Mike Stacy's Blog

Updating the OCS R2 Internal URLs

Last year I posted the process for updating the internal OCS URLs.  From time to time I’ve found it necessary to do this for various reasons.  Most commonly this is necessary if a customer does not have a reverse proxy in place and/or is not using a SAN certificate that includes both the external web farm FQDN as well as the pool FQDN.

The biggest difference with R2 is that you have to enter the WMI string in a query in order to find and edit it.  This was done for performance reasons since enumerating all the instances of some classes can be a CPU-intensive operation.

First, here are the URLs you will modify:

MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting - InternalURL

MSFT_SIPClientUpdaterSetting- InternalURL

MSFT_SIPDataMCUCapabilitySetting - InternalClientContentDownloadURL

MSFT_SIPGroupExpansionSetting - InternalDLExpansionWebURL

MSFT_SIPPSTNConferencingSetting- InternalURL

MSFT_SIPUpdatesServerSetting - InternalUpdatesDownloadURL, InternalUpdatesStoreURL

To find and modify the settings I decided to use CIM Studio since the interface is more intuitive than wbemtest.  CIM Studio is part of the WMI Tools package, which can be downloaded here.  Once installed, launch CIM Studio from the Start/Programs menu:

It launches in a browser using an ActiveX control, which you may need to allow depending on your security settings:

Once it is open it will prompt you for the namespace.  If you are running this from the OCS front end then the default (root\CIMv2) is accurate.  You can also connect to a remote machine using \\machinename\root\cimv2.  You will be prompted to logon as the current user or specify credentials:

Now that you are connected the main screen will appear:

Now, because of the changes in R2 we can’t just find the class and click the Instances button like we used to.  You need to run a WQL query to find the specific instance that you want to use.  To do this, click the WQL Query button towards the top right of the window.

Your query is a simple SELECT statement that finds the instance you need to work with.  In OCS this is derived from the backend pool information.  For an enterprise pool the backend will be SQLServer\\SQLInstance (yes, the double backslashes are correct).  For Standard Edition you can use OCSServerName\\rtc or (local)\\rtc.  Therefore your SELECT statement will look something like this:

SELECT * from msft_sipaddressbooksetting where backend="evan-terra1\\rtc"

If successful, this will return a result:

Double click that result and the properties will be displayed.  This one area where CIM Studio is much easier to use than wbemtest.  Simply modify the appropriate property (InternalURL in this case) and click the Save button.

Repeat this find/modify process for the class/property values that I mentioned at the beginning of the post and you will be all set.

Communicator Exchange Connection Issue

This week I noticed an issue with Communicator where all our users were getting an Exchange connection error:

Exchange connection error: Communicator could not retrieve calendar or Out of Office information from Exchange Web Services. Communicator will automatically continue to retry. If this problem persists, contact your system administrator.

This prevented out of office settings and free/busy presence from working.  Later, I heard from some folks that they were not able to set their out of office message in Outlook 2007.  When they clicked Tools/Out of Office Assistant they would receive:

Your Out of Office settings cannot be displayed, because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later.

Lastly, reports came in that clicking the scheduling assistant would crash Outlook.  A few tests indicated that these Outlook issues were affecting all users.  After checking all the standard Exchange Web Services items and finding no issue I came across KB 958934.  It turns out that the recent server updates that had been applied installed .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, and that was the root of the problem.  The actual fix is KB 952883, which unfortunately requires a call to MS Support.

