Mike Stacy's Blog

Lync Server/Client Cummulative Update 3 #lync

Microsoft has released CU3 for Lync.  I’ve been waiting for this one primarily because of the calendar presence bug in CU2 that forced me to stay on CU1 until it was fixed.  Another common issue was fixed regarding functions missing in Lync Phone Edition when the phone lock timeout was disabled.  Here are the links:

Client KB

Server KB

Lync Phone Edition – Polycom

Lync Phone Edition – Aastra

Lync Group Chat Client

Communicator for Mac 2011

Polycom DMA/RMX Lync Static Routing Tool

I created a Powershell script that automates the configuration of Lync for integrating Polycom DMA/RMX.  First, a couple disclaimers:

Use this tool at your own risk.  While I’ve tested it to the best of my ability I do not take responsibility for any issues that may arise from its use.

This tool was not developed by Polycom and is not supported, sanctioned, or otherwise approved by Polycom.

A screenshot of the tool is below.  The process that it’s using is largely documented in my previous post on creating static routes in Lync Server 2010, but I’ll give a brief description of each field here as well.

SIP Domain:  This is the domain you would like to use for routing video calls.  Polycom’s current documentation recommends using your Primary SIP domain, primary for ease of use and Edge server integration.  However, you can use whatever you wish.

DMA/RMX FQDN:  This is the FQDN you created for your DMA or RMX.  It should match the A record you created for the signaling interface and the subject of the certificate you loaded on DMA/RMX.

Routing Container:  You can create routes at the global level or the registrar level.  Select the one you wish to use.  Known limitation:  By default only the Global routing container exists.  If you want to associate a route with the registrar make sure you run new-csstaticroutingconfiguration –identity service:registrar:<registrarfqdn> before using this tool.

Application Pool FQDN:  Lync needs an Application Pool for any static routes.  You can enter any FQDN you wish – it does not need to match anything in DNS but it must be unique to the Lync Server topology.

Associated Registrar:  All application pools must be associated with a registrar.  Select any registrar you wish.

Site:  All application pools must also be associated with a site.  Select any site you wish.

Execute cmdlets:  By default this tool will only output the cmdlets that it would have run.  Check this box to actually run the cmdlets.

Updated version released 5/27/2011 (1.1):

VMR Presence/Registration:  RMX 7.2 supports virtual meeting room and entry queue registration.  If you want to use this and do not need SIP URI dialing (<vmr>@domain.com) then check this box.

Other changes:  The “RequiresReplication” option is set to false on the TrustedApplicationPool since DMA/RMX do not participate in Lync replication.  The output is now color coded to make it easier to differentiate between cmdlets.

 

Download Rmx-lync

Denver Area Microsoft UC User’s Group Kick-Off May 19 (#lync #ucoms #coucug)

Come join us on Thursday, May 19 for the kick-off of the Colorado Microsoft Unified Communications User Group (COUCUG).   COUCUG is run by an independent group of technologists who focus on Microsoft Unified Communications products and solutions.  Each month, COUCUG will host a meeting in the Denver area which is open to anyone who is interested in learning more about Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and related unified communications topics.  The topics for each meeting will be technical and architectural in nature designed for IT administrators, consultants, and management that want to learn more about Microsoft Unified Communications and do some networking at the same time.

Here is the agenda for our first meeting:

6:00-6:15 – Meet & Greet, Introductions

6:15-7:00 – Movin’ on Up!  Architectural and Administrative Changes from OCS to Lync Server 2010

                Adam Ball, Senior Infrastructure Engineer

7:00-8:00 – Can You Hear Me Now?  Lync Server 2010 as a Voice Platform, Capabilities and Architecture

                Mike Stacy, Microsoft Solutions Architect and Lync Server MVP

The meeting will take place at the Microsoft Denver office, which is located at:

7595 Technology Way, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80237

Pizza and sodas will be provided.  Please RSVP here so that we have an accurate count for food and drinks.

Deleting Static Routes in Lync Server 2010

I suppose it was inevitable that once I wrote an article about creating static routes in Lync Server 2010 that people would one day also have the need to delete them.  The process to do so is fairly simple but it seems that folks are having issues extracting it from the documentation, so here are some examples of common ways you may want to delete routes.

Deleting all routes

It’s quite simple to delete all your routes from either the global container or a specific registrar by clearing the static routing configuration:

Global:  Set-csstaticroutingconfiguration -identity global -route $null

Registrar:  Set-csstaticroutingconfiguration –identity service:registrar:lyncpool1.domain.com -route $null

Deleting specific routes

This is the one that’s a bit trickier.  To remove a route you use the same set-csstaticroutingconfiguration cmdlet but you have to define the route and then remove it, very similar to how you added it in the first place.  So, let’s say I have a route to video.domain.com that I want to delete from the global routing configuration.  Generally I want to retrieve the route first to make sure I find the correct one.

