OCS and the User Replicator

A couple of weeks ago I saw some questions about the UR (User Replicator) in OCS. How does the UR replication processes the information from Active Direcotory.

What is the UR (User Replicator)?

OCS user settings are stored in Active Directory. User information and ofcourse global services are stored into ADS and are replicated to the OCS database during the day. The replication process is performed by a OCS component of the OCS service called the UR (User Replicator). The UR service only reads information from ADS and never writes information back in a bi-directional way. The logic of the UR is to contact te closest Global Catalog (GC). Source: OCS Resource Kit

As an addition to the story of Thomas (LCSKid) OCS uses the UR in the same way as LCS2005.

After some investigation into OCS the same MSFT_SIPESGlobalRegistrarSetting object is still there.

How can you edit this object?

UserDomainList attribute of MSFT_SIPESGlobalRegistrarSetting WMI

1. Log on to the computer that is running Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition or Communications Server 2007 Enterprise edition by using an account that is a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group or that has equivalent permissions.
2. Click Start, click Run, type wbemtest, and then click OK. 
3. In the Windows Management Instrumentation Tester dialog box, click Connect.
4. In the Connect dialog box, type root\cimv2 in the Namespace box, and then click Connect.
5. In the Windows Management Instrumentation Tester dialog box, click Query.
6. In the Query dialog box, type the following in the Enter Query box according to the edition of Communications Server 2007 that you are using, and then click Apply:

For Communications Server 2007 Enterprise pool

Select * from MSFT_SIPESGlobalRegistrarSetting where backend="server name\\sql instance"

For Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition

Select * from MSFT_SIPESGlobalRegistrarSetting

-------
UserDomainList
Data type: string []

A list of distinguished names (DN) of domains that host Live Communications Server users. The user replicator replicates names from all the domains in the list. If the list is empty, the user replicator replicates names from all domains in the forest.

The default is empty.

This property can be updated.

Example 1

Example 2

You can also update these WMI settings through powershell. So install Windows PowerShell onto your OCS server.

The companion CD (attached to the OCS Resource Kit book) includes a signed version of the OCS-ALL.ps1 script file. This script file has been digitally signed by Microsoft, and it can be used in environments where the execution
policy is configured as AllSigned. This script is specially designed to script against OCS by Microsoft PowerShell enjoy!

Tags van Technorati: MSFT_SIPESGlobalRegistrarSetting,PowerShell,OCS-All.ps1,AllSigned,UserDomainList,string,Office Communications Server 2007

OCS 2007 Presences Toolkit for Lotus Notes

Gary Devendorf almost finish the OCS Presences Toolkit for Lotus Notes. Keep up the good work Gary!

Some historical data..

Hi folks I'm very glad to show you some historical data from my weblog. It's a long time ago my first post on this weblog showed up. UC was in the beginning of 2007 a very small topic. Now the topic is much more settled and nice software is developed by Microsoft and other vendors.

My first post on this weblog showed up on 18th of June 2007. After 266 posts now this weblog rocks and is a nice place for bringing people together. Especially people from the OCS community who are looking for good material for resolving their problems/issues.

top 4 languages

On th 14th of October I've implemented Google Analytics. 12.300 users and 20.000 pageviews so far! 8300 unique users together responsible for over 20.000 pageviews.

Some activities from my side:

- 5 times we organized the Unified Communications and Collaboration event in Houten. The next event is scheduled for 17th of April (subscribe)

- different participations in Heliview, new work etc etc.

- 9 Unified Communications Personal Newsletters are send to over 250 technical users of the UC-community!

- launched http://microsoft.e-office.com our new public website based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with chat functionality based on AJAX. Based on a complete redundant environment with integrated LCS/CWA functionality (we working on this one)

- e-office and Interoute working together to provide interesting OCS/Voice solutions

- e-office implements Mitel 3300 as Voice solution to provide new functionality with Enterprise Voice and simul ringing

I'm trying to constantly improve my weblog according to your needs. So please give me your feedback. As I mentioned earlier if you like to receive this newsletter please subscribe and let me know!

NEW: If you would like to share some interesting information for the technical community or you deliver new UC-services as partner please let me know and you will get some room into the UC-newsletter! Contact: joachim.farla@e-office.com

For everyone joining and reading my weblog thank you very much and please stay stuned for the upcoming posts about Enterprise Voice, powershell and OCS, development on OCS and munch more!

