External Sharing in SharePoint and OneDrive is changing: What You Need to Know

In an ongoing effort to create a more secure environment by default, Microsoft is introducing an important security update that will affect how external users access content shared through SharePoint and OneDrive. Starting July 1, 2025, any links shared with external users before your organization enabled Microsoft Entra B2B integration will no longer work. This change applies to all organizations that have already enabled or will enable SharePoint and OneDrive integration with Microsoft Entra B2B (Most organizations I have looked into so far). External users trying to use old links will see an error message saying the organization has updated its guest access settings. To regain access, the content must be reshared. Highlights of how the change affects organizations who have enabled B2B: All external sharing will require guest registration. External users must be added as guests in your Microsoft Entra directory. Access will be managed through Microsoft Entra B2B Invitation Manager. T...

Don't forget to specify sql instance on install-csdatabase

I was upgrading a Lync 2010 standard edition server to 2013, when I came across a problem with the "Install-CsDatabse" command. The technet article (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj688013.aspx) is pretty good, but it left me with the impression "RTC" was the default database for the command.

I was using the following command:

Install-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SqlServerFqdn myserver.domain.com -Verbose

But all I was getting was an error message saying the server\instance was not available:


According to the article, RTC is the default instance, and I made the mistake of beliving RTC was the default instance for the command as well. After reading a couple of logs, trying to make it work, I realized the default instance for the command is DEFAULT, not RTC.

When installing a database on a Standard Edition 2013 server, remember to specify the RTC instance, and save yourself some troubleshooting :).

This command worked like a charm:

Install-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SqlServerFqdn myserver.domain.com -SqlInstanceName rtc