Cannot upload cab file to UC Device Update Management Console

One of the best documented reasons for a cab file upload to fail is due to timeout settings in IIS.  For an overview of this please see http://blogs.technet.com/jenstr/archive/2008/02/28/uploading-of-a-cab-file-to-update-server-wss-site-fails-with-an-exception-and-the-message-thread-was-being-aborted.aspx.  In the case of the timeout issue the upload will process for a while before the error is returned.  However, there is another reason you may see the same error:

"The file upload was unsuccessful due to an unknown error. Please try again"

In this case the error will be thrown about 10 seconds after the upload process begins.  If you check the corresponding debug logs (UpdateServer > Logs > Server > Debug > UpdatePackageHandler), you'll see the following:

Debug        :
09/02/2008 07:08:52, Debug        : -------------------------------------
09/02/2008 07:08:52, Debug        : Started Upload Updates From Cab Call
09/02/2008 07:08:52, Debug        :
#Sharepoint Server Path : http://wss.domain.com/sites/ucupdateserver/
#Updates Path : Updates/
#Approval Path : Server/DB/
#Temp Extract Path : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007\Web Components\UC Device Updates\Management Console\LCS
#Log Path : Logs/Server/Debug/UpdatePackageHandler/
09/02/2008 07:08:52, Debug        : Started Reading Cab file C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007\Web Components\UC Device Updates\Management Console\LCS/633559361262490130\UCUpdates.cab
09/02/2008 07:08:53, Debug        : Extracted all files under temp location C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007\Web Components\UC Device Updates\Management Console\LCS\a7992c72-7fb3-4f6f-b4c3-a2494f984ad1
09/02/2008 07:08:53, Debug        : Converted UpdatesInfo.xml into new format
09/02/2008 07:08:55, Exception    : Exception: Exception While Uploading file Updates/CPE.nbtThe request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.RTC.UCUPDATESSERVER.SHAREPOINTSERVICES.Service.UploadFileToSharepoint(String SPSiteUrl, String FolderPath, Boolean CreateFolder, String FileName, Byte[] content, Boolean Publish, Boolean CheckIn, Boolean overwrite)
   at UPHService.UploadToSharepoint(String TempExtractedPath, DataSet dsUpdateInfo)
09/02/2008 07:08:57, Exception    : Exception: Exception While Uploading file Updates/CPE.nbtThe request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.RTC.UCUPDATESSERVER.SHAREPOINTSERVICES.Service.UploadFileToSharepoint(String SPSiteUrl, String FolderPath, Boolean CreateFolder, String FileName, Byte[] content, Boolean Publish, Boolean CheckIn, Boolean overwrite)
   at UPHService.UploadToSharepoint(String TempExtractedPath, DataSet dsUpdateInfo)
09/02/2008 07:09:00, Exception    : Exception: Exception While Uploading file Updates/CPE.nbtThe request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.RTC.UCUPDATESSERVER.SHAREPOINTSERVICES.Service.UploadFileToSharepoint(String SPSiteUrl, String FolderPath, Boolean CreateFolder, String FileName, Byte[] content, Boolean Publish, Boolean CheckIn, Boolean overwrite)
   at UPHService.UploadToSharepoint(String TempExtractedPath, DataSet dsUpdateInfo)
09/02/2008 07:09:02, Exception    : Exception: Exception While Uploading file Updates/CPE.nbtThe request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.RTC.UCUPDATESSERVER.SHAREPOINTSERVICES.Service.UploadFileToSharepoint(String SPSiteUrl, String FolderPath, Boolean CreateFolder, String FileName, Byte[] content, Boolean Publish, Boolean CheckIn, Boolean overwrite)
   at UPHService.UploadToSharepoint(String TempExtractedPath, DataSet dsUpdateInfo)
09/02/2008 07:09:04, Exception    : Exception: Exception While Uploading file Updates/CPE.nbtThe request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.RTC.UCUPDATESSERVER.SHAREPOINTSERVICES.Service.UploadFileToSharepoint(String SPSiteUrl, String FolderPath, Boolean CreateFolder, String FileName, Byte[] content, Boolean Publish, Boolean CheckIn, Boolean overwrite)
   at UPHService.UploadToSharepoint(String TempExtractedPath, DataSet dsUpdateInfo)
09/02/2008 07:09:06, Exception    : Exception: Exception While Uploading file Updates/CPE.nbtThe request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.RTC.UCUPDATESSERVER.SHAREPOINTSERVICES.Service.UploadFileToSharepoint(String SPSiteUrl, String FolderPath, Boolean CreateFolder, String FileName, Byte[] content, Boolean Publish, Boolean CheckIn, Boolean overwrite)
   at UPHService.UploadToSharepoint(String TempExtractedPath, DataSet dsUpdateInfo)
09/02/2008 07:09:09, Exception    : Exception: Exception While Uploading file Updates/CPE.nbtThe request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.RTC.UCUPDATESSERVER.SHAREPOINTSERVICES.Service.UploadFileToSharepoint(String SPSiteUrl, String FolderPath, Boolean CreateFolder, String FileName, Byte[] content, Boolean Publish, Boolean CheckIn, Boolean overwrite)
   at UPHService.UploadToSharepoint(String TempExtractedPath, DataSet dsUpdateInfo)
09/02/2008 07:09:11, Exception    : Exception: Exception While Uploading file Updates/CPE.nbtThe request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.RTC.UCUPDATESSERVER.SHAREPOINTSERVICES.Service.UploadFileToSharepoint(String SPSiteUrl, String FolderPath, Boolean CreateFolder, String FileName, Byte[] content, Boolean Publish, Boolean CheckIn, Boolean overwrite)
   at UPHService.UploadToSharepoint(String TempExtractedPath, DataSet dsUpdateInfo)
09/02/2008 07:09:11, Debug        : Completed Upload to sharepoint server
09/02/2008 07:09:11, Exception    : Exception: UploadUnApprovedXMLToSharepoint Method Collection was modified; enumeration operation might not execute.   at System.Data.RBTree`1.RBTreeEnumerator.MoveNext()
   at UPHService.UploadUnApprovedXMLToSharepoint(String TempExtractedPath)
09/02/2008 07:09:11, Debug        : Deleted all files under temp location  C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007\Web Components\UC Device Updates\Management Console\LCS\a7992c72-7fb3-4f6f-b4c3-a2494f984ad1
09/02/2008 07:09:11, Debug        : Calling Clear Cache for Image Updates
09/02/2008 07:09:11, Debug        : End Upload Updates From Cab Call
09/02/2008 07:09:11, Debug        : -------------------------------------