Communicator 2007 Group Policy Settings

Quick Details
File Name: Communicator_2007_Group_Policy_Settings.xls
Version: 1.1
Date Published: 3/26/2008
Language: English
Download Size: 149 KB

Download

Passed 70-630 and 70-631...

It has been a while since I posted something, but it was due to heavy work on the projects i’m involved. Beside that i needed to put some attention on my certifications.

This day I took the 70-630 MOSS configuration exam and passed with 1000 points!

I also took 70-631 TS: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with 975 points!

I did not found the exam difficult, because I am working with MOSS/WSS since the Beta 1, therefore most of the questions I already knew.

So good for the partnerpoints :-0. Back to business!

Architecture and Design for OCS Datasheet

New released!

Quick Details
File Name: Architecture_and_Design_for_Office_Communications Server_2007.pdf
Version: 1.0
Date Published: 3/18/2008
Language: English
Download Size: 141 KB

Proof of Concept For Unified Communications Datasheet

The PoC Datasheet is released. See more information below:

Quick Details
File Name: Proof_Of_Concept_For_Unified_Communications.pdf
Version: 1.0
Date Published: 3/18/2008
Language: English
Download Size: 169 KB

Interesting part of this document is "Where to begin with UC?". Microsoft Services is the anwser.

Tags van Technorati: PoC,Proof of Concept,UC,Unified Communications

Exchange and OCS2007 prices

Did you purchase OCS already? Maybe not maybe you did. Before implementing OCS/Exchange you probably would to know what the prices of these products are. Paul did some nice work to put that on the UC map.

See his weblog and stay tuned!

Microsoft Announces Global Strategic Alliance with Aspect Software

 
Today, at VoiceCon 2008, we announced a global strategic alliance with Aspect Software to bring unified communications and software-powered voice to the contact center.  Under terms of the multi-year, global alliance, Aspect will integrate its .NET-based contact center suite, Aspect Unified IP, with Office Communications Server.  Over the next several years, Aspect will increase this interoperability and integration to deliver its next-generation contact center solution built on Office Communications Server’s voice call processing and unified communications capabilities. This new solution will be Aspect’s lead offering to both new and existing customers.  Aspect will also build a professional services practice to help customers deploy, customize, and manage Microsoft’s unified communications software in the contact center – and throughout the enterprise.  As part of the relationship, Microsoft is also making an equity investment in Aspect to accelerate development and adoption of the new offerings.  This announcement provides strong validation and momentum for Microsoft’s software-powered voice and unified communications platform. We’re excited about the opportunity to work with them, and bring them into our partner ecosystem.

As customers make UC platform decisions – including voice – we know that they are increasingly looking for end-to-end technology and services capabilities in all parts of their organizations, including the contact center.  Our joint roadmap with  Aspect’s Unified IP and Unified Command and Control platforms, and Microsoft UC (including OCS), will give customers a compelling alternative to PBX- centric models.  Contact centers have some of the most demanding voice and communications requirements, and there’s a huge focus on metrics and ROI.  This is a place where we believe there is great value for software-powered voice and seamless communications (voice, IM, presence, email).

We are seeing a growing number of enterprises and contact centers who will deploy the Microsoft UC platform and this is a key priority for us in this partnership.  As a result, as part of our announcement, Aspect is creating a new arm in their professional services group focused on Microsoft’s unified communications platform.  While this agreement will start in the contact center, it will extend to the enterprise communications needs more broadly through Aspect’s professional services arm.  By later this year, Aspect will have services professionals inside and outside North America - fully trained on the Microsoft UC platform including OCS (IM, Presence, and Voice) and Exchange 2007, and specializing in architectural design, implementation and integration.  Aspect’s software today is already used in more than 3,000 companies in over 55 countries, and through this professional services component of our alliance, Aspect will be equipped to help these companies deploy unified communications across their organizations for contact center agents, information workers, mobile and teleworkers, and all other areas of the enterprise for software-powered voice, conferencing, IM, and presence. 

Enterprise adoption of OCS is going strong.  More than 35% of the Fortune 500 have licensed OCS, and this portion of our Aspect alliance is sure to accelerate this adoption and the transformation of the voice industry away from the network PBX and towards software-powered voice.

Outlook 2007

Communicator Automation API in Action - Outlook Add-In 
Michael Dunn have been working on the Add in for Outlook, using VSTO and the Communicator Automation API, which allows you to view all of your contacts while it Outlook.

