OCS / LCS

A small update from 7.0.0, mainly bug fixes. 7.0.1 improves support for users of the VoiceOver feature in Mac OS X, and it fixes user interface issues that appear when Messenger is used with some European languages.

You can download it from here.

It is a little bit funny that this whitepaper came out this week because I was just having a long and involved conversation with people internally on the best way to go about doing this in challenging environments.

Things get interesting when you start throwing OCS Edge servers into the mix, and thankfully this whitepaper addresses some of those concerns:

Official description:

This paper answers questions about Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 with specific regard to its integration into the perimeter network (also known as DMZ, demilitarized zone, or screened subnet).

You can download it from here.

These are buried on Microsoft's website and I didn't even knew they existed until today. It allows you to pre-configure some settings in a GPO that would normally be filled in/defined by the end user. This helps automate configuration of the Live Meeting client and Conferencing Add-in for Outlook on a domain, and I am a fan of automation.

The .ADM file is available from here.

If you have setup your ISA reverse proxy correctly, you should be able to use a web browser from an external Internet connection to your OCS Front End root path without an "Error 500 - Service Principal Name Incorrect" error.

If you receive that error, it most likely means that your OCS pool/front end internal certificate is incorrect in some way. Make sure the "This rule applies to this published site" field under the "To" tab in the ISA rule matches the Subject Name and the first Subject Alternative Name (SAN) of the OCS pool internal certificate. ISA 2006 RTM "ignores" any SAN entry below the first one.

Keep in mind that the 'Web Components' of OCS 2007 are just a published IIS web site on the front end server(s). If you recreate the internal certificate, you will have to use the IIS manager for the 'Default Web Site' to assign the new certificate to the front end web site. Using the Certificate Wizard inside the OCS snap-in will not do it for you.

When ISA 2006 SP1 is released, it is supposed to support SAN SSL certificates closer to the way Exchange 2007 and OCS 2007 them.

Once you are past that stage, you should be able to browse with your web browser to https://myisa.contoso.com/Etc/Place/Null/SlideFiles/Blank.png and receive a 704x528 blank PNG image. Of course, replace myisa.contoso.com with the actual external FQDN of your setup.

Download the October 2007 version and delete the version that came out in late July 2007.

Unfortunately, it is still distributed inside the Office Communications Server and Client Documentation Rollup MSI that you can download from Microsoft. The MSI has never been updated to include the new documents that have been updated since the original July 27, 2007 release.

A good example of one of the changes in the October 2007 document, and where the original July 2007 version is incorrect:

The documentation in the July 2007 edition says:

1. To set the external URL for the Web farm, type the following command:
Lcscmd /web /action:updateexternalpoolurls /externalwebfqdn: /poolname:

The documentation in the October 2007 edition says:

1. To set the external URL for the Web farm, type the following command:
Lcscmd /web /action:updatepoolurls /externalwebfqdn: /poolname:

Guess which one actually works?

Hardcore OCS wizards would, of course, fire up wbemtest.exe and directly set the WMI variables, but I like command line tools better.

Resolution #1 in KB 938288, is a good example of WMI editing for Office Communications Server 2007.

The last bit of the Sybari-based pre-Stirling Forefront product line has finally hit beta status. This help protect your Office Communication Server 2007 clients and servers from malware. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information out on this release yet, but I will be downloading it shortly and checking it out on my lab VMs.

You can grab a copy of the beta here.