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Archive for May, 2009

A comma really can make all the difference, even in OCS.

Rui Silva over at the UCspotting blog on TechNet wrote up a great post (sprinkled with bits of humor) about an issue where a simple comma can make all the difference.  I won’t spoil the story for you, but the good news is that it has a happy ending.

Click here to read his post…

Some real-world benefits of deploying OCS.

I had some free time today to catch up on some reading and was reading a post, which took me to another post (so on and so on) where I came across a posting on  by Jamie Ryan, CIO of Aspect.  He talks about some real-world benefits of deploying OCS at Aspect that is a good read.  I always enjoy hearing from executives on the benefits of deploying a Unified Communications platform. 

Click here to read Jamie’s post…

Click here to read Alex Lewis’s post about his chat with Jamie…

Download SP2 for Windows Vista and Server 2008

This update will come down via Windows Update but if you want to direct download the service pack here are the links you’ll need and some you may want.

Direct download links:
Other links to checkout:

System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 RC and Windows Server 2008 R2 RC (KB947821)

Having trouble with Windows Update?  This tool is being offered because an inconsistency was found in the Windows servicing store which may prevent the successful installation of future updates, service packs, and software.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821

Article includes download links for 32-bit and 64-bit.

I’ve caught the Twitter bug

To keep on top of my latest postings you can now follow me on Twitter.  Every time I post or update an article to my site, Twitter will let you know.

http://www.twitter.com/aspoc

UPDATE: Exchange 2007 SP1 Rollup 8

This one addresses a long outstanding issue with running Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008.

 

Click here to get more information on installing Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows 2008…

 

Excerpt from the MS Exchange Team:

  1. KB 969690 – We have fixed the bug introduced in Update Rollup 7 which caused the sender of the Delivery Status Notification (DSN) to be unresolved.
  2. Disable kernel mode authentication in Windows Server 2008 for CAS servers – As documented here, it was required to manually take the additional step to configure the CAS servers running Windows Server 2008 to disable kernel mode authentication. Starting this rollup, the installer will configure this for you.
  3. X-Header promotion to named properties- Change to the way X-headers are promoted to named properties. More on this in Jason Nelson’s blog post Named Properties, X-Headers, and You.
  4. KB 961606 – We have fixed a bug where Outlook Web Access (OWA) users may find that the font size of plain text messages is extremely small on third-party Web browsers.

 

Click here to download the rollup…

Click here to read the MS Exchange Team’s post…

MOC 2007 R2 Hotfix Rollup – May 2009, v3.5.6907.22

If you are testing OCS with Exchange 2010 you’ll want to get this update.

This cumulative update fixes the following issues:

  • 971078 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971078/ ) An Automatic Update download is not initiated on a computer that is running Office Communicator 2007 R2 build 3.5.6907.9
  • 970057 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970057/ ) Exchange Connection error when you use Office Communicator 2007 R2 with your mailbox in Exchange Server 2010: "Communicator could not retrieve calendar or Out of Office information from Exchange Web Services"

UPDATE: I’m not sure why, but the link to KB970057 is not working.  To get some more insight on the Exchange 2010 fix see Aaron’s post on the subject.

 

Click here to read the KB article (971083)…

Click here to download the rollup…

OCS 2007 R2 Virtualization Support Policy

MS just officially announced support for OCS 2007 R2 on a virtualized platform.

 

Requirements:

OCS 2007 R2 must be installed on Windows Server 2008 x64 running on Hyper-V or any SVVP certified partner solution.

 

Supported server roles and corresponding features in a virtual environment

 

Role

Supported

Supported features

Unsupported features

Enterprise front-end server

Yes

Presence, IM

Enterprise Voice, audio/video

Standard Edition Server

No

   

IM Conferencing Server

Yes

IM Conferencing

 

Access Edge Server

Yes

Remote Access

Federation, Public IM Connectivity

 

SQL Server back-end server

Yes

Office Communications Server Backend

 

Group Chat Channel Server

Yes

Channel Server

 

Group Chat Look-up Server

Yes

Channel and Load balancing management

 

Group Chat back-end server

Yes

Group Chat database

 

Group Chat Compliance Server

Yes

Compliance

 

Group Chat Compliance back-end server

Yes

Compliance database

 

Director

No

   

Audio/Video Conferencing Server

No

   

Application Sharing Conferencing Server

No

   

Web Conferencing Server

No

   

Telephony Conferencing Server

No

   

Archiving Server

No(1)

   

Monitoring

No(2)

   

Web Conferencing Edge Server

No

   

A/V Edge Server

No

   

Mediation Server

No

   

Outside Voice Control Service

No

   

Conferencing Attendant Service

No

   

Response Group Service

No

   

Conferencing Announcement Service

No

   

Update Server

No

   

Communicator Web Access

No

   

(1) Archiving Server can perform archiving from a virtualized Enterprise pool, but must itself be deployed on a physical server. Virtualization of the Archiving