IT based Communications

LyncIn1Box: Installing Lync on a Domain Controller

LuisR — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:41:06 +0000

You might noticed when you try to install Lync on a Domain Controller the bootstrapper stops on the prerequirements phase that ‘the product cannot be installed on a DC.
Why you might want to do this? For lab resource savings (one single server, less administration)
Why it’s not possible? By analysing the structure of the product modules, most of them are configured with ACL’s, local group accounts and services with the computer Network Service Account. When you promote the computer to a DC, you loose access to those accounts and local groups.

On this post you will find the manual instructions to perform an installation of Lync Standard Edition with IM, enterprise voice (collocated mediation server) and conferencing. This is the first version, it has not been fully tested and… it will not be a valid configuration supported by Microsoft.
With more time I will try to post a script file to execute this steps automatically. But if you follow this instructions you just have to copy/paste the commands (identified in brown) and execute on your server.
The scripting is designed to run with any computername, domain or lync names, so you don’t have follow exactly the names shown. All instructions are to be performed with an elevated previleges command prompt, with a domain administrator account.

1. The environment requirements

This configuration was sucessfully tested on a virtual environment:

2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 16+10GB vHDD (drive C and D);
Windows 2008 R2 Standard edition server;
Server with an Active directory, DNS and a Enterprise Root CA and Powershell.
The Lync server setup binaries (virtual cd, local or network drive);

After you setup your server and install de AD, DNS and a CA… start the command prompt (run as an administrator).
2. The first requiremente are the windows components:
POWERSHELL -Command “Import-Module ServerManager; Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,web-server,Web-Static-Content,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Http-Errors,Web-Http-Redirect,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Net-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Client-Auth,Web-Filtering,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Scripting-Tools -verbose”
3. Install windows media package
dism.exe /online /norestart /add-package /packagepath:%windir%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-Media-Format-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.7601.17514.mum /ignorecheck
4. Althought the system doesn’t report de need, you should reboot the server because the VC2008 component will fail to install due to a lock down condition caused by the previous components. After log in open again the command prompt

5. The script guided variables

The script will follow all the settings defined by this variables that you must provide. If you restart your server in the middle of this instructions you need to set these environment variables. You can define/change the following variables:

SETUPSRV – The path where the Lync setup binaries are located (the amd64 from the original ISO)
LYNCDIR – Root folder where Lync will be installed;
SQLEXP – folder installation of sql express executables binaries (databases will be installed on %LYNCDIR%\DB)
SETUPLOG – almost all script commands will write log at this location. This will help you troubleshooting any problem.

Here are the values I used:
SET RUN=CMD /C
SET SQLEXP=D:\SQL
SET SETUPSRC=D:\Temp\Lync 2010\amd64
SET LYNCDIR=D:\Lync
SET LYNCPS=%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\Modules\Lync\Lync.psd1
SET SETUPLOG=%LYNCDIR%\Deployment\Logs

6. Lync AD prep and central management store

Creating the log folder and jumping to the setup source binaries folder:
MKDIR “%SETUPLOG%”
PUSHD “%SETUPSRC%”
VC++2008 and SQL 2005 backward compatibility (to old for Lync no?)
%RUN% vcredist_x64.exe /q
%RUN% Msiexec /i SQLServer2005_BC.msi /qb! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\SQLServer2005_BC.log”
Now for the first Lync base common and administration tools
%RUN% Msiexec /i setup\OcsCore.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_OcsCore REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /qb! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_OcsCore.log”
CMD /C Msiexec /i setup\UcmaRunTime.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_UCMARuntime REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” BOOT=1 /qb! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_UCMARuntime.log”
CMD /C Msiexec /i setup\AdminTools.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_AdminTools REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /qb! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_AdminTools.log”
Active Directory preparation
powershell.exe -command “Import-Module ‘%LYNCPS%’;Install-CsAdServerSchema -verbose -Report ‘%SETUPLOG%\Install-CsADServerSchema.html’;Get-CsAdServerSchema”
powershell.exe -command “Import-Module ‘%LYNCPS%’;Enable-CsAdForest -verbose -Report ‘%SETUPLOG%\Install-CsADForest.html’;Get-CsAdForest”
powershell.exe -command “Import-Module ‘%LYNCPS%’;Enable-CsAdDomain -verbose -Report ‘%SETUPLOG%\Install-CsADDomain.html’;Get-CsAdDomain”
SQL Express setup – this is the first trick: custom setup SQL to run services with the LocalSystem account
(tip: you can use a more recent version of SQL express like SP3)
%RUN% SQLEXPR_x64.exe /ACTION=”Install” /QUIETSIMPLE=”True” /FEATURES=SQLENGINE,TOOLS /INSTANCEDIR=”%SQLEXP%” /SQLUSERDBDIR=”%LYNCDIR%\DB\RTC” /SQLUSERDBLOGDIR=”%LYNCDIR%\DB\RTC” /SQLBACKUPDIR=”%LYNCDIR%\DB\Backup” /INSTANCENAME=”RTC” /TCPENABLED=”1″ /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS=”Builtin\Administrators” /SQLSVCACCOUNT=”NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM” /SQLSVCSTARTUPTYPE=”Automatic” /BROWSERSVCSTARTUPTYPE=”Automatic”
Create the databases for the central management store
powershell.exe -command “Import-Module ‘%LYNCPS%’;$sysinfo = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem;$fqdn = “{0}.{1}” -f $sysinfo.Name, $sysinfo.Domain;Install-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SqlServerFqdn $fqdn -SqlInstanceName RTC -UseDefaultSqlPaths -Clean -Verbose -Report “%SETUPLOG%\Install-CentralManagementDatabase.html”
COPY “%TEMP%\Create-CentralMgmtStore-ONESERVER*.log” “%SETUPLOG%

7. Topology building

Now for the manual part (still don’t get it why there are not commands for that…).
Create the file share before because topology builder cannot do that and will generate an error:
SET LYNCSHARE=%LYNCDIR%\FileShare
MKDIR “%LYNCSHARE%”
ICACLS %LYNCSHARE% /inheritance:r
ICACLS %LYNCSHARE% /remove “BUILTIN\Administrators:(F)”
ICACLS %LYNCSHARE% /grant “BUILTIN\Administrators:(OI)(CI)(F)”
ICACLS %LYNCSHARE% /grant “NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(OI)(CI)(F)”
ICACLS %LYNCSHARE% /grant “CREATOR OWNER:(OI)(CI)(F)”
NET SHARE LyncShare=”%LYNCSHARE%” /GRANT:everyone,FULL
Run topology builder and create a new topology. I will not post pictures, so each bullet correspond to a windows wizard. you can choose the names, but your better follow the options in green:

Primary SIP Domain:
< you can add additional sip domains>
First Site Name:
Open new Front End wizard
Front End pool fqdn
FQDN:
Select option: Standard Edition Server
Select features:
Check Conferencing, which includes audio, video and application Sharing
Check Enterprise voice
Select collocated server roles
Check Collocate Mediation Server
Associate server roles…
Define SQL store
Define a new file share
File server FQDN:
File Share: lyncshare
Specify the web services URL
Keep the suggested External base URL
Specify PSTN gateways

You can now choose ‘publish topology’. On ‘Select Central Management Server’, click ‘Advanced’ and select ‘Use SQL Server Instance Defaults’. You should have a Lync Standard Topology similar to the one on the picture.

