ExportO365UserInfo.ps1 | You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression

Recently I was performing an Office 365 migration for a client who's on premise Exchange environment was 2007.  Once I had migrated the mail boxes, I needed to convert the users to Mail Enabled Users (MEUs).  This is explained on Microsoft's website here.

There are two scripts you're required to run.  When you're running the first one, which is ExportO365UserInfo.ps1, the MS website states you need to do this from EMS.  This is incorrect.  If you run this script from EMS, you will get the following error message:

You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\migrace\ExportO365UserInfo.ps1:53 char:52
+             $CloudEmailAddress = $CloudEmailAddress.ToString <<<< ().ToLower(
).Replace('smtp:', '')
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (ToString:String) [], RuntimeE
   xception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull

In order to get around this, and to make the scirpt work, simply run this in normal Powershell instead of EMS.  It will work well and it will create the required cloud.csv file.

Once you've done that, you can run the second command within EMS for it to work well. 

Winthrop Australia provides IT Support and Consultancy in the Perth area.

Un-hide users from GAL

Exchange 2007
I am in the middle of running an Office 365 migration and during this migration, it's required that I un-hide the users from the GAL (disabled users) in order for O365 to recognise them and migrate them.

My client wants the disabled user's mailbox migrated and then converted to a Shared Mailbox in order to maintain an archive of the mail.  In order to do this, we need a list of all the mailboxes that are hidden, then we can hide them.  Once we're done we can use that same list to hide them again.

Generate CSV for all mailboxes hidden from the GAL

Get-Mailbox | Where {$_.HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled -eq $True} | Select Identity, HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled | export-csv c:\HiddenFromGAL.csv

Set $Users parameter

$users = import-csv C:\HiddenFromGAL.csv

Un-hide the hidden users

Foreach($_ in $users) {Set-mailbox $_.identity -HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled $false}

This will then allow you to perform the migration (in this case I am doing a Staged migration) without O365 failing to find the user accounts.  Once you're done, simply repeat the last two stages. The final stage, change $False to $True.

Contact Winthrop Australia to find out how we can provide you with IT Support in Perth.

Office 365 Migration | Unable to create endpoint | Unable to connect to remote server

I recently was running through an Office 365 Migration (Staged) where I was trying to create the Migration Endpoint.  As I was going through the configuration I was getting the following error message:

After manually typing in the details, I got the following message:

This one was a tricky one as I was running the test through the 'Test Exchange Connectivity' website, and it was all passing without issues.  So it wasn't an autodiscover issue from what I could see. 

After looking into this one for a few hours and not being able to find what the issue could be, I came across an issue with the Autodiscover and IPv6.  When I was on the on-prem exchange server and I tried to ping the FQDN, it resolved an IPv6 address, even though this was disabled on the NIC.

To get around this, I had to edit the Hosts file on the server itself to resolve the IPv4 address when I pinged the server name, and hte FQDN.  After doing this, when I went through the process to create the new migration point, I was able to get past this point and it discovered the server details automatically. 

Winthrop Australia can help you migrate to Office 365 and other IT Support needs in the Perth area.

WSUS downloads slow | BitsDownloadPriorityForeground

Recently I configured WSUS to download updates (about 150GB worth) and I noticed it was taking a very long time to download.  This little tip will save a lot of time waiting for the download to finish.

Run the following command on the WSUS Server in PowerShell:

(get-wsusserver).GetConfiguration().BitsDownloadPriorityForeground

This will show you whether the setting has been enabled or not.  We want it to say 'True'.

It will most likely say "False" if you're experiencing slow downloads.  Once you've confirmed this, type the following to set this to 'True":

• $Config = (Get-WsusServer).GetConfiguration()
• $Config.BitsDownloadPriorityForeground = $True
• $Config.Save()

Once you've used these three commands, run the first command again to confirm that this has changed over to 'True'.  There's no need to restart the services.  You should see that the downloads will speed up now.

Contact Winthrop Australia to find out how we can help you with your IT Support needs.