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An update to Forefront for OCS was just released to the Microsoft Downloads site. 

Click here to download…

Francois Doremieux,& Jerome Berniere have written a great article that talk to the changes around Direct SIP with IP-PBX for Office Communication Server 2007 with the August 2008 OCS updates.  These updates allow OCS 2007 to talk with non-RFC3966 compliant IP-PBXs. In other words, the updates allow OCS to remove the “+” from the outgoing dial string and deal with no “+” on incoming dial strings.

Highlights:

What is changing?

This change gives administrators the possibility to set up Office Communications Server so that it can directly interoperate with IP-PBX using E.164 globally routable telephone numbers without RFC3966’s mandated “+” prefix. Additionally, Office Communications Server will now be able to interoperate with IP-PBX within a private dialing plan, exchanging locally routable private numbers.

What is Direct Sip with IP-PBX?

Direct SIP with IP-PBX is a variation in which the calls are exchanged over IP between the Mediation Server and an IP-PBX, without the use of back to back IP/PSTN gateways (i.e. in IP all the way, without transcoding between IP and TDM).

Why did Microsoft not support Direct Sip with IP-PBX until now?

Microsoft actually had built that capability from the start both into the product and into the OIP, in a standard-based way, and was ready to support Direct SIP with IP-PBX that qualified in the OIP. However, testing showed that few if any IP-PBX were capable of meeting the standards-based specifications for Direct SIP interoperability and OIP qualification.

How can I use Direct SIP with IP-PBX on OCS 2007?

The changes are accessible to users of Microsoft Communications Server 2007 via update packages as described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952783/
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952780/
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953659/
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954439/

Click here to read the article…

Overview

This guide assists Active Directory administrators in performing domain migration through the use of the Active Directory Migration Tool.

Click here to download…

Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows Vista

This download provides the complete set of Administrative Template (.admx) files for Windows Vista

• Click here to download…

Administrative Templates (ADMX) for Windows Server 2008

This download details page provides the complete set of Administrative templates (ADMX) for Windows Server 2008. Additionally, there is a separate download that includes the ADMX and ADML files for Group Policy preferences.

• Click here to download…

Administrative Templates (ADM) for all other Windows operating systems

This download provides a complete set of current and previously shipped Administrative Template files (.adm files) included by default in Windows operating system and service pack releases, beginning with Windows 2000.

• Click here to download…

The MS Exchange team has released an update to their popular storage calculator.

Bug Fixes / Enhancements

• The changes introduced in v15.6 in the Storage Design worksheet introduced a logic error where the recommended RAID Configuration / Server would recommend a null configuration when you selected "–" for the database disk type in Configuration 3.  This has been corrected to ensure that only enabled disk configurations are considered when making a recommendation.
• Validation logic was added to the custom database size input factor to remind you that you need to enter in a value greater than 0.
• Fixed various input factor comments.
• Fixed RAID-0 calculations for the database and log configuration options 2 and 3.  In previous releases, the RAID-0 values for these configurations were utilizing the RAID-1/0 data points.
• Updated the backup and restore rate input factors to indicate that these only apply for steaming backup calculations.  Also added validation logic to disable the input options when VSS backup methodologies are chosen.
• Fixed the streaming backup rate calculations to include all transaction logs generated in a day (user generation + move mailbox).  Previous releases only considered user log generation.
• Updated the text and note for the "Additional I/O Requirement" field to indicate that the input value is per mailbox server.
• Added streaming restore calculations for both full database restore and incremental / differential backup restore to the Backup requirements worksheet.
• Added the following note to the Storage Design worksheet - Important: This tool should only be used for storage modeling purposes.  Please consult with the storage vendor regarding storage design and follow recommended storage design testing processes.  The example configuration provided within this calculator is just that, an example, and as such, each input option needs to be evaluated as to how it will affect your design.

