November 13, 2009
November 12, 2009
November 01, 2009
Exchange and OCS Remote Connectivity Online Tests
If you haven't already used these free Microsoft Online tools please give them a try. I find them indispensible when troubleshooting issues or setting up new Exchange or OCS environments that require external network user connectivity.
Since these tools require actual user accounts to authenticate against the target environment I would strongly suggest you use test user accounts that you can disable once you are completed your testing.
There is a test both for Exchange 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007.
https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/
https://www.testocsconnectivity.com/
October 29, 2009
September 02, 2009
Save your Password In Communicator!
If you access your Office Communications Server environment from desktops that are not part of a corporate Active Directory then you will have to enter a password every time you log on to Office Communicator.
But wait, you can enable a Save Password Dialog Box in Communicator with a simple registry Key entry. Here is how:
Open the Registry editor and create the following RegDWord Key under "HKLM/Software/Policies/Microsoft/Communicator"
Create the RegDWord value of "SavePassword" and set it to "1"
Restart the MOC client and you will now see the Save Password Checkbox! Enable this option and sign in. Communicator will not prompt you for your password until the next time you have changed it. The password is stored securely in the registry.
August 13, 2009
Communicator Phone Edition Device Updates Failing from External Network Location
The new Communicator Phone Edition (CPE) Device Update Service in Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 is 1000 times better than in the previous release where you had to set Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) 3.0 and stand on one leg and pray you had everything configured perfectly. I'm not sad one bit to see that mess go J
In OCS R2, WSS is gone and the Device Updater is built right into the Front-End Server. An intuitive interface allows you to upload and manage the device updates with ease.
I did run into one issue, and now confirmed a bug by Microsoft PSS, whereby R1 CPE devices would not update when connected externally to a network. In this case 100% of the users were external to the OCS network that was hosted at a data center so the phones are in various home and client offices. The phones would show a "0x0/401" status in the about menu. Upon further investigation this error code suggested that an unauthorized user was attempting to connect. Seemed strange since you could log on with the user account and the phone worked as it should. It just wouldn't update get the update. In the IIS 7 logs you would see the same error when the phone did a post for /RequestHandlerExt/ucdevice.upx. Notice the 401 after the Microsoft+UCPhone+Device entry below..
2009-08-13 13:28:39 192.168.1.43 POST /RequestHandlerExt/ucdevice.upx - 443 - 216.221.86.228 Microsoft+UCPhone+Device 401 2 5 12
2009-08-13 13:28:47 192.168.1.43 POST /RequestHandlerExt/ucdevice.upx - 443 - 216.221.86.228 Microsoft+UCPhone+Device 401 2 5 12
2009-08-13 13:37:44 192.168.1.43 POST /RequestHandlerExt/ucdevice.upx - 443 - 216.221.86.228 Microsoft+UCPhone+Device 401 2 5 14
After confirming everything was confirmed to be setup correctly and pulling out the last of my remaining hair, I opened a PSS Case and explained the issue to the engineer. He quickly identified the issue as an undocumented bug and asked me to make a couple of changes.
First, we added Anonymous Logon to the RequestHandlerExt virtual directory NTFS permissions:
Secondly, we changed the RequestHandlerExt Authentication options by enabling Anonymous Logon:
After restarting IIS 7 and rebooting the Polycom CX700, the phone was able to download the new update. The phone showed and update status of 0x0/200 and you could also see this in IIS 7.0 as shown here:
2009-08-13 13:43:47 192.168.1.43 POST /RequestHandlerExt/ucdevice.upx - 443 - 216.221.86.228 Microsoft+UCPhone+Device 200 0 0 3683
2009-08-13 13:47:28 192.168.1.43 GET /DeviceUpdateFiles_Ext/UCPhone/Polycom/CX700/A/ENU/3.5.6907.35/CPE/CPE.nbt - 443 - 216.221.86.228 Microsoft+UCPhone+Device 200 0 0 220879
2009-08-13 13:47:28 192.168.1.43 GET /DeviceUpdateFiles_Ext/UCPhone/Polycom/CX700/A/ENU/3.5.6907.35/CPE/CPE.cat - 443 - 216.221.86.228 Microsoft+UCPhone+Device 200 0 0 164
2009-08-13 13:58:15 192.168.1.43 POST /RequestHandlerExt/ucdevice.upx - 443 - 216.221.86.228 Microsoft+UCPhone+Device 200 0 0 181
You can also verify this in the Request Handler Audit Log located on your front end server (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\Web Components\DeviceUpdateFiles\Logs\Server\Audit\imageUpdates)
You should see an entry for every phone connecting, the current firmware it is on and whether it has made a request to download the new firmware. The first entry shows a phone that is already been updated and the second one shows a phone that has made the request to download the firmware.
08/13/2009 09:43:47,Fred.Jones@abc.int,192.168.1.25,UCPhone,8/13/2009 9:43:35 AM,"001B9E2CCC19","1108010762","Polycom","CX700","A","ENU",cpe.nbt;1.0.522.101;8/12/2008 2:17:07 PM,http://OCS2.DOMAIN123.ORG/DeviceUpdateFiles_Int/UCPhone/Polycom/CX700/A/ENU/3.5.6907.35/CPE/CPE.nbt;3.5.6907.35;6/27/2009 10:28:10 AM
08/13/2009 09:58:15,,192.168.1.25,UCPhone,8/13/2009 6:53:44 AM,"001B9E2CCC19","1108010762","Polycom","CX700","A","ENU",cpe.nbt;3.5.6907.35;6/27/2009 10:28:10 AM,
08/13/2009 10:01:56,john.smith@abc.int,192.168.2.22,UCPhone,8/12/2009 6:16:38 PM,"001B9E2CC773","1108009571","Polycom","CX700","A","ENU",cpe.nbt;1.0.522.101;8/12/2008 2:17:07 PM,http://OCS2.DOMAIN123.ORG/DeviceUpdateFiles_Int/UCPhone/Polycom/CX700/A/ENU/3.5.6907.35/CPE/CPE.nbt;3.5.6907.35;6/27/2009 10:28:10 AM
This should hopefully be posted as a support article on TechNet soon.
