Just wanted to let you know that Tekvizion has certified OfficeMaster Gate now also for OCS R2 (including MTLS/SRTP)!
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb735838.aspx#direct
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
OCS Global Settings Migration Tool (GSMT) - Part 1 (how,when and why?)
…and especially and particular what do you need to do when having a failure? As I see it a lot in the community there are lots of confusions about the OCS Global Settings Migration Tool aka OCS GSMT. I’m writing this article because we recently had a customer who use this tool completely wrong. To clarify it more in-depth see the answers below:
What is the OCS Global Settings Migration Tool?
The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Global Settings Migration Tool enables Administrators of existing deployments of OCS 2007 to migrate the OCS-specific global settings residing in Active Directory, from the root domain’s System container to the Configuration container. The migration of OCS global settings to the Configuration container provides a better solution for decentralized AD topologies.
Where can I get the OCS Global Settings Migration Tool (GSMT)?
The OCS GMST can be downloaded via the Microsoft Download site @ download
What are the advantages of setting your configuration partition to system container?
The global settings for Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 are normally stored in the root domain’s System container. This approach offers a lot of advantages in a centralized topology compared with storing it in the Configuration container, specifically faster replication and fewer replicated copies.
What is the most common reason to run the OCS GSMT?
During the Office Communications Server development cycle, it was noticed that some Office Communications Server deployments that start out as centralized move towards being distributed. Theoretically, this is what was recommended, because the closer Office Communications Server and its component services (conferencing server, web components, and so on) are to the SIP-enabled user, the better the collaboration experience will be. In practice, two issues were found:
- Long service start time
- Long replication delay when managing Global Settings in the snap-in
Both issues are expected from product design’s perspective. However, they are not acceptable to typical customers, especially to those who have been using the product since Live Communications Server 2003. There are many short-term workarounds. The best long term approach remains to migrate the Office Communication Server global settings from the root domain System container to the Configuration container. It’s not a prerequisite for installing OCS 2007 R2!
In the next blog post I will explain a recent failure we had on the wrong use of OCS GSMT. They stuck in the migration steps and installers failed in OCS R2. PSS was contacted and the effort they (me ;-) put into this support call is exclusively made available through this UC weblog. Stay tuned!
Upcoming:
Part 2: customer case (CONTOSO infrastructure when OCS GSMT is used wrong)
Part 3: How to fix a broken configuration?
Sources: Microsoft Download, OCS_Migrate_Global_Setting.doc
OCS WebChat interview posted on UCVUG.nl
A couple of weeks ago we interviewed Rob Overkamp – project manager at e-office responsible for OCS WebChat (project management) and Michiel van Oudheusden (Software Developer) at e-office responsible for writing the code on OCS WebChat.
Since today the entire interview is published on UCVUG.nl (Unified Communications Virtual User Group) in the Netherlands.
Special thanks to Gijs Lokker for making this happen. Especially on mothers day ;-)
- Interview info UCVUG: link (Streaming Media)
- Product info (Dutch): link (Website)
- Product info (English): link (PDF)
Special thanks to entire UC development team for setting up his wonderful extension on Unified Communications.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Additional Windows Live Messenger PIC/Federation IP Addresses
Notification
Additional Windows Live Messenger PIC/Federation IP Addresses
In an effort to provide enhanced capacity and service reliance, Windows Live Messenger will soon be adding additional IP addresses used for PIC/Federation traffic. Some organizations have chosen to restrict this type of traffic to specific IP addresses, as referenced in Microsoft KB 897567 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897567). With this in mind we want to give you advanced notice of our intended change if you have configured your enterprise network in this manner.
Please ensure your enterprise firewall configuration is updated with the full list of Windows Live Messenger addresses below on or before Friday, May 8, 2009. Windows Live Messenger will NOT enable any of the additional IP addresses until on or after May 9th (Pacific Time) to ensure your services will not be disrupted by this change.
IP address for Windows Live Messenger PIC/Federation:
· 65.54.227.249
· 64.4.9.181
· 64.4.9.245
· 65.54.52.53
· 65.54.52.245
For more information please reference Microsoft KB 897567, or for further assistance, please engage Microsoft Customer Support Services via http://support.microsoft.com.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
SIP Trunking with Interoute One (e-office)
Today, we are the lucky owners of a fully functional Microsoft Office Communications Server R2 environment connected to Interoute One Services (SIP Trunking Provider).
Interoute is one of our partners in SIP services and a Microsoft Gold Partner. A couple of year's ago e-office connected LCS2005 to the VoIP cloud of Interoute. However, our current infrastructure only supports Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, so we needed to make sure that Interoute’s service will also work correctly with the OCS R2 Mediation Server.
On the 16th of October our e-office Microsoft Team connected to Interoute via SIP trunking (using SIP over TCP, as supported in OCS 2007 R2) and of course federation. Together with Interoute we accomplish some tests to get certified.
Since then Interoute has achieved its certification for SIP Trunking Services Qualified for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2
What is Interoute One?
Interoute One is a unique development brought to you by Interoute, the largest pan-European VoIP network owner. It is designed to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft OCS.
Interoute is the VoIP provider to many large Corporates and currently carries over 6 billion VoIP minutes per year.
