Implement Hybrid Teamwork Artifacts

As the online services collaboration landscape continues to evolve, many organizations will be shifting workloads away from on-premises resources. However, for larger organizations with significant investments in on-premises architecture, applications, and services, these changes must happen gradually.

Hybrid configurations for SharePoint allow organizations to begin leveraging the newest cloud-based technologies without forfeiting on-premises investment, allowing organizations to continue utilizing on-premises infrastructure and extending to the cloud where it makes sense. Cloud-based technologies can typically be scaled much more quickly than on-premises resources, so Microsoft recommends looking toward the Microsoft 365 platform for new investments.

In this chapter, you'll learn how to configure and manage some of the basic hybrid features. To do this, we'll cover the following topics:

  • Hybrid taxonomy and content types
  • Hybrid OneDrive for Business
  • Hybrid sites
  • Hybrid B2B sites
  • Hybrid app launcher
  • Document rendering for web apps

There are a lot of configuration tasks to get stuck into, so let's go!

Configuring hybrid taxonomy and content types

The hybrid taxonomy feature allows you to extend your on-premises taxonomy into SharePoint Online, enabling a consistent taxonomy in both platforms. Unlike other hybrid features, taxonomy is unique in that once it is synchronized from on-premises to cloud, it should only be managed from SharePoint Online. Hybrid taxonomy was originally released for SharePoint Server 2016 but was later updated so that it was available as far back as SharePoint Server 2013. Originally available only for SharePoint Server 2016, hybrid taxonomy and content types are available for both SharePoint Server 2013 and SharePoint Server 2016, along with the appropriate public updates.

Prerequisites

In order to be able to configure hybrid taxonomy and content types, the following additional prerequisites must be met:

As a reminder, all hybrid SharePoint features rely on Active Directory account synchronization.

Once the updates have been applied, you can proceed with the configuration.

Updating term store permissions

For the SharePoint Timer job to complete successfully, the Timer service account must be made a member of the Managed Metadata Service administrators. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Launch SharePoint Management Shell.
  2. Run the following commands:
          $SPSite = "http://<root site collection">
          

          $SPTimerServiceAccount = (Get-WmiObject win32_service | ? { $_.Name -eq (Get-Service | ? { $_.Displayname -eq "SharePoint Timer Service"}).Name }).StartName
          

          $SPTermStoreName = "Managed Metadata Service"
          

          $Web = Get-SPWeb -Site $SPSite
          

          $TaxonomySession = Get-SPTaxonomySession -Site $Web.Site
          

          $TermStore = $TaxonomySession.TermStores[$SPTermStoreName]
          

          $TermStore.AddTermStoreAdministrator($SPTimerServiceAccount)
          

          $TermStore.CommitAll()

Completing this successfully will not produce an output on the screen, as shown in the following screenshot:


Next, we'll sync the existing taxonomy with SharePoint Online.

Copying on-premises taxonomy to SharePoint Online

You need to copy your existing taxonomy to SharePoint Online before running the Hybrid Configuration Wizard. To do so, use the following steps:

  1. Launch SharePoint Management Shell.
  2. Run the following script to copy the non-default taxonomy groups and terms to SharePoint Online:
The Copy-SPTaxonomyGroups command will fail if your group contains special term sets. In this example, the default groups (People, Search Dictionaries, and System) have been excluded because they contain special term sets that cannot be replicated. If you have additional term sets or the term store is stored in another Managed Metadata service instance name, you must update those parameters accordingly.
          $SPOCredential = Get-Credential
          

          $SPOSite = "https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com"
          

          $SPSite = "http://<root site collection>"
          

          $SPTermStoreName = "Managed Metadata Service"
          

          $Web = Get-SPWeb -Site $SPSite
          

          $TaxonomySession = Get-SPTaxonomySession -Site $Web.Site
          

          $TermStore = $TaxonomySession.TermStores[$SPTermStoreName]
          