Get-CsStaticRoutingConfiguration -identity global | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Route | Where-Object {$_.MatchUri -eq "video.domain.com"}

Once I confirm that I run the same statement but I assign it to a variable ($delroute in this case) so I can use it in a set-csstaticroutingconfiguration cmdlet.

$delroute = Get-CsStaticRoutingConfiguration -identity global | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Route | Where-Object {$_.MatchUri -eq "video.domain.com"}

Then I run set-csstaticroutingconfiguration and remove the matching route:

Set-CsStaticRoutingConfiguration -identity global -Route @{Remove=$delroute}

That’s it.  Of course I could have specified the registrar routing container instead of global, and I can also use other filters in the Where-Object statement if I need to be more specific on the route I’m looking for.  There’s a good example of this in the Lync Server 2010 documentation for the Set-csstaticroutingconfiguration cmdlet (look at example 2).

Another common and related request is to see more information about a route or routes that I’ve already created, such as the route destination.  To see this just run Get-CsStaticRoutingConfiguration -identity global | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Route and you’ll see the global routes with their destinations and other information.

Lync/OCS Coexistence and Static Routes

Having worked heavily with static routing since the pre-release versions of Lync Server 2010 I’ve discovered that while the cmdlet documentation is pretty good on how to create and manage static routes, there is no information on managing static routes in a mixed environment containing both OCS and Lync Server.  Recently I had a discussion on this topic with some folks at Microsoft and was able to get some helpful information on the topic.

If you’ve created routes in both OCS and Lync Server you’ve no doubt realized that the process is pretty different.  As I referenced in my original post on creating static routes in Lync, Lync enables administrators to create routes with different scopes.  Specifically, you can create routes that apply either at the global or registrar level.

Something else apparent as you work in a mixed environment is that Lync is able to use the static routes that have previously been created in OCS but the reverse is not true.  Further, a new route added in OCS cannot be leveraged by Lync, and creating the same route in both places leads to routing errors on the OCS side.

The reason for all of this is because of the new mechanisms in Lync for storing and managing static routes.  When the Merge Topology process is executed in Topology Builder, the existing OCS routes are copied into the Lync configuration and are therefore able to be used by Lync.  New routes created in Lync are only stored in the configuration in such a way as to be accessed by Lync, and since there is effectively no synchronization of configuration from Lync to OCS these routes are not able to be leveraged by OCS.

Therefore, during the period of coexistence the proper way to create routes that you wish to be accessed by both OCS and Lync is to create them in OCS and re-run the Merge Topology process.

Great Tool - ‘Find Lync Versions’

I’d love to give credit by name but I only have the name “stumper” to thank for a great OCS/Lync tool.  Those of you who spent much time managing OCS environments are probably familiar with the Client Version Summary that was easily accessible in the OCS admin tool.  Unfortunately the only way to gather equivalent information in Lync was to write the appropriate SQL queries to do so.  However, our friend stumper has written a nice, simple app to get this information.  You can even get the source code if you want to make changes.  Here’s a link:  http://www.stumper66.com/software/lync.html

Here’s an image of it from stumper’s site:

 

The summary tab is very handy to get a quick look at your client usage.  In my case it was great to see how many users were still using MOC instead of Lync.

Polycom RMX Layouts in Lync

I thought I’d share some of the layout views we get with our RMX integrated into Lync Server.  I really enjoy attending meetings like this.  It combines the best of both worlds – anywhere, anytime video conferencing from my laptop plus the more immersive experience of a dedicated video conferencing infrastructure.  Once you get used to the multi-person views (Polycom calls this ‘Continuous Presence’) where you can see the non-verbal reactions of the other participants of a call it’s hard to go back.  It also helps a lot with the issue of people trying to speak at the same time since you can see when people are about to speak.  This dramatically reduces or eliminates the all-too-common “Sorry, you go ahead.”  “No, you go ahead.” that you get on voice calls and active-speaker video switched calls.

This is a view of a recent conference when everyone was on and we had been going for a while.  The center pane shows the active speaker and the 12 boxes on the outside are the most recent speakers (or earliest to join if no one else has been speaking).  By default this is the most you’d ever see in one window, though the RMX can be configured to show up to 16 in equal-sized panes.

 

This was at the end of the call when people were starting to drop off and we were down to 10 participants.  The layout automatically changes based on the number of participants (there are also administrative options to define particular layouts for a given conference room or conference profile).  The yellow text I blurred were the names of the participants, which show up for a few seconds when the layout or active speaker changes.

 

This was a different call with content sharing.  Since Lync doesn’t support the SIP standard for content + video (BFCP) as separate streams it’s treated as a “legacy endpoint” so when content appears the RMX mixes together smaller video plus content into one stream.

 

It’s worth mentioning that I took these calls from outside the network with no VPN.  Since the RMX supports ICE/STUN/TURN it integrates natively with the Lync Edge server without requiring any additional hardware or software.  Overall it’s a great experience that will get even better with the addition of RTV in a few months.