Main features:
Feature:
- Business quality VoIP
- Free calls between your sites on the Interoute network
- Free calls to other Interoute One customers
- Realise real cost savings with our low cost calls package
- Reduce your mobile roaming costs
- No new hardware required – easy integration
Traditional architecture:
cons:
- Complex
- Expensive
- Requires greater expertise
- Geographically limited
Interoute architecture:
pros:
- Simple online setup
- Zero cost
- Auto configured
So what are the steps required to try it out for yourself… before eBay-ing your PBX?
Basically you need to do the following steps:
Step 1.
To request a trial go to on www.InterouteOne.com and click ‘click here to apply’.
Fill out the request form, making sure you to enter your corporate email address. Webmail addresses like yahoo, gmail or hotmail are not eligible. Link Sing-Up for FREE!
Note: no inbound numbers are not available with the trial. This feature is only for postpaid customers.
Step 2.
Once your request will be approved, you will receive an email from Interoute with a link directing you to the sign-up page.
Domain Name: This is the 'Sip domain' that your users are configured to use. If the user name is like user@company.com, the domain name is company.com. Most of the time this domain name is the same as the corporate SMTP domain space.
Step 3.
Interoute One will send you a login name and password. Login at Interoute One Login Page:
Example is shown:
Step 4.
Make sure an OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server is installed and joined to the domain for example (contoso.local). A Mediation Server must be able to pass SIP requests and media between the Enterprise Voice infrastructure and a media gateway connected to the PSTN.
Assign this OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server with one NIC and assign two separate IP addresses. Configure one IP address to listening for Office Communication Server traffic. Configure the other NIC for listening for voice gateway traffic. There can only be one default gateway!
Sometimes:
The customer may have decided to implement their OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server on a machine that has two interfaces, where they may dedicate one interface for OCS 2007 R2 facing communication and the other for external communication. Unlike the access edge proxy, the OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server may not always intelligently select the right interface for packets destined for the Interoute One service.
Be careful when using a static NAT mapping set up, this may cause issues on the interconnect (traffic sentfrom the other interface may end up originating from a different public IP, which will be dropped by the Interoute servers). If the customer can see SIP traffic leaving the OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server, but it doesn't seem to arrive at Interoute Servers, please check that the traffic is using the correct interface.
Make sure your internal pool name is filled in (example: pool1.contoso.local) and make also sure that the PSTN next hop address is correct. In your case the PSTN next hop address is the public IP address of the Interoute One servers (89.*) this information fill be provided by Interoute in case you have any questions about that.
Step 5.
Make sure within the OCS 2007 R2 Management Console that only users prepared as Enterprise Voice users are checked with the Enterprise Voice option and that the line URI is filled in. Example (+312......) You can configure Enterprise Voice on per user basis.
Step 6.
Make sure all users who are using Enterprise Voice have installed Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 (MOC2007) minimal version 3.5.6907.
Step 7.
Make sure numbers entered in Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 can normalized to E.164. The format of the telephone number associated with the UC-enabled user is E.164 (example: +123456789). Therefore, if a user enters a number that is in different format (example: extension 1234) it has to be manipulated into the E.164 format.
OCS 2007 R2 will take this number and search the corporate directory to find the user who has a matching number and then voice mail will be routed to the correct user. OCS 2007 R2 uses normalization rules to translate these number formats and uses an internal translation service to perform canonicalization transformation. In our case we use only one normalization rule.
Step 8.
Check your Forest Level Voice Settings
To view global settings for Enterprise Voice:
· Open the Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2 administrative snap-in.
· In the console pane, click the forest node.
· In the details pane, click the Location Profiles/Routes tab.
· Expand one or more of the following to view the corresponding settings for Voice: Global Policy, Phone Usages, Normalization Rules, Location Profiles and Routes.
Step 9.
Check your pool level Voice Settings
To view voice settings for a pool:
· Open the Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2administrative snap-in.
· In the console pane, click the pool whose settings you want to view.
· In the details pane, expand Voice Settings. Voice Settings displays pool-level settings for phone lock, location profile, and quality of service.
· Expand the settings you want to view.
Step 10.
Check your Route within OCS 2007 R2. When Communications Server determines that a dialed number needs to be routed to a PSTN gateway, the routing table is queried to determine the optimal gateway for the call. In our case the route is (.*) because we only have 1 normalization rule. So there is no need for logic routing.
Step 11.
Open ports on your FW (only outbound) only to the specific public IP addresses of Interoute (89.*) When configuring the OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server , you are advised to accept the default media port gateway range of 60,000 to 64,000. The default range media port range enables the server to handle up to 1,000 simultaneous voice calls. We as e-office expanded this range.
Step 12.
Open ports on your FW (only inbound) only to your external edge of the OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server. Ports (60,000-64,000).
Step 13.
There you go! Outbound calling will go through the services of Interoute One. Inbound calling will be forwarded to your OCS 2007 R2 infrastructure. All: cheap, easy to use and just perfect! Sign it up for free and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2,MOC,OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server,Mediation Server,Interoute,Interoute One,SIP,Secure SIP,location profiles,routes,Voice properties,Enterprise Voice,URI
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