International characters going into Live at Edu migrations

Because we're nutcases about accuracy and dependability we checked international characters going into Live @ Edu migrations and found no problems.

So umlauts, acutes, cedillas, and various other characters should come out fine.

Setting Permissions for a Live @ Edu Migration

OKAY, you are serious about getting out of Oracle Calendar and into the Exchange Cloud. So you need to know how to set up your permissions on your Live @ EDU Admin account so that the migration application has access to all accounts to do what it needs.

 

You only need to do this once and you can remove these (rather generous but necessary) permissions after you have verified the integrity of your data and removed the Keyword.

 

1. Setup live@edu:
   
   1. Your domain must be Org-owned (you'll be setting RBACs….)
      
   2. Create a service account, e.g. deleg8@livetest.YOURDOMAIN.com
      
2. On your PC, connect your local instance of Windows PowerShell to Outlook Live
   
   1. Prerequisites:
      
      1. You'll need Windows PowerShell 2.0.
         
         1. Get it here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968929
            
         2. If you have windows XP x86 must upgrade to SP3+; 
            
         3. If you have windows XP x64 use the windows server 2003 x64 version
            
      2. Launch PowerShell: Start > All Programs > Accessories > Windows PowerShell > Windows PowerShell right-hand click and "Run-As administrator"
         
   2. Set the credentials for your Windows Live ID and Password for your Outlook Live account, then define a session
      
      1. $LiveCred = Get-Credential 
         
      2. $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
         
         1. If it fails to execute, then:
            
            1. Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned 
               
            2. …. Or unrestricted if you are brave
               
      3. Start a session to import the Outlook Live commands into your session.
         
         1. Import-PSSession $Session
            
         2. Setup RBAC impersonation using built-in role "ApplicationImpersonation"
            
3. Define RBAC impersonation in Powershell:
   
   1. New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Name EWSImpersonation -Role ApplicationImpersonation -User deleg8@livetest.YOURDOMAIN.com
      
   2. After you are done, disconnect Windows PowerShell from Outlook Live:
      
      1. Remove-PSSession $Session
         

Oracle Calendar to Exchange Live at Edu - the Video

We got a request for a video showing data migration from Oracle Calendar to Live @ Edu.

We put together an ad hoc committee to create the clearing for the conversation for possibility..... ah heck.... we just put some software up and did it.

Michael Moore has nothing to be afraid of.

You can also view it off our main site at http://www.sumatra.com/ocs-to-exchange.wmv

The melodious voice you hear is Zyg (whose role in Sumatra is the moody "Ben Affleck" character in contrast to Russ's "Matt Damon" persona).

Interested in trying it out? Our contact page is here.

Migrating Oracle Calendar Server into the Microsoft Exchange Cloud

The calendar gnomes have been busy.

We have gotten some requests to take Oracle Calendar Server into this Microsoft "cloud" thing (which last time I looked had a couple of different names).  Of course we started with Live @ Edu because that's where the first money is.

So if we look at Jimi's calendar in Oracle Calendar we see:

and if we look at his calendar in Sumatra's LIVE@ edu test system we see the exact same thing (minus the color which you cannot port anyway).

Some of you will notice the one appointment that's not there, which led us into looking at timing issues in Live @ Edu.  We found that changing our CAS and EWS URLs for the insertion to remove the "PSH" part removed the issue.

If your Outlook.com server is something like
PODnnnnnnPSH.outlook.com

use:
PODnnnnnn.outlook.com

instead on insertion.

... and Jimi's calendar comes out fine everywhere.  So in case you find yourself missing some data, check the URL you're pointing to.  We obviously don't have as much control over timing and performance in this scenario as we do in a native Exchange environment.  So the first few who go live with our tech are going to be taking the earliest risks for timing and the eternal X-Factor.

Oh yeah, this would work for Meeting Maker, Zimbra, Sun Java Calendar, anything else we can migrate.  But let's face it, Oracle Calendar Server is the one everyone is currently looking to drop ASAP.

This all involved minor changes to the SuExchange interface, mainly to specify Credentials to your CAS server.  Your Live admin account is the one to use:

This also means there's no need to "Run as..." with the Service Account.  Your  CAS credentials effectively ARE the Service Account.

There's also good news on conference rooms, which are looking like we can Accept and Decline them under our control but as always we want more field tests to make sure we're not drinking our own Kool-Aid: 

Keep in mind: our distinction is that we re-create meetings with guest lists and responses and re-create recurrence patterns in moving from OCS to Exchange, and that is the same whether going to the cloud or a native Exchange server.

So from the perspective of your end users it's a migration with results that make it act as though you've been using Exchange all along.