Category: Setup

Office 365 feature comparison chart all plans

Office 365 feature comparison chart all plans
(All in one Place)

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This is an updated version of a popular blogpost that I posted in January 2013. It turned out to be one of the most visited posts and it still is (This one). This time I have updated the feature comparison list to show what is included in the different Office 365 plans and subscription levels that are available. It is not easy to find the information when you are looking to buy just the right plan for your organization.
My primary goal with this post is to again make it just a little bit easier to find what feature is included in what plan, what functionality is avaiable in which plan and most importantly, where is SharePoint Online included? 😉

The complete Office 365 subscription plan comparison list

(Remember that the content in every license plan can be subject to change at any time)

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Menu
Office 365 Services	SharePoint Online, Exchange…
Office Applications	Word, Excel…
Enterprise Value	Funtionality for the Enterprise
SharePoint Online Developer features	Developer features that are supported
IT Professional features	Advanced features,
Content features	Document management, content in general
Insights features (BI)	Business Intelligence features
Search features	To-Be-Added
Sites features	To-Be-Added
Social features	To-Be-Added
Credit and reference links

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Office 365 Services

Office 365 Service	Office Professional Plus 2013	Office 365 ProPlus	Office 365 Business Essentials	Office 365 Business Premium	Office 365 Enterprise E1 Office 365 Education E1 Office 365 Government E1	Office 365 Enterprise E3 Office 365 Education E3 Office 365 Government E3	Office 365 Enterprise E4 Office 365 Education E4 Office 365 Government E4	Office 365 Enterprise K1 Office 365 Government K1
Office 365 Platform	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Exchange Online	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SharePoint Online	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
OneDrive for Business	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Skype for Business Online	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Office Online	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Office 365 ProPlus	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Office 365 Business	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Project Online	No	No	No 1	No 1	No 1	No 1	No 1	No 1
Yammer Enterprise	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes 2	Yes 2	Yes 2	Yes 2
Azure Rights Management (RMS)4	No	No	No 3	No 3	No 3	Yes	Yes	No 3
Office Delve	No	No	Yes 5	Yes 5	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Office 365 Groups	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Office 365 Video	No	No	No	No	Yes 6	Yes 6	Yes 6	No

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Note:
1   Project Online is not included, but can be purchased as a separate add-on service.
2   Yammer Enterprise is not a component of Office 365 Government, but may be acquired at no cost as a standalone offer for each user licensed for Office 365 Government Plan E1, E3 and E4. This offer is currently limited to customers which purchase Office 365 Government under Enterprise Agreement and Enterprise Subscription Agreements.
3   Azure RMS is not included, but can be purchased as a separate add-on service.
4    To learn more about which RMS features are included with Office 365 plans, see Comparison of Rights Management Services (RMS) Offerings
5    Office Delve will become available for the Office 365 Business Essentials and Office 365 Business Premium plans in early 2015.
6    Office 365 Video is not available with the following plans: Office 365 Government E1, Office 365 Government E3, Office 365 Government E4

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Changing or mixing plans
As the needs of your organization change, you may need to change your Office 365 plan. You can switch from your current Office 365 subscription to another Office 365 subscription:
– In the same service family: For example, you can move from Office 365 Business Essentials to Office 365 Business Premium, or from Office 365 Enterprise E1 to Office 365 Enterprise E3.
– From a standalone plan: For example, you can move from Exchange Online Plan 1 to Office 365 Enterprise E1.
– To a different service family: For example, you can move from Office 365 Business Essentials to Office 365 Enterprise E3.
For information about how to change subscriptions, including how to move from a trial to a paid subscription, see Switch to a different Office 365 plan or subscription.

You can combine Enterprise, Business and standalone plans (e.g. Exchange Online Plan 1) within a single Office 365 account. However, existing limitations on the number of seats per plan do not change. For example, you can have up to 300 seats per plan on both Office 365 Business Essentials and Office 365 Business Premium, but an unlimited number of users on Exchange Online Plan 1. Education and Government plans cannot be combined with Enterprise, Business or standalone plans.

Office 365
Office Applications

Office Application	Office Professional Plus 2013	Office 365 ProPlus	Office 365 Business	Office 365 Business Essentials	Office 365 Business Premium	Office 365 Enterprise E1 Office 365 Education E1 Office 365 Government E1	Office 365 Enterprise E3 Office 365 Education E3 Office 365 Government E3	Office 365 Enterprise E4 Office 365 Education E4 Office 365 Government E4	Office 365 Enterprise K1Office 365 Government K1
Microsoft Word	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Microsoft Excel	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Microsoft PowerPoint	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Microsoft OneNote	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Microsoft Outlook	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Microsoft Publisher	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Microsoft Access	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Skype for Business	Yes	Yes	Yes 1	Yes 1	Yes 1	Yes 1	Yes	Yes	Yes 1
Microsoft InfoPath	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Windows 8 Apps	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Office for Mac for Office 365	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Office Mobile for iPad/iPhone	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Office Mobile for Android	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Office Mobile for Windows Phone	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No

Note:
1 Lync 2013 Basic is available for all customers. The Lync Basic desktop client is a locally installed application that provides presence, instant messaging and conferencing features for Office 365 plans that include Skype for Business Online. Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Enterprise E3 and Office 365 Enterprise E4 include the full Lync application, which include additional features including advanced telephony support, archiving & compliance features. A Skype for Business Online license must be assigned for each user. For more information on Lync Basic features, see Clients for Skype for Business Online.

