Copilot Actions, rolling out

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Copilot Actions has been available through Copilot Studio for some time, and now, a version of this feature is being rolled out within Microsoft 365. This new integration offers a user-friendly way to automate and delegate common tasks. The term "Actions" varies depending on the application. In Copilot Studio, it serves as a flexible tool for agents. By combining Copilot prompts and conversations, triggers (such as file modifications or scheduled reminders), and user-defined rules, Copilot Actions can generate artifacts that streamline workflows. A similar type of action is teased in the "lightweight" version of Copilot Studio within the M365 agent builder (marked as "coming soon"). The version discussed here is a new out-of-the-box functionality, designed to ensure that even users with minimal technical expertise can benefit from its powerful asynchronous capabilities. To utilize Copilot Actions, users must have a Copilot license (priced at $30). The help...

Backing up your Lync 2010 Standard edition

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When it comes to Lync 2010 Backup and restore, there are a lot of good articles out there to help you one your way. But none of these examples really satisfied my needs.
And as the Lync 2013 Preview has been released, backing up your existing Lync environment before installing the preview is a really smart thing to do.

I am not going to pretend I wrote all of this, as much of it is almost copy/paste from other posts. But I have been tweaking what others have done before me, and added elements I wanted in my script.

I would like to send a great thank you to  Traci Herr, who did most of the job for me over at: http://bit.ly/eGjGrl

In addition to the original script, I have altered the SQL backup to run within the PS script based on this Wiki post: http://bit.ly/ROnG6v So a great thank you to the contributors there is also in order.

Lastly, I have added a send to .zip file and a clean up routine. This way, I have it all in a singe zip file (which can then be backed up by the system file backup), and I will not run out of disk space (You have no idea how much data you might end up with after a few backups)

The script itself can be downloaded here. And will be posted on my script page shortly.

Here are a few things to consider before you run this on your own servers.

  • This script is for a Standard Edition Server (I will look into a Enterprise edition shortly).
  • The script must be run on a server where Lync PS is available, and this must be imported if you are to run this as a scheduled task (See the script for details).
  • If you want to backup your RGS information, you will have to install reskit tools as well (and import the script commands as I do in my script)
  • My script creates a directory C:\lyncbackup\, this may be edited if you like.
  • I have not been able to enumerate the filepath for a local share on a STD Lync server. This must be edited for autpmation (See script for details)
  • Certificates will only be backed up if you allowed for this when requesting and creating certificates.
  • The creation of the zipfile can take a while. The script finishes before the zipfile is finished (If anyone know how to wait for this task before quitting the script, please let me know).
That's all there is to it.

As always, I appreciate feedback or suggestions on improvements.