8. Trick #1 – “local groups” and security

With a standard edition server, from this point configurations are based on local groups create at the server level. This will result in setup fails and errors. To control and minimize we will create domain local groups identical to a normal setup with the required membership:
Powershell.exe -command “Import-Module activedirectory;New-ADGroup ‘RTC Component Local Group‘ -GroupScope DomainLocal -Description ‘Lync Server Web Components And MCU service accounts are granted appropriate local permissions through this group’ -Verbose;Add-ADGroupMember ‘RTC Component Local Group’ ‘RTCComponentUniversalServices’,'RTCUniversalServerAdmins’ -Verbose”
Powershell.exe -command “Import-Module activedirectory;New-ADGroup ‘RTC Local Administrators’ -GroupScope DomainLocal -Description ‘RTC domain Server Administrators get local Central Management database access through this group’ -Verbose;Add-ADGroupMember ‘RTC Local Administrators’ ‘Domain Admins’,'RTCUniversalServerAdmins’ -Verbose”
Powershell.exe -command “Import-Module activedirectory;New-ADGroup ‘RTC Local Config Replicator’ -GroupScope DomainLocal -Description ‘Lync Server replication services are granted appropriate local permissions through this group’ -Verbose;Add-ADGroupMember ‘RTC Local Config Replicator’ ‘RTCUniversalConfigReplicator’ -Verbose”
Powershell.exe -command “Import-Module activedirectory;New-ADGroup ‘RTC Local Read-only Administrators’ -GroupScope DomainLocal -Description ‘RTC domain Read-only Administrators get local Central Management database access through this group’ -Verbose;Add-ADGroupMember ‘RTC Local Read-only Administrators’ ‘RTCUniversalReadOnlyAdmins’ -Verbose”
Powershell.exe -command “Import-Module activedirectory;New-ADGroup ‘RTC Local User Administrators’ -GroupScope DomainLocal -Description ‘RTC domain User Administrators get local DCOM permissions through this group’ -Verbose;Add-ADGroupMember ‘RTC Local User Administrators’ ‘RTCUniversalUserAdmins’ -Verbose”
Powershell.exe -command “Import-Module activedirectory;New-ADGroup ‘RTC Server Applications’ -GroupScope DomainLocal -Description ‘Lync Server Server applications are granted appropriate local permissions through this group’ -Verbose”
Powershell.exe -command “Import-Module activedirectory;New-ADGroup ‘RTC Server Local Group’ -GroupScope DomainLocal -Description ‘Lync Server service accounts are granted appropriate local permissions through this group’ -Verbose;Add-ADGroupMember ‘RTC Server Local Group’ ‘RTCHSUniversalServices’”

9. Trick #2 – Central application databases

The following command normally would create all the required databases:
Install-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn -UseDefaultSqlPaths
but will fail on this case, because will try to assign local groups and permissions (server\group name) and they are not to be found.
So lets execute the database procedures with the ‘fixed’ local groups :
PUSHD “%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\DbSetup”
cscript.exe //Nologo “DbSetup.wsf” /clean /sqlserver:%computername%.%userdnsdomain%\rtc /serveracct:%userdomain%\RTCHSUniversalServices;”%userdomain%\RTC Server Local Group” /adminacct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalServerAdmins;”%userdomain%\RTC Local Administrators” /roacct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalReadOnlyAdmins /role:se /verbose > “%SETUPLOG%\DbSetup-BackEndStore.log”
cscript.exe //Nologo “RtcAbDBSetup.wsf” /clean /sqlserver:%computername%.%userdnsdomain%\rtc /serveracct:%userdomain%\RTCComponentUniversalServices;”%userdomain%\RTC Component Local Group” /verbose > “%SETUPLOG%\DbSetup-ABStore.log”
cscript.exe //Nologo “RgsConfigDbSetup.wsf” /clean /sqlserver:%computername%.%userdnsdomain%\rtc /serveracct:%userdomain%\RTCComponentUniversalServices;”%userdomain%\RTC Component Local Group” /adminacct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalServerAdmins /roacct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalReadOnlyAdmins /verbose > “%SETUPLOG%\DbSetup-ApplicationStore.log”
cscript.exe //Nologo “RgsDynDbSetup.wsf” /clean /sqlserver:%computername%.%userdnsdomain%\rtc /serveracct:%userdomain%\RTCComponentUniversalServices;”%userdomain%\RTC Component Local Group” /adminacct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalServerAdmins /roacct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalReadOnlyAdmins /verbose >> “%SETUPLOG%\DbSetup-ApplicationStore.log”
cscript.exe //Nologo “CpsDynDbSetup.wsf” /clean /sqlserver:%computername%.%userdnsdomain%\rtc /serveracct:%userdomain%\RTCComponentUniversalServices;”%userdomain%\RTC Component Local Group” /adminacct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalServerAdmins /roacct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalReadOnlyAdmins /verbose >> “%SETUPLOG%\DbSetup-ApplicationStore.log”
cscript.exe //Nologo “xdssetup.wsf” /setsecurity /sqlserver:%computername%.%userdnsdomain%\rtc /publisheracct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalServerAdmins;”%userdomain%\RTC Local Administrators” /replicatoracct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalConfigReplicator;”%userdomain%\RTC Local Config Replicator” /consumeracct:%userdomain%\RTCUniversalReadOnlyAdmins;”%userdomain%\RTC Local Read-only Administrators” /role:master /verbose > “%SETUPLOG%\DbSetup-SetSecurity.log”
POPD