Office 365
Enterprise Value

Enterprise Value	Office Professional Plus 2013	Office 365 ProPlus	Office 365 Business	Office 365 Business Essentials	Office 365 Business Premium	Office 365 Enterprise E1 Office 365 Education E1 Office 365 Government E1	Office 365 Enterprise E3 Office 365 Education E3 Office 365 Government E3	Office 365 Enterprise E4 Office 365 Education E4 Office 365 Government E4	Office 365 Enterprise K1Office 365 Government K1
5 installs per user on PC or Mac	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Automated user account provisioning	N/A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multilingual user interface	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Client push deployment	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Client support for on-premises Exchange	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Client support for on-premises SharePoint	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Control of software updates	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Database Compare	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Desktop virtualization	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Excel Spreadsheet Compare	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Excel Spreadsheet Inquire	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Exchange Online and SharePoint Online Archiving and Compliance	Yes 1	Yes 1	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Group Policy support	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Information Rights Management using Azure RMS	No 2	No 2	No 2	No 2	No 2	No 2	Yes	Yes	No 2
Information Rights Management using Windows Server AD RMS	Yes 3	Yes 3	Yes 3	Yes 3	Yes 3	Yes 3	Yes 3	Yes 3	Yes 3
Office Add-in, ActiveX, and BHO support	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
OneNote client access to notebooks on SharePoint Server, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Office 365	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Office Telemetry	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Offline support for client applications	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Optimized side-by-side client installation	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Power Map for Excel	No 4	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Power Pivot for Excel	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Power Query for Excel	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Power View for Excel	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Roaming settings	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shared computer activation	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Support for blocking cloud-based file storage	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Version upgrades	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Volume activation (KMS/MAK)	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Note:
1   Archiving and compliance features are supported with this version of Office, but the Exchange Online and SharePoint Online plans are not included and must be purchased separately or used with supported on-premises server equivalents.
2    Azure Rights Management (RMS) isn’t included but can be purchased as a separate add-on in order to enable the supported IRM features.
3   Windows Server AD RMS is an on-premises server that must be purchased and managed separately in order to enable the supported IRM features.
4   If you have Office Professional Plus 2013 or a standalone version of Excel 2013, you can download and use the Power Map Preview for Excel 2013 as an unsupported add-in.

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SharePoint Online
Developer features

SharePoint Online Developer feature	Office 365 Business Essentials	Office 365 Business Premium	Office 365 Enterprise E1 Office 365 Education E1 Office 365 Government E1	Office 365 Enterprise E3 Office 365 Education E3 Office 365 Government E3	Office 365 Enterprise E4 Office 365 Education E4 Office 365 Government E4	Office 365 Enterprise K1 Office 365 Government K1
Access Services	Yes	Yes	Yes 2	Yes 2	Yes 2	Yes 2
App Catalog (SharePoint)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
App Deployment: Cloud-Hosted Apps	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
App Deployment: SharePoint-Hosted Apps	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
App Management Services	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BCS: Alerts for External Lists	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
BCS: App Scoped External Content Types (ECTs)	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
BCS: Business Data Webparts	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
BCS: External List	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
BCS: OData connector	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
BCS: Profile Pages	No	No	No	No	No	No
BCS: Rich Client Integration	No	No	No	No	No	No
BCS: Secure Store Service	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
BCS: Tenant-level external data log	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Browser-based customizations	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Client Object Model (OM)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Client-side rendering (CSR)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom Site Definitions	No	No	No	No	No	No
Custom Site Provisioning	No	No	No	No	No	No
Developer Site	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Forms Based Applications	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Full-Trust Solutions	No	No	No	No	No	No
InfoPath Forms Services	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
JavaScript Object Model	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
List and Library APIs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Remote Event Receiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
REST API	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sandboxed Solutions	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SharePoint Design Manager	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SharePoint Designer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SharePoint Store	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Workflow 2010 (.NET 3.5)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Workflow 2010 (out of the box)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Workflow 2013	Yes	Yes	Yes 1	Yes 1	Yes 1	Yes
Workload API: ECM APIs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Workload API: Search APIs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Workload API: Social APIs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Note:1 Workflow 2013 is not yet available in Office 365 Government E1, Office 365 Government E3, or Office 365 Government E4 plans.
2 Access Services is currently not available for the following plans: Office 365 Government E1, Office 365 Government E3, Office 365 Government E4, Office 365 Government K1

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SharePoint Online
IT Professional features

