Category Archives: PowerShell

Exchange Hybrid, PowerShell

You are currently using an older version of the Exchange Online PowerShell module

1 Comment

When connection to Exchange Online PowerShell using the command Connect-ExchangeOnline nothing special happens. But when executing a PowerShell command like Get-Mailbox you get the following warning:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> $mailboxes = Get-mailbox -ResultSize unlimited
Attention!
You are currently using an older version of the Exchange Online PowerShell module which uses RPS. RPS deprecation has been announced and you will need to move to the latest V3 module by June 2023. Read more here: https://aka.ms/RPSDeprecation 
Please install our new REST-based PS V3 module downloadable from https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/ExchangeOnlineManagement/, which is more secure and reliable.
Please note that you will no longer be able to use -UseRPSSession after June 2023.

Microsoft has introduced a new Exchange Online PowerShell module (v3) and the previous modules will be deprecated in the (near) future.

To update the PowerShell module, the old module needs to be uninstalled first before you can install the latest version. To uninstall the old v2 module, execute the following command:

Uninstall-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

And to install the new v3 module, execute the following command:

Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement -RequiredVersion 3.0.0

To check which PowerShell modules and versions you have installed, execute the Get-InstalledModule command.

Exchange, PowerShell

Export-ExchangeCertificate not accepting -FileName option

Leave a comment

As long as I can remember I have been creating, updating, renewing, exporting and importing Exchange certificates on Exchange servers.

This morning I had to renew my own Exchange certificate, and my PowerShell command Export-ExchangeCertificate failed on the -FileName option so it would not accept the option to store the file somewhere. This is strange, because in our Exchange 2016/2019 book that was released less then a year ago we were able to use the -FileName option.

It turned out that for the Export-ExchangeCertificate and Import-Certificate the -FileName option was removed because of security concerns. In more detail, the -FileName option accepts a UNC path which makes it possible for compromised servers to access other servers using UNC paths.

The way to export a certificate in Exchange 2016 CU23 and Exchange 2019 CU12 (and higher) is to import the certificate in a variable and store this in a file:

[PS] C:\> $Cert = Export-ExchangeCertificate -BinaryEncoded -Thumbprint <Thumbprint> -BinaryEncoded -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'Pass1word' -AsPlainText -Force)
[PS] C:\> [System.IO.File]::WriteAllBytes('C:\Install\CertExport.pfx', $Cert.FileData)

For importing certificates it is similar, the -FileName is removed from the commandlet in Exchange 2016 CU23 and Exchange 2019 CU12 (and higher), and the -FileData needs to be used:

[PS] C:\> Import-ExchangeCertificate -FileData ([Byte[]]$(Get-Content -Path "<local or UNC path>" -Encoding byte)) -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'Pass1word' -AsPlainText -Force)

Note. For Exchange 2013 server the -FileName option can still be used.

More information can be found on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/export-exchangecertificate?view=exchange-ps and https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/import-exchangecertificate?view=exchange-ps

Office365, PowerShell

New Exchange Online PowerShell v2

Leave a comment

When using PowerShell with Exchange Online you can use the ‘good old traditional’ way to connect to Exchange Online:

$ExCred = Get-Credential 
$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $ExCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
Import-PSSession $Session

This is not a recommended way to connect to Exchange Online using your tenant admin account, it uses basic authentication (will be decommissioned in 2021) and MFA (number one prerequisite for tenant admin security!) is not possible.

The second option is the Exchange Online Remote PowerShell Module which you can download from the Exchange Online Admin Center (use Internet Explorer for this download!) as shown in the following screenshot:

Exchange Online PowerShell Module

This is a separate PowerShell module you can start and use the Connect-EXOPSSession command to connect to Exchange Online. This PowerShell module users Modern Authentication and supports Multi-Factor Authentication.

The latest (and newest) option is the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module. This module works far more efficient with large datasets than the previous PowerShell modules for Exchange Online. It also supports Modern Authentication and Multi-Factor Authentication.

To install the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module you first have to install the PowerShellGet module using the Install-Module PowershellGet command:

Install-Module PowershellGet

Followed by the Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement command:

Install-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

When installed you can use the Connect-ExchangeOnline command to connect to Exchange Online. When MFA for your admin account is configured it will automatically use it:

Connect-ExchangeOnline

The differences between V1 and V2 are clearly visible in the commands. All V2 commands contain EXO, like:

  • Get-Mailbox vs Get-EXOMailbox
  • Get-Recipient vs Get-EXORecipient
  • Get-MailboxStatistics vs Get-EXOMailboxStatistics
  • Get-CASMailbox vs Get-EXOCASMailbox

This means that all scripts you have written for use with Exchange Online need to be changed to reflect the V2 commands.