Outlook already gives you presence and functionality to communicate with the people for the currently selected email, but if you want to communicate with some one that isn't included. More on his amazing weblog

Unified Communications and Collaboration event

Subscribe @: here

Four weeks from now e-office is organizing the fifth UC&C event in Houten. This meeting will be presented in Dutch.

This session is most of the time completely full but still we have some free seats left! So make sure you do register to enjoy this great event. We are very happy to see that, and especially to see people and companies searching for Working Easier products like OCS.

Unified Communications is getting more and more hot these days. Time is changing some points of view. Even within the activities around organizing an UC event for our customers and outsiders. Some key aspects are:

• more demos on Live Meeting 2007, file upload, whiteboard sessions, controls in LM, audio/video integrating panoramic view with RoundTable
• smaller groups to be more faced with the products (easier for discussions) the latest feedback from our customers was very good.
• hosted OCS, on premise conferencing (pro/cons)

17th of April e-office is presenting the fifth unified communication and collaboration event in Houten (the Netherlands). To show that Live Meeting recording is working this meeting is being recorded and available for offline usage.

This event gives you a global overview of the functionalities of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007, Live Meeting 2007.

At the end we will go more indepth for people who need more technical information. I will present the last 30 minutes of this session. Within this session I will show you the buildingblocks to start with OCS2007. For customers who are more interested in integrating Voice (Enterprise Voice) solutions feel free to ask. If needed you can do a sneak peak in our Mitel (Forking) solution which is fully operational.

Presenters:

 

Menno Windsma (sip:Menno.Windsma@e-office.com) Managing Director (vision and our mission)

  

Bas Krikke (sip:Bas.Krikke@e-office.com) - Business Analyst and SharePoint 2007 specialist 

 

 

Petra Stuitje (sip:Petra.Stuitje@e-office.com) - Office Specialist

 

 

Before my presentation we will do some demo's because we are a company in believing "show me how it works".

Agenda of this event:

13.00 - 13.30 hour: coffee and tea
13.30 - 14.00 hour: introduction of unified communications & collaboration
14.00 - 15.00 hour: demo unified communications

15:00 - my presentation ;-)
15.00 - 15.30 hour: pause
15.30 - 16:00 hour: discussion about experiences
16:30 - 17:30 hour: wrap up and after snack!
Subscribe @: here

Route:

Kaart weergeven

Unified Communications

8.0UR3 released from Mitel

e-office upgraded their Mitel 3300 to 8.0UR3. With this configuration we have full functionality to support simultaneous ringing (Enterprise Voice). Special thanks to John de Breij (Mitel Benelux)!

Mitel launched 8.0 UR3 for their IP platforms (Mitel 3300 CX / MX) recently with a variety of new features and functionalities.

As part of integration with Microsoft this release adds the support for enterprise voice so Office Communicator soft phone users can use the Mitel platform as gateway for communication to Mitel IP phones and ISDN / SIP connected PSTN. This will deliver total flexibility for customers wanting to use Microsoft integration based on RCC and Enterprise Voice depending on the type of users and requested feature set.

Existing customers can add this functionality by adding SIP trunk licenses on their base platform, no Mitel hardware or 3rd party OCS 2007 server gateway is needed.

From a configuration point of view you only need to create a SIP trunk with specific settings added in 8.0 UR3 to comply with the requirements Microsoft needs for connection to mediation server.

Setup SIP Peer Profile:

SIP Peer Profile Assignment (to specify number to be dialed from OCS users):

Remark: this example lets OCS users dial number starting with 3xx or 7xx which are number on our Mitel system

The other SIP configuration is as normal, i.e. setting up a route to the SIP trunk and ARS to define the numbering scheme from Mitel to the OCS environment.
Setting up the mediation server is as per configuration notes from OCS 2007. There is some work to be done on number normalization to have the right call behaviour, some of this can be simplified by using translation on the Mitel system.

Tags van Technorati: 8.0UR3,mitel 3300,Enterprise Voice,OCS,Mediation Server

HA into your OCS infrastructure

When designing your OCS infrastructure to provide more redundancy and HA you probably need load balancers to balance the LOAD of your company user requests. Attached a short summary of load balancers you can use:

http://www.f5.com/solutions/deployment/index_lcs.html
http://www.f5.com/pdf/deployment-guides/microsoft-ocs-ltm94-dg.pdf

http://www.foundrynet.com/pdf/wp-ms-office-comm-serv-2007-load-bal.pdf

http://www.cainetworks.com/papers/webmux/lcs2005.htm
http://blogs.technet.com/uc/archive/2007/03/30/load-balancers-with-live-communications-server-2005.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/communicationsserver/FX011526591033.aspx

Enjoy and give me your feedback when using one of the above vendors.