SharePoint Online IT Professional features	Office 365 Business Essentials	Office 365 Business Premium	Office 365 Enterprise E1 Office 365 Education E1 Office 365 Government E1	Office 365 Enterprise E3 Office 365 Education E3 Office 365 Government E3	Office 365 Enterprise E4 Office 365 Education E4 Office 365 Government E4	Office 365 Enterprise K1 Office 365 Government K1
Active Directory Synchronization	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alternate Access Mapping (AAM)	No	No	No	No	No	No
Analytics Platform	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Anti-malware protection	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Claims-Based Authentication Support	No	No	No	No	No	No
Configuration Wizards	No	No	No	No	No	No
Deferred Site Collection upgrade	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Distributed Cache	No	No	No	No	No	No
Data loss prevention	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Encryption at rest	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Host Header Site Collections	No	No	No	No	No	No
Improved Permissions Management	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Improved Self-Service Site Creation	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Managed Accounts	No	No	No	No	No	No
Minimal Download Strategy (MDS)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
OAuth	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Patch Management	No	No	No	No	No	No
Quota Templates	No	No	No	No	No	No
Read-Only Database Support	No	No	No	No	No	No
Remote BLOB Storage	No	No	No	No	No	No
Request Management	No	No	No	No	No	No
Request throttling	No	No	No	No	No	No
Resource throttling	No	No	No	No	No	No
Service Application Platform	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SharePoint Health Analyzer	No	No	No	No	No	No
SharePoint admin center	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No 1
Shredded Storage	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Site Collection Compliance Policies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Site Collection Health Checks	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
State Service	No	No	No	No	No	No
Streamlined Central Administration	No	No	No	No	No	No
System Status Notifications	No	No	No	No	No	No
Unattached Content Database Recovery	No	No	No	No	No	No
Upgrade evaluation site collections	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Usage Reporting and Logging	No	No	No	No	No	No
Windows PowerShell Support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Note:1 Because Kiosk users can’t be administrators, tenants with Kiosk users need at least one Enterprise user to access the admin center.

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SharePoint Online Content Features

SharePoint Online Content features	Office 365 Business Essentials	Office 365 Business Premium	Office 365 Enterprise E1 Office 365 Education E1 Office 365 Government E1	Office 365 Enterprise E3 Office 365 Education E3 Office 365 Government E3	Office 365 Enterprise E4 Office 365 Education E4 Office 365 Government E4	Office 365 Enterprise K1 Office 365 Government K1
Accessibility Standards Support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Asset Library Enhancements/Video Support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Auditing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Auditing & Reporting (e.g. doc edits, policy edits, deletes)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Content Organizer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Design Manager	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Document Sets	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Document Translation in Word Online	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
eDiscovery Search	Yes 5	Yes 5	Yes 5	Yes 5	Yes 5	Yes 5
eDiscovery Hold	No 5	No 5	No 5	Yes 5	Yes 5	No 5
eDiscovery Export	No 5	No 5	No 5	Yes 5	Yes 5	No 5
Email enabled lists and libraries	No	No	No	No	No	No
External Sharing: External Access	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
External Sharing: Guest Link	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Folder Sync	Yes1	Yes1	Yes1	Yes	Yes	Yes2
IRM using Azure Rights Management	No3	No3	No3	Yes	Yes	No 3 4
IRM using Windows Server AD RMS	No	No	No	No	No	No
Managed Metadata Service	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Metadata-driven Navigation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multi-stage Disposition	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Office Online (create/edit)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Office Online (view)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Office Web Apps Server integration	No	No	No	No	No	No
PowerPoint Automation Services	No	No	No	No	No	No
Preservation hold library	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Quick Edit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Records management	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Recycle Bin (SharePoint admin center)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Recycle Bin (site collection)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Related Items	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rich Media Management	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shared Content Types	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SharePoint Translation Services	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Site mailbox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Surveys	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Unique Document IDs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Video Search	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
WCM: Analytics	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WCM: Catalog	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
WCM: Category page and catalog item page	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
WCM: Search web parts	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
WCM: Cross-Site Publishing	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
WCM: Designer Tools	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WCM: Faceted navigation	No	No	No	Yes 6	Yes 6	No
WCM: Image Renditions	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WCM: Managed navigation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WCM: Mobile and Device Rendering	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WCM: Multiple Domains	No	No	No	No	No	No
WCM: Recommendations	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WCM: Search Engine Optimizations (SEO)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Word Automation Services	No	No	No	No	No	No

Note:

1   To use folder sync, you must have Office 2013 (Standard or Professional edition) or an Office 365 subscription that includes Office applications. Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Education E1, and Office 365 Government E1 plans don’t include subscriptions to Office 2013. However, you can use folder sync if you have Office 2013 installed and subscribe to one of these plans.
2   Kiosk accounts have limited OneDrive for Business functionality. Kiosk customers can use the OneDrive for Business folder sync client application to sync team site document libraries with a shared computer and access documents offline. But kiosk accounts do not include a OneDrive for Business Personal Site, so they do not benefit from a OneDrive for Business personal library with 1 TB of online storage.
3    Azure Rights Management (RMS) is not included, but can be purchased as a separate add-in order to enable supported IRM features.
4   Because Kiosk users can’t be administrators, tenants with Kiosk users need at least one Enterprise user to access the admin center.
5   When you use eDiscovery features, the licensing requirement for a plan that permits that feature applies to all end users that are part of the eDiscovery action (Search, Hold, Export).
6   Authenticated SharePoint Online users can access private site collections with faceted navigation.