I've highlighted the relevant section above which you'll see is repeated a number of times.  When the Sharepoint UC Update package is installed it creates a site called ucupdateserver that contains 2 document libraries - Logs and Updates.  The issue in this case is that the ucupdateserver site has the appropriate permissions set, and these permissions are inherited by the Logs document library (which allowed for the above log to be created).  However, the Updates document library is set to use custom permissions and there the cab file upload is failing.

To fix this I first set the appropriate permissions at the ucupdateserver site level (I gave full permissions to RTCComponentServices and read permissions to NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users).  Next I navigated to the Updates library and clicked Settings/Document Library Settings.  Now click Permissions for this document library.  When the permissions appear click Actions -> Inherit Permissions.  You will get a prompt verifying that you want to overwrite the custom permissions.  Once you select OK you will see the page update with the permissions that are set at the site level.  This fixes the upload problem and also enables you to make easy site-wide permissions changes in the future if necessary.

Changing the OCS Internal URLs

Recently I was working with a customer who needed to change the Internal URLs that he had specified during setup.  Since there is no lcscmd command for this, I thought I'd share the resolution:

- Run wbemtest (Start/Run/wbemtest)

- Click the Connect button, set the namespace to root\cimv2, and click Connect

- Click Enum Classes.  Leave the superclass name blank and click ok.

First change the internal ABS URL.  Find the MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting and double click it.  Click the Instances button.  A new window will appear with a single instance in the list.  Double click it.  When you do so, it will look like you just went back to the previous window because wbemtest put an identical looking one on top of the original one.  Find the InternalURL property, double click it, and set it to what you want.  Click Save Property.  On the next screen click Save Object (this is very important).

Repeat this for the following WMI settings:

MSFT_SIPDataMCUCapabilitySetting\Instances\<Backend>\InternalClientContentDownloadURL

MSFT_SIPGroupExpansionSetting\Instances\<Backend>\InternalDLExpansionWebURL