How to Hide Contacts in Global Address List in Outlook?

 Whether using Office 365 or on-premise Exchange, you can hide contacts from the Global Address List in a few simple steps.

Note:

1) This is for users who you do not want to delete from Active Directory, but do not want to show up in the GAL.

2) This How-To assumes that if you use Office 365, that DirSync is being used. If it is not, this process can be accomplished in the Office 365 Administrator portal.

4 Steps total

Step 1: Launch Active Directory

Launch Active Directory from your Domain Controller.

Step 2: Enable Attribute Editor for Users

In the Active Directory window, click the View tab and choose Advanced Features so there is a check-mark next to the entry.

Step 3: Access Attribute Editor

Manually navigate to the user you want to hide from the Global Address List. Note that if you use the Action > Find... feature, Attribute Editor will not appear.

Right-click the desired user and select Properties. Once in the user properties, choose the Attribute Editor tab.

Step 4: Hide User from Global Address List

Under the Attribute Editor tab, scroll down to the msEchHideFromAddressLists attribute. By default, this attribute will contain a value of .

Select this attribute and click Edit. In the window that appears, click the radio button next to True and click OK.

The edited user will no longer appear in the Global Address List in Outlook. If they do, restart Outlook and re-open the Global Address List.

VMWare: Changing the thick or thin provisioning of a virtual disk

 Purpose

This article provides steps to change the provisioning of a virtual disk from thick to thin, or from thin to thick. The procedure uses the vSphere Client and vCenter Server to perform this task.

Resolution

Caution: Before following these procedures, VMware recommends that you have a valid backup of the virtual machine and enough space to convert the virtual machine's disk(s) from thin to thick.

To change vmdk from Thin to Thick provisioning 

To change the provisioning of a virtual machine base disk from thin to thick from the Datastore Browser:

1. Power off the virtual machine.
2. In vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine in the inventory.
3. Click Edit Settings to display the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box.
4. Select the appropriate hard disk in the Hardware list.

Note: The Disk Provisioning Type section on the right displays either Thin Provision or Thick Provision.

 

5. Click Cancel to exit from Virtual Machine Properties dialog box.
6. Navigate to the datastore where the VM/ VM disk resides that was identified in Step 4 under Files

7. Select the disk in question, and in the status bar above, you should find the Inflate option. The Inflate option converts the disk to thick provisioned.

 

 

8. Once you've selected the inflate option, you should be seeing a task getting created for the vmdk inflation at the bottom in the Recent Tasks tab. This task usually takes sometime to complete depending on the performance of the array. 
9. After the inflation task is completed, if the VM in question is not reflecting the change, reload the .vmx file. For more information, see Reloading a vmx file without removing the virtual machine from inventory (1026043).

Notes:

• If the Inflate option is grayed out, it indicates that the virtual machine is not powered off or that it is not thin provisioned.
• There should be no snapshots and the conversion is performed on the base disk.

To change vmdk from Thick to Thin provisioning 

To convert a virtual machine base disk from thick to thin provisioning by changing the datastore and performing storage vMotion:
 

Note: This process requires more than one datastore. If only a single datastore exists, you can clone the virtual machine to a destination machine with thin provisioned disks instead of migrating.

1. Right-click the virtual machine and select Migrate.
2. Select Change storage only and click Next.

 

3. In the next window, select the option configure per disk.

3. Select the disk in question which needs to undergo the modification.
4. Under Storage category select the destination datastore and under the Disk Format option select Thin Provision.

5. Validate the required VM Storage Policy and click Next.
6. Review the information on the Review Selections page and click Finish.

Alternatively, virtual machine disks can be cloned to create new Thick or Thin provisioned VMDKs. For more information, see Cloning and converting virtual machine disks with vmkfstools (1028042).