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SharePoint Online Insights Features

SharePoint Online Insights features	Office 365 Business Essentials	Office 365 Business Premium	Office 365 Enterprise E1 Office 365 Education E1 Office 365 Government E1	Office 365 Enterprise E3 Office 365 Education E3 Office 365 Government E3	Office 365 Enterprise E4 Office 365 Education E4 Office 365 Government E4	Office 365 Enterprise K1 Office 365 Government K1
Business Intelligence Center	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Calculated Measures and Members	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Data Connection Library	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Decoupled PivotTables and PivotCharts	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Excel Services	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Field list and Field Support	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Filter Enhancements	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Filter Search	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
PerformancePoint Services	No	No	No	No	No	No
PerformancePoint Services (PPS) Dashboard Migration	No	No	No	No	No	No
Power View for Excel in SharePoint	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Power Pivot for Excel in SharePoint	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Quick Explore	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Scorecards & Dashboards	Yes 1	Yes 1	Yes 1	Yes 1	Yes 1	Yes 1
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) Integrated Mode	No	No	No	No	No	No
Timeline Slicer	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Visio Services	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No

Note:

1 Scorecards & Dashboards are not available for the following plans: Office 365 Education E1, Office 365 Education E3, Office 365 Education E4, Office 365 Government E1, Office 365 Government E3, Office 365 Government E4, Office 365 Government K1

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Credits

Myself, I get all the credit this time! 🙂

References

Office 365 Plan Options
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office-365-plan-options.aspx
Office Applications Service Description
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office-applications-service-description.aspx
Comparison of Rights Management Services (RMS) Offerings
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/dn858608 ‘ _________________________________________________________

Enjoy!

Regards

Office 365 – DTD is prohibited in this document issue

SP2013logo

Got trouble Connection PowerShell to SharePoint online? This could be the resolution to your troubles.
I had this myself, or we had it in our Company tenant. This is what the issue was and this is how I fixed it:

When trying to connect to PowerShell for SharePoint Online, using the Connect-SPOService command, we got a error that did not tell us anything.

The error is:
Connect-SPOService : For security reasons DTD is prohibited in this document. To enable DTD processing set DtdProcessing property on XmlReaderSettings to Parse and pass the settings into XmlReader.Create method.

Well, its almost a joke right…
When searching the web for information on this particular, I struck zero…all I could find related to the ISP and the default search provider something. I quickly dismissed them as unrelated.
Then after some time had passed, I found a similar issue, this seemed related and it was a connectivity issue same as mine (If I still had the link I would give credit to where credit is due). This fellow had resolved the issue by adding a missing DNS record.
This made me think, since our tenant has existed since way Before Office 365 existed (BPOS) perheps we were also missing some of the required DNS records?
I checked with my collegues, and apparently we were missing the record as well.

So, if you ever see or get the ‘DTD prohibited’ issue, remember to check the DNS for the following record:

Type: CNAME
Alias: MSOID
Target: clientconfig.microsoftonline-p.net
Info: Used by Office 365 to direct authentication to the correct identity platform More Information

After I added this to DNS, Connect-SPOService works just fine!

Microsoft’s official explaination on the DNS record:
What’s the purpose of the additional Office 365 CNAME record?

When you run a client application that works with Office 365 such as Lync, Outlook, Windows PowerShell or Microsoft Azure Active Directory Sync tool, your credentials must be authenticated. Office 365 uses a CNAME record to point to the correct authentication endpoint for your location, which ensures rapid authentication response times.If this CNAME record is missing for your domain, these applications will use a default authentication endpoint in the United States, which means authentication might be slower. If this CNAME record isn’t configured properly, for example, if you have a typo in the Points to address, these applications won’t be able to authenticate.

If Office 365 manages your domain’s DNS records,, Office 365 sets up this CNAME record for you.

If you are managing DNS records for your domain at your DNS host, to create this record, you create this record yourself by following the instructions for your DNS host.

References and Credits‘
Nope, not this time…Credits & many thanks to To all of you.

_________________________________________________________

Enjoy!

Regards

Loopback Check configuration Tool released – free download

Hi All.

It is here! Free for all! DOWNLOAD

I am happy to announce that the Loopback Check Tool has finally been made available at Codeplex – https://loopbackchecktool.codeplex.com
No more last minute t-shooting the loopback check and ending up disabling it, trying to find the KB or a decent blog post on how to do it.

This Tool takes care of it all for you. Download the exe, put it on your servers, run it to configure the Loopback Check feature simple and easy.

Its simple.
Its small (21kb zipped)
Only click and make it happen
No installation, one single exe that works on most Windows Servers (and clients)
Disable the Loopback check completely (Not recommended)
Enable or Disable the Loopback Check function
Enable it and add excluded URLs (Recommended, now easy to do)

This is a preview image of what the tool looks like

The tool works fine on:

Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008
Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows 8.1
And probably a few more…

References:

You receive error 401.1 when you browse a Web site that uses Integrated Authentication and is hosted on IIS 5.1 or a later version
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861/en-us

A quick guide to configuring the Loopback check
https://blog.blksthl.com/2013/05/07/a-quick-guide-to-configuring-the-loopback-check/

DisableLoopbackCheck & SharePoint: What every admin and developer should know.
http://www.harbar.net/archive/2009/07/02/disableloopbackcheck-amp-sharepoint-what-every-admin-and-developer-should-know.aspx

Thanks to:

Herakles and Gutke!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Enjoy!