          [array]$GroupNames = $TermStore.Groups.Name -notmatch ("People|Search Dictionaries|System")
          

          Copy-SPTaxonomyGroups -LocalTermStoreName $SPTermStoreName -LocalSiteURL $SPSite -RemoteSiteURL $SPOSite -GroupNames $GroupNames -Credential $SPOCredential

  1. Gather a list of the content types you wish to copy to SharePoint Online. To list all of the content types for a particular site, run the following script from SharePoint Management Shell:
          $SPSite = "http://<root site collection>"
          

          $Web = Get-SPWeb -Site $SPSite
          

          [System.Collections.Arraylist]$ContentTypeNames = $Web.ContentTypes.Name
  1. Review the values stored in the $ContentTypeNames variable. When you have determined the content types to copy from Office 365, use the following script to copy them. If there are none to exclude, then you can just use the entire $ContentTypeNames collection (however, you'll likely have to remove a lot of built-in things, such as Health Analyzer Rule Definition, Common Indicator Columns, or other content types that aren't valid in SharePoint Online). You can use theRemove()method to remove them from the$ContentTypeNamesvariable. Content types will be saved to /sites/contentTypeHub in your SharePoint tenant. If it doesn't exist yet, it will be created:
          $SPOCredential = Get-Credential
          

          $SPOSite = "https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com"
          

          $SPSite = "http://root site collection>"
          

          Copy-SPContentTypes -LocalSiteUrl $SPSite -LocalTermStoreName $SPTermStoreName -RemoteSiteUrl $SPOSite -ContentTypeName $ContentTypeNames -Credential $SPOCredential

Now that we know how to clone the taxonomy, let's learn how to run the Hybrid Configuration Wizard.

Running the Hybrid Configuration Wizard

The final step will be to run the Hybrid Configuration Wizard. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Launch SharePoint Hybrid Configuration Wizard from the icon on the desktop or from Central Administration.
  2. Select the Hybrid taxonomy and content type checkbox and then click the corresponding Input Parameterslink:

  1. On the Input Parameters page, enter the local SharePoint site URL, the name of the Managed Metadata service (the Local Term Store Name parameter), and then the names of the groups and content types you want to sync. Then, click Validate. If this is successful, click OK:

If you don't know the name of your Managed Metadata service application, you can look refer to App Management | Manage service applications in Central Administration or run Get-SPServiceApplication | ? {$_.TypeName -like "*metadata*"} from the SharePoint Management Shell.
  1. Click Next when you're ready.
  2. Review the configuration summary and resolve any errors:

The configuration is complete. Taxonomy and content types should now be managed from SharePoint Online.

Next, we'll look at configuring Hybrid OneDrive for Business.

Configuring hybrid OneDrive for Business

Hybrid OneDrive for Business performs redirection for users' My Sites to a corresponding Microsoft 365 OneDrive for Business site. It's important to note hybrid OneDrive for Business does not migrate data.

Configuring hybrid OneDrive for Business can be broken down into four main sections:

  • Prerequisites
  • Configuring permissions
  • Creating a pilot group
  • Running the Hybrid Configuration Wizard

Let's take a look at each.

Prerequisites

To configure hybrid OneDrive for Business and Sites, you must meet the following prerequisites:

  • A SharePoint Online license in Office 365
  • An administration account with SharePoint Online admin role privileges
  • A SharePoint Online My Sites URL
  • An administration account with membership in the Farm Administrators group

To make hybrid OneDrive services available for your on-premises users, you must subscribe to a Microsoft 365 plan that contains SharePoint Online and then synchronize your on-premises directory to Office 365.

Creating a pilot group

If you decide you want to conduct a pilot of Hybrid OneDrive for Business for a small group of users, you can create an audience for your pilot users. Copy and paste the following script into an elevated SharePoint PowerShell console, editing the values for variables such as $MySiteHostUrl, $AudienceName, and $AudienceDescription.

In this example, the script creates an audience where the members are in the IT department.

You can also perform this action in SharePoint Server by going to Central Administration and selecting App Management | Manage Service Applications | User Profile Service | Manage Audiences, or in SharePoint Online by going to SharePoint Admin Center| User Profiles | Manage:

          $MySiteHostUrl = "https://<sharepoint my sites url>"
          

          $AudienceName = "OneDrive Pilot Users"
          

          $AudienceDescription = "OneDrive Pilot Users"
          

          $AudienceRules = @()
          

          $AudienceRules += New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.Audience.AudienceRuleComponent("Department", "Contains", "IT")
          

          $Site = Get-SPSite $MySiteHostUrl
          

          $ctx = [Microsoft.Office.Server.ServerContext]::GetContext($site)
          

          $AudMan = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.Audience.AudienceManager($ctx)
          

          $Audience = $AudMan.Audiences.Create($AudienceName, $AudienceDescription)
          

          $Audience.AudienceRules = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
          

          $AudienceRules | ForEach-Object { $Audience.AudienceRules.Add($_) }
          

          $Audience.Commit()
          

          $Upa = Get-SPServiceApplication | Where-Object {$_.TypeName -eq "User Profile Service Application"}
          

          $AudienceJob = [Microsoft.Office.Server.Audience.AudienceJob]::RunAudienceJob(($Upa.Id.Guid.ToString(), "1", "1", $Audience.AudienceName))

Now that we know how to create a pilot group, let's learn how to configure permissions.

Configuring permissions

To use OneDrive for Business in Microsoft 365, users must have both the Create Personal Site and Follow People and Edit Profile permissions in Microsoft 365. These are assigned by default, but it's recommended you check.

To verify these permissions, follow these steps.

  1. Log in to the Microsoft 365 admin center (https://admin.microsoft.com).
  2. Expand Admin Centers and then click SharePoint.
  3. In the navigation pane, click More features, and then click Open under User profiles:

  1. Under People, click Manage User Permissions.
  2. On the Permissions for userprofile_<id> page, select Everyone Except External Users:

  1. Ensure all three boxes are selected and click OK.

The Everyone Except External Users group is configured by default, with all permissions selected. Unless you have changed the default permissions to limit onboarding directly in Microsoft 365, this step is usually just verifying that the correct permissions are already in place.

Running the Hybrid Configuration Wizard

To perform the redirection configuration, you will need the OneDrive/My Sites URL in Office 365. You can locate it by navigating to SharePoint Online Admin Center, selecting More features, and then clicking Open under the Classic site collections pagesection. Once it's loaded, you'll need to find site collection that matches the format https://<tenant>-my.sharepoint.com.

When you have your tenant's My Sites URL, you can follow these steps to configure OneDrive for Business redirection:

  1. Launch the SharePoint Hybrid Configuration Wizard from the icon on the desktop or from Central Administration.
  2. Only select the Hybrid OneDrivecheckbox. If you want new My Sites to default to OneDrive for Business, select the sub-option as well:

  1. Click Next.
  2. Verify that it has been completed successfully:

  1. If you want to configure Hybrid OneDrive for only a specific audience, launch Central Administration and select Office 365. Then, click Configure hybrid OneDrive and Sites features.
  1. Select Use a specific audience, and then select an audience. Then, click OK:

With that, Hybrid OneDrive for Business has been configured. Next, we'll look at configuring hybrid sites and their features.

Configuring hybrid sites

With SharePoint, when a user follows a site for updates, it's added to the user's Followed Sites list. However, with mixed environments (such as SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online), if users follow sites in both environments, they'll end up with two Followed Sites lists containing different items.

With hybrid sites features, the user's sites link from on-premises SharePoint is redirected to SharePoint Online so that users can maintain a single list.

It's important to note that currently followed sites in SharePoint Server are not migrated. Users will have to re-establish their followed sites once the feature is enabled.

To configure hybrid sites, follow these steps:

  1. Launch SharePoint Hybrid Configuration Wizard from the icon on the desktop or from Central Administration.
  2. After authenticating, select the Hybrid Sitesoption and click Next:

  1. Review the configuration summary and click Close:

With that, your hybrid sites have been successfully configured. Users can now use the Follow link on a site either on-premises or in SharePoint Online and will have a consolidated view of followed sites moving forward.

Next, we'll look at Hybrid B2B site configurations.

Configuring Hybrid B2B sites

Creating extranet or business-to-business (B2B) sites in SharePoint removes the need to create and manage Active Directory accounts in an on-premises forest for external users, and also allows organizations to utilize the native site collection security boundaries and Azure security controls present in Office 365.

Some of the benefits of using B2B sites in the Microsoft 365 platform include the following:

  • Low implementation cost: No additional hardware or software resources outside of your existing Microsoft 365 licensing are necessary; no firewall or other network configurations need to be made.
  • Secure sharing and identity management: B2B extranet sharing in Microsoft 365 allows us to restrict partners or guests to a single site easily, as well as making it easy for us to manage who can share what and what external domains are allowed or blocked.
  • Collaboration: Seamless collaboration capabilities allow external guests to interact with internal users via SharePoint and Teams.
  • Data loss prevention: Here, you can easily apply robust controls to content sharing to prevent privileged data from leaving the organization.
  • Auditing: Since every activity is logged in Microsoft 365, you have easy-to-access tools that give you visibility into when documents or resources were shared, accessed, and modified.

All of these features make Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online a compelling choice for B2B sharing.

To configure the Hybrid B2B features using the Hybrid Configuration Wizard, follow these steps:

  1. Launch SharePoint Hybrid Configuration Wizard from the icon on the desktop or from Central Administration.
  2. After authenticating, select the Hybrid business to business (B2B) sitesoption and click Next:

  1. Review the configuration summary and click Close:

From here, you can now navigate to SharePoint Online and provision a new site collection for use with external guests or connect to another partner organization through Azure Active Directory to create a managed B2B guest experience.

When creating B2B sites in Microsoft 365, you'll need to use the SharePoint Online admin center, which can be accessed via https://admin.microsoft.com. To quickly enable B2B connectivity, follow these steps:

  1. Launch the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (https://admin.microsoft.com) and navigate to Admin centers | SharePoint.
  1. Navigate to Sites | Active Sites and then click + Create to create a site. Fill out the main details and click Next:

  1. Add the email addresses of any internal users or external guests. Click Finish when you're done:

External users will receive an email invitation with a link that they can click on to gain access to the site.

Creating managed B2B guest experiences is outside the scope of the MS-301 exam, but you can learn more about this feature at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/solutions/b2b-extranet?view=o365-worldwide.

Next, we'll look at the cross-premises integration features of the hybrid app launcher.

Configuring the hybrid app launcher

The hybrid app launcher experience brings down Office 365 integrations into the local SharePoint app launcher. This gives users a single interface for both the SharePoint Server and Office 365 environments.

To configure the hybrid app launcher, follow these steps:

  1. Launch SharePoint Hybrid Configuration Wizard from the icon on the desktop or from Central Administration.
  2. After authenticating, select the Hybrid app launcheroption and click Next:

  1. Verify that the setup has completed successfully and click Close:

After configuring the hybrid app launcher, you should be able to browse to the local SharePoint farm, click the App Launcher icon in the upper-left-hand part of the page, and then see links for Office 365 apps integrated with SharePoint on-premises, as shown in the following screenshot:

As shown in the preceding screenshot, hovering over the Excel icon in the app launcher links us to the Excel online application.

Configuring document rendering for web apps

In Office 365, users have the ability to create and edit documents with the Office Online apps. To enable a corresponding feature on-premises, you need to deploy an Office Online (also known as Office Web Apps) server. Office Online Server is only available through the Volume Licensing Service Center.

In the next few sections, we'll review the prerequisites for installing Office Online Server, as well as configuring it.

Configuring the prerequisites for Office Online Server

Office Online Server has several requirements that must be met prior to installation:

If you are installing on Windows Server 2012 R2, run the following PowerShell command to install the prerequisite components:

          Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Static-Content,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,InkandHandwritingServices,NET-Framework-Features,NET-Framework-Core,NET-HTTP-Activation,NET-Non-HTTP-Activ,NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45,Windows-Identity-Foundation,Server-Media-Foundation

If you are installing on Windows Server 2016 or later, run the following PowerShell command to install the prerequisite components:

          Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Static-Content,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,NET-Framework-Features,NET-Framework-45-Features,NET-Framework-Core,NET-Framework-45-Core,NET-HTTP-Activation,NET-Non-HTTP-Activ,NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45,Windows-Identity-Foundation,Server-Media-Foundation

We'll learn how to install Office Online Server in the next section.

Installing the Office Online Server

Once the prerequisites have been met, you can start installing Office Online Server.

To install and configure Office Online Server for document rendering, follow these steps:

  1. Prior to installation, download the Office Online Server Language Packs files (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=798136) and save it to a local folder.
  2. From the Office Online Server media, run Setup.exe.
  3. Click the I accept the terms of this agreement checkbox and select Continue.
  4. Choose the destination file location and click Install Now:

  1. When finished, click Close.
  2. Launch the file you downloaded earlier for the language packs.

With that, the Office Online Server components have been installed. Next, we'll configure the server so that it can integrate with SharePoint Server.

Configuring Office Online Server

After the Office Online Server components have been installed, you will need to configure SharePoint so that it can use them to render or display Office document files. The integration between SharePoint and Office Online Server can use either HTTP or HTTPS communications. HTTP is intended for testing, while HTTPS is intended for production use. HTTPS configuration will require SSL certificates to be deployed.

In this example, we're going to configure a single-server Office Online farm using HTTP.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. In Office Online Server, launch an elevated PowerShell session.
  2. Log in to a SharePoint server in the farm.
  3. Launch an elevated SharePoint management shell.
  1. Run the following command, where <servername> is the name of the server running Office Online Server. Note that if the New-OfficeWebAppsFarm command is not available, you'll need to load the module manually with a command similar to Import-Module 'C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office Web AppAdminModuleOfficeWebAppsofficewebapps.psd1':
          New-OfficeWebAppsFarm -InternalURL "http://<servername>" -AllowHttp -EditingEnabled
  1. If prompted to confirm editing can occur, select Y (as your licensing permits). If your organization has not licensed the editing components, enter N.
  2. Configure Secure Store to allow HTTP access with the following command:
          Set-OfficeWebAppsFarm -AllowHttpSecureStoreConnections:$true
  1. Log in to SharePoint Server and launch an elevated SharePoint Management Shell.
  2. Run the following command, replacing <ServerName> with the newly configured Office Online Server fully-qualified domain name. If you're using HTTPS, you can leave off the -AllowHTTPparameter:
          New-SPWOPIBinding -ServerName <ServerName> -AllowHTTP
  1. Update the Office Web Apps zone with the following command:
           Set-SPWOPIZone -Zone "internal-http"
  1. Update the SharePoint setting to allow OAuth over HTTP with the following command:
          $config = (Get-SPSecurityTokenServiceConfig)
          

          $config.AllowOAuthOverHttp = $true
          

          $config.Update()
  1. Enable the SOAP API for Excel services by adding the WopiLegacySoapSupport property to the SharePoint farm properties, replacing <http://officeonlineserver> with the Office Online server address:
          $Farm = Get-SPFarm;
          

          $Farm.Properties.Add("WopiLegacySoapSupport", <http://officeonlineserver>/x/_vti_bin/ExcelServiceInternal.asmx");
          

          $Farm.Update()

With that, Office Online Server has been connected to your SharePoint farm and configured to display and render Office documents.

Next, let's look at some common troubleshooting scenarios.

Troubleshooting hybrid configuration issues

Depending on the complexity of your on-premises SharePoint environment, some issues can arise during configuration. You will need to review these troubleshooting steps to help resolve issues.

Hybrid taxonomy language not found

When configuring hybrid taxonomy and content types, the SharePoint Online tenant must be configured with the same languages as the on-premises environment. If it is not, you'll need to resolve that before moving forward. In this case, the local languages supported include English and French, while the target SharePoint Online tenant is not configured with French:

To resolve this issue, add support for the missing languages in the SharePoint Online Term Store.

Invalid content type name

When copying content types to SharePoint Online, you may run into an error regarding an invalid content type name:

To resolve this conflict, use the Remove() method on the $ContentTypeNames variable and rerun Copy-SPContentTypes.

Site following

If you've configured hybrid site following and a user who does not have an on-premises My Site attempts to follow a new site, you may see an error similar to the following:

To resolve this issue, provision an on-premises My Site for the user.

Document rendering

If you attempt to configure a new Office Web Apps farm, you may run into the following error:

To resolve the issue, ensure you activate the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure site collection feature and the SharePoint Server Publishing site feature before running New-OfficeWebAppsFarm.

Summary

In this chapter, we reviewed the steps we need to take to implement a wide variety of SharePoint hybrid configurations, including sites, extranet or B2B sites, Managed Metadata services, the app launcher, and search.

Each of these features brings additional capabilities to help organizations extend their environments into the cloud while maintaining an on-premises footprint.

Questions

Use the following questions to test your knowledge of this chapter. You can find the answers in Chapter 16, Assessment Answers:

  1. You are the SharePoint administrator for your organization. You need to configure Hybrid OneDrive for Business for a pilot group of users. Which of the following is the most appropriate step to take?
    1. Create an audience for pilot users.
    2. Create a security group for pilot users.
    3. Create a distribution group for pilot users.
    4. Create a hybrid search application.
  2. You are the SharePoint administrator for your organization. You need to configure Hybrid OneDrive for Business for a pilot group of users. Which steps should you perform?
    1. Create an audience for pilot users.
    2. Create a security group for pilot users.
    3. Set the on-premises User Profile service to read-only.
    4. Remove the on-premises My Sites site collection.
    5. Run the Hybrid Configuration Wizard and select the OneDrive for Business option.
    6. Configure on-premises My Sites and the User Profile service application.
    7. Manage the features of the Hybrid OneDrive configuration to scope it to the pilot audience.
    8. Manage the features of the Hybrid OneDrive configuration to scope it to the pilot security group.
  1. You are configuring SharePoint hybrid taxonomy and encounter the following error: Language exists in local term store but not in remote Term Store. What should you do to resolve the issue?
    1. Connect to SharePoint Online with PowerShell and run the language pack setup executable for the missing languages.
    2. Add the missing languages to the term store through the Term Store management tool in SharePoint Online.
    3. Add the missing languages to the term store through the Term Store management tool in Central Administration.
    4. Grant Group administrator privileges on the languages in SharePoint Online.
    5. Connect to SharePoint Online with PowerShell and run the Add-SPLanguage command.
  2. You are configuring a hybrid taxonomy for your SharePoint farm. Which two commands do you need to run to copy the required data to SharePoint Online?
    1. Copy-SPTaxonomyGroups
    2. Copy-SPOTaxonomyGroups
    3. Copy-SPTermStore
    4. Copy-SPOTermStore
    5. Copy-SPContentTypes
    6. Copy-SPOContentTypes
  3. You are preparing an end user communication plan for your planned hybrid sites configuration. What information should you include?
    1. Users will not need to refollow any currently followed on-premises sites.
    2. Users will need to refollow any currently followed on-premises sites.
    3. Users will need to work with followed sites, both on-premises and online.
    4. Users will not be able to follow on-premises sites.
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