If you are having any other issues with the Update Service, Rui Silva has written a great troubleshooting post here. You should also go through the Communicator Phone Edition R2 Deployment Guide.
August 04, 2009
New Office Communicator IP Endpoints (snom 820 working!)
Snom + OCS Part 2 – Victory
Presence status = In a call (on a real phone!)
Let's face it sometimes a "real" hard phone is just what the doctored ordered.
When I walk into my home office and my laptop computer is not turned on and my desktop phone is being used by my kids to play Sims or Spore, a USB phone isn't going to do the trick.
Enter the snom phones.
In part 1, I wrote about our partial success setting up the snom 820 phones that act as Office Communicator end points.
Thanks to the technical support people at snom and a new firmware update to address some ICE issues, the snom 820 is now working fully and working well.
The web-based interface that is built into the snom 820 is very extensive.
To update the firmware, I navigated to the software update page (see below).
I then specified the URL to the location on our web server where I put the .bin file and clicked the "Load" button. The phone display showed the loading and validation process and then rebooted with the new firware while retaining all of my device settings.
I pushed the "Directory" button, selected a contact whose presence status was showing as available and clicked to call. Everything worked just as it should.
So far we've done some additional call flow testing and things are working fine.
Interestingly the "early media" supported by OCS R2 seems to work much faster on the snom phone than on the "Tanjay" I have right beside it. With the snom phone there is no need to pause before saying "hello" – this is a very good thing.
I will follow-up with a more detailed post shortly that will include results from the additional snom 820, snom 300 and snom 360 tests.
Presence status = Available (Enjoying the simplicity of answering calls on a real phone)
July 09, 2009
Snom + OCS (Part 1)
Yesterday a number of snom phones arrived: snom 820, snom 300 and snom 360.
We started by trying to connect 820 and get it to register with OCS.
I was working in my home office so phone was "remote" to network.
The snom 820 is the "pretty" white phone in front. Behind it is Microsoft "Tanjay" which is rather clunky and to the back right is "old" normal PSTN phone.
Connecting the snom phone is simple: plug it into the network, watch what IP address it gets assigned and then use browser to http: to it. In my case it was as simple as entering http://192.168.1.107/ into address bar on browser.
Each snom phone has an embedded web server that you use to configure it manually (you can also configure many phones using a shared config file).
When you point your browser to phone's IP address you get main web menu that looks like below:
You then use the menus to setup relevant settings. For OCS it means completing "OCS Account Data" screen.
And then if all is good you force the phone to reboot (on Advanced, Update menu) and you are connected to OCS Server.
If you need to tweak settings you can do so on Identity 1 à SIP screen which has lots more options!
You can also map "directory" button to display OCS Contacts list using the "Function keys" screen. OCS contacts look like this (granted not a great picture given I used a flash -- never said I was a professional photographer J):
So far I can make and receive calls between the snom phone and the desktop Office Communicator; however, unfortunately calls to or from the PSTN through our Audiocodes gateway don't fully work.
There are many configuration options for snom phone, so next we need to do some traces and see what isn't working and how to fix it.
More details in part 2 shortly.
Who out there sees the need for "hard phones" even in the brave new world of UC and Microsoft OCS?
July 07, 2009
UC Guys now registered snom VAR!
I am pleased to announce that the UC Guys are now a registered VAR for snom phones.
Snom phones can be equipped with a unique OCS version of firmware which allows them to register directly against Microsoft OCS R1 and R2.
When registered against OCS, snom phones allow you to:
- have incoming calls announced simultaneously on your desktop and your snom phone;
- search for names or phone numbers on the Microsoft® Office Communication Server via ActiveDirectory;
- see the current status of your contacts (free, not logged on, busy);
- place secure calls both from your computer via OCS or from your snom phone.
Snom phones are attractively designed, rugged and priced reasonably for those OCS situations where a hard phone is required.
Over the next couple of weeks the UC Guys will put a number of snom phones through their paces and provide more details right here.
June 18, 2009
Unified Communications e-Books available online – Limited Time!
Download Free UC e-books from Microsoft Press
Microsoft Press 25th Anniversary "Free E-Book of the Month" Offers
This will be our last month to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Microsoft Press with a free e-book offer. This monthly offer can be found in the top right corner of this monthly newsletter. It expires on June 24, 2009, so download the e-books today:
Programming for Unified Communications with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2
By Rui Maximo, Kurt De Ding, Vishwa Ranjan, Chris Mayo, Oscar Newkerk, and the Microsoft Office Communications Server team
Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit
By Rui Maximo, Rick Kingslan, Rajesh Ramanathan, and Nirav Kamdar with the Microsoft Office Communications Server Team
Note: You will need to temporarily allow pop-ups in order to download the free e-book offer.
Published Wednesday, June 17, 2009 3:32 PM by markga
Filed under: OCS, R2, Office Communicatons Server, free e-books, Resource Kit
