Connecting Outlook 2013 to Office 365 2013 Wave 15

We recently completed a migration to Office 365 2013 from exchange and were forced migrate faster than anticipated. Our staff primarily uses Outlook and during the migration were forced to use Outlook where existing mail was and the web version of OWA. To put it mildly, our users were unhappy with this arrangement.

The way Outlook wants to find Office365 is through the autodiscover. Unfortunately, on a local network, you need to finalize the migration process after all mail has been moved to change the AD attributes that allow users to simply find autodiscover.

The intermediate method would be to setup a manual server mapping which used to just involve looking up your office365 server. To do this you now need the users unique Exchange GUID.

The following are the steps to obtain that GUID and setup a manual outlook to Office365 mapping. This will be useful during the migration process or when testing, but you should setup a profile using autodiscover for long term.

To get the exchange GUID for the user, run powershell as an admin and run the following commands using your Office 365 credentials


PS C:\windows\system32> Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

PS C:\windows\system32> $livecred = Get-Credential

PS C:\windows\system32> $session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook
.com/powershell/ -Credential $livecred -Authentication basic -allowredirection

PS C:\windows\system32> Import-PSSession $session

PS C:\windows\system32> Get-Mailbox -Identity username@domain.com | select ExchangeGUID

ExchangeGuid
------------
28f66595-de7c-40cb-93cc-5553bb990549

This exchange GUID is the number you need.

You will then want to open up the mail settings in the Control Panel to create a new profile.

Add a new Microsoft Exchange account and user the following format to create your server name.

https://outlook.office365.com/mapi/emsmdb/?MailboxId=28f66595-de7c-40cb-93cc-5553bb990549@domain.com

The key is the mailbox ID is your ExchangeGUID@domain.com.

Hopefully that helps during your email migration to the cloud.

Collection of Maps for Better understanding 1 Kings 17-19

In the process of prepping for a Sunday School lesson at Theophilus Bible Church I put together the following list of links to useful maps for helping gain a better understanding of the historical Context around 1st Kings.

• Maps overlay of the 12 Tribes of Israel
• Divided Kingdoms of Israel and Judah
• Kerish Ravine where Elijah hide from Ahab
• Map of the Events around destruction of False prophets
• The ministry homepage for several of these types of maps

Here is a Google Earth image of the approximate locations of the Events described in 1st Kings 18-19.

A short synopsis of the events are

1. Elijah hides in Cherith Ravine after telling Ahab it would no longer not rain until Elijah asked God for rain and Ahab repented. 1st Kings 17:3
2. (Not marked) The stream at Cherith dried up and Elijah went to a Widow in Zarephath near the shore of the sea. 1st Kings 17:9
3. Elijah and Ahab meet at Mount Carmel after 3.5 years drought with no rain. There Elijah faces off the worshipers of Baal and calls fire down from God. This excites the people to listen to Elijah who calls for the death of all the Baal priests. 1st Kings 18:38
4. Elijah leaves Mount Carmel and outruns Ahab on foot various Ahab's chariot the ~12 miles to Jezrel. They were also trying to outrun a massive storming that was coming inland from the Mediterranean Sea. 1st Kings 18:46 
5. Elijah the fleed Jezebel the queen who was in Jezerel and went to Beersheba in Judah. 1st Kings 19:3
6. Elijah went 1 day journey south into the desert and sat under a Juniper tree. Here an angel came and brought food and water to Elijah to give him rest and strength him. 1st Kings - 19:5
7. Elijah journeyed to Mount Horeb (Mount Sinai) in Egypt for 40 days through the desert. Here he listened for and hear the voice of God. 1st Kings 19:8

In the remainder of the lesson we will examine how do we learn from Elijah's life and live more zealously be more strongly under the power the God provides us.  More importantly, do we really even want this and are we prepared for what it entails? 

Are we seeking for God to purify and test us?