Regards

http://images2.store.microsoft.com/prod/clustera/framework/w7udt/1.0/en-us/Windows7-USB-DVD-tool.exe
or
http://wudt.codeplex.com

Create a bootable Windows Server 2012 R2 installation USB flash drive

Hi Windows connoisseurs! (wiki)

(This is essentially a remake of my Create a bootable Windows 8.1 installation USB flash drive post.) The setps are the same so you can easily follow that post or use this slightly updated version.

In this guide I will help you find a way to install Windows Server 2012 R2 quick and easy, from a simple USB flash drive. It’s really easy, but you still need to Think about a few things.
I’ll list them here and if you want, you can follow the step by step guide below.

Quicksteps:

1. Get a USB Flash drive formatted with FAT32, it has to be AT LEAST 8GB! (The Windows Server 2012R2 installation bits will not fit on a 4GB USB drive…)
2. Download and install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool from Microsoft Store here or Codeplex here (It is an official Microsoft tool, totally wierdly named from the Windows 7 release but still very much valid!)
3. Download or locate a ‘Windows Server 2012 R2’ .iso file and store it locally on your harddrive.
4. Start the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool (from startbutton or ‘windows 8/Metro’ style startmenu’?)
5. Complete the steps 1-4
6. Insert the USB flash drive into the powered off PC to install, Power on and boot from USB drive (F9 at HP logo on HP Machines).
7. Install Windows Server as you would normally.
8. Done!

This guide in its entirety works just as well if you replace the Windows Server 2012 R2 .iso file with Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 or plain Windows 8 (Windows Server 2008 R2 not verified but willmost likely also work)

Step by step:

1. USB Flash Drive

Prepare a USB flash drive for installation, is has to be at least 8 GB in size and it has to be formatted with FAT32. It does not have to be erased, the tool will do that for you if needed.

Before

2. Download and install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool from Microsoft Store or Codeplex. The Links are as follows:

Run the .exe file, you will have to be a local administrator on your machine for it to install properly.

Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

3. Locate a Windows Server 2012 R2 .iso file. This file should be placed on a local harddrive. It does not matter where you put it, as long as it is on a local HD and it is accessable to you when running the tool, meaning that you have access to where the file is stored in the filesystem.

4. After the installation of the tool has completed, you will suddenly notice this tile:

You can also just use the search function, in ‘metro mode’ simply type Windows 7 and you will see it and its uninstall app.
Start the tool
Click Ok at the User Account Control popup dialog
The first screen should now look like this:

5. Hit the Browse button to locate your Windows Server 2012 R2 installation iso file.

In my test, I’m using an .iso file downloaded from TechNet Subscriber downloads (soon to be no more)
It does not have to be from TechNet, it can be MSDN or Volume Licensing or really any form of Windows Server 2012 R2 installation iso.

Click ‘Next’

Click on ‘USB device’
If you see the window below, that means that the USB drive is either not plugged in properly, or it has the wrong formatting or insufficient storage or similar. Make sure that you have a USB flash drive that meets: 4GB minimum+FAT32.

Insert a USB drive that meets the requirements and press the refresh button
Now, click on the ‘Begin copying’ button.

If the USB drive was ok, the copying will begin, but if not, if it still had files still on it, you will see this dialog:

Click Erase to continue

Click Yes and the formatting and copying process will begin.

Let it do its thing until it reaches 100%

When it has finished formatting and copying files, you are done.

After!

6. Next step, is to insert the USB drive into the PC you want to install Windows Server 2012 R2 on, Power it off completely and Power on again.
Use BIOS settings to select ‘boot from USB’ or like on a HP machine, hit F9 at the HP logo screen to boot directly from USB.

7. Let the Installation begin! The Windows installation is pretty much standard. A Clean install is described here. The setup of Windows 8, which is pretty much the same, is described here

8. Done!

References:

Install and Deploy Windows Server 2012 (R2)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831620.aspx

Thanks to:

Herakles and Gutke!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Enjoy!

Regards

http://images2.store.microsoft.com/prod/clustera/framework/w7udt/1.0/en-us/Windows7-USB-DVD-tool.exe
or
http://wudt.codeplex.com

Create a bootable Windows 8.1 installation USB flash drive

Hi Windows Lovers!?

(Looking to install Windows Server? The same steps apply, but for a server specific guide, go here Create a bootable Windows Server 2012 R2 installation USB flash drive)

This time I’ll help you find a way to install Windows 8.1 quick and easy, from a simple USB flash drive. It’s a piece of cake really, but a few things you need to know about.
I’ll list them here and if you want, you can follow the step by step guide below.

Quicksteps:

1. Get a USB Flash drive formatted with FAT32, it has to be AT LEAST 4GB!
2. Download and install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool from Microsoft Store HERE or Codeplex HERE (It is an official Microsoft tool, totally wierdly named from the Windows 7 release but still very much valid!)
3. Download or locate a ‘Windows 8.1’ .iso file and store it locally on your harddrive.
4. Start the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool (from startbutton or ‘windows 8 style startmenu’?)
5. Complete the steps 1-4
6. Insert the USB flash drive into the powered off PC to install, Power on and boot from USB drive (F9 at HP logo on HP Machines).
7. Install Windows as you would normally.
8. Done!