Upcoming OCS webcasts

Final call from Byron Spurlock.

Hi all, there are some upcoming webcast that are centered around OCS 2007 that I want you all to participate on.  The link is here  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/unifiedcommunications.aspx?tab=webcasts.

I will be delivering quite a few of these webcast as well, infact I just finishing delivering one today entitled "Capacity Planning for OCS 2007".  This is where we talked about how to size and scale your OCS deployment (core roles).

The webcast will also be available as podcast in the future as well.  For the webcast that have past that I delivered on I will provide a link to download the webcast on demand as well.

Look forward to hearing some of your questions on the webcast.

Source: link

New download

IT Showcase: Deploying Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007

Quick Details
Version: 1.0
Date Published: 3/12/2008
Language: English
Download Size: 1.2 MB - 3.9 MB*

Download

Live Meeting Service from MSFT Online Services

For a couple of days now we are using the Live Meeting Service services from Microsoft Online Services. And I need to say this will work great.

Microsoft Office Live Meeting Service

Connect with your colleagues and engage your customers through real-time meetings, training sessions, and events—using only a PC with an Internet connection and basic software. Hosted Web conferencing from the Microsoft Office Live Meeting service can help give you the power to collaborate from virtually anywhere—set up project meetings, brainstorm ideas, edit files, collaborate on whiteboards, and negotiate deals without the cost and hassle of travel! Free your IT staff to focus on other important projects, and rely on Live Meeting to consistently deliver a high level of security, quality, and availability backed by a decade of operating experience.

Features

Interact with groups of up to 1,250 users, share presentations, collaborate on documents, and encourage participation with interactive tools.

Keep attendees engaged through integrated audio, video, and rich media.

Reduce training and deployment costs with a familiar look and feel and convenient Web-based hosting.

Benefits

Easily add unique interactive tools that work with existing systems and productivity applications.

Improve remote collaboration and increase meeting effectiveness with a familiar, easy-to-use interface.

Stay confident with proven 99.99% uptime availability and always-on encryption.

Link

Link and Try!

Content Life Cycle OCS and Tools

Again and again questions about how OCS deals with "Content Life Cycle" are reaching me. And it isn't very strange because there is no "very" clear information on how OCS deals with expiration dates etc. Except when you purchase the OCS Resource Kit from Microsoft Press ;-)

Where can you set an expiration date within a meeting? In Live Meeting Console you can't. When using the web scheduler can.

Settings referring to this configuration items are found within the following WMI classes:

• MSFT_SIPDataMCUCapabilitySetting
• MSFT_SIPMeetingScheduleSetting

The meeting expiration within OCS is out of the box: 14 days you can find a integer ContentExpirationGracePeriod This property type typically describes the grace period in addition to the expire time after which the Web Conferencing should clean up content for a conference.

The maximum lenght of any meeting without any activity is covered in the MaxMeetingLength property. The OOTB value is 24 hours.

The UCAuthenticatedUserGracePeriod property defines the grace period allowed for anonymous or federated users to stay in the meeting without any authenticated user in the meeting.

You can change all values above according to your organizational needs.

The tools to make encrypted meeting content on your server more viewable are included within the OCS Resource Kit (DMInsider, DMHash and DMDel)

Tags van Technorati: DMInsider,DMHash and DMDel,MSFT_SIPDataMCUCapabilitySetting,MSFT_SIPMeetingScheduleSetting,ContentExpirationGracePeriod,MaxMeetingLength,UCAuthenticatedUserGracePeriod

Newsletter Unified Communications

Each month I will send all my technical contacts also within the community the UC newsletter. This newsletter contains technical and also general information about Unified Communications. What can you expect from this newsletter?

• monthly highlights about Unified Communications and Office Communications Server
• overview of UC events worldwide
• overview of product updates and hotfixes (if available)
• overview of product manuals and special downloads
• overview of event who are organized by e-office
• overview of new books and administrator material
• overview of new voice functionality, Enteprise Voice, RCC, Forking, SIP trunking etc

Personally I'll hope this newsletter gives you a nice overview of the UC-world we live in. The world is changing believe me. At this moment a least 250 persons will receive this newsletter. The feedback about the content is great but I would like to make this information more useful for you.