10. Trick #3 – Local database and replication service

The ‘rtclocal’ database SQL setup is similar to the central management store ‘rtc’
%RUN% SQLEXPR_x64.exe /ACTION=”Install” /QUIETSIMPLE=”True” /FEATURES=SQLENGINE,TOOLS /INSTANCEDIR=”%SQLEXP%” /SQLUSERDBDIR=”%LYNCDIR%\DB\RTCLOCAL” /SQLUSERDBLOGDIR=”%LYNCDIR%\DB\RTCLOCAL” /SQLBACKUPDIR=”%LYNCDIR%\DB\Backup” /INSTANCENAME=”RTCLOCAL” /TCPENABLED=”1″ /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS=”Builtin\Administrators” /SQLSVCACCOUNT=”NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM” /SQLSVCSTARTUPTYPE=”Automatic” /BROWSERSVCSTARTUPTYPE=”Automatic”
The setup of the replication service that will sync the central ‘XDS’ database with the local one:
OcsCore.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_LocalMgmtStore REPLICA_ROOT_DIR=”%LYNCDIR%” INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /qb!
will report a sucessfull install, but will not install anything… so we have to manually recreate all his actions.
10.1. creating the local xds database
PUSHD “%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\DbSetup”
cscript.exe //U //Nologo xdssetup.wsf /clean /publisheracct:”%userdomain%\RTC Local Administrators” /replicatoracct:”%userdomain%\RTC Local Config Replicator” /consumeracct:”%userdomain%\RTC Server Local Group;%userdomain%\RTC Component Local Group;%userdomain%\RTC Local Read-only Administrators” /role:replica /verbose > %SETUPLOG%\DbSetup-LocalReplica.log”
POPD
10.2. Creating the replica shared folder
MKDIR “%LYNCDIR%\xds-replica”
NET SHARE xds-replica=”%LYNCDIR%\xds-replica” /GRANT:”RTC Local Config Replicator,FULL”
ICACLS “%LYNCDIR%\xds-replica” /grant “RTC Local Config Replicator:(OI)(CI)(F)”
ICACLS “%LYNCDIR%\xds-replica” /remove “BUILTIN\Users”
10.3. Manually extract and install the binary files and registry settings
%RUN% Msiexec /a setup\OcsCore.msi TARGETDIR=”%TEMP%\OcsCore” /passive /l “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_LocalStore.log”
XCOPY “%TEMP%\OcsCore\Program Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\Server\Replica Replicator Agent” “%LYNCDIR%\Server\Replica Replicator Agent\”
REG ADD “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Real-Time Communications\{2A0B4BB2-4921-4b40-BA9E-81747CB84635}” /v “Version” /d “4.0.7577.0″ /f
REG ADD “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Real-Time Communications\{2A0B4BB2-4921-4b40-BA9E-81747CB84635}” /v “InstallDir” /d “%LYNCDIR%\\” /f
REG ADD “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Real-Time Communications\{F812C31A-2347-41de-9B1B-E8E412051254}” /v “Version” /d “4.0.7577.0″ /f
REG ADD “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Real-Time Communications\{F812C31A-2347-41de-9B1B-E8E412051254}” /v “InstallDir” /d “%LYNCDIR%\\” /f
10.4. Create the replica service
SC CREATE REPLICA binpath= “%LYNCDIR%\Server\Replica Replicator Agent\ReplicaReplicatorAgent.exe -s /replicaRootDir:%LYNCDIR%\ /sqlInstance:(local)\rtclocal /sqlDatabase:xds” type= own start= auto DisplayName= “Lync Server Replica Replicator Agent” obj= LocalSystem
SC description REPLICA “Lync Server Replica Replicator Agent”
SC sidtype REPLICA unrestricted
SC failure REPLICA reset= 86400 actions= restart/180000/restart/180000/noaction/0
POWERSHELL -Command “$objUser = New-Object System.Security.Principal.NTAccount(‘RTC Local Config Replicator’);$strSID = $objUser.Translate([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]);$strSID.Value”>”%TEMP%\SID1.txt” && SET /P SID1= <”%TEMP%\SID1.txt”
SC sdset REPLICA D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;IU)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;SU)(A;;LCSWRPWPCR;;;%SID1%)S:(AU;FA;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;WD)
10.5. Initial XDS database copy and replica configuration
powershell.exe -command “Import-Module Lync;$config = Export-CSConfiguration -AsBytes -Verbose;Import-CSConfiguration -ByteInput $config -LocalStore -Verbose;Enable-CSReplica -Verbose -Confirm:$false -Report ‘%SETUPLOG%\Enable-CSReplica.html’”
Note: Enable-CSReplica will generate an error while trying to add a ‘replica’ account to group… No problem. We just need it to configure the firewall and service validation