This guide in its entirety works just as well if you replace the Windows 8.1 .iso file with Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 or plain Windows 8 (Windows Server 2008 R2 not verified but willmost likely also work)

Step by step:

1. USB Flash Drive

Prepare a USB flash drive for installation, is has to be at least 4 GB in size and it has to be formatted with FAT32. It does not have to be erased, the tool will do that for you if needed.

Before

2. Download and install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool from Microsoft Store or Codeplex. The Links are as follows:

Run the .exe file, you will have to be a local administrator on your machine for it to install properly.

Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

3. Locate a Windows 8.1 .iso file. This file should be placed on a local harddrive. It does not matter where you put it, as long as it is on a local HD and it is accessable to you when running the tool, meaning that you have access to where the file is stored in the filesystem.

4. After the installation of the tool has completed, you will suddenly notice this tile:

5. Hit the Browse button to locate your Windows 8.1 installation iso file.

Click ‘Next’

Insert a USB drive that meets the requirements and press the refresh button
Now, click on the ‘Begin copying’ button.

If the USB drive was ok, the copying will begin, but if not, if it still had files still on it, you will see this dialog:

Click Erase to continue

Click Yes and the formatting and copying process will begin.

Let it do its thing until it reaches 100%

When it has finished formatting and copying files, you are done.

After!

6. Next step, is to insert the USB drive into the PC you want to install Windows 8.1 on, Power it off completely and Power on again.
Use BIOS settings to select ‘boot from USB’ or like on a HP machine, hit F9 at tghe HP logo screen to boot directly from USB.

7. Let the Installation begin! The Windows installation is pretty much standard. A Clean install is described here. The setup of Windows 8, which is the same, is described here

8. Done!

References:

Thanks to:

As Always, Mattias Gutke! At CAG for some strange reason….Always a friend, a great help and a second opinion!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Enjoy!

Regards

Move your SharePoint IIS sites from the systemdrive(C:)

Move your SharePoint IIS sites from the systemdrive(C:)
or avoid putting them there in the first Place.

Do you see the lion that is totally in the wrong Place…or is it the Jeeps that are…?

Deal fellow SharePointlovers!

This time, I’ll try to show you how to avoid the messed up situation most SharePoint installations are in, with everything on the systemdrive, or C:
Now, us people have over time been better and better at one thing, we understand that the logfiles should not be located on the systemdrive, so we have learned over time to move the ULS log and the Usage and Health log from C:, some have even been clever enough to move even the IIS log from C:

But, what do we still always, always, always, find installed on C:?… … …yes, C:\inetpub!

It not very strange though, the developers of Windows Server have made a point out of not giving us an option to install inetpub on a different path, not unless you do an unattended installation or otherwise script or Control your installation. The ‘Add/Remove roles’ wizards in Server 2008, 2008R2 and 2012 all lack this option (for a reason).

BUT! This is intentially, the default inetpub location should and must be in the systemdrive, IIS is considered an operating system Component and has to be there for a number of reasons. At the end you will find a link to a KB article that explains this in more detail. Leave inetpub and its subfolders where it is!

So, why would we want to do this anyway
why move the inetpub and all of its content, or at least the separate site catalogs to a different drive?
– Separation (Performance and Security)
– Compartmentalization (Performance and Security)
Having averything on the same drive is bad for a few reasons, primarily performance and security. Perfomance since the OS is on the C drive and security because if an attacker by some means gets access to a different less secure applications sitecatalog, they also get access to the systemdrive and possible also all other webapplication sitecatalogs. Moving them to other drives, same or different, helps mitigate both possible issues.
I therefore recommend doing this:

Do your regular installation, add the Web Server role and let the inetpub folder end up on C:, like I said, no worries. Whats important for us will not be located there anyway.
Next, edit the registry to make the default location of inetpub be for example D: (unless this is were you will be putting all of your logfiles, then select a third or fourth drive)
Install the SharePoint as you would normally do, Central administration will now end up were you pointed the default location.
Create your Web Applications using the GUI or PowerShell and leave out the path, the IIS sites will be were you wanted them.

So, how do we do this in more detail? A Guide…

Configure the Web Server(s)

1. Configure the default location

On all of your web servers in the farm, and on your Central Administration server(s), edit the registry key that Controls the default location:

Start regedit by, Right clicking in the very lower left corner and you will get a list of actions, click on Run.

Type Regedit and click Ok.

Click Yes in the UAC dialog.

In Registry Editor, we locate the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp

Under ‘InetStp’ we have a number of keys.

Locate and Edit the key PathWWWRoot from the default: (%systemdrive%)

to: (D: or where you prefer to locate it, E: F: G: H:…)

There you go! All set, no IIS reset or restarts of any kind required.
Like said before, go on and do this on all servers that will host a webserver (WFE or CA). If you don’t, then you will have an inconsistent setup making Everything very hard to setup and t-shoot.

