Communified.net Blog : Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Cumulative Update 5

Marco van Olst — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:08:00 GMT

Last week Microsoft released cumulative update 5 of Office Communications Server 2007 R2.
This package consists of updates for the OCS Servers, Communicator, Attendant Console, Communicator Phone and OCS Group Chat.

The most easiest way to apply the necessary server updates is to download the Cumulative Server Update Installer "ServerUpdateInstaller.exe" and run this on all your OCS Servers.
The installer will automatically detect and update the appropriate OCS components.

There is also an update released for the OCS SQL Database called "OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi". This update is not part of the update installer and needs to be downloaded and installed separately.

Before you install this update, the Office Communications Server Front End Service (rtcsrv) has to be stopped. After stopping the service run one of the following commands:
OCS Standard Edition: OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi
OCS Enterprise Edition: OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi POOLNAME=<ocspoolname>

The updates can be found on the following locations:

Office Communcations Server 2007 R2:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=b3b02475-150c-41fa-844a-c10a517040f4

Office Communicator 2007 R2:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=515d6dba-4c6a-48bb-a06a-d99c5742676d

Office Communications Server Attendant Console R2:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=36beb56d-072e-4a92-b781-a1e8a548a5ac&displaylang=en&displaylang=en

Office Communicator Phone Edition R2:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=565595BE-6CF3-4A61-A1E4-12555749CA64&displaylang=en

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5924bf9-b042-4c53-b4a6-79c7e5c9749b&displaylang=en

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Workload Architecture Poster

Marco van Olst — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:53:00 GMT

Rui Maximo from Microsoft released a very nice and beautiful poster called "Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Workload Architecture".
This poster describes the traffic flow of protocols and ports used in each workload on Office Communications Server 2007 R2.
The poster can be downloaded at the following location:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=af2c17cb-207c-4c52-8811-0aca6dfadc94
I remember there was an unanimous desire for something like this in the meeting with the documentation team during my MCM rotation in May, and finally it's here, great job!

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Web Trust Tool

Sander van den Burg — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:07:00 GMT

Just released: OCS R2 Web Trust tool. The Web Trust Tool is a command-line tool (OCSWebIMTrust.exe) that can be used anytime there is a need to establish or remove a trusted sever entry for an Outlook Live server.

It works by searching the Active Directory and locating all instances of Outlook Live server or Exchange Client Access server. It then adds each server found to a list of trusted server entries, thus replacing the previous list of entries.

Get it here

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 support on Windows Server 2008 R2

Sander van den Burg — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:09:00 GMT

As shown on the official supported apps page at the MSFT site, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will be officially supported on WIndows Server 2008 R2 starting next year.

The official words: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and later versions will be supported beginning Q1 2010

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 XMPP Gateway

Marco van Olst — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:46:00 GMT

Today Microsoft released the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 XMPP Gateway.
With an XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) Gateway it is possible to exchange basic IM en Presence information between an OCS environment, and XMPP based systems like Google Talk and Jabber. This OCS XMPP Gateway requires an additional server which is placed between the OCS Edge server and the XMPP system.
After the gateway is deployed OCS user can add or delete users of an XMPP environment as contacts, and communicate with users of an XMPP environment through one-on-one IM conversations. This is comparable with the concept of Federation between OCS based environments, but in this case limited to only Presence and IM.

The XMPP Gateway package and documentation can be downloaded at the following location:.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=aa560bfe-9960-473a-bfb8-53bff678cec4&displaylang=en

No Presence Information available in Outlook 2007

Marco van Olst — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:53:00 GMT

Last week I spent some time building up a fresh new laptop with Windows 7. Installed Office 2007 en of course the Office Communicator, the OCS Attendant Console and the Live Meeting client with the Outlook Conferencing add-ins.

