Got our Live@edu upgrade scheduled date - What to expect?

[zag]

We have just received the email about our upgrade date to from Live@edu to Office 365.

 

Has anyone been through this yet? What should we expect?

[jamesbmarshall]

What should we expect?

 

Provided you've looked through the wiki, nothing scary: Live@edu Upgrade to Office 365 for education (English) - Upgrade to Office 365 - Office 365 - Microsoft Office 365 Community

 

If you're using ILM & PCNS you'll need to make plans to upgrade to DirSync. If you're using the SSO toolkit you'll need to make sure you're running the 4.5 update, and prepare longer term for ADFS / Shibboleth.

 

After the upgrade has completed you can also tell your users to login at http://mail.office365.com rather than http://outlook.com/yourdomain.com

 

[zag]

Cool thanks, yes I've read all the documents and sent out the email.

 

I was just wondering about in the real world

 

- Our students have 6 character passwords and staff 8. Will both have to change?

 

- What about the problems with cookies mentioned in other threads?

 

- What about users who use skydrive client?

 

- What will desktop outlook users have to do?

[jamesbmarshall]

- Our students have 6 character passwords and staff 8. Will both have to change?

 

If any of your users do not meet the password complexity rules for Office 365 then they'll be guided through the self-service password reset process in order to set themselves a stronger password.

 

- What about the problems with cookies mentioned in other threads?

 

If users have cached their credentials for logging into Live@edu via the browser then they'll have to clear their cookies. Also, make sure they're using the new URL as a matter of best practice!

 

- What about users who use skydrive client?

 

The consumer SkyDrive client will not work with SharePoint Online. Obviously, your existing users will keep their Microsoft Accounts and so will be able to continue using their SkyDrives (and desktop client), but new users will have to use SkyDrive Pro.

 

- What will desktop outlook users have to do?

 

In theory, nothing. Although, they may need to re-enter their credentials.

[zag]

Thanks for the detailed reply James

 

We did the update today with no problems at all really.

 

Anyone still logged in just had to click log in as different user.

 

Entire process took about an hour. Good job Microsoft!

[RabbieBurns]

If you're using ILM & PCNS you'll need to make plans to upgrade to DirSync.

 

Hi @jamesbmarshall, We are being upgraded in just over 30 days and I am completely under prepared and overwhelmed with documentation. I have followed the links to the pages but have have ended up with a lever arch full of information and don't know where to begin.

 

I use ILM and PCNS and I want to continue with autoprovisioning and sycned passwords (although I understand that the passwords are now not 'synced' they are just checked locally)

 

Do I need an ADFS Server and a ADFS Proxy server? Can this be the same box? Do they both need a 3rd party cert?

Can you point me to some precise documentation that is step-by-step please that I can pass on to a tech to just sit and follow through?

 

Many thanks

[jamesbmarshall]

Everything you need to know, and more is here: Live@edu Upgrade to Office 365 for education (English) - Upgrade to Office 365 - Office 365 - Microsoft Office 365 Community

 

ILM & PCNS will stop working, so you'll at least need to move to DirSync. If you want password sync you'll have to move to ADFS as PCNS is not currently supported.

 

Ideally, in the ADFS scenario you'd have an ADFS box internally, and a proxy in your DMZ (and of course, these would be load balanced and configured for HA). You need a 3rd party signed cert to establish the federation with Microsoft, but a self-signed cert will do for setting up your proxy.

 

My advice, to everyone, is to try and keep deployments as simple as possible. There may be an announcement about PCNS-style functionality coming which would remove the need to invest so heavily in ADFS, but there are no dates or confirmations at this time.

 

I would upgrade, deploy DirSync, and see how you go (existing passwords will come across with the upgrade). If PCNS does land, great. If not, you can deploy ADFS at any point.

[zag]

My advice, to everyone, is to try and keep deployments as simple as possible. There may be an announcement about PCNS-style functionality coming which would remove the need to invest so heavily in ADFS, but there are no dates or confirmations at this time.

 

This!

 

I kept off SSO for the reason that Microsoft clearly had some work to do in the area of syncing with active directory. Hopefully they come up with something much easier soon

[RabbieBurns]

So basically I have to tell my staff and students that when they change their passowords every term that these will no longer be their cloud credentials and they need to remember whatever password they currently have? Having been using live@edu for 4 years now this seems like a step backwards?

[EduTech]

So basically I have to tell my staff and students that when they change their passowords every term that these will no longer be their cloud credentials and they need to remember whatever password they currently have? Having been using live@edu for 4 years now this seems like a step backwards?

 

Don't jump to that conclusion too quickly! :-) keep your eyes open and watch this space... something 'might' be coming shortly which will help you with that problem

 

James.

[RabbieBurns]

I would upgrade, deploy DirSync, and see how you go (existing passwords will come across with the upgrade). If PCNS does land, great. If not, you can deploy ADFS at any point.

 

Does DirSync provision new accounts please?