PowerShell – Expiscornovus

List current subscriptions Flow

Earlier I created a Flow to start a subscription for SharePoint on the Office 365 Management Activity API. Today I will share my Flow which lists all the current subscriptions.
Continue reading List current subscriptions Flow

Configure DLP for Microsoft Teams

Data Loss Prevention is not a new feature in Office 365. But recently Microsoft announced that they are extending Data Loss Prevention to Microsoft Teams. Let’s give that a try!
Continue reading Configure DLP for Microsoft Teams

Install Custom Learning for O365

This is a short blog about the installation of Custom Learning for Office 365 formerly known as Microsoft Training Services.
Continue reading Install Custom Learning for O365

The new code snippet feature in Teams

UserVoice is one of the places where you can provide Microsoft feedback on their products. Sometimes they put ideas from UserVoice on the backlog and roll it out as a new feature. Recently they did the same thing with the code snippets idea in Microsoft Teams. In this article I will take a quick look at this new feature. Continue reading The new code snippet feature in Teams

How to measure the sentiment of a Twitter #hashtag with Microsoft Flow

A month ago we had a Hackathon at our company. This is always a good time to try some new Tech stuff. In this weekend I managed to create a simple proof of concept for measuring sentiment on Twitter with some basic configuration in Office 365 and Azure. In the following article I will explain how to create this simple solution with SharePoint online, Flow and the Text Analytics Azure Cognitive Service. Continue reading How to measure the sentiment of a Twitter #hashtag with Microsoft Flow

SharePoint 2013: How to verify ULS log and Usage log file access

Title

How to verify ULS log and Usage log file access in SharePoint 2013 via PowerShell

Business Goal

Recently I had an incident involving Usage reports that weren’t working properly in a SharePoint 2013 farm. I found a nice troubleshooting article which really helped: Snowburnt…IT happens – How to troubleshoot SharePoint Usage Reports Usage Reports.

One of the checks was what the group permissions of the WSS_WPG and WSS_ADMIN_WPG were on the ULS and Usage log file directory on the different servers in the SharePoint 2013 farm. Since I didn’t wanted to uses explorer I decided to create a script to analyse this.

Technical Overview

The solution is a PowerShell script that uses some different cmdlets (Get-SPServer & Get-SPUsageService) from the SharePoint module and the Get-Acl cmdlet. From the Usage Service you can easily get the usage and log file directory path. Via an UNC path you can check the group permissions via the Get-Acl cmdlet. I use the Get-SPServer to determine on which servers to check these permissions.

Prerequisites

To complete this how-to, you must have the following prerequisites must be met:
– A domain account that can log on to one of the SharePoint 2013 servers
– A domain account that has privileges to manage SharePoint 2013 via PowerShell (SPShellAdmin role)

Steps

1. Run the Powershell script .\verify_logfileaccess.ps1

$usageservice = Get-SPUsageservice
$servers = Get-SpServer | ? {$_.Role -ne "Invalid"}
$usagelogdirunc = $usageservice.UsageLogDir -replace ':','$'
foreach 
($server in $servers)
{
$testuncpath = '\\' + $server.Address + '\' + $usagelogdirunc
$testuncpath
get-acl -Path $testuncpath | select -expand access | ? {$_.IdentityReference -like "*WSS_WPG" -or $.IdentityReference -like "*WSS_Admin_WPG"}
# get-acl -Path $testuncpath | select -expand access | ? {$_.IdentityReference -like "*Administrators"} 
}

$usageservice = Get-SPUsageservice

$servers = Get-SpServer | ? {$_.Role -ne "Invalid"}

$usagelogdirunc = $usageservice.UsageLogDir -replace ':','$'

foreach

($server in $servers)

{

$testuncpath = '\\' + $server.Address + '\' + $usagelogdirunc

$testuncpath

get-acl -Path $testuncpath | select -expand access | ? {$_.IdentityReference -like "*WSS_WPG" -or $.IdentityReference -like "*WSS_Admin_WPG"}

# get-acl -Path $testuncpath | select -expand access | ? {$_.IdentityReference -like "*Administrators"}

}

Additional resources

Gallery Technet – Verify ULS and Log file access
Snowburnt…IT happens – How to troubleshoot SharePoint Usage Reports Usage Reports
Technet Library – Account permissions and security settings in SharePoint 2013
Technet Library – Get-Acl
Technet Library – Get-SPServer
Technet Library – Get-SPUsageService

Applies to

SharePoint 2013

Change History

22-09-2016 – 1.0

Anywhere365: How to update Unified Contact Center Core

Title

How to update Unified Contact Center Core to version 3.0.15073.0

(Business) Goal

Anywhere365 is a product on top of Lync Server 2013 which I recently started working on. If you want to know more about this product I can recommend the GoLive documents on the site of Workstreampeople:

Anywhere365 is a native Lync Unified Contact Center addition that will significantly enhance the standard Lync functionalities available to your organization.

