Office 365 Network Analysis Tool

With BPOS and the first iteration of Office 365, Microsoft provided the Speed Test web tool to assist in determining if an organization’s internet connection could support Microsoft Online services, mainly focusing on Exchange Online and Lync Online. This tool was available from www.microsoftspeedtest.com.

However, for some reason, this tool has not been available for many months now, leaving organizations and IT professionals without a tool to evaluate the impact of Microsoft Online services on their internet connection.

Fortunately, the Office 365 Network Analysis Tool is now available! Similar to Speed Test, this new tool is also web-based and runs several checks such as port connectivity, route paths between the client and tenant, bandwidth speed and capacity tests, and VoIP readiness. At the end of the test the tool generates a nice report.

 

This tool can be found at:

North America
   http://na.deployoffice365.com (URL not yet available)
   http://na1-fasttrack.cloudapp.net

EMEA
   http://emea.deployoffice365.com (URL not yet available)
   http://em1-fasttrack.cloudapp.net

APAC
   http://apac.deployoffice365.com (URL not yet available)
   http://ap1-fasttrack.cloudapp.net

How to Trigger a Full Password Sync in DirSync

In Windows Azure Active Directory Synchronization Tool (or DirSync), a full Password Sync and a full Directory Sync are two different events. A full Password Sync synchronizes password hashes for all DirSync users, while a full Directory Sync does not trigger a full password sync. By default, the only activity that triggers a full password sync is completing the DirSync’s Configuration Wizard.

But there is a way around this. In order to trigger a full password sync, perform the following steps (you must be using DirSync v6438.0003 or above):

1. On the DirSync server, run the following .psc1: C:\Program Files\Windows Azure Active Directory Sync\DirSyncConfigShell.psc1;
2. In the new Powershell console, run Set-FullPasswordSync;
3. Now load the services console by running Services.msc;
4. Restart the Forefront Identity Manager Synchronization Service Service.

Once this is complete, you should see a series of 656 EventIDs (Password Sync Requests) and 657 EventIDs (Password Sync Results) indicating that a full password sync was triggered.

Exchange 2013 Message Headers

As you might have seen in the Exchange 2013 Mail Flow article, the Transport Pipeline is now made of three main services:

1. Front End Transport service, which runs on all Client Access servers (CAS) and acts as a stateless proxy for all inbound and outbound external SMTP traffic;
2. Transport service which runs on all Mailbox servers and is almost identical to the Hub Transport server role in previous versions of Exchange;
3. Mailbox Transport service which also runs on all Mailbox servers and is made of two separate services, the Mailbox Transport Delivery service and the Mailbox Transport Submission service.

Because of this change in architecture, the message headers in Exchange 2013 have been updated to include information regarding which service(s) dealt with the message, making it easier to troubleshoot any possible issues.

 

For example, if we look at an e-mail received from the Internet, into a CAS server and then delivered to a user’s mailbox, we can see that both the Front End Transport service and the Mailbox Transport service dealt with the message:

 

 

On the other hand, if we look at an internal e-mail, we do not see the Front End Transport service as the e-mail does not go through this service if it is from an internal user to another internal user: