You are not able to list public folders in a co-existence scenario with Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010/2013 using the Exchange 2007 EMS or EMC.
When you try to execute Get-PublicFolder you receive the following error:
Get-PublicFolder " There is no existing PublicFolder that matches the following Identity: '\'. Please make sure that you specified the correct PublicFolder Identity and that you have the necessary permissions to view PublicFolder.
This might happen after you have removed the first Exchange 2007 mailbox server, but not the last Exchange 2007 mailbox server.
Exchange Server 2007 uses the Exchange System Attendant to access the public folder store and fails, if the System Attendant discovery in Active Directory does not provide a proper configuration.
KB 2621350 describes the discovery process:
There two annoying things about these steps
The magic System Attendant mailbox has been removed from Exchange 2010. But the System Attendent configuration node does still exist in the Active Directory Configuration Partition for compatibility reasons. The configured attributes of the System Attendent entry vary depending on the version of the installed Exchange Server.
In regards of public folder issue, we need to focus on the following:
To fix the public folder access issue for Exchange Server 2007, set the homeMDB and homeMTA attributes. Set the Exchange System Attendant attributes to appropriate values for your Exchange servers.
Repeat steps 4 to 8 for each Exchange 2013 server in your environment.
Repeat steps 4 to 13 for each Exchange 2010 server in your environment.
Wait for Active Directory replication and retry to access the public folders using Get-PublicFolder in an Exchange Server 2007 Management Shell.
It might be required to restart the Exchange 2007 Information Store and System Attendant service of the Exchange 2007 server in question
Use an administrative PowerShell
Restart-Service MSExchangeIS Restart-Service MSExchangeSA
I haven’t noticed any issues in production environments so far. If you encounter any issues in your environment, feel free to leave a comment.
You need assistance with your Exchange Server setup? You have questions about your Exchange Server infrastructure and going hybrid? You are interested in what Exchange Server 2016 has to offer for your environment?
Contact me at thomas@mcsmemail.de Follow at https://twitter.com/stensitzki
When you run your Exchange Organization in hybrid mode with Office 365 and you migrate your on-premise Public Folders to Office 365, you are required to configure a remote Public Folder Mailbox in the Exchange Organization settings.
With Public Folders on-premise your Exchange Online Org looks like this:
Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *public* DefaultPublicFolderAgeLimit : DefaultPublicFolderIssueWarningQuota : 1.7 GB (1,825,361,920 bytes) DefaultPublicFolderProhibitPostQuota : 2 GB (2,147,483,648 bytes) DefaultPublicFolderMaxItemSize : Unlimited DefaultPublicFolderDeletedItemRetention : 30.00:00:00 DefaultPublicFolderMovedItemRetention : 7.00:00:00 PublicFoldersLockedForMigration : False PublicFolderMigrationComplete : False PublicFoldersEnabled : Remote PublicComputersDetectionEnabled : False RootPublicFolderMailbox : 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 RemotePublicFolderMailboxes : {PublicFolder-Mailbox001}
With Public Folders on-premise your On-Premise Exchange Org looks like this:
Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *public* DefaultPublicFolderAgeLimit : DefaultPublicFolderIssueWarningQuota : Unlimited DefaultPublicFolderProhibitPostQuota : Unlimited DefaultPublicFolderMaxItemSize : Unlimited DefaultPublicFolderDeletedItemRetention : 30.00:00:00 DefaultPublicFolderMovedItemRetention : 7.00:00:00 PublicFoldersLockedForMigration : True PublicFolderMigrationComplete : True PublicFoldersEnabled : Local PublicComputersDetectionEnabled : False RootPublicFolderMailbox : ae0ef819-90d2-45d0-92b6-8b2062cf71a3 RemotePublicFolderMailboxes : {}
With Public Folders in Exchange Online your Exchange Online Org looks like this:
Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *public* DefaultPublicFolderAgeLimit : DefaultPublicFolderIssueWarningQuota : 1.7 GB (1,825,361,920 bytes) DefaultPublicFolderProhibitPostQuota : 2 GB (2,147,483,648 bytes) DefaultPublicFolderMaxItemSize : Unlimited DefaultPublicFolderDeletedItemRetention : 30.00:00:00 DefaultPublicFolderMovedItemRetention : 7.00:00:00 PublicFoldersLockedForMigration : False PublicFolderMigrationComplete : False PublicFoldersEnabled : Local PublicComputersDetectionEnabled : False RootPublicFolderMailbox : 5810bb30-cdda-4287-85a4-8a2547bb9b01 RemotePublicFolderMailboxes : {}
With Public Folders in Exchange Online your Exchange On-Premise Org looks like this:
Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *public* DefaultPublicFolderAgeLimit : DefaultPublicFolderIssueWarningQuota : Unlimited DefaultPublicFolderProhibitPostQuota : Unlimited DefaultPublicFolderMaxItemSize : Unlimited DefaultPublicFolderDeletedItemRetention : 30.00:00:00 DefaultPublicFolderMovedItemRetention : 7.00:00:00 PublicFoldersLockedForMigration : True PublicFolderMigrationComplete : True PublicFoldersEnabled : Remote PublicComputersDetectionEnabled : False RootPublicFolderMailbox : 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 RemotePublicFolderMailboxes : {mcsmemail.de/Users/PF365-Mailbox-01-55e3d544-ed5a-4557-9008-d8c1b6f06d86}
The remote public folder mailbox has been added to the on-premise Exchange confguration by using:
Set-OrganizationConfig -RemotePublicFolderMailboxes PF365-Mailbox-001 -PublicFoldersEnabled Remote
To be able to add the remote public folder mailbox in a hybrid configuration you are required to add the public folder mailbox (or mailboxes, if you have more than one serving the hierarchy) as a mail user.
Microsoft provides a PowerShell script as part of a script collection here.
When you run the Import-PublicFolderMailboxes.ps1 script you might run into the following error:
Cannot bind parameter 'Name' to the target. Exception setting "Name": "The length of the property is too long. The maximum length is 64 and the length of the value provided is 65." + CategoryInfo : WriteError: (:) [New-MailUser], ParameterBindingException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterBindingFailed,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.RecipientTasks.NewMailUser + PSComputerName : ex2013.mcsmemail.de
The name attribute for a mail user is limited to 64 characters. But why are you exceeding the length when the mailbox name is only 17 characters long?
It turns out that the PowerSheel script adds a prefix name "" and ther mailbox GUID as a suffix. And voilá, the name exceeds the allowed length for the mail user name attribute.
Don't use more than 16 characters when naming the Public Folder mailboxes in Office 365.
Or modify the Import-PublicFolderMailboxes.ps1 script to fit your needs.
$hasPublicFolderServingHierarchy = $true; $displayName = $publicFolderMailbox.Name.ToString().Trim(); # ORIG: $name = "RemotePfMbx-" + $displayName + "-" + [guid]::NewGuid(); $name = $displayName + "-" + [guid]::NewGuid(); $externalEmailAddress = $publicFolderMailbox.PrimarySmtpAddress.ToString();
You need assistance with your Exchange Server setup? You have questions about your Exchange Server infrastructure and going hybrid? You are interested in what Exchange Server 2016 has to offer for your environment? Contact me at thomas@mcsmemail.de Follow at https://twitter.com/stensitzki
This script will generate a report for Exchange 2007/2010 Public Folder Replication. It returns general information, such as total number of public folders, total items in all public folders, total size of all items, the top 20 largest folders, and more. Additionally, it lists each Public Folder and the replication status on each server.
By default, this script will scan the entire Exchange environment in the current domain and all public folders. This can be limited by using the -ComputerName and -FolderPath parameters.
NOTE: This is an updated version of the Mike Walker (blog.mikewalker.me) to support non-ASCII environments.
Generate a public folder generation report for public folder \MYPUBLICFOLDER having replicas on servers MXSRV01, MXSRV02, MXSRV03
Get-PublicFolderReplicationReport.ps1 -ComputerName MXSRV01,MXSRV02,MXSRV03 -FolderPath "\MYPUBLICFOLDER" -Recurse -Subject "Public Folder Environment Report" -AsHTML -To postmaster@varunagroup.de -From postmaster@varunagroup.de -SmtpServer relay.mcsmemail.de -SendEmail
Example report
If you want to simplufy the report generation, create an addtional script: Run-PublicFolderReplicationReport.ps1
param( [string]$publicFolderPath = '' ) # Variables # Custom label for email subject $label = 'Exchange 2007' $recipients = 'pfreports@mcsmemail.de' $sender = 'postmaster@mcsmemail.de' # array of public folder servers to query $publicFolderServers = @('EX2007-01','EX2010-01') # SMTP server to relay mail $smtpServer = 'relay.mcsmemail.de' # Used to trigger a dedicated report for \GrFolder1\Folder1, \GrFolder1\Folder2 $granularRootFolder = @() # @("\Folder01") $subPath = '' # Check for granular folders, Added 2016-01-19 if($granularRootFolder -contains $publicFolderPath) { $subPath = $publicFolderPath $publicFolderPath = '' } # if($publicFolderPath -ne '') { Write-Host "Generating Public Folder reports for $($publicFolderPath)" # Generate report for a single public folder | Change COMPUTERNAME attribute for servers to analyse .\Get-PublicFolderReplicationReport.ps1 -ComputerName $publicFolderServers -FolderPath $publicFolderPath -Recurse -Subject "Public Folder Environment Report [$($publicFolderPath)] [$($label)]" -AsHTML -To $recipients -From $sender -SmtpServer $smtpServer -SendEmail } else { if($subPath -ne '') { $publicFolderPath = $subPath } else { $publicFolderPath = '\' } if($granularRootFolder.Count -ne 0) { Write-Host 'Following root folders will be excluded when using "\":' $($granularRootFolder) } Write-Host "Generating Public Folder reports for all folders in $($publicFolderPath)" $folders = Get-PublicFolder $publicFolderPath -GetChildren # Generate a single report for each folder in root $folderCount = ($folders | Measure-Object).Count $pfCount = 1 foreach($pf in $folders) { # Check, if folder is in list of granular folders if($granularRootFolder -notcontains $pf) { if($pf.ParentPath -eq '\') { $name = "$($pf.ParentPath)$($pf.Name)" } else { $name = "$($pf.ParentPath)\$($pf.Name)" } $activity = 'Generating Stats' $status = "Fetching $($name)" Write-Progress -Activity $activity -Status $status -PercentComplete (($pfCount/$folderCount)*100) .\Get-PublicFolderReplicationReport.ps1 -ComputerName $publicFolderServers -FolderPath $name -Recurse -Subject "Public Folder Environment Report [$($name)] [$($label)]" -AsHTML -To $recipients -From $sender -SmtpServer $smtpServer -SendEmail $pfCount++ } } }
Use the $granularRootFolder array to add root public folders which require a dedicated report for each sub-folder.
Additional credits go to Mike Walker (blog.mikewalker.me)
This Powershell script has been optimized using the ISESteroids™ add-on. Learn more about ISESteroids™ here.
When you delete a public folder using a legacy Outlook client, you can easily restore the deleted folder and it's content using the Recover Deleted Items function.
Due to a fancy trick implemented in Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016 the recovered folder will not be recovered using it's full name.
This phenomenon has been verified with Exchange On-Premises and Exchange Online on the server side and Outlook 2013/2016 and Outlook 365 ProPlus.
The following example uses public folders in Exchange Online and Outlook 365 ProPlus.
In this example I will delete and recover a public folder named My Public Folder.
After deletion of My Public Folder and it's content, I need to select the original parent folder and click the Recover Deleted Items button in the button bar.
The Recover Deleted Items dialogue opens and we select the deleted item for recovery. The dialogue displays the original name of the deleted folder.
After recovering the deleted folder the folder is recovered with the first character only.
That's an annoying result in regards to customer self-care when users restore deleted items on their own behalf.
But wait, there is a solution available.
The solution requires today's primary administrative tool available: PowerShell.
Get an overview of public folders currently located in the public folder dumpster
Get-PublicFolder –Identity “\NON_IPM_SUBTREE” –Recurse Name Parent Path ---- ----------- NON_IPM_SUBTREE [...] My Public Folder \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-3... Sub Folder 1 \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-3... Sub Folder 2 \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-3... [...]
Export the list of public folders currently located in the public folder dumpster and find the identity of the deleted public folder you want to recover
Get-PublicFolder –Identity “\NON_IPM_SUBTREE” –Recurse | fl | Out-File D:\TMP\publicfolderdumpster.txt
publicfolderdumpster.txt excerpt:
RunspaceId : 6ce9588e-829b-4592-aedc-85f9a2e2c963 Identity : \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-366a-4e0 9-81fe-ea576ec7a6f7\My Public Folder Name : My Public Folder MailEnabled : False MailRecipientGuid : ParentPath : \NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-366a-4e0 9-81fe-ea576ec7a6f7
Recover the deleted public folder to the correct parent target folder
Set-PublicFolder –Identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\65722859-366a-4e09-81fe-ea576ec7a6f7\My Public Folder" –Path “\TestFolders” –Verbose
As a result the public folder is recovered with it's original name.
There are some other things to consider when recovering deleted modern public folders.
Public folders originally located in the hierarchy root are always recovered to the public folder mailbox holding the primary hierarchy.
Public folders originally located in the hierarchy root will replace the permissions of child public folders when restored.
More on these default restore behaviours can be read here.
Nevertheless, enjoy modern public folders.
The community script to gather legacy public folder replication reports for Exchange Server 2010 and Exchange Server 2007 has been updated.
The replica status of a public folder is indicated by a green or red backgroud color for each folder and replica. The previous version of the script used the replica percentage to set the backgroud color. Escpecially folders holding a large number of items had an issue when Math::Round provided a 100% value.
The current version of the script compares the item count itself. This approach provides a more accurate result.
Enjoy.
Migrating legacy public folders (Exchange Server 2010 or older) to modern public folders (Exchange 2013 or newer / Office 365) requires a cleanup of public folders.
There are quite a lot of blog posts and tutorials available describing the general process of migrating legacy public folders to modern public folders.
First you have to identify all public folders having a backslash "\" as part of the public folder name.
Get-PublicFolderDatabase | ForEach {Get-PublicFolderStatistics -Server $_.Server | Where {$_.Name -like "*\*"}}
Just rename those public folders to a name without a backslash.
Another issue might prevent a successful public folder migration: Access Controll Lists (ACL)
This will be the case in public folder hierarchies that go back to the early days of Exchange and have never cleaned up properly during past Exchange migrations.
The cleanup any orphaned Active Directory accounts, run the following PowerShell script.
Get-PublicFolder "\" -Recurse -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-PublicFolderClientPermission | ?{$_.User -like "NT User:S-1-*"} | %{Remove-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity $_.Identity -User $_.User -Access $_.AccessRights -Confirm:$false}
To cleanup just a single public folder, run the following PowerShell script.
Get-PublicFolder "\My Folder" -Recurse -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-PublicFolderClientPermission | ?{$_.User -like "NT User:S-1-*"} | %{Remove-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity $_.Identity -User $_.User -Access $_.AccessRights -Confirm:$false}
It should be noted that most of the tutorials have been written using an Exchange Server lab environment with just a few legacy public folders. Therefore, some readers tend to beleive that you only need one modern public folder mailbox. That is not true. In a large legacy public folder infrastructure you will end up with a multiple public folder mailboxes. And the number of mailboxes required to serve the public folder hierarchy.
A larger public folder migration batch using 66 public folder mailboxes looks like this:
Get-MigrationUser -BatchID PFMigration | Get-MigrationUserStatistics | ft -AutoSize Identity Batch Status Items Synced Items Skipped -------- ----- ------ ------------ ------------- PFMailbox1 PFMigration Synced 91993 16 PFMailbox2 PFMigration Synced 103239 0 PFMailbox46 PFMigration Synced 35034 0 PFMailbox56 PFMigration Synced 22554 0 PFMailbox57 PFMigration Synced 20740 0 PFMailbox58 PFMigration Synced 20122 0 PFMailbox59 PFMigration Synced 7209 0 PFMailbox60 PFMigration Synced 104727 0 PFMailbox61 PFMigration Synced 23278 0 PFMailbox62 PFMigration Synced 9760 0 PFMailbox63 PFMigration Synced 9277 0 PFMailbox65 PFMigration Synced 5870 0 PFMailbox64 PFMigration Synced 5639 0 PFMailbox66 PFMigration Synced 21261 0 PFMailbox50 PFMigration Synced 27889 0 PFMailbox52 PFMigration Synced 14063 0 PFMailbox47 PFMigration Synced 29476 0 PFMailbox54 PFMigration Synced 24283 0 PFMailbox55 PFMigration Synced 4646 0 PFMailbox51 PFMigration Synced 59943 0 PFMailbox53 PFMigration Synced 30052 0 PFMailbox49 PFMigration Synced 22746 0 PFMailbox48 PFMigration Synced 16941 0 PFMailbox18 PFMigration Synced 34307 0 PFMailbox19 PFMigration Synced 4523 0 PFMailbox11 PFMigration Synced 100409 0 PFMailbox6 PFMigration Synced 116655 0 PFMailbox4 PFMigration Synced 55240 5 PFMailbox12 PFMigration Synced 37790 0 PFMailbox3 PFMigration Synced 113842 2 PFMailbox22 PFMigration Synced 46416 0 PFMailbox23 PFMigration Synced 37387 0 PFMailbox13 PFMigration Synced 231845 1 PFMailbox7 PFMigration Synced 82859 0 PFMailbox20 PFMigration Synced 65818 0 PFMailbox21 PFMigration Synced 32270 0 PFMailbox9 PFMigration Synced 46609 0 PFMailbox14 PFMigration Synced 30637 0 PFMailbox38 PFMigration Synced 246428 1 PFMailbox43 PFMigration Synced 101837 0 PFMailbox45 PFMigration Synced 157571 0 PFMailbox44 PFMigration Synced 61763 0 PFMailbox40 PFMigration Synced 70637 1 PFMailbox41 PFMigration Synced 143042 0 PFMailbox42 PFMigration Synced 81254 0 PFMailbox39 PFMigration Synced 68876 2 PFMailbox15 PFMigration Synced 58221 0 PFMailbox27 PFMigration Synced 28065 0 PFMailbox24 PFMigration Synced 31869 1 PFMailbox5 PFMigration Synced 64125 0 PFMailbox30 PFMigration Synced 72938 1 PFMailbox33 PFMigration Synced 32545 1 PFMailbox31 PFMigration Synced 93782 0 PFMailbox32 PFMigration Synced 28743 0 PFMailbox25 PFMigration Synced 100794 0 PFMailbox26 PFMigration Synced 35412 0 PFMailbox28 PFMigration Synced 27003 0 PFMailbox29 PFMigration Synced 80510 0 PFMailbox17 PFMigration Synced 97952 1 PFMailbox8 PFMigration Synced 18601 0 PFMailbox34 PFMigration Synced 87150 0 PFMailbox35 PFMigration Synced 31531 0 PFMailbox36 PFMigration Synced 37979 0 PFMailbox37 PFMigration Synced 95770 0 PFMailbox10 PFMigration Synced 14193 0 PFMailbox16 PFMigration Synced 64323 1
Enjoy (modern) public folders.
You need assistance with your Exchange Server setup? You have questions about your Exchange Server infrastructure and going hybrid with Office 365? Contact us at office365@granikos.eu or visit our website https://www.granikos.eu.
This blog post is about creating an Twitter Bot to tweet messages using Azure Automation. The steps and the script itself are based on Trevor Sullivan's TechNet Gallery post. His post assumes that you are familiar with some Azure Automation steps. So I am going to describe the required steps in more detail.
You'll need the following components to setup your personal Twitter Bot.
First you'll need to create a Twitter application to reference your Azure Automation bot. The authentication information of your Twitter application will be needed in step 2.
The information required are
You need to create a new Twitter application by accesssing the following link: https://apps.twitter.com/
Ensure that you've added your mobile phone number to your Twitter account before creating a new Twitter application. This is a requirement for creating Twitter applications.
Log on to Twitter using the Twitter account you want your Twitter Bot to post as.You'll see something similar as this:
Just click Create New App.
Enter the information as needed. The application name must be a globally unique name. So it might be tricky to find a suitable application name. Click Create your Twitter application to finally create the application.
Select Keys and Access Tokens and copy the Consumer Key (API Key) and the Consumer Secret (API Secret) value into a text editor of your choice.
Further down on the same web page you'll find the Your Access Token section.
Click Create my access token.
After you've created the access token, copy the Access Token and the Access Token Secret to your text editor document. You'll need all four values in just a moment.
The Azure automation component will require application credentials for posting Tweets on your behalf. These required credentials are stored in a JSON file. Yo do not need top worry about the JSON data format.
The PoshTwit PowerShell module helps you to create the required JSON file.
The simpliest way to get the PoshTwit module is by installing the module directly from the PowerShell Gallery using an Administrative PowerShell session.
Install-Module PoshTwit
If you cannot use the Install-Module cmdlet, use the link provided in the Links section.
Remember that this step is only needed to create the JSON file containing the required credential information for Azure Automation.
After you've successfully installed the PoshTwit module, call the Set-PoshTwitToken cmdlet using all four Twitter app credential information to create the authentication JSON file.
Set-PoshTwitToken -ConsumerKey [YourConsumerKey] -ConsumerSecret [YourConsumerSecret] -AccessToken [YourAccessToken] -AccessSecret [AccessSecret]
The JSON file wil be created in the PowerShell module installtion folder. Which is by default:
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\PoshTwit\0.1.6
The version number might differ depending on the version you've installed.
Open the token.json file and copy the content to your text editor. The content of the token.json file will be the password for the Azure Automation credential object. The content will look like this:
{"ConsumerKey":"9FX***********","ConsumerSecret":"4kIxa***********","AccessToken":"24540854***********","AccessSecret":"OSYP***********"}
You should see your Twitter application authentication information. You will nedd to copy & paste this string including the curly brackets as account credentials at a later step.
Log on to the Azure Portal and create a new Azure Automation account. The Azure Automation will host your automation runbooks, variables and other settings. You can have multiple Azure Automation accounts. This is especially usefull when you want to delegate access and control of Automation accounts to different members of staff.
Click '+', enter Auto as search text and select Automation.
Click Create on the next blade.
Configure your new Azure Automation account by using a unique name, select the appropriate Azure subscription, create a new Resource Group or use an existing, select the Azure location, leave Yes as the default option for creating an Azure Run As account, select the checkbox to pin the Azure Automation account to your Azure dashboard, and click Create.
After you've been redirected to the Azure Dashboard wait for the Azure Automation Account to be created. If you are not redirected to the Azure Automation blade automatically, select the Automation Account tile on the Azure dashboard.
Select Process Automation - Runbooks. You'll notice two tutorials and two tutorial scripts which are automatically provisioned for you.
Click Add a runbook to create the Twitter Bot runbook.
The next step requires that you've download the Tweet-PowerShellTips.ps1 script. If you haven't, download it now.
Select Import an exisiting runbook and browse for the downloaded PowerShell script on the next blade. After selecting the PowerShell file the fiel will be uploaded and validated automatically. The Runbook type and Runbook name properties will be set automatically for you. Just enter a short description for your runbook. Click Create.
The uploaded PowerShell script utilizes the PoshTwit PowerShell module. This PowerShell module needs to be available within the Azure Automation account as well. Additonal PowerShell modules are configured within the Shared Resources section of your Azure Automation account. The PoshTwit module is added from the PowerShell Gallery.
Select Modules Gallery, enter PoshTwit as search text and press Enter, click the PoshTwit search result tile.
Click Import to import the PowerShell module to thre shared ressources of your Azure Automation account. Click OK on the following blade. Close the PoshTwit module blade.
Now you'll add the required Twitter application credentials to the Shared Resources of the Azure Automation account.
Select Shared Resources - Credentials and click Add a credential.
Use TwitterCredential as Name and User name. The variable is accessed by the PowerShell script using the cmdlet
Get-AutomationPSCredential -Name TwitterCredential
Now copy and paste the full JSON file content as Password and Password confirmation. Click Create to save the new credential information.
Select the new runbook from the list of runbooks to edit the runbook properties.
Click Edit to edit the PowerShell code to adjust the tweets to match your needs (at least). YOu are able to edit the PowerShell code directly from the browser window.
Ensure to click Save, after you've edited the PowerShell code.
Each time you've edited an Azure Runbook, you need to publish the new version of the runbook. Click Publish and confirm the publishing with Yes.
You can test your runbook using the Test pane. The script itself will not write any output to the output windows, as the script does not use any Write-Output cmdlets.
You can add the following PowerShell code to the script to output the Tweet Id and Tweet text.
Write-Output "Publish Tweet $($TweetId) | $($TweetList[$TweetId])"
As a last step you need to create a schedule to post random tweets automatically. Automation schedules are created as shared resources again.
Select Shared Resources - Schedules and click Add a schedule.
Configure a schedule name, the start date, the schedule time zone, and the recurring interval. Click Create.
Select your runbook to link the just created schedule.
Select Schedules and click Add a schedule.
Click Link a schedule to your runbook, select the schedule and click OK.
The runbook schedules overview will show an information when the next run will be initiated.
That's it. Your Azure Automation Twitter Bot is up and running.
Now you can simply edit the runbook, add new tweets to the string array, save the changes and publish the changed runbook for production use. As long as the changes are not published, Azure Automation will use the last published version of the runbook.
Enjoy Azure.
This is the source code of the updated PowerShell script.
# Array of tweets # Ensure that the length of each tweet does not exceed 140 characters # Ensure to have at least 2 entries $TweetList = @( 'Find more #PowerShell #scripts at http://scripts.granikos.eu ', 'More #Office365 and #MSFTExchange tips at http://JustCantGetEnough.granikos.eu ' ) # Get a tweet text by random $TweetId = Get-Random -Minimum 0 -Maximum ($TweetList.Count - 1); # Fetch automation credentials $TwitterCredential = Get-AutomationPSCredential -Name TwitterCredential; $TwitterCredential = ConvertFrom-Json -InputObject $TwitterCredential.GetNetworkCredential().Password; # Provision the tweet $Tweet = @{ ConsumerKey = $TwitterCredential.ConsumerKey; ConsumerSecret = $TwitterCredential.ConsumerSecret; AccessToken = $TwitterCredential.AccessToken; AccessSecret = $TwitterCredential.AccessSecret; Tweet = $TweetList[$TweetId]; }; # Publish the tweet Publish-Tweet @Tweet;