11. The quiet part

The main Lync services components setup are executed almost the same way as the bootstrapper does, with a difference: I only installed the english speech languages. You can copy/paste all the commands and wait. I put some comments to explain what they are, but will not interfere on the process.
ECHO …IIS URL Rewrite Module 2
%RUN% Msiexec /i rewrite_2.0_rtw_x64.msi REBOOT=ReallySuppress /qb! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\rewrite_2.0_rtw_x64.log”
ECHO …Visual J# 2.0
%RUN% vj2se_x64.exe /Q:A /C:”install /QB!”
ECHO …Microsoft Server Speech Platform Runtime
%RUN% Msiexec /i setup\speech\SpeechPlatformRuntime.msi REBOOT=ReallySuppress /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\SpeechPlatformRuntime.log”
ECHO ……English Speech
%RUN% Msiexec /i setup\speech\en-US\MSSpeech_TTS_en-US_Helen.msi REBOOT=ReallySuppress /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\MSSpeech_TTS_en-US_Helen.log”
%RUN% Msiexec /i setup\speech\en-US\MSSpeech_SR_en-US_TELE.msi REBOOT=ReallySuppress /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\MSSpeech_SR_en-US_TELE.log”
ECHO …Unified Communications Managed API 3.0, Windows Workflow Activities Runtime
%RUN% Msiexec /i setup\ucmaworkflowruntime.msi REBOOT=ReallySuppress CLIENTUILEVEL=3 /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\ucmaworkflowruntime.log”
ECHO …Conferencing Server (Common Feature for OcsMCU) – needed to manually fix ACL
%RUN% Msiexec /i setup\OcsMcu.msi ADDLOCAL=OcsMCUCommon REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\OcsMCUCommon.log”
MKDIR “%LYNCDIR%\OCSMCU”
ICACLS “%LYNCDIR%\OCSMCU” /grant “RTC Component Local Group:(OI)(CI)(RX)”
ECHO …Conferencing Server (Application Sharing Server)
%RUN% Msiexec /i setup\OcsMcu.msi ADDLOCAL=ASMCU REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\ASMCU.log”
ECHO …Conferencing Server (Audio/Video Conferencing Server)
%RUN% Msiexec/i setup\OcsMcu.msi ADDLOCAL=AVMCU REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\AVMCU.log”
ECHO …Application Host
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\AppServer.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_AppServer REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_AppServer.log”
ECHO …Audio Test Service
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\Ats.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_Ats REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_Ats.log”
ECHO …Call Park Services
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\CPS.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_CPS REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_CPS.log”
ECHO …Web Conferencing Server
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\DataMcu.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_DataMCU REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\DataMCU.log”
ECHO …Core Management Server (Core Management Server)
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\MgmtServer.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_MGMTServer REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_MGMTServer.log”
ECHO …Core Management Server (Master Replication Agent)
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\MgmtServer.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_Master REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_Master.log”
ECHO …Core Management Server (File Transfer Agent)
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\MgmtServer.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_FTA REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_FTA.log”
ECHO …Mediation Server
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\MediationServer.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_MediationServer REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_MediationServer .log”
ECHO …Response Group Service
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\Rgs.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_RGS REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_RGS.log”
ECHO …Lync Server
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\Server.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_Server REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Server.log”
ECHO …Web Components Server (Common Files)
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\WebComponents.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_WebComponents_CommonFiles REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_WebComponents_CommonFiles.log”
ECHO …Web Components Server (Reach Web)
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\WebComponents.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_WebComponent_ReachWeb REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_WebComponent_ReachWeb.log”
ECHO …Reach Fonts
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\ReachFonts.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_WebComponent_ReachFonts REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\Feature_WebComponent_ReachFonts.log”
ECHO …Web Components Server
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\WebComponents.msi ADDLOCAL=Feature_WebComponents_CommonFiles,Feature_WebComponent_AddressBook,Feature_WebComponent_AuthFramework,Feature_WebComponent_AdminUI,Feature_WebComponent_CertProv,Feature_WebComponent_DataMCUWeb,Feature_WebComponent_DevUpdate,Feature_WebComponent_DialinPage,Feature_WebComponent_GroupExpansion,Feature_WebComponent_JoinLauncher,Feature_WebComponent_LocationInfo,Feature_WebComponent_MeetingMCUWeb,Feature_WebComponent_OcsPowershell,Feature_WebComponent_Rgs,Feature_WebComponent_ReachWeb,Feature_WebComponent_WebTicket REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\WebComponents_All.log”
ECHO …Conferencing Server (IM Conferencing Server)
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\OcsMcu.msi ADDLOCAL=IMMCU REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\IMMCU.log”
ECHO …Conferencing Server (Web Conferencing Compatibility Server)
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\OcsMcu.msi ADDLOCAL=MeetingMCU REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\MeetingMCU.log”
ECHO …Registrar Store
%RUN% Msiexec /i Setup\Server.msi ADDLOCAL=RegistrarStore REBOOT=ReallySuppress INSTALLDIR=”%LYNCDIR%” /QB! /L*v “%SETUPLOG%\RegistrarStore.log”
ECHO … Exiting source setup dir folder
POPD
ECHO …Enable server roles (firewall config, register services,ACL’s. You can ignore the error related t add account to groups)
Powershell -Command “Import-Module ‘%LYNCPS%’;Enable-CsComputer -Verbose -Report ‘%SETUPLOG%\Enable-CsComputer.html’”

12. Server Certificates

First detect local CA setting to use on the request command:
FOR /F “tokens=3*” %x in (‘REG QUERY HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\CertSvc\Configuration /v Active’) DO @SET CANAME=%x%y
FOR /F “tokens=3*” %x in (‘REG QUERY HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\CertSvc\Configuration\%CANAME% /v CASERVERNAME’) DO @SET CAFQDN=%x%y
Now lets request the certificates. I choose to separate the Default and Webinternal from the External
%RUN% POWERSHELL -Command “Import-Module ‘%LyncPS%’;$cert=Request-CSCertificate -New -Type Default,WebServicesInternal -CA ‘%CAFQDN%\%CANAME%’ -FriendlyName ‘LyncDefInternal’ -KeySize 2048 -PrivateKeyExportable $False -Verbose -Report ‘%SETUPLOG%\Request-CSCertificate-DefaultInternal.html’ ;Set-CSCertificate -Type Default,WebServicesInternal -Verbose -Confirm:$false -Thumbprint $cert.thumbprint -Report ‘%LYNCLOG%\Set-CSCertificate-DefaultInternal.html’”
%RUN% POWERSHELL -Command “Import-Module ‘%LyncPS%’;$cert=Request-CSCertificate -New -Type WebServicesExternal -CA ‘%CAFQDN%\%CANAME%’ -FriendlyName ‘LyncExternal’ -KeySize 2048 -PrivateKeyExportable $False -Verbose -Report ‘%SETUPLOG%\Request-CSCertificate-WebExternal.html’ ;Set-CSCertificate -Type WebServicesExternal -Verbose -Confirm:$false -Thumbprint $cert.thumbprint -Report ‘%LYNCLOG%\Set-CSCertificate-WebExternal.html’”

13. Almost there – the main trick

At this point you should have all the Lync services on the computer. You can confirm that they are configured with the NetworkService account, which is going to fail when starting the service. Will will change this and fix some services enablement the the Enable-CSComputer didn’t complete (don’t know where it fails)
FOR %s IN (RTCASMCU RTCAVMCU FTA RTCSRV RTCIMMCU MASTER RTCMEDSRV REPLICA RTCDATAMCU RTCMEETINGMCU RTCCPS RTCATS RTCRGS RTCRGS RTCMEETINGMCU) DO SC config %s obj= LocalSystem start= auto

A similar ‘Identity tunning’ is required on the Lync Web applications.

ECHO … detecting IIS installation folder
FOR /F “tokens=3*” %x in (‘REG QUERY HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\W3SVC\Parameters /v InstallPath’) DO ECHO SET IIS=%x%y>%temp%\IIS.CMD
CALL %temp%\IIS.CMD
ECHO …Changing application identity
FOR %p IN (CSExtAuthAppPool CSExtConfAppPool CSExternalAppPool CSExtReachAppPool CSExtSearchAppPool CSIntAuthAppPool CSIntConfAppPool CSInternalAppPool CSIntReachAppPool CSIntSearchAppPool) DO (“%IIS%\appcmd” set config /section:applicationPools /[name='%p'].processModel.identityType:LocalSystem)
It is necessary to fix the Web service startup. The default web site is started and prevents the Lync Internal site to start
POWERSHELL -Command “Import-Module WebAdministration; Stop-WebSite ‘Default Web Site’ -Verbose;Start-WebSite ‘Lync Server Internal Web Site’ -Verbose;Start-WebSite ‘Lync Server External Web Site’ -Verbose”
Note: After the first reboot go to the IIS MMC and check if the Default Web site has started again. If so, fix it using the MMC.