Click here to read about the storage calculator…

Click here to read the updates tracking page…

Click here to download the calculator…

For anyone who has ever called MPS to troubleshoot an issue you will know these tools.  For those that haven’t this is a must to bookmark.  These tools are used by MPS to gather configuration data from a server for troubleshooting purposes.  You can run the tool to gather critical data BEFORE you call MPS.  Having this critical data ready will greatly help to speed things up with MPS and get your issue resolved much quicker.  Though these tools are old (2004) they are still quite useful.

MPS Reporting come in a variety of flavors

(Please review the included readme file included with each reporting tool for more information on usage)

• Alliance
• Cluster
• Active Directory (DirSvc)
• Exchange
• MDAC
• Network
• Base Setup (SetupPerf)
• SQL
• SUS

Overview

The Microsoft Product Support Reporting Tool facilitates the gathering of critical system and logging information used in troubleshooting support issues. The reporting tool DOES NOT make any registry changes or modifications to the operating system. There are 8 specialty versions, one for each of the following support scenario categories: Alliance, Directory Services (not for Windows NT 4.0), Networking, Clustering, SQL, Software Update Services, MDAC and Base/Setup/Storage/Print/Performance. Each version gathers some of the same basic information but there are specific reports unique to each of the support scenario categories. Please read the readme.txt files for more details about each version.

• Click here to download the MPS tools…

Microsoft Premier Services Reporting Utility

Another useful tool is the Premier Services Reporting Utility.  (PFE Version)  This version is newer and also supports x64 bit Windows platforms.  This one is not as specialized as the tools listed above but useful to gather detailed system status and configuration information when the above tools don’t fit your needs.  This utility will also gather limited information on SQL and Exchange.

The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Management Pack for SCOM 2007 monitors the health of computers running Office Communications Server 2007 on Windows Server 2003 and alerts IT administrators about critical health conditions that indicate degraded performance.

Feature Bullet Summary:

The management pack monitors and provides alerts for:

• Automatic notification of events indicating service outages
• Performance degradation
• Health monitoring
• Centralized management

Click here to download…

A new article was just published by the ASKCORE team on the topic of the WinSXS folder and just what it is, why it is so big and why it keeps getting bigger.

An excerpt:

“The only way to safely reduce the size of the WinSxS folder is to reduce the set of possible actions that the system can take – the easiest way to do that is to remove the packages that installed the components in the first place.  This can be done by uninstalling superseded versions of packages that are on your system.  Service Pack 1 contains a binary called VSP1CLN.EXE, a tool that will make the Service Pack package permanent (not removable) on your system,  and remove the RTM versions of all superseded components.  This can only be done because by making the Service Pack permanent we can guarantee that we won’t ever need the RTM versions.”

Click here to read the entire article…

To learn a bit more about WinSxS, disk space and Windows 7 click here…

Network Monitor 3.2 is a protocol analyzer. It allows you to capture network traffic, view and analyze it. Version 3.2 is an update and replaces Network Monitor 3.1. Network Monitor 3.x is a complete overhaul of the previous Network Monitor 2.x version.

What’s New

• Process tracking: Categorize network traffic based on the name and ID of the owning process.
• Extensive parser set: For over 300 public and Microsoft proprietary protocols.
• Improved capture rate: Drop fewer frames on high-speed networks.
• ContainsBin plug-in: Search frames for strings or arbitrary byte sequences.
• Find conversations: Quickly isolate related frames.
• Network Monitor 3.2 API:  Create your own applications that capture, parse, and analyze network traffic.
• Support for frame truncation.
• Indication of the number of dropped frames.
• Streamlined UI toolbar

Click here to download…

Read about the release on the TechNet: Netmon blog…

Having trouble finding out where to get the Live Meeting 2007 client and conferencing add-in for Outlook?

Download the Office Live Meeting 2007 client here…

Download the Conferencing Add-in for Outlook here…

Bookmark these links and check back every few months for updates.