Powershell script to populate the thumbnailphoto attribute

In my role I work with a lot of demo environments, and so it’s not uncommon for me to find quick workarounds for tasks that I have to do repeatedly or train others to do.  Recently one of those has been populating the thumbnailphoto attribute for Lync Server.  For a while I was using a modified version of a script written by George Durzi, and the script below still uses most of what he wrote in his blog entry on the topic.  I also borrowed the file dialog function from Hugo Peeters from his PeetersOnline entry and the AD bits from various places.  That’s really how I “code” these days anyway – thank goodness for the internet. 

I wrote this so that it works well in multi-domain environments like the one I work in, so it searches the global catalog to find the user wherever they may be and then does an LDAP bind to write to the domain where they are actually located since thumbnailphoto isn’t a global catalog attribute.

“Release Notes”

- To run, save the attached script and simply run the script from Powershell.  If you are running it from a server you may need to install the Desktop Experience feature (servermanagercmd -i desktop-experience).

- To change it to work in your environment just modify line 2 to match your Active Directory domain.  In case you’re not familiar with the syntax, domain.com would be dc=domain,dc=com and europe.domain.com would be dc=europe,dc=domain,dc=com.

- When you run the script you’ll be prompted for a username.  This should be the logon name (samaccountname) of the user, i.e. mstacy rather than mstacy@domain.com.

- The photos can’t be larger than about 70kb (In my brief testing 67kb worked, 76kb didn’t).  If the photo is too large you’ll receive this:  "Exception calling "CommitChanges" with "0" argument(s): "A constraint violation occurred.

- Like all things on the internet, use at your own risk.

Download photo.ps1 (1.4K)

Other useful links related to photos in Lync and Exchange:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2010/11/22/microsoft-lync-2010-photo-experience.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee721049.aspx

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/03/10/454223.aspx

Side-by-side error when running DHCPUtil.exe with Lync Server 2010

In trying to run DHCPUtil.exe from your Windows Server 2008 x64 DHCP server with the appropriate command line parameters in order to configure DHCP for Lync Server, you may run across the following error:

The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail.

Reviewing the app log reveals the following:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        SideBySide
Date:          11/4/2010 2:04:30 PM
Event ID:      33
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      host.uc.local
Description:
Activation context generation failed for "C:\Users\administrator.UC\Desktop\DHCPUtil.exe". Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC90.CRT,processorArchitecture="amd64",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="9.0.30729.4148" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.

Solution:  Install vcredist_x64.exe from the Lync Server media and run DHCPUtil.exe again.

Upgrading from the Release Candidate of Lync to RTM *Completely Unsupported*

In case you didn’t gather it from the title, I need to point out that this is completely unsupported and generally not recommended.  The Release Candidate version of Lync (and virtually every pre-release version of Microsoft software) is not intended to be upgraded to the RTM version through any method.  It’s entirely likely that this breaks something and I simply haven’t encountered it yet.  However, there are some people (like myself) who have many RC environments for testing, demos, etc. and would like to easily move those to RTM.  Since you agreed in the licensing terms not to install RC in production we’ll assume you are only doing this on non-production systems and if this process completely blows them up then it’s really not a big deal.  Disclaimers out of the way, I have done this 4 times now (3 times this morning alone) and it seems to work well for me.  The best part is that it only takes about 15 minutes.

Stop Services

This is mainly to avoid a reboot.  Stop all the Lync Services and the World Wide Web Publishing Service.  I like using Get-Service -DisplayName Lync* | Stop-Service -force to stop the Lync services.

Uninstall the RC bits

The first step is to uninstall all the RC software.  Don’t forget to uninstall UCMA also, which is a little lower down the list.  You may have more items installed than I’m showing below depending on what roles you installed.  You’ll want to uninstall Core Components last.

Most of the items you uninstall will return this error.  Just click yes to keep going.

Run Setup from the RTM bits.  Prepare AD should be marked as complete since the schema didn’t change from RC to RTM.  Go ahead and install Topology Builder so we can upgrade the CMS database.

Enterprise Edition Only

Launch Topology Builder and, when it’s ready, download the existing topology. You will be prompted to save to a file, just enter any file name you wish.

Click Install Database…

Your database list will appear.  Check the box next to the databases you want to upgrade and click next.  You’ll notice on the next screen that a Minor Version Upgrade takes place.

Standard Edition Only

Click prepare Standard Edition Server.  This will upgrade the CMS database that exists with your Standard Edition installation.

Installation and Certificates

Now you will just go on with the rest of the setup process.  In the main setup window click Install or Update Lync Server System.

Next, run through each of the setup steps below.

When you get to the Certificate step you should be able to simply click Assign and reassign the certificate you were using previously.

Now just start the services and you’re good to go.