If you like receive this newsletter also please subscribe and let me know!

NEW: If you would like to share some interesting information for the technical community or you deliver new UC-services as partner please let me know and you will get some room into the UC-newsletter! Contact: joachim.farla@e-office.com

Upgrade to 8.0UR at e-office

Tomorrow is the day e-office and Mitel will upgrade the Mitel 3300 to 8.0UR3. SIP forking will be production for us. So dual forking between the Mitel 3300 and our Windows Mobile 6.0 Treo devices.

Mitel has annoucned SIP forking interoperability as part of the big launch in October 2007.

Mitel is currently in beta with their IP platforms (CX /
MX) on software 8.0UR3, where SIP forking will be part of the SIP integration into mediation server of OCS.

The official support will be added after interop through Microsofts program after which an entry in the mentioned directory will appear.

Mitel did this before with the direct integration into Exchange 2007 :
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/telephony-advisor.mspx
In highlights we will blog on how to upgrade to 8.0UR3 and which feature you will get after upgrading this great product. Stay tuned.

Tags van Technorati: 8.0UR3,Mitel 3300,SIP forking,OCS,Mediation Server

Exchange 2007 SP1

New download from the Microsoft Download Site

Download

Version:
Date Published:
3/6/2008

Language:
English

Download Size:
840.6 MB - 1695.4 MB*

Tags van Technorati: 08.01.0240.006,Exchange Server 2007 SP1

Back to business...!

Long time no see. I’m back. To be official I will continue tomorrow morning. Last week I went to Fuerteventura with my wife. Just relax en drink some beers! The last few months where quite busy. First of all the interesting new OCS documentation/tools and workshops.

Then the UC Voice Ignite Tour in Paris (see my blogposts on that) and after that my holiday. As I said earlier tomorrow morning the first working day.

As you probably saw Microsoft did release a complete bunch of new tools and documentation. Vary on Microsoft Office Communicator Phone Edition update to new documentation and updates (Microsoft Office Communicator 2007) etc. Enjoy!

Here the complete list of new downloads:

Office Communicator 2007 Get Started

OfficeCommunicator2007_GS_E.ppt

1.0

3/6/2008

1.1 MB

Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API SDK

UcmaSdk.msi

3.0.6362.33

Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:

KB945712

3/6/2008

4.9 MB

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 SDK

OCSSDK.msi

3.0.6362.35

Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:

KB946044

3/6/2008

1.0 MB

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Hotfix KB 943083

communicator.msp

2.0.6362.36

Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:

KB943083

3/6/2008

4.8 MB

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Phone Edition

UCUpdates.exe

1.0.522.34

Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:

KB946149

3/6/2008

10.8 MB

Unified Communications Enhanced Presence Schemas for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007

UcEnhPresSchemas.msi

3.0.6362.44

3/6/2008

1.3 MB

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Presence Controls

OCPresenceControls.msi

2.0.6362.51

3/6/2008

518 KB

Planning Tool for Office Communications Server 2007

OCSPlanningTool.msi

3.0.6362.53

3/6/2008

626 KB

Example pictures:

OOF

at this moment I'm out of office. I will return on the 11th of March.
More information see: http://unified-communications.blogspot.com

For urgent questions please contact Menno Windsma (menno.windsma@e-office.com) or contact the e-office secretary on +31(0)880018300

Day -5 Voice Ignite Tour

The UC Voice Ignite Tour is closed :-(. The entire "project" was outstanding. The hotel and the drinks where quite expensive 23 euro's for the first glass of champagne. The next glass 15 euro's. Not normal. Yesterday was the last day of the UC Voice Ignite Tour and of course the Grand Finale. At 16:30 I did leave and 21:30 I was back in my hometown (Vleuten- Netherlands)

Exercise:

Big lap with 7 exercises. Try to find the errors and describe how you figure out these errors. Thomas Lee and some other guys from Microsoft give away all the prizes by the end of the day.

Next week I will be OOF and back on the 11th of March. After my holiday more posts on how to use the tools into the Resource Kit (especially the DMIsinder tool to strip off the hashes into the Web Components folder.

Congrats to Thijs Janssen from Microsoft Netherlands he was the great winner of the UC Voice Ignite Tour in Paris! 

Thanks to all the guys who organize this event (TSG-guys, Global Knowledge and Microsoft)