Everyone is a contact center with specific skill sets. Anywhere365 is the premium solution for streamlining communication and dialogues to ensure a more productive and efficient way of information sharing.

Source: Workstreampeople.com

Recently I was asked to update a Unified Contact Center Core installation to a new version, in this case 3.0.15073.0.

Technical Overview

Workstreampeople has a article on how to update Unified Contact Center Core as part of the GoLive documents, Workstreampeople – Update Anywhere365 Core. This is a good article which describes some manual steps and one PowerShell step. I decided to convert all the manual steps to automated steps.

The process of updating contains the following steps:
1. Stop UCC Service
2. Back-up UCC files, Dashboard & Attendant
3. Extract Zip update package
4. Unblock extracted files, if necessary
5. Run Update UCC script
6. Delete UCC cache files
7. Start UCC Service
8. Validate UCC version

This script uses some basic Windows PowerShell cmdlets like Get-ChildItem, Copy-Item, Remove-Item, Get-Service, Stop-Service, Start-Service and Unblock-File. Besides that I used the ExtractToDirectory Method from the System.IO.Compression namespace for extracting the zip.

Currently the script is far from perfect, so I am only sharing this for inspiration and I would definitely first test it on a testing environment!

Prerequisites

To complete this how-to, you must have the following prerequisites must be met:
– Member of Local Administrators group on the Anywhere365 Application server
– Member of Local Administrators group on every server with Lync Server file shares
– Member of the CSAdministrator group in the domain
– Member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group in the domain

Steps

1. Adjust the hard coded path values matching your environment
2. Run the Powershell script in Windows PowerShell via the following command .\update_ucccore.ps1
3. In the .\UpdateUCC.ps1 you are asked to stop IIS for an update, answer this with Y

#1. Stop UCC Service
$uccservice = get-service -Name UnifiedContactCenterService
$uccservice | Stop-service

#2. Back-up UCC files, Dashboard & Attendant
Copy-Item "C:\Program Files\UCC" -Destination "C:\Install\UCC\Backup_UCC_Files" -Recurse
Copy-Item "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Attendant" -Destination "C:\Install\UCC\Backup_Attendant" -Recurse
Copy-Item "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Dashboard" -Destination "C:\Install\UCC\Backup_Dashboard" -Recurse

#3. Extract Zip update package
$zipfile = Get-Item ("C:\Install\UCC 3.0.15073.0.zip")
$destination = Get-Item("C:\Install\Extracted")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.IO.Compression.FileSystem')
[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory($zipfile, $destination)

#4. Unblock extracted files, if necessary
dir "C:\Install\Extracted\UCC 3.0.15073.0" | Unblock-File

#5. Run Update UCC script
cd "C:\Install\Extracted\UCC 3.0.15073.0"
.\UpdateUCC.ps1

#6. Delete UCC cache files
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Program Files\UCC\ucc_*\Settings" –Recurse | Remove-Item

#7. Start UCC Service
$uccservice | Start-service

#1. Stop UCC Service

$uccservice = get-service -Name UnifiedContactCenterService

$uccservice | Stop-service

#2. Back-up UCC files, Dashboard & Attendant

Copy-Item "C:\Program Files\UCC" -Destination "C:\Install\UCC\Backup_UCC_Files" -Recurse

Copy-Item "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Attendant" -Destination "C:\Install\UCC\Backup_Attendant" -Recurse

Copy-Item "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Dashboard" -Destination "C:\Install\UCC\Backup_Dashboard" -Recurse

#3. Extract Zip update package

$zipfile = Get-Item ("C:\Install\UCC 3.0.15073.0.zip")

$destination = Get-Item("C:\Install\Extracted")

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.IO.Compression.FileSystem')

[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory($zipfile, $destination)

#4. Unblock extracted files, if necessary

dir "C:\Install\Extracted\UCC 3.0.15073.0" | Unblock-File

#5. Run Update UCC script

cd "C:\Install\Extracted\UCC 3.0.15073.0"

.\UpdateUCC.ps1

#6. Delete UCC cache files

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Program Files\UCC\ucc_*\Settings" –Recurse | Remove-Item

#7. Start UCC Service

$uccservice | Start-service

Additional resources

Bish – Unzipping files in Powershell scripts
MSDN Library – ExtractToDirectory Method
TechNet – Copy-Item cmdlet
TechNet – Get-ChildItem cmdlet
TechNet – Get-Service cmdlet
TechNet – Remove-Item cmdlet
TechNet – Start-Service cmdlet
TechNet – Stop-Service cmdlet
TechNet – Unblock-File cmdlet
Workstreampeople – Anywhere365 Core
Workstreampeople – GoLive documentation
Workstreampeople – Update Anywhere365 Core

Applies to

Anywhere365, Lync Server 2013, SharePoint 2013

Change History

06-03-2015 – 1.0

SharePoint 2013: How to get the available page layouts of a web

Title

Get the available page layouts of a web in SharePoint 2013 via PowerShell

Business Goal

In my work as a consultant I sometimes need to analyse how a current SharePoint 2013 farm looks like. Of course you have great tools to help you with this like SPDOCKit. But sometimes I need more details of a farm. In this case I needed information on what kind of page layouts where used on a web.

