Introducing the "Default to Cloud" feature for SharePoint hybrid scenarios

Summary

Is your SharePoint Farm in or soon to be in a hybrid state? If so, you may be considering to move your users on-prem Mysite to OneDrive in the cloud. After enabling Office 365 features via Central Admin and running the "Hybrid Picker" (SharePoint Hybrid Configuration Wizard) users will be in a hybrid state, and will have access both on-prem and cloud services.

For example, if a user click on the "Newsfeeds" from within the on-prem team site, they would be redirected to their on-prem mysite. This can make things a bit confusing to customers and difficult to support for administrators.

How does "Default to Cloud" work?

With "Default to Cloud" enabled, users are less likely to access the on-prem content from within their mysite, as all requests to the on-prem mysite will automatically be redirected to the cloud based OneDrive, as defined in Central Admin.

Example from Fiddler, when accessing "Newsfeed":

Example from Fiddler when accessing "Documents" from "viewlsts.aspx":

How did it work before the update?

Before the new feature is installed, even after enabling "OneDrive and Sites" in the "Configure hybrid OneDrive and Sites features" settings via Central Admin, users would still be able to access the their local "Site Contents" (viewlsts.aspx) and "Documents" (OneDrive)  via  the "Newsfeed" link, or using direct links to their on-prem Mysite.

Where is the Office 365 My Site URL specified?

You will specify the cloud based My Site URL from "Central Admin > Office 365 > Configure hybrid OneDrive and Sites features"

Example:

Options:

• My Site URL: This will be the "My Site URL" that is defined in SharePoint Admin via Office 365.
• Audience: Who should this policy apply to, "Everyone" or a particular audience?
• OneDrive and Sites: Will re-direct users when clicking both OneDrive and Newsfeed to the cloud-based OneDrive site.
• OneDrive Only: Will only redirect users to the OneDrive cloud site when clicking the OneDrive link. Clicking the Newsfeed link will still allow users to access the OnPrem Newsfeed site.
• None: Disables all cloud redirects

See it in Action

What do users see when the feature is enabled or disabled.

When the feature is enabled:

After the feature is enabled, accessing "OneDrive" or "Newsfeed" will redirect the users to the cloud-based OneDrive location.

Example:

After a user clicks "Newsfeed", they will be re-directed to their personal OneDrive site in the cloud.

When the feature is disabled:

If the feature is disabled, users will be redirected to the local site for Newsfeeds and OneDrive.

Example:

After the user clicks "Newsfeed", they are redirected to the on-prem Newsfeed.

How to enable the feature:

SharePoint 2013:

1. To enable this feature, install the October 2017 CU or higher

Minimum Requirement:

October 10, 2017, cumulative update for SharePoint Enterprise Server 2013 (KB4011177)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4011177/october-10-2017-cumulative-update-for-sharepoint-enterprise-server

October 10, 2017, cumulative update for SharePoint Foundation 2013 (KB4011173)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4011173/october-10-2017-cumulative-update-for-sharepoint-foundation-2013

Note: The KB article that details the change is in 4011180

Recommend:

Although the fix for this feature was released in October 2017, it is highly recommend to install the December 2017 PU, which included cloud hybrid search capability in SharePoint Server 2013.

December 12, 2017, cumulative update for SharePoint Server 2013 (KB4011593)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4011593/december-12-2017-cumulative-update-sharepoint-server-2013-kb4011593

December 12, 2017, cumulative update for SharePoint Foundation 2013 (KB4011588)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4011588/december-12-2017-cumulative-update-for-sharepoint-foundation-2013-kb40

2. Select the desired option from "Configure hybrid OneDrive and Sites features" in Central Admin.

"Central Admin > Office 365 > Configure hybrid OneDrive and Sites features"

3. Re-run the SharePoint Hybrid picker

You can find the Hybrid Picker from the SharePoint Admin Center in your Office 365 Portal.

Example:

https://tenant_name-admin.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/online/SharePointHybridSettings.aspx

SharePoint 2016:

Description of the security update for SharePoint Server 2016: May 8, 2018
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4018381/description-of-the-security-update-for-sharepoint-enterprise-server-20

May 8, 2018, update for SharePoint Enterprise Server 2016 (KB4018386)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4018386/may-8-2018-update-for-sharepoint-enterprise-server-2016-kb4018386

How to enable the with PowerShell:

To change the setting, set the "OnedriveDefaultToCloudEnabled" parameter to “True”, use PowerShell.

Example:

 $o365settings = Get-SPO365LinkSettings
$o365settings.OnedriveDefaultToCloudEnabled = $True
$o365settings.Save()

Output:

 Audiences : {}
MySiteHostUrlMaxLength : 2048
MySiteHostUrl : https://contoso-my.sharepoint.com/
RedirectSites : True
HybridAppLauncherEnabled : True
IsEnabledForEveryone : True
OnedriveDefaultToCloudEnabled : True

If "OnedriveDefaultToCloudEnabled" is "True" , accessing anything from within their local "MySite", they will be re-directed to their SharePoint Online OneDrive site.

If "OnedriveDefaultToCloudEnabled" is “False” , the setting is disabled and when users attempt to access their local on-prem “MySite” resources, they stay within their local on-prem site.

Important Note:

The "Default to Cloud" features are activated by the "hybrid configuration wizard" after the appropriate patch is installed. If you later disable the settings via Central Admin, then re-enabled, you will need to re-run the "hybrid configuration wizard" to fully enable the feature.

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 06, 2019
  Good one, thanks :))