14. It show time - start the engines!

Now is just time to start and tune the system:
ECHO …Disable CDR and QoE monitoring
POWERSHELL -Command “Import-Module ‘%LYNCPS%’;Set-CsCdrConfiguration -Identity global -EnableCDR $false -Verbose;Set-CsQoEConfiguration -Identity Global -EnableQoE $false -Verbose”
ECHO …Starting Lync Services
POWERSHELL -Command “Import-Module ‘%LYNCPS%’;Start-CsWindowsService -Verbose -Report ‘%SETUPLOG%\Start-LyncServices.html’”
Go to the Lync Event Log and check for any important errors.

Only just some final recommendations to get all great:

Add administrator account to Lync administrators
Powershell.exe -command “Import-Module activedirectory;Add-ADGroupMember ‘CSAdministrator’ Administrator -Verbose”
Install Silverlight. You will need touse Lync Control Panel
Configure DNS for internal autodiscover and the simple URLs. here’s my sample:
DNSCMD %computername% /RecordAdd lync.local _sipinternaltls._tcp SRV 0 0 5061 %computername%.%userdnsdomain%
DNSCMD %computername% /RecordAdd lync.local meet CNAME oneserver.lync.local.
DNSCMD %computername% /RecordAdd lync.local dialin CNAME oneserver.lync.local.
Reboot the server to see if everything is stable

15. The final result

Now you should have a Lync lab with only one server. This is just a Proof-of-concept, but the initial tests I made show that most of the features are available… even a videoconferencing as shown

Feedback is very welcomed

Tagged: Domain Controller, Lync setup

Lync devices: Phone experience review

LuisR — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:40:51 +0000

On the last weeks I received 3 telephones gently borrowed from two distributors: A Polycom CX600, a CX700 and a Snom 821.
Unfortunally with only enough time for some basic setup and make the demonstration to some customers, I can only write some impressions. In commom all phones are PoE capable which is good to save extra wiring. But if you lack of PoE switching, be aware that CX600 and the Snom 821 are not shipped with an AC power adapter.

Polycom CX600

Once you managed to configure your network for Lync phones (DHCP, DNS, firmware upload), things are really a simple ‘plug-and-use’. On the initial setup you can configure the phone automatically by connecting (using USB cable) to a PC client, or you can use it as a standalone unit by providing the extension and PIN number.
Then you can use your contact list or search for a person and make a voice call. When you receive a call (or get contact details), the GAL picture is displayed.
The audio quality is great and the presence is consistent and updates by (in)activity, locked or manually.
But Outlook integration (today’s calendard, call logs, MWI and voice-mail) can only be achieved if you load your credentials using an USB with your PC client.

Polycom CX700

This is the executive model, with a touch screen, touch wheel scroll and biometric authentication.
You can pair and configure with an USB pc connection, but it can also work as a standalone client with your SIP address and credentials which allows you to have Outlook integration directly.
You can search the GAL, manage your contacts and presence. Voice quality is just… Polycom perfect.
The touch display is large and easy to use . But this top of class model doesn’t show any contact pictures … only the name and details of the caller.
On the bright side: just take the phone home, connect to your internet router, sign-in… and you have work deskphone working without any additional configuration (plain remote Lync user access).

Snom 821 UC

I was particullary curious about this German product, because of the announced high resolution color display, xml browser support (can stream video), multiple SIP users and fully customizable.
When you configure this phone remotly using a web browser (or use autoprovision server), you soon discover how much flexible it is… too much really… especially with limited (or confusing) documentation.
After updating with the UC firmware you soon discover that the phone can register with the Lync server (up to 4 accounts at least), setup presence, and assign SIP contacts to buttons. But that’s all the integration you have. No Outlook calendar, voice-mail and even pictures are URL or locally stored contact locally assigned.
After some dissapointment I’m pretty sure that with some ‘mastering’, this phone can be configured to its fully potential (I only had time to make active directory search and display customization)
Sadly the Vision accessory was unavailable for test. The extra buttons with color LED display (to show pictures), can really put this phone on the model top list for a recepcionist / secretary.

In conclusion,
I can say that these 3 phones are very good examples to support Lync as a corporate VoIP.
They are more than simple desk phones and can match (if not beat) other well known Lync competitors…

Tagged: CX600, CX700, Lync phones, Snom 821

My 2011 blog review

LuisR — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:38:26 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for my blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 34,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Lync Multitenant Pack for hosters released

LuisR — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:01:48 +0000

One question that some people asked since Lync release: is it Multitenant capable of supporting diferent companies while keeping user separated as one single Lync server instance?
Office 365 shows that Microsoft could make this somehow, and there are some Control Panel software makers and Service Providers that prove that is possible.
For those like me who analyse Lync server deep inside you noticed some the existence of some AD fields that looks related to some kind of segregation (ex: msRTCSIP-TenantId, msRTCSIP-GroupingID).

Microsoft somehow abandon their hosting partners after HMC 4.5 (EOL support: 12 dec 2011), but with the relesase of Exchange 2010 SP2 and Lync Multitenant Packs resources things looks back on the track again….hopefully.

“Microsoft Lync Server Multitenant Hosting Pack is a special deployment configuration scoped for hosting or telecom services providers. The solution enables service providers to host multitenant Lync Server instances shared across multiple customer environments. In addition, the Lync Server Multitenant Hosting Pack solution includes an add-on layer that allows our partners to build communication packages that use the Lync Server Multitenant Hosting Pack to integrate with the core layer”.

I haven’t tested yet, but here’s some particular facts gathered:

Features: Presence, instant messaging, data and desktop sharing, two-way (!) conferencing, unified messaging (exchange integration), PBX replacement (the hoster has to done this, ok?);
Features sets: conferencing server gateway video, mobility solution, audio conferencing provider, SMS – these features mentioned on the document are more potencial capabilities that hosters can provide;
Difference between this pack and Lync Online are two: No PIC (presence, IM, audio and video) connectivity;
You can only use the Control Panel as read-only. All provision has to be done using management shell and commands;
There are some overall design sample architectures for 5’000 and 50’000 users;
There are no add-ons or tools to build a customers offer from start (like web interface or billing), but there is a lot of code samples to explain how to provision. Unfortunally not much is explained about Service Plans and Exchange integration;
“Front End pools are external-facing, and are therefore visible to the public Internet…. This is different from a Lync Server 2010 enterprise deployment.” – this means, all users can only access Lync from the Internet, right !?

