OCS / LCS

Sometimes there are pleasant surprises in the mail.

Yesterday, I received this in the mail:



It was pretty neat to deploy early and offer feedback that could potentially change the end result.
Neat!

Client side updates
Lync Attendee (system-level install) - KB 2467760 - download
Lync Attendee (user-level install) - KB 2467762 - download
Lync 2010 (Communicator) - KB 2467763 - download x86 / download x64
Group Chat - KB 2467765 - download

Server side updates
Lync Server 2010 - KB 2493736 - download
Group Chat Admin - KB 2467764 - download

Very cool proof of concept / festive geek-out project. Take advantage of the Lync 2010 SDK, Micro .NET Framework and some parts to make the holiday lights change color based on Communicator 2010 / Lync presence information.

Watch the video here and get the background information about the setup on the forum located here.

Thanks to @DrRez for posting this very cool use of technology on Twitter.

Reminds me of some of the projects over at Hack-a-Day.

Update: I guess I should check my RSS feeds more often - this was posted on Hack-A-Day this morning before I ever posted this entry. Oh well!

Apparently the updated binaries from the last release were just an update/fix for CU6's RGS problem. What I originally called CU7 was actually something along the lines of CU6a.

This time around though, is the real Cumulative Update 7.

Server side:
OCS 2007 R2 CU7 - KB 968802 - download
XMPP Gateway CU7 - KB 2404570 - download

Client side:
Communicator 2007 R2 CU7 - KB 2291452 - download
Communicator Phone Edition 2007 R2 CU7 - KB 2466291 - download
LiveMeeting 2007 - November 2010 update - KB 2433231 - download
Conferencing Add-In for Outlook - November 2010 update - KB 2433228 - download

There are many Lync-specific fixes so if you are planning on deploying Lync and will have a coexistence period, I would install these on your OCS 2007 R2 server setup before installing Lync. This is only a personal opinion but it looks like it would avoid some known gotchas.

The phone edition reports 6907.222 instead of 6907.221 like the rest of the updated components. I suspect it was a last minute bug fix/issue check-in after the other builds.

Thank to Richard for pointing out there were new updates for Live Meeting and the Conferencing Add-in.

Although not listed as a fix in the May 2010 Communicator 2007 R1 update (KB 974599), it does seem to solve the Outlook integration/MAPI errors that occur when used with Outlook 2010.

This update brings the Communicator 2007 R1 client up to build 2.0.6362.189.

I am guessing this is probably one of the last updates that will come out for Communicator 2007 R1, unless there is security fix that needs to be addressed.

If you are by chance still using build 2.0.6362.0 (OCS 2007 R1 RTM), I would highly suggest upgrading your desktop clients to use this version.

The best course of action, of course, is to go straight to Lync 2010, but I am quite biased on this, I must admit.

Many organizations have OCS 2007 R2 servers installed and one lone OCS 2007 R1 CWA server installed, specifically for the Blackberry client support that relies on APIs that are only available on OCS 2007 R1's CWA server.

This typically isn't a problem until you are upgrading to Lync.

If you have all OCS 2007 R1 servers in your environment, you're fine.
If you have all OCS 2007 R2 servers in your environment, you're fine.

The deployment blocker is a mixed OCS 2007 R1 and OCS 2007 R2 environment.

BlackBerry has promised an OCS 2007 R2 CWA compatible version for a few years now but I have yet to see it materialize.

The easiest workaround, which I haven't tried yet due to lack of time and lack of a lab environment with OCS 2007 R1 CWA, is to remove the R1 CWA server, install Lync, and then re-introduce the R1 CWA server into the environment. I'd be curious to hear if people have been able to do this or not.

The other noteworthy item, which is much like the limitation of newer Exchange versions, is to make sure to install OCS 2007 R1/OCS 2007 R2 servers into your environment before installing Lync, if you ever want or need to use OCS 2007 R1/R2 servers in your environment.

Lync 2010 launched today and with it a flurry of activity and press. It is an exciting piece of software, and my MVP award now changes name from "Communications Server" to "Lync".

As an example of some of the subtle integration that occurs with Lync, I'll show you two screenshots.

Regular meeting


Lync-a-fied meeting


Subtle difference but very convenient.

I'm pressed for time but I will be posting a few Lync in-depth entries in the coming weeks.

Bad Zelda joke: Does this mean OCS 2007 R2 is a Lync to the Past?

I say "new" because it is a completely different code base from the older PlaceWare Live Meeting client code. If you wondered where the "pw" from "pwconsole.exe" came from, it was originally from a company called PlaceWare.

If you want to host Lync online meetings and not have the users/attendees use the web based client, you can download the Admin installed version here or the User installed version here.

What is the difference between the two?

The user installed client lives in the user's profile since most organizations are moving away from users having administrative rights on the local PCs.
The admin installed client lives in the %ProgramFiles% (or %ProgramFiles(x86)% if on a 64-bit OS) like most older style programs

There is one other popular application that uses the same type of differentiation and installs into the local profile - Google Chrome.
It is good to see more applications adopt this trend since it makes LUA (Least User Access) / UAC easier to adopt.

Many times I am on the road with questionable Internet connectivity. Many times my EVDO 3G card is faster than the oversubscribed hotel internet access and I'll use that card in a pinch.

In those situations, I might want or need to log into Lync to Lync up with people.

Due to the limited bandwidth, I don't necessarily want people to try to do a video conference with me, but as long as my RSSI is -90 to -80 (3 "bars" to 4 "bars"), I can actually do a decent Communicator call or call thru the mediation server.

