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Exchange Server Connector in Configuration Manager 2012 RC1 also can handle Exchange 2010 in Office 365. Since I don’t have an enterprise Office 365 environment I used a free 30 day evaluation version.

Take a look to marvelous blog systemcenterblog at this subject :

http://www.systemcenterblog.nl/2011/07/24/mobile-device-support-in-configuration-manager-2012/

After configuring a temporary Office 365 account and connecting my mobile devices it was fairly easy to configure the Exchange Connector in Configuration Manager 2012. Let’s see how.

I configured an Office 365 environment as follows:

· Domain name: systemcenterblog.onmicrosoft.com

· Administrative user: peter@systemcenterblog.onmicrosoft.com

· Test user: jjohnson@systemcenterblog.onmicrosoft.com

Go in the Configuration Manager 2012 console to the Administration workspace and choose Hierarchy Configuration -> Exchange Server Connectors to configure a new Exchange Server Connector.

Configure the Exchange online URL

Choose Hosted Exchange Server and supply outlook.com and choose the Primary site where the Exchange Server connector must run from. If needed, also configure a proxy server to connect to the Internet.

Configure the credentials to access Exchange in Office 365

Supply the credentials of the administrative Office 365 user ( peter@systemcenterblog.onmicrosoft.com ) by adding the user to Configuration Manager 2012. With this account the Exchange Server Connector will access Hosted Exchange environment.

Configure the discovery of mobile devices

Configure the discovery of the mobile devices in Exchange 2010 via the Exchange Server Connector, you are able to schedule the full synchronization which gathers all properties for new and known mobile devices and a delta synchronization interval which identifies new mobile devices and limited changes for known mobile devices.

Let's manage everything with Configuration Manager 2012

Configure the mobile device settings per group. When changing a setting in a group, the status will be changed from Configured by Exchange to Configured By Configuration Manager. Finish the configuration of the connector and click on Synchronize Now in the home ribbon. The Exchange Server Connector will connect to the hosted Exchange 2010 environment and gather all information about the to Exchange connected mobile devices

The discovered mobile devices

How easy was this? In the next blog I will point out how the the Exchange Server Connector and the hosted Exchange environment are working.

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Today I want to show some interaction of Configuration Manager 2012 with Office 365 Exchange Online.

Access Rules

After configuring the Exchange Server Connector you are able to create access rules for devices that are able to connect to Exchange Online in the Exchange Server Connector. You can do this as follows;

Go to the Exchange Server Connector (Administration Workspace -> Hierarchy Configuration -> Exchange Server Connectors) and retrieve the properties of the configured connector.

The configured Exchange Server Connector

Go to the Access Rules tab and Configure a access rule for the device family Iphone with an access level of Allow access. Click on OK configure the Access Rule.

Configure an Access Rule for an iPhone

Next browse to your Exchange Online management website ( Options -> Manage My Organization – Phone & Voice) and check if the Access Rule is synchronized. In the next figure you see it is.

The access rule is synchronized to Exchange Online

Quarantine settings

Next what you are able to configure quarantine settings. With this option any new device that is going to connect to the Exchange environment must be first approved by the (Exchange) Administrator.

Go to the Exchange Server Connector (Administration Workspace -> Hierarchy Configuration -> Exchange Server Connectors) and retrieve the properties of the configured connector. Change the Access level when a mobile device is not managed by a rule option to Quarantine.

Configure Quarantine

After connecting my new Nokia Lumia with Windows Phone 7.5 I received a message from Exchange ActiveSync that the telephone is in quarantine until the administrator approved access.

Nokia Lumia is placed in Quarantine

In Configuration Manager you are able to Allow or block access for this new discovered device. The option to Create a rule for similar devices won’t work since the connector won’t synchronize the rule Configuration Manager 2012. To allow all Windows Phones you should create an access rule from the Configuration Manager console.

The discovered mobile devices

Monitoring Exchange Server Connector

Monitor the logfile EASDisc.log

The EASDisc.Log file in the logs folder where Configuration Manager 2012 is installed can be used to see if the Exchange Server Connector still works. But you can of course also view the status messages in SMS_EXCHANGE_CONNECTOR in the Component monitoring node in the Configuration Manager Console.

Or monitor the status messages

Conclusion

Another feature of Configuration Manager 2012 that rocks and enhances the ability to manage your mobile devices in the enterprise. The only thing I couldn’t find was the option to Create a rule for similar devices that are in Quarantine in the Configuration Manager console. Maybe this will be available in the RTM version. ////

Overview : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632496.aspx