

Migration Details

The mailbox migration is fairly low-impact for users. The most common issues seen when moving to Exchange Online are as follows:

  • Mobile devices: Mail on mobile devices will typically need to be set up again (remove and re-add the exchange account). Make sure to enter the username as: username@oregonstate.edu. Domain\username will not work.
  • Calendar delegation: Delegates may not be able to manage a migrated person’s calendar until they too are migrated to Exchange Online. It is for this reason that users will be moved together by department, but many delegation grants cross department lines.

For any issues we cannot resolve ourselves, please rope in Ben or Keenan directly.

Documentation

Preliminary documentation for Exchange Online can be found here: https://oregonstate.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/KB/?CategoryID=16030. There is also the main Exchange Online landing page at https://is.oregonstate.edu/exchangeonline (this is a work in progress!)

RefTool will show you whether a user is on Exchange Online or Exchange on-prem. Review the “Contact Info” section to see where the mailbox lives.

Exchange Online example:

Exchange on-prem example:

Upcoming Admin/Student Worker Username Changes

As part of the Exchange Online project, one additional hurdle that has come up is that the ONID Namespace requirements (1 – 8 characters, letters and numbers only) will also need to apply to non-ONID domains. This means that we’re going to need to rename all of our student employee accounts so that they’re distinct from regular ONID accounts, as well as our administrative accounts.

Moving forward, student employee accounts will have a naming standard of se-[onid username]. Our administrative accounts will be changing to wa-[onid username] (workstation admin).

Java no longer on CN builds by default

As of ~4:30pm today, Java is no longer part of the default MDT task sequence for CN builds. If a user does need Java installed, that will have to be done by hand during the build process, done during placement, or addressed over the phone. Existing Java installs will still be automatically updated as appropriate.

The most common instances where Java will be needed are:

  • Appworx
  • Banner Workflow Modeler
  • Banner Relationship Modeler
  • Sunapsis

Please note that Banner 9 does not require Java to be installed, and will be the only Banner option after the 31st of this month.

Updated BITS policy for off campus customers

Starting this evening, we’ll be rolling out a new BITS policy. BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) is the Windows feature that controls background downloads such as Windows or Office Updates.

This updated policy will be replacing a 10+ year old policy, with the key difference being that we’ll be enabling local subnet peer to peer traffic to reduce overall bandwidth requirements for external sites. This evening (11/8) we’ll be rolling out the new policy to AES sites, and assuming no issues result, Extension sites a week from today (11/15). The master ticket for this change (along with more technical specifics) can be found here.

As a reminder, a general overview of all our fleet wide group policies can be found here.

MBAM Policy Update

The Microsoft Bitlocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) policy for machines in the CN domain has been updated to not require a PIN by default. This has no impact on existing MBAM configurations (e.g. it isn’t going to clear out the existing PIN), but it does mean that an existing install with a PIN can be changed to a blank PIN.

As a reminder, a general overview of all our fleetwide group policy objects is available here