I have needed to do this in certain situations when I have a malfunctioning or dying cell phone. Combined with a Bluetooth headset, and the 3g card, I've been able to make calls I'd otherwise would need to find a pay phone. Pay phones are becoming as rare as a Sony Walkman.

With all that in mind, if you allow end users to set the location in their Communicator, you can advertise that you are on a bandwidth limited connection:


Not necessarily the original intent of that section of the Lync client, but it is an easy indicator to coworkers that you are on a bandwidth starved connection.

I personally can't wait until the LTE networks are deployed nationwide. With that, in theory, this 'workaround' for advertising a limited bandwidth connection goes away.

Read about it here. I am planning on this release to keep me busy for a few years. I'm still getting used to the new name.

Update: If you happened to catch an earlier version of this post, I called it Lync 2001 on accident. Whoops!

In the past I blogged about an issue that typically surfaced during an OCS 2007 R2 install on Server 2008 R1.

Due to a operating system deadlock condition, on some but not all servers, the server would stall at "Applying User Settings" until all services that would depend on http.sys or crypto time out. It was especially painful on OCS Front End servers because almost every OCS service would have to hang and timeout before a usable desktop would appear.

The good news is that you no longer have to use the workaround that changes service dependencies.

Trust me, it was an extremely annoying issue to debug when it first occurred at an on-site install.

The networking stack would not start up when this issue triggered, which meant using a remote management console or direct console access.

To be clear, it wasn't an OCS 2007 R2 issue, it was a Server 2008 R1 issue that could deadlock in certain scenarios. The most common scenario was OCS 2007 R2.

You can just apply the Server 2008 R1 hotfix from here and never worry about it again.

Only a few modules/parts were updated from CU6 to CU6a, mainly:

Admin Tools
Core Components
Response Group Service
Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Redist
Web Components

It looks like the main fixes are related to the RGS bug in CU6, and the 16+ CPU core issue.

This is mainly a re-release to fix the RGS bug and is not considered to be CU7. CU7 came out around 11-22-2010.

Read about and download the updated bits from here.

This video was a one-take wonder that had a skeleton of topics we were going to use. Thankfully, it went pretty smooth overall. This wasn't scripted and has a feel of just two IT guys hanging out and talking about technology, because that's exactly what it was. The fact that the video cameras were there didn't really faze us.

You can check out my video streaming on Microsoft's Bytes on TechNet site.

You can also subscribe to the Bytes by TechNet RSS feed.

This is the official description of "Bytes on TechNet":
Listen or watch the latest series of Bytes by TN as 24 influential community and Microsoft IT Professionals interviewed at Tech·Ed 2010 talk about Windows 7, SharePoint 2010, Windows Azure and a variety of additional topics that they are passionate about.

To begin, follow the instructions here for the usual Server 2008 R2 workaround/fixes for Server 2008 R2 and OCS 2007 R2.

1. From an elevated PowerShell prompt: Import-Module ServerManager [Enter]
2. Install the prerequisites for Group Chat Server with: Add-WindowsFeature AS-NET-Framework,Desktop-Experience,FS-FileServer,NET-Framework-Core,MSMQ-Server,MSMQ-Directory,RSAT-ADDS,WAS-Process-Model,WAS-Config-APIs,Web-HTTP-Logging,Web-Mgmt-Compat,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Static-Content,Web-Windows-Auth [Enter]
3. Install KB 975858 so certificate based authentication works properly.
4. Install the OCS Group Chat Server as you normally would on any other operating system. Elan's guide is helpful for this (Part 1 / Part 2).
5. Install the OCS Core update from here and the UC API update from here. (If those links are outdated, go to KB 968802 for the latest links or use the ServerUpdateInstaller.exe)
6. Install the OCS 2007 R2 CU6 Group Server update from here. It is also a good idea to grab the Admin tools update from here and updated client from here.
7. At this point, if you try to start the OCS Group Chat Server services, they will stop without anything useful in the Event Logs. I'll save you time debugging this by pointing you to this older KB article here. You need to run %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\Group Chat Server\ServerConfigTool.exe so that the tool will update the Group Chat database schema to the QFE1 level.
8. After running the ServerConfigTool.exe, you'll be able to start the update OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat services.

Celebrate, at this point you'll have a working Group Chat install on Server 2008 R2.

I've heard of numerous reports of the CU6's SQL back-end update having version mismatch problems with the front-end update.

One cause I can speculate on is that the web caches that Microsoft uses publish the updated bits are lagging behind. Unfortunately, due to the updates always having the same filename from Cumulative Update to Cumulative Update, it is hard to determine what version you have downloaded without looking at the file dates stored in each individual update.

If the front-end is updated without the proper back-end update, the front-end will complain about version mismatches in the SQL stored procedures.

Update: A tip from Tom Pacyk - install the OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi before the other CU6 updates.

I talked a little about the .NET 4.0 issue here a few days ago but now that .NET 4.0 is on Windows/Microsoft Update as a recommended update, it is hitting more users during OCS installation.

If you install .NET 4.0 Framework before installing any OCS server role, the OCS setup program will complain that .NET 3.5x is not installed, even if you have .NET 3.5x installed (x being equal to 0 or 1, meaning .NET 3.50 or .NET 3.51).

Solution? Uninstall .NET 4.0 Framework, install OCS server roles, and then install .NET 4.0 if necessary. The OCS product team is working with the Windows product team to get a hotfix/update out for this.

Ideally, I wish there was a service pack for OCS 2007 R2 that had updated install bits for the ASN fix and the Server 2008 R2 gotchas.