2. Add SharePoint
After this has been changed on all of you r web servers, you can go ahead and install the SharePoint binaries and configure your farm, The Central Administration site will now be located on the drive you have specified, it will be in the exact same path as it normally would but on a different drive. For example: ‘D:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\20000\’

Note that the Central Administration UI will now be default suggest a different path:

If you create a new site using PowerShell, it will also by default put it in D: even if you don’t specify any path:

New-SPWebApplication -Name TheVeryFirst -ApplicationPool SharePoint -HostHeader theveryfirst.corp.balkestahl.se -Port 80 -Url theveryfirst.corp.balkestahl.se -DatabaseServer blksthl-sql -DatabaseName SP11_Content_TheVeryFirst

As you can see, were done! 🙂

For the logfiles, I’ll make a separate post, they should also be moved, more so even than the sitefolders. Logfiles will fill up the disks, they will slow performance and maybe most importantly, they contain delicate information that you want to keep separated from the OS and IIS.

References:

Guidance for relocation of IIS 7.0 and IIS 7.5 content directories
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2752331

Configure ULS log and Usage and Health log location
https://blog.blksthl.com/2013/06/05/configure-uls-log-and-usage-and-health-log-location/

Thanks to:

Mikael Nyström (The Deployment Bunny) – Truesec
Mattias Gutke – CAG

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Good Luckl!!

Regards

Hardware requirements for all SharePoint 2013 components summarized

Update 2013-01-28 – New note added : Certain Installation Scenarios not supported

–

Listed below are all of the Hardware requirements that have been announced for SharePoint 2013 and it’s connected services and products.
Covered in the list are, in this order:

	SharePoint Forundation 2013
	SharePoint Server 2013
	Office Web Applications 2013
	Project Server 2013
	SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services in Integrated mode
	SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot
	SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services Server
	Reference links

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–
–

Note: In addition to the listed HW requirements below, note that certain Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 installation scenarios are not supported
Not supported are: Dynamic Memory, ReFS(Resilient File system), Install on a DC, Install in a Workgroup, Install on Windows Web Server.
see Microsoft KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2764086

–

SharePoint Foundation 2013	Deployment type and scale	RAM	Processor	Hard disk space

Single server with a built-in database or single server that uses SQL Server	Development or evaluation installation of SharePoint Foundation 2013	8 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Web and application server in a two-tier farm	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of SharePoint Foundation 2013	8 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
database servers in a two-tier farm	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of SharePoint Foundation 2013	8 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive

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SharePoint Server 2013	Deployment type and scale	RAM	Processor	Hard disk space

Single server with a built-in database or single server that uses SQL Server	Development or evaluation installation of SharePoint Server 2013	24 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Web server or application server in a three-tier farm	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of SharePoint Server 2013	12 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
database servers in environments that have multiple servers in the farm/multi tier	Small deployments	8 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
database servers in environments that have multiple servers in the farm/multi tier	Medium deployments	16 GB	64-bit, 8 cores	80 GB for system drive
database servers in environments that have multiple servers in the farm/multi tier	Large deployments	See link	See link	See link

–

Office Web Applications 2013	Deployment type and scale	RAM	Processor	Hard disk space

Office Web Apps server	Development or evaluation installation of Office Web Apps	8 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Office Web Apps server	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of Office Web Apps	12 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive

–

Project Server 2013, Small dataset scenario	Deployment type and scale	RAM	Processor	Hard disk space

Minimum requirement, single–server deployment	Development or evaluation installation of Project Server 2013	24 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Front-end web and Application server hardware	Development or evaluation installation of Project Server 2013	8 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Front-end web and Application server	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of Project Server 2013	16 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Database server	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of Project Server 2013	16 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive

Back to table of contents
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Project Server 2013, Medium dataset scenario	Deployment type and scale	RAM	Processor	Hard disk space

Minimum requirement, front-end web server	Development or evaluation installation of Project Server 2013	8 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Minimum requirement, application server	Development or evaluation installation of Project Server 2013	8 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Minimum requirement, database server	Development or evaluation installation of Project Server 2013	16 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	100 GB for system drive
Recommended, front-end web server	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of Project Server 2013	16 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Recommended, application server	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of Project Server 2013	16 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	100 GB for system drive
Recommended, database server	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of Project Server 2013	32 GB	64-bit, 8 cores	160 GB for system drive

Note: Ideally, you should separate and prioritize data among disks. Place your data files and your SQL Server transaction logs on separate physical hard disks. RAID 5 should provide a good compromise between reliability, and throughput.

Back to table of contents
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Project Server 2013, Large dataset scenario	Deployment type and scale	RAM	Processor	Hard disk space

Recommended, front-end web server	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of Project Server 2013	16 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Recommended, application server	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of Project Server 2013	16 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	100 GB for system drive
Minimum requirement, database server	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of Project Server 2013	32 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	250 GB for system drive
Recommended, database server	Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of Project Server 2013	64 GB	64-bit, 8 cores	300 GB or more

Back to table of contents
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SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services, SharePoint Integrated mode	Deployment type and scale	RAM	Processor	Hard disk space

Reporting Services 2012 Add-on	Must be Installed on a SharePoint Server 2013 Web Server	12 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive
Reporting Services 2012 Service Application	Must be Installed on a SharePoint Server 2013 Application Server	12 GB	64-bit, 4 cores	80 GB for system drive

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PowerPivot in SharePoint Mode	Deployment type and scale	RAM	Processor	Hard disk space

Standalone PowerPivot for SharePoint 2013 server that is not part of the SharePoint farm	Minimum requirement	8 GB	64-bit, 2 cores	80 GB or more
Standalone PowerPivot for SharePoint 2013 server that is not part of the SharePoint farm	Recommended	64 GB	64-bit, 16 cores	80 GB or more