For a complete overview you can use the Get-Command *EXO* to retrieve all PowerShell commands that contain EXO (still very limited 🙂 ):

Get-Command EXO

The Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module is still in preview, the current version is 0.3582.0 which you can check using the Get-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement command:

Get-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

The Exchange Online PowerShell v2 module is a work in progress, but it the future of PowerShell in Exchange Online, so you should keep an eye on this development.

More Information

Use the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/exchange/exchange-online/exchange-online-powershell-v2/exchange-online-powershell-v2?view=exchange-ps

Azure AD, PowerShell

Install-Module MSOnline fails with unable to download from URI

11 Comments

When installing the MSOnline module using the Install-Module MSOnline command in PowerShell it fails with a cryptic error like:

WARNING: Unable to download from URI ‘https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=627338&clcid=0x409&#8217; to ”.
WARNING: Unable to download the list of available providers. Check your internet connection.
PackageManagement\Install-PackageProvider : No match was found for the specified search criteria for the provider ‘NuGet’. The package provider requires ‘PackageManagement’ and ‘Provider’ tags. Please check if the specified package has the tags.

And

WARNING: Unable to download from URI ‘https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=627338&clcid=0x409&#8217; to ”.
WARNING: Unable to download the list of available providers. Check your internet connection.
PackageManagement\Get-PackageProvider : Unable to find package provider ‘NuGet’. It may not be imported yet. Try ‘Get-PackageProvider -ListAvailable’.
Install-Module : NuGet provider is required to interact with NuGet-based repositories. Please ensure that ‘2.8.5.201’ or newer version of NuGet provider is installed.

As shown in the following screenshot:

Install-PackageProvider

It turns out that this is a TLS issue, PowerShell does not use TLS 1.2 by default, while Microsoft requires TLS 1.2 from clients. To set TLS 1.2 usage for PowerShell, you can use the following command:

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12

Now if you try again, it will install the MSOnline module:

Install-Module MSOnline

This is a per session setting, if you want to enable it for all sessions, add the previous command to the Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 and Microsoft.PowerShellISE_profile.ps1 profiles (use Notepad $Profile for this.

More information

Azure ActiveDirectory (MSOnline) – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/azure/active-directory/install-msonlinev1?view=azureadps-1.0

PowerShell

Azure Active Directory PowerShell v2

1 Comment

Maybe you’ve already heard about Microsoft Graph and the Graph API. Microsoft Graph is the way resources in the Microsoft cloud are connected to each other. The Graph API is an API you can use to access Microsoft Graph, and browse (or traverse) through all the resources.

image

You can use the Graph API when building your own applications, but Microsoft is moving all their apps, tools etc. to the Graph API as well.

Azure Active Directory PowerShell v2 is moving from the Azure AD API’s to the Graph API as well. This automatically implies that Azure AD PowerShell v2 comes with new cmdlets and new options. The output of these cmdlets should be similar of course (creating a new domain, group or user in Azure Active Directory), but that these cmdlets are in no way compatible with the old Azure AD PowerShell.

Unfortunately, you have no choice then moving to Azure AD PowerShell v2. The existing PowerShell v1 will of course be supported for quite some time as it is impossible for everyone to convert their processes, cmdlets, scripts etc. from one version to another.

Note. We’ve seen similar when Microsoft moved from Azure ASM to Azure ARM. It has been taken years for Microsoft to move everything to ARM, so no worries for end-of-support scenarios anytime soon.

Installing Azure AD PowerShell v2 is easy, just install the module using the Install-Module command. This will download the module from the PowerShell repository. 

Install-Module AzureAD

When executed you will receive a notification about an untrusted repository. Click [Y] or [A] to continue. The module will be downloaded and installed.

image

image

image

You can use the following commands to store the credentials of your Office 365 and/or Azure tenant administrator account and use it to login to Azure Active Directory:

$AzureADCred = Get-Credential &lt;your tenant admin&gt;<p>Connect-AzureAD -Credential $AzureADCred

image

You’ve now installed the Azure Active Directory PowerShell v2 module and are logged on to your tenant. If you want to retrieve a list of all new v2 PowerShell commands use can use the Get-Command command:

Get-Command *AzureAD*

image

In future blogposts I will continue with the Azure AD PowerShell v2 module.

More information

<updated on March 21, 2018>