So far so good, everything seemed to work as expected. Except one thing, there was no presence information available in Outlook. The personnames options in Outlook were grayed out, so unable to set. I tried all the possible Outlook GPO settings but still no luck. Pretty annoying and frustrating

After some more research I noticed the following registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Call Integration]
Where the REG_SZ:"IMApplication" Value contained the data: Attendantconsole.exe

Hmm, this couldn't be right, I only use the Attendant console for testing purposes and nothing else. I changed the registry value mentioned above to: Communicator.exe. Restarted Outlook and... problem solved. So it seems that if you install the OCS Attendant console after the Office Communicator it assumes the Attendant Console will be your default IM Application. Conclusion you can install both applications (but not run at the same time) but only one of them can be the preferred client to integrate presence in to Outlook.

OCS Certificate Deployment White Paper

Sander van den Burg — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:26:00 GMT

Microsoft has just released a new white paper on using certificates with Office Communications Server. Although entitled "OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Certificates" it actually covers both 2007 and 2007 R2 versions of OCS.

This is a very comprehensive document (just short of 100 pages) that covers everything from basic requirements down to specific scenarios like sample LCSCMD commands for requesting certificates for a reverse proxy. A number of the common problems and misunderstood areas have been addresses in much more detail and the original planning and deployment documents, so we highly recommend reading through this document.

The white paper can be downloaded directly from the link below:

Deploying Certificates in Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163083

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Documentation - August update!

Sander van den Burg — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:12:00 GMT

The OCS R2 documentation set has been updated:

Overview

The full set of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 documentation is contained in the download file named Communications_Server_2007_R2_Documentation.chm.

Selected, high-value sections of the documentation are also provided as separate Word documents for IT Pros who are interested in specific topical areas. Topics covered include:

New server and new client features
Planning and architecture
Deploying Certificates (applies to both Office Communications Server 2007 and 2007 R2)
Deploying Enterprise and Standard Edition
Deploying specific types of servers and some related technologies, such as load balancers, including Monitoring Server, Archiving Server, Group Chat Server, and Edge servers
Deploying features, including Enterprise Voice, dial-in conferencing, and Response Group Service
Upgrading from the Evaluation Edition to a full released version
Migration from Live Communications Server 2005 or Office Communications Server 2007
Administering Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Communicator Web Access, and Group Chat
Backup and restoration
Security
Troubleshooting
A reference guide for using the command-line to deploy and manage Office Communications Server 2007 R2
A glossary of unified communications terms used in the documentation
A documentation roadmap

Find download links here

iPhone OCS client available from 3rd party

Sander van den Burg — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:40:00 GMT

It was a matter of time but the OCS client for iPhone is here, from a company called Modality Systems. Click here for details.

Looks like it needs OCS R2 and CWA and that is about it. The app is called iDialog and it is downloadable from the AppStore

Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer

Marco van Olst — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:08:00 GMT

Following on the heels of success of the Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer (created by Shawn McGrath and Brad Hughes), Premal Gandhi, Matthew Fresoli and Jason Stine have been busy designing and writing a complimentary tool: The Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer.

The tool is available at https://www.TestOcsConnectivity.com

Overview:
The Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer is a web site for IT Administrators to validate and diagnose end-to-end Office Communications Server scenarios. The site simulates multiple Office Communications Server client access scenarios from outside the customer’s infrastructure and reports whether the test was successful. If the test fails, we inform the IT Admin exactly where in the process it failed as well as provide troubleshooting tips on resolving the issue.

In this beta version, the tool provides the following end-to-end tests:

· Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity

· Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity w/AutoDiscover

Coming Soon:
Office Communications Server scenarios will be expanded in the next few months to include the following:

· Deeper level of diagnostic information - MSDiagnostics header

· More detailed troubleshooting information based on MSDiagnostic header

· Additional tests

With thanks to Jason Stine sharing his knowledge

Update for Communicator Mobile 2007 R2: July 2009

Sander van den Burg — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:07:00 GMT

The new CoMo (Communicator Mobile) update released yesterday and includes the following fixes:

Issues that this hotfix package fixes:

Homescreen support for new homescreens in Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.
Integration within the phone dialer for Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.
Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 now recognizes when the phone is roaming, and by default does not sign in to roaming networks.
Additional support for joining conference calls from a Windows Mobile appointment. To do this, press Menu, and then press Join Conference.
Enables users to log on with a username of the format user@example.com, in addition to domain\user.
When placing Call via Work calls, callbacks are now automatically accepted.
Microsoft Installer (MSI) installation on Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) fails. In this situation, users should install Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 by using a .Cab installation.
AT&T FUZE devices set for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) connection cannot handle voice and data at the same time. This causes Call via Work calls to fail unless the device is reverted to 3rd Generation (3G) by disabling HSDPA.