Technical Overview

The solution is a PowerShell script that uses GetAvailablePageLayouts method to get the available page layouts of a web in a SharePoint 2013 farm. It also uses a definition of a parameter to get a value of a web. A nice description of this technique can be found in an article of Don Jones in Technet Magazine – Windows PowerShell: Defining Parameters.

Prerequisites

Steps

1. Run the Powershell script .\get_pagelayouts.ps1 with your desired weburl, for instance .\get_pagelayouts.ps1 http://weburl

Param(
  [string]$weburl
)
$spweb = Get-SPWeb -Identity $weburl
$pubweb = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PublishingWeb]::GetPublishingWeb($spweb)
$pagelayouts = $pubweb.GetAvailablePageLayouts() | Select Title,Name
$pagelayouts
$spweb.Dispose()

Param(

[string]$weburl

)

$spweb = Get-SPWeb -Identity $weburl

$pubweb = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PublishingWeb]::GetPublishingWeb($spweb)

$pagelayouts = $pubweb.GetAvailablePageLayouts() | Select Title,Name

$pagelayouts

$spweb.Dispose()

Additional resources

Gallery Technet – Get the available page layouts of a web
SPDOCKit
Technet – PublishingWeb.GetAvailablePageLayouts method
Technet Magazine – Don Jones – Windows PowerShell: Defining Parameters

Applies to

SharePoint 2013, SharePoint 2010

Change History

23-01-2015 – 1.0

Windows Server 2012: How to change password when connected via Remote Desktop

Title

Change password when connected via Remote Desktop

Business Goal

Like a lot of people on the internet I was missing the change password option. Normally that is no problem because there are some shortcut keys for this (CTRL + ALT + END). But those were actually not working when I was connected to a customer environment via a Remote Desktop Session.

Change Password Option

Technical Overview

The basic idea was from this thread on Technet. But in stead of using VBS I just wanted to use PowerShell for this. The solution is a simple PowerShell script that uses New-Object cmdlet of PowerShell. By creating a new Shell object you can run the WindowsSecurity method.

Prerequisites

To complete this how-to, you must have the following prerequisites must be met:
– A domain account that can log on to the Windows Server 2012
– A domain account that has access to Windows PowerShell

Steps

1. Run the Powershell script in Windows PowerShell via the following command .\get_windowssecurity.ps1

$shellapp = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application
$shellapp.WindowsSecurity()

1 2	$shellapp = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application $shellapp.WindowsSecurity()

Additional resources

Dev Center – Shell object
Dev Center – Shell.WindowsSecurity method
New-Object
Technet Forums – How do I change password when connected to Remote Desktop?

Applies to

Windows Server 2012

Change History

23-09-2014 – 1.0

SharePoint 2010: How to Create new Service Application Pools via PowerShell

Title

Create New Service Application Pools in SharePoint 2010 via PowerShell

Business Goal

You can associate Application Pools of IIS with Service Applications and Web Applications within SharePoint 2010 interface (via Application Management > Manage Service Applications > Configure Managed Accounts).

Creating a Service Application Pool can have different advantages:
– You can create the Application Pools following your own naming conventions (in SharePoint)
– You can create the Application Pools in bulk before you create the Service Applications
– You can asociate existing managed accounts

Technical Overview

The solution is a PowerShell script that uses new-SPServiceApplicationPool cmdlet of SharePoint 2010 Management Shell. It uses the Import-CSV cmdlet to import a csv file in bulk. It also has an dependency with my previous Managed Accounts Powershell script.

Note: You don’t see the Application Pool in IIS after you asociate it with a new Service Application. And you still get an ID as name in IIS.

Prerequisites

To complete this how-to, you must have the following prerequisites must be met:
– A domain account that can log on to one of the SharePoint 2010 servers
– A domain account that has privileges to manage SharePoint 2010 via PowerShell (SPShellAdmin role)

Steps

1. Create a csv file with two columns, Name and ProcessAccountName
2. Run the Powershell script in SharePoint 2010 Management Shell via the following command .\new_serviceapplicationpools.ps1

Import-CSV .\serviceapplicationpools.csv | ForEach-Object {
	$serviceapplicationpool = $_.Name
	$processaccountname = $_.ProcessAccountName
	New-SPServiceApplicationPool -Name $serviceapplicationpool -Account $processaccountname
}

Import-CSV .\serviceapplicationpools.csv | ForEach-Object {

$serviceapplicationpool = $_.Name

$processaccountname = $_.ProcessAccountName

New-SPServiceApplicationPool -Name $serviceapplicationpool -Account $processaccountname

}

Additional resources

Gallery Technet – New Service Application Pools
IIS – Application Pools Technet – Get-SPShellAdmin
Technet – New-SPServiceApplicationPool
Technet – Import-CSV

Applies to

SharePoint 2010

Change History

23-06-2014 – 1.0