Complex Passwords OK in Cloud Connector Edition 1.4.2

Fixed in this week’s release of Cloud Connector Edition 1.4.2 is an issue where complex characters in your O365 password will prevent CCE from operating (or upgrading) successfully.

You’re prompted to provide O365 Admin credentials with the “Register-CcAppliance” step of the CCE installation process. This commandlet *will* accept a complex password without error, however if you look in “C:\Program Files\Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition\ManagementService\CceManagementService.log” you might see things aren’t going so well:

CceService Error: 0 : Unexpected exception when reporting status to online: System.Management.Automation.CmdletInvocationException:
Logon failed for the user tenantadmin@tenantname.onmicrosoft.com. Please create a new credential object, making sure that you have used the correct user name and password. 
---> Microsoft.Rtc.Admin.Authentication.CommonAuthException: Logon failed for the user tenantadmin@tenantname.onmicrosoft.com'. Please create a new credential object, making sure that you have used the correct user name and password. ---> 
Microsoft.Rtc.Admin.Authentication.CommonAuthException: Failed to logon with given credentials. Make sure correct user name and password provided. ---> Microsoft.Rtc.Admin.Authentication.IdcrlExtendedException:

The trick to fixing this – once you’ve purged likely characters from your O365 password of course – is to execute “Set-CcCredential -AccountType TenantAdmin” on the CCE host. This injects you back into the “Register-CcAppliance” process at the point where you provide the updated O365 credentials:

My previous advice to delete the two .XML credential files in “C:\ProgramData\CloudConnector\” and re-run “Register-CcAppliance” is made obsolete by the above commandlet.

If you’re particularly partial to complex characters, you can reinstate them once your CCE is on 1.4.2. Again the process is to delete the credential files and re-run “Register-CcAppliance” execute “Set-CcCredential -AccountType TenantAdmin” on the CCE host.