Download the update and find details here

Windows Live/MSN/Hotmail PIC licensing no longer needed for federation!

Sander van den Burg — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:30:00 GMT

Big licensing news effective today, if you have OCS 2007 and want to federate with MSN/Hotmail/Live no additional PIC license is required anymore. Yahoo and AOL federation still require a PIC license per OCS user who require it however.

Here is the official product team announcement:

Effective July 1, 2009:

· The Live Communications Sever Public IM Connectivity (LCS PIC) license will be renamed Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity (OCS PIC) license.

· Customers with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or Office Communications Server 2007/Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Standard CAL with Software Assurance will no longer require an additional license to federate with Windows Live. (A license will still be required for federation with AOL & Yahoo!.)

· With Windows Live federation, customers will be able to add Windows Live contacts to their Office Communicator contact list, view presence and send and receive instant messages.

In addition, MSFT also released the Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity Provisioning Guide

Download Free UC e-books from Microsoft Press

Sander van den Burg — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:57:00 GMT

Microsoft Press 25th Anniversary "Free E-Book of the Month" Offers
This will be our last month to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Microsoft Press with a free e-book offer. This monthly offer can be found in the top right corner of this monthly newsletter. It expires on June 24, 2009, so download the e-books today:

Programming for Unified Communications with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2
By Rui Maximo, Kurt De Ding, Vishwa Ranjan, Chris Mayo, Oscar Newkerk, and the Microsoft Office Communications Server team

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit
By Rui Maximo, Rick Kingslan, Rajesh Ramanathan, and Nirav Kamdar with the Microsoft Office Communications Server Team
Note: You will need to temporarily allow pop-ups in order to download the free e-book offer.

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Documentation - update!

Sander van den Burg — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:57:00 GMT

The technical documentation to help you understand, plan, deploy, and operate Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 servers was updated 2 days ago.

The download includes the following:

Communications_Server_2007_R2_Documentation.chm
OCS 2007 R2 Administering CWA.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Administering Group Chat.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Administering OCS.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Backup and Restoration.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Command Line Reference.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Archiving Server.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Deploying CWA.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Dial-In Conferencing.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Edge Servers.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Enterprise Edition.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Enterprise Voice.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Group Chat Server.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Monitoring Server.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Response Group Service.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Standard Edition.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Getting Started - Documentation Roadmap.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Getting Started - New Client Features.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Getting Started - New Server Features.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Getting Started - Technical Overview.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Getting Started - Uniified Communications Glossary.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Migration from 2005.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Migration from 2007.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Planning.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Preparing Active Directory Domain Services.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Security.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Supportability.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Troubleshooting.doc
OCS 2007 R2 Upgrading the Evaluation to Full Released Version.doc

Download here

MCM Office Communications Server The Final Part

Marco van Olst — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:35:00 GMT

So I am back home after three intensive weeks of training and study, and again a Jetlag due to the 9 hours time difference.
But this Wednesday we received the final results of the third written exam and the qualifying lab, and…. I passed them both.
Which means I can call myself, and eight others, a MCM Office Communications Server right now.
And was it worth the expense in time and money? Yes It does, its intensive that’s for sure, but the amount of knowledge you obtain during this weeks is huge, not only by consuming the training material but also to listen to and learn from all the experience of all the other attendants with all kind of backgrounds. And of course, not to forget, all the info we received from the OCS product managers, MSIT, the OCS Documentation team. And last but not least, the effort Adrian MacLean put in as Program Manager of the MCM OCS. Especially his weekly trips to the Safeways, to provide us with enough “energy” food by means of chips, cookies, chocolate, tootsie rolls etc.
The picture below was taken between the third exam and the qual lab at the last Saturday, quite relaxed people?!?! And also, as it is a miracle, taken at one of the rare sunny days at Redmond:-)