Back to table of contents

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SQL Server 2012 SP1 Analysis Server in SharePoint mode	Deployment type and scale	RAM	Processor	Hard disk space

SQL Server 2012 SP1 Analysis Server in SharePoint mode	Runs outside a SharePoint 2013 farm	SQL, see link	SQL, see link	SQL, see link

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References:

Software, hardware, and configuration requirements for Office Web Apps Server
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219435.aspx#software

Hardware and software requirements for SharePoint 2013
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485(v=office.15)#hwforwebserver

Hardware and software requirements for Project Server 2013
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee683978

Hardware and Software Requirements for Reporting Services Server in SharePoint Mode for SharePoint 2013
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj714188.aspx

Hardware and Software Requirements for Analysis Services Server in SharePoint Mode (SQL Server 2012 SP1)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fb86ca0a-518c-4c61-ae78-7680c57fae1f

Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2012
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/09bcf20b-0a40-4131-907f-b61479d5e4d8

Certain Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 installation scenarios are not supported
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2764086

Use best practice configurations for the SharePoint 2013 virtual machines and Hyper-V Environment
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff621103.aspx

I know I will use this to make my life easier until I get it all memorized…I hope that it may help you as well. Any feedback or recommended additions to the tables will be appreciated.
Back to table of contents

_________________________________________________________

Enjoy!

Regards

Passphrases in SharePoint- why do we bother?

You all know about the passphrase in SharePoint (2010 and later) right? You name it during farm Creation using Powershell or the Config Wizard. It must be a complicated string of characters and it has to hold a certain length (exact requirements stated below)

Do we really need it?

Since you can replace the passphrase (Change your PassPhrase using PowerShell) without having the old one, all you need is to be a member of the farm administrators SharePoint Group. So…the use of the PassPhrase is what? You don’t need to save it since all you have to do when it is required (join farm) is to change it…and if you have the passphrase, you still have to enter the farm account (Database Access Account) username and password, so you still need the permissions…

The Passphrase in SharePoint 2013 Preview is described as:
(From the ‘Deployment guide for Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Preview’)
Although a passphrase resembles a password, it is usually longer to improve security. It is used to encrypt credentials of accounts that are registered in SharePoint 2013 Preview. For example, the SharePoint 2013 Preview system account that you provide when you run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard. Ensure that you remember the passphrase, because you must use it every time that you add a server to the farm.

Ensure that the passphrase meets the following criteria:

Contains at least eight characters
Contains at least three of the following four character groups:
- English uppercase characters (from A through Z)
- English lowercase characters (from a through z)
- Numerals (from 0 through 9)
- Nonalphabetic characters (such as !, $, #, %)

So…now that you have read all this, do we really need it? Why bother? Is it one more layer of real security or more more layer of persieved security?

-It’s easily replaced/reset (see Change your PassPhrase using PowerShell)
-You still need the farmaccount credentials to join
-It’s seldom used and thus easily lost (in real life! yes)
-For the encryption purposes, SharePoint could use a random key that you never have to see or know about…
_________________________________________________________

Please Comment!

Regards

Change your PassPhrase using PowerShell

Changing the Farm’s PassPhrase, is it difficult and something that canb possible screw Everything up? Or is it an easy and pretty trival task?

I’d say the latter, changing it is easy, what is important and hard, is to make sure that dokumentation and possibly secure stores and such are updated to reflect the change. Remember, as long as you have at least one SharePoint server still connected/joined to the farm, you can Always reset the PassPhrase again. It’s when you have a single Config Database without a single server that you really really want to have the PassPhrase documented and in order.

So, how to do it practically? There is really only one way, and that is using PowerShell:

Open a PowerShell Prompt as Administrator.
Load the SharePoint Module:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

Enter this at the PowerShell prompt:

$passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText -Force

Input the new passphrase and hit Enter

Enter this at the PowerShell prompt:

Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase -Confirm

You will be asked to confirm the passphrase by re-entering it in cleartext
Re-enter the passphrase and hit Enter
You will be asked if you are sure that you want to perform this action, type Y (for Yes) and hit Enter

Your farm passphrase has now been reset!

Next time, use the new PassPhrase when joining the farm.

!! And remember to update any documentation !!

Why I had to do this now? Well, this is, I’m currently helping a customer setting up Resporting Services for SharePoint, that requires an extra server joined to the farm with SSRS and SP installed on them. I installed the server and added all the SP’s and LP’s and CU’s and soon, until we were good to go to join it into the farm. Now, I got prompted for the PassPhrase…hmm. This farm was setup some time ago by a different firm and they are not around anymore…
My customer sent me the documentation on the farm setup but no luck. The PassPhrase was forgotten and gone…
So, instead of panicking and screaming for a complete reinstall, I started to look for the way to retrieve it or reset it. Turns out, you can reset it but never retrieve it. You must have one server still in the farm to be able to reset it, this server is wehere you run the Powershell commands from.

So, now my PassPhrase is reset, I quickly added it to textfile on the server and also emailed it to my customer. Later, I will also add it to the Farm documentation for future reference.

_________________________________________________________

Enjoy!

Regards