The software pack is available in the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center, and hosters are required to download and use this package. I downloaded it and analyzed it with the documentation setup section. Here are some details:

The initial setup procedure is just like you install a Lync Server Enterprise edition. From the Lync server original package there are only seven additional files (all the other files have the same MD5 checksum):

LyncServerUpdateInstaller.exe – this is Lync CU4;
SharedManagementObjects.msi – Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management Objects (this is SQL feature pack component);
SQLSysClrTypes.msi – SQL Server System CLR Types (also a SQL feature pack component)
BackupService.msi – Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Backup (no documentation about this one!)
WebScheduler.msi – Lync Server 2010, Web Scheduler
CsServices.msi – Lync Online 2010, Hosted Management Services.
ServiceSchema.ldf – AD schema extension for service plans.

Extracting the (very small) CsServices.msi packages we find the “Lync Online” powershell modules, two small executables (‘GenerateParentChildTopologies.exe’ and ‘SimpleUrlDBImporter.exe’), a ‘Microsoft.Rtc.Management.Hosted.dll’ file and the ‘ServiceSchema.ldf’.

For now only two more impressions about this package:

The extra files are dated March 2011;
An 299Kb dll file, extended schema and powershell modules are required to make Lync multitenant?

Tagged: multitenant

OCS to Lync: a different migration scenario

LuisR — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:34:34 +0000

It’s difficult to find some time to keep feeding my blog as planned…
On the last weeks I’ve been working day (and night and weekends) on a project for a customer: a migration from OCS (2007 R2) to Lync. I decided to post a little about this to share you some of the experience.
You might think for now: “I have read documentation about that”, “already seen how” or “already done it”.

Well… this migration is somehow less common and documented. It will be a side-by-side migration, i.e., OCS users will be transferred to a Lync pool at another domain, but will remain on their existing domain (both Active Directory and SIP) with authentication maintained by domain trusts.

The challenge: planning and testing

Just like any IT project this is the important phase and we don’t want to “try and see if works” on the production environment. By performing a detailed survey and design the scenario will clearly help you to see what the really challenges are. Here’s what I have:

This design was validated after another important factor: a Lab where to test and validate the configurations required. To achieve this let me summarize the 3 particular challenges:

1. No end-user impact

This is my personal requirement. The user should by aware of the change, but shouldn’t be concerned or requested to perform any reconfigurations at his desktop applications. There should be enough automated procedures or scripts that will ease service-desk support and that the user will simple log-in on the next day and find a new application interface fully configured.

2. Phased user migration

I personally don’t like a ‘rip-and-replace’ migration and on this project, the high number of users, their locations and the limited of resources will require a migration of OCS accounts in groups by days. This is good for one reason: it will give a feedback of unplanned problems and help you plan and correct for the next move wave . The challenge is: how to move some users of the same SIP domain to a different pool. The plan was simple: use a temporary sip domain on the Lync side.

Note: this is fine since there’s no important external federation with other domains, and we can break communications for the migration timeframe.

3. OCS and Lync interoperability

Federation requires enabling user permissions and has more communications routing

Since this is a phased user migration, it’s required that user migrated to Lync pool can communicate with user still on the OCS pool. The answer could be simple: enable external federation between domains (using Edge Servers). There are two requirements I didn’t like: Allow everyone federation permission, and allow presence visibility to every external domain (by default only external contact in the personal contact list are visible to each other).

Routing enables direct and full user communications

The alternate solution is to perform an internal routing (using the pool servers): user presence is visible and communications are direct without the need of setting any user permissions.
The other advantage is that troubleshooting communication problems is easier.

The next challenges

This are the steps at the server side, but for the end-user migration another challenges are presented:

When to perform software upgrade? ex: OCS users schedule live meeting invitations, but Lync clients schedule using URL web services;
How to migrate user personal contact list and update those contacts as they are migrated?
Can to adapt Outlook and Exchange to the user’s migration?

Conclusion

What I wanted to demonstrate on this post is that:

This migration process is possible, although it requires a lot of testing and well documented procedures.
It’s a possible scenario for OCS and Lync co-existence, especially if we have companies merges or even multinational ones that have separate IT administration, are connect with dedicated WAN links and want to control external access and communications using internet links.

Comments always welcomed

Tagged: Lync, migration to Lync, OCS

Installing UC – Part 0: planning for Lync

LuisR — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:26:36 +0000

I spent all this months introducing UC, showing solutions and their capabilities. Since I reach the 30th milestone post it is time to show how to deploy those solutions, starting with a Lync infrastructure. There are already several great blogs about this, but I will try make some things a little different … by going ‘behind’ the traditional step-by-step deployment, using my Reference Lab environment (RLab).
Although is just a lab, I intend to use it to support all my future posts based on it, following the names and updating diagrams as I extend it with more and new features.

So, like a real production environment, planning is the first and an important step and the Lync setup procedure really enforce you to do that. Reading the Lync planning guide can give a good overview, but Microsoft also create a capacity calculator and a planning tool that will help you about server sizing, TCP port requirements, firewall/DMZ configuration, …
I will start with a deployment of an Enterprise edition, and as for a lab, server sizing is not an issue (no more then 10 users) and will not follow some recommendations like a separate audio/video server.

Now let’s present the RLab v1.0 with this initial configuration and elements:

built on a Vmware vSphere 5.0 platform;
Windows 2008 R2 domain;
Domain Controller, DNS and an Enterprise CA – Windows 2008 R2 Standard Core ;
Database/File Server – Windows 2008 R2 Standard with and SQL 2008 R2 Standard;
Lync Node #1 – Windows 2008 R2 Standard with a Lync 2010 Enterprise;
Workstations – (2) Windows 7 x64 and (1) Mac OSX 10.6.

My UC Lab v1.0

To minimize the number of posts to complete the setup, I will just consider for now: one Lync server, with internal IM, audio, video and web-conferencing. External connectivity, enterprise voice and other features will be included and ‘posted’ later.

If you intend to follow this deployment, familiar yourself with this names:

Windows Domain: uc.lab
Domain Controller: DC-10.uc.lab
Database Server: DB-10.uc.lab (SQL instance: PRD)
Lync Server Node#1: COMM-10.uc.lab
Workstations: WS70, WS71, WS80
Lync Enterprise Pool: uc.lync.lab
SIP host domains: mylync.

Important notes:

to minimize virtual resources, the Certificate Authority is installed on the Domain Controller. This is not recommended on a production environment and you should follow other resources to plan and deploy a CA;
You should host the Lync user resources on your dedicated file share, if exists. Avoid using any Lync server of the pool;
the setup procedures for the Domain, DNS, CA and SQL are not covered. Only the steps to complete a Lync setup will be documented on the next posts.

If I caught your attention, keep visiting this blog.
I intend to show how far you can build a rich UC infrastructure

Tagged: Lync Planning, Lync setup, UC setup

Gartner Magic Quadrant for UC: 2006-2011

LuisR — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:57:03 +0000

Today, I reread the most recent report to update my customer presentation about Lync. I’m not going to summarize it here, because I recommend all of you ‘UC evangelists’ to read. I’ll just post one interesting paragraph:
“Although most vendors are pushing enterprises to adopt their UC suites as sole providers, Gartner does not recommend the second single-vendor approach when it involves sacrificing best-of-breed functionality for the sake of UC consolidation. Most users want the best functionality in each area.”

But I became curious to see earlier reports and try to understand how is the market evolving and maturing. If we are interest on reading them, I manage to find all Gartner reports spread across the web: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.

But if you just want to see the evolution, I put the Magic Quadrants for a quick side by side comparison.

Kommentarer välkomnas

Tagged: Gartner, Unified Communications

Can Lync replace my company’s PBX?

LuisR — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:00:40 +0000

Here’s the one million euro question! from my personal opinion the answer is:

“Yes it can, but…”

This is a very important post for me. It expresses in this lines, 4 years of personal experience investment and I hope I can help corporate decision makers evaluating and considering Lync.

I grouped 5 points to evidence Lync response has a corporate IP-PBX, but remember that has much more capabilities like video and content sharing.

Note: Don’t think that this is a market revolution from Microsoft. All major IP-PBX vendors have similar solutions. To be completely sure in choosing MS, compare and even test with one other vendor at least. If you read my blog, you already find some reviews.

End user devices

Remembering my rule: “UC is all about user experience”. Lync is revolutionary compared to traditional communications, but it does not have to be disruptive when introducing in a company.

The richest devices are the software clients for Windows and Mac with all capabilities (IM, voice and video conferencing and content sharing) anywhere and you can also find interesting solutions for mobile devices.

This doesn’t mean the end of the deskphone. You still want to have these devices on meeting rooms, manufacturing areas, etc. and provide communications to personal with no or less computer experience. Another reason is you don’t need a personal computer, and these phones are a lower investment.
There are several deskphones from 3^rd party vendors (Polycom, Aastra, Snom, Plantronics, …), from a simple keyboard/handset style to a model with a lync client display including the contact pictures. On the lowest model you got presence and voice calls capabilities.

Other interesting solutions from 3^rd party are some gateways that allows you to connect other phones that are not Lync enabled (Audiocodes, Net,…). Two advantages from those: you can user some of your existing IP phones and even the analog ones, and you can connect softphone from other brands and platforms, like Linux desktops.

There is one particular device that you should carefully consider: the company’s receptionist (or even a secretary). Although Lync is more than a PBX, organizations will still have use of switchboard operators working at an attendant console, to handle, put on hold/queue, retrieve and forward multiple calls. Microsoft has a software client called Lync Attendant for this, but you might want to use a more traditional hardware based solution like a snom370 with expansion panel (you can get up to 138 buttons with speed dial). The big advantage is that receptionists often don’t need additional training on a physical phone. Like Snom there are other 3^rd party solutions that report similar capabilities, but I never tested them: Multimedia Attendant, Trio Enterprise 3.1, Vision 80/20, or ZyCall Switch

Public network connectivity

This is the key decision for a Lync deployment has a full solution. You need to be sure that you can make and receive calls outside your company, especially the PSTN. Microsoft and partners will say no problem, but you must have to be sure. As the decision it’s you neck that is at risk.

VoIP communications outside the Lync infrastructure are done by the mediation server. From this point forward you have two main options to connect to your Telecom Provider:

Using 3rd party IP gateways – more simple or complete in features, they connect Lync using any available connectivity (SIP Trunk, PRI/BRI, ISDN). There is a large list of official choices available to connect directly or through your IP-PBX.
The simple and less expensive is a direct connectivity using a SIP trunk. The list of providers is growing, but your local and reliable Telecom provider might not give you that choice (I’m not going to discuss that now…it’s somehow a technical and political issue), so you might want to go to the first option or use an SBC.

Lync also implemented emergency call support, but I’m not sure if it’s supported in European countries. To comply with legal rules you must be able to provide the location of the phone call, and this is a challenge not only for the mobile Lync users, but it becoming also a problem for the existing telephony leaders and the Government itself

I’m not going to detail other types of Lync external connectivity, like federation for IM and voice and even video interoperability… and there is lot of 3rd party solutions available, some already mentioned on my blog.

Office locations

Multiple office locations are not a problem for Lync. You can simply use wan links and let devices connect using IP/DNS or deploy more than one Lync pool and multiple servers and connect them. Whether you have multiple/separate domains, telephony can be shared easily.

One thing that was missing (and criticized by the competition) was bandwidth control for wan traffic. QoE can guarantee minimum traffic for calls and CAC implements policies that prevent Lync user calls to flood your IP links and minimize impact on other application services.

Office survivability (in case wan link failures) is discussed on the next topic.

Scalability, reliability and resilience

How critical are voice communications for your company? … No need to answer that .

Is Lync capable of managing your large, worldwide spread company? I guess so. Let’s check the facts:

Lync can scale to a very large number servers and pools and ensure high availability and load balancing.
You can use Lync SBA at branch offices, provided by 3rd party manufacturers. These products can provide Voice PSTN connectivity in case of wan outages.
There’s a study that shows a 100% uptime of Lync with 4’107’951 calls in 13 days. I know… it’s just a lab but the fact is that the number of Lync customers is increasing in number and size.

Extensibility

This post is becoming too large (and exciting to write…), so I will just say on this point that you can find any type of 3rd party solutions that can respond to your needs: auto attendants, contact centers, communication accounting and billing, video recording streaming, translation, voice recognition, GPS, SMS,…

Conclusion

In conclusion, with Lync we can have almost all well-known (traditional) corporate phone capabilities, but you add presence, messaging, video, content sharing and mobility. All capable of integrating with your desktop environment and business applications (CEBP), enabling a true corporate collaboration. This is the first part of the post question: Yes it can replace or enhance your existing voice infrastructure. It’s really worthy.

Now let’s talk about the ‘but…’

You noticed one particular set of words in a different color. The ‘3rd party’ factor is important. Unlike the competition (Cisco, Avaya or Alcatel), Microsoft mainly provides the software solution, and you have to contact different manufacturers according to your needs. This might represent additional knowledge requirements and support contracts.

Another challenge is the management: it’s not just a Windows server. I has voice, video and real-time communications with a lot of connected users that don’t want their phone unavailable at any time.

If you think that you will replace your Telecom provider and save money by delivering responsibilities to your IT (sysadmins and helpdesk), think six or more times. Even after a 6 months trial, they are not ready for a production environment. There’s a lot of troubleshooting: it’s not just TCP packets, High CPU or databases performances. There are protocols (SIP, STUN, ICE,…), network bandwidth, voice and video codecs (RTaudio, G.711, H.264, …) to analyze from the desktop, throw the servers and to the other side of an external network or PSTN.

If you think about how much painful can be an Exchange user, let’s now add poor voice call quality, conference calls disconnecting, video freezing or failing to your team daily tasks: ‘do you feel lucky?’

I came from 16 years from IT administration, and after 4 years with Microsoft OCS/Lync, Cisco, Polycom I’m still learning a lot about VoIP, technologies standards and protocols. And I still have a lot to learn about joining the IT and Telecom world (at least another 10 years…)

My recommendation is: if you want to go with Microsoft Lync, carefully choose one (or two) partner capable and with experience in Lync, telephony and the Telecom service providers.
Your traditional MS partner might not have the experience to manage and deal with your voice provider, and your Telecom provider might not have the IT experience to deploy and manage a Lync server infrastructure…. Though choice!

I end this post with the complete answer:

‘Yes it can, but… you better know well how and when to.’

Tagged: corporate voice, Lync, telephony

Lync for Mac 2011: review

LuisR — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:02:54 +0000

On this post I wrote a client for OCS/Lync.
Now, Microsoft released a version specifically design for Lync server features called… ‘Lync for Mac’. I think this name choice is because how much it looks like ‘Lync “for Windows”‘, and it’s really impressive how the user experience looks like in both platforms.

Everything was well designed, from the main interface (on the left), the context actions when clicking on a contact and even the toast has the same look-alike and actions:

You can compare them with the Windows version here and here, but I would say that the UC features are about 90% equal. Let me resume some:

Search Corporate address Book and manage contacts;
Rich presence (including calendar based);
Presence in Office for Mac applications;
IM, Audio and video conferencing with multiple users;
IM with public and federated networks;
Share desktop;
Send and receive files;
Make and receive PSTN voice calls.

But there are new important features that were missing from previous Mac clients:

As you already see, the directory contact picture is available next to the name, on the search box, conversation window,…;
Unique conversation window with one or more contacts. You can escalate from an IM, to a voice and video call and even participate on a shared content or presentation (including remote control):
Just like the windows client, Lync includes the stage pane for content sharing
You can now join virtual meetings (audio+ video + content sharing) from the an invitation URL and even schedule from Outlook 2011 (you have to apply the Microsoft Office 2011 14.1.3 Update):
Scheduling an online meeting will generate the URL at the body of the message.

But there are still some differences between Windows and Mac clients:

The conversation records are kept separately instead of the Outlook folder;
No activity feeds tab is available, so has the conversation and voice mail messages;
You can view any shared content, but you can only share your Mac desktop with others;

This table show the features available on each client

Unified user interface	Lync for Mac	Communicator for Mac	Lync for Windows
See photos of contacts for quick identification.	√	-	√
Get easy access to presence, instant messaging, voice, audio, video, and online meeting.	√	√	√
See and monitor the meeting roster for participants who are having difficulty with audio, video, or sharing connections during online meetings.	√	-	√
Join, accept, decline, or redirect the meeting invites, audio/video calls and instant messages right from the invite alerts.	√	partial	√
Communicate from within Outlook, Word, or PowerPoint.	√	√	√
Communicate from within SharePoint.	-	-	√

Rich presence and instant messaging	Lync for Mac	Communicator for Mac	Lync for Windows
Send instant messages.	√	√	√
Display published phone numbers, job titles, and office information all on contact cards.	√	√	√
Set presence status manually or automatically based on calendar, login status, and more.	√	√	√
Specify access levels for sharing information with different contacts.	-	-	√
Connect with people outside the organization with public instant-messaging connectivity (PIC), such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo!, and Windows Live Messenger.	√	√	√

Enterprise Voice	Lync for Mac	Communicator for Mac	Lync for Windows
Place a call from the Lync/Communicator contact card.	√	√	√
Receive call notifications on the computer.	√	√	√
Configure call forwarding in Lync/Communicator.	√	-	√
Access voice mail from Lync/ Communicator.	-	-	√
Use the client dial pad to call external numbers.	√	√	√
Add outside phone numbers to your Contact List.	√	-	√

Audio, video, and web conferencing	Lync for Mac	Communicator for Mac	Lync for Windows
Connect using audio calls.	√	√	√
Connect using video calls.	√	√	√
Make audio and video calls to your Windows Live Messenger contacts.	√	-	√
Schedule conferences in Outlook.	√	-	√
Start an impromptu online meeting, with the click of a mouse.	√	-	√
Join conferences scheduled from Outlook.	√	√	√
Join an audio conference call using a regular mobile, desk, or home phone.	√	√	√

Desktop and file sharing	Lync for Mac	Communicator for Mac	Lync for Windows
Share your desktop with other contacts.	√	√	√
Add audio and video to the desktop sharing session and see participants from around the world at their desks.	√	√	√
Join and control a PowerPoint presentation initiated from a Windows desktop.	√	-	√
Initiate a PowerPoint sharing session from client.	-	-	√
Collaborate with rich white boarding, including copy and paste images and other content, annotations, and polling.	-	-	√
Conduct polling.	-	-	√
Upload files to share with meeting participants.	√	-	√

My opinion: Impressive

In summary, Microsoft has now complete UC client solution for both Mac and Windows desktop users that can keep them on the leading UC market. Just can’t wait for the Lync mobile release on the next weeks…

Comments are welcome.

Lync for Mac resources link can be found in the resources page

Tagged: Lync, mac, osx, UC clients

Still posting

LuisR — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:02:42 +0000

Just to say I’m still here for the posts. After some weeks of vacations, I’m now packing off my swim shorts and watching the suntan disappearing. It is also time to recover daily work tasks and help business while other colleagues are on vacation.
I’m looking forward for some spare to time write new posts, as I noticed there is a interesting number of daily visits to my pages.

So…. Keep visiting my blog