Article ID: 2456592 - Last Review: February 18, 2012 - Revision: 16.0

Microsoft Online Services compatibility with single-label domains, with disjoint namespaces, and with discontiguous namespaces

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SUMMARY

This article describes the compatibility of Microsoft Online Services with single-label domains, with disjoint namespaces, and with discontiguous (noncontiguous) namespaces. Microsoft Online Services includes services such as the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) and Microsoft Office 365.

Note Office 365 is the next generation of Business Productivity Online Suite products.

MORE INFORMATION

Single-label domains

For a description of single-label domains (SLDs), visit the following Microsoft website:

DNS Namespace Planning Support (http://support.microsoft.com/gp/gp_namespace_master#tab3)

Disjoint namespaces

For a description of disjoint namespaces, visit the following Microsoft website:

DNS Namespace Planning Support (http://support.microsoft.com/gp/gp_namespace_master#tab1)

Discontiguous namespaces

For a description of discontiguous namespaces, visit the following Microsoft website:

DNS Namespace Planning Support (http://support.microsoft.com/gp/gp_namespace_master#tab2)

Single-label domains

Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS)
Because we do not recommend that you use SLDs, the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) is not extensively tested in this scenario. Therefore, you may encounter incompatibilities when Microsoft Online Services, such as BPOS-D, BPOS-S, and BPOS-F, are implemented in an SLD environment.

For specific details about Microsoft product compatibility with SLDs, visit the following Microsoft website:

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/gp_namespace_master#tab4 (http://support.microsoft.com/gp/gp_namespace_master#tab4)

Customers are advised of the following:

A BPOS deployment may not be an easier migration than a single, on-premises migration to FQDN.
Because we do not recommend that you use SLDs, customers should understand that BPOS is not designed to be deployed as a temporary measure before migrating back to on-premises resources.

BPOS-Dedicated (BPOS-D) and BPOS-Federal (BPOS-F)
Customers who have SLDs must migrate or rename their infrastructure away from SLDs before they set up BPOS-D or BPOS-F. For more information, see the "Identity and Provisioning Service Description for Microsoft Online Services" link in the "Key Resources" section at the end of this article. Existing BPOS-D customers who have SLDs can conduct on-premises migration to FQDN in the second half of 2011. Existing BPOS-D customers in an SLD are advised that issues that are considered SLD-related will not be eligible for customer credit or for additional technical support.

In addition to Microsoft product support stances for the individual products that are used by BPOS-D or by BPOS-F, the following issues are known BPOS-D compatibility issues:

Although an on-premises Exchange server and Exchange Online will function by using an on-premises SLD topology (see more details at the the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article, 2269838 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2269838/ ) , other components, such as Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft SharePoint, may not be tested.
In certain scenarios, Exchange Online will not function in an SLD because of the inability to migrate mailboxes.

BPOS-Standard (BPOS-S)
If an SLD is implemented in the on-premises topology, only the Internet mail-routable domain space (or spaces) can be added as a secondary domain to BPOS-S.

In addition to Microsoft product support stances for the individual products that are used by BPOS-D or by BPOS-F, the following issues are known BPOS-S SLD compatibility issues:

Although on-premises deployments of Exchange Server and of Exchange Online will function by using an on-premises SLD topology (see more details here (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2269838) ), other components, such as Office Communications Server and SharePoint, may not be tested.
We have known issues with Active Directory and with Identity Management.

How to evaluate BPOS

Microsoft customers who have an SLD and who want to evaluate BPOS should contact their Technical Account Manager (TAM) or Microsoft Consulting Services.

Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 (http://office365.microsoft.com/en-US/online-services.aspx) (the next generation of Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite products (http://www.microsoft.com/online/) ) includes the following:

Exchange Online
SharePoint Online
Office Professional Plus
Lync Online

Key Resources
Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite

http://www.microsoft.com/online/help/en-us/helphowto/99d9ede5-ce15-476c-9a3f-d42a481d287e.htm (http://www.microsoft.com/online/help/en-us/helphowto/99d9ede5-ce15-476c-9a3f-d42a481d287e.htm)

Identity and Provisioning Service Description for Microsoft Online Services (BPOS-D and BPOS -F)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=cf7d4db8-4e7c-4077-87ea-b64c57e4c98c&displaylang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=cf7d4db8-4e7c-4077-87ea-b64c57e4c98c&displaylang=en)

Microsoft Office 365 transition center (for existing BPOS customers)

http://www.microsoft.com/online/transition-center.aspx (http://www.microsoft.com/online/transition-center.aspx)

Note Use the Office 365 transition center as a resource to help you prepare for the transition to Office 365.