Office 365 Certificate Update Will Affect Some Exchange Deployments -- Redmondmag.com

Office 365 Certificate Update Will Affect Some Exchange Deployments

By Kurt Mackie
09/11/2014

Microsoft gave notice this week that it's planning to update its Office 365 certificates later this month, and the update could affect some hybrid Exchange deployments.

The updates will affect the Microsoft Federation Gateway, which a service that brokers connections to Microsoft applications. The gateway provides a means for organizations to establish trust relations, such as sharing e-mails, for instance.

On Sept. 23, 2014, Microsoft is planning a certificate change to the Microsoft Federation Gateway. Organizations that have hybrid networks combining Office 365 services with Exchange Server or that use the Microsoft Federation Gateway to establish trust relationships need to set up a certificate update process before the Sept. 23 deadline to "avoid any disruption" in service, according to Microsoft's Wednesday announcement.

The announcement provides a script to execute on Exchange Server to set up the certificate update process. The script apparently initiates a certificate refresh on a daily basis.

Certificate updates also can also be performed manually. If so, Microsoft recommends running a command to do that "at least monthly." Office 365 certificates get updated "periodically," according to Microsoft, without providing any specific details.

Organizations running Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1 don't have to take any action because the certificate update process happens automatically. However, organizations using other versions of the product, down to Exchange Server 2010, need to take action before the deadline.

If the certificates aren't updated before the Sept. 23 date, then end users might experience a few problems. For instance, they won't be able to see free/busy information. The "MailTips" feature won't work for organizations with hybrid Exchange configurations. Microsoft describes those problems in this Knowledge Base article.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

Multi-Tenant Organization Hooks Released for Microsoft 365

Microsoft Entra ID's new multi-tenant organization capabilities have reached general availability (GA).
Real-World Ransomware Recovery

Here's how I was (mostly) successful in recovering a family PC infected with malware.
Microsoft Launches Small AI Models Family Phi-3

Recognizing that bigger isn't always better, Microsoft has released its smallest open AI models to date, Phi-3.
Microsoft and OpenAI Continue Global AI Expansions

Microsoft and OpenAI each continued their global expansion this month, with the announcements of new infrastructure investments and service rollouts in new regions, like Asia and the Middle East.
Cisco Warns of Brute Force Attacks Targeting VPNs and Firewalls

Cisco has revealed that a global increase in brute force attacks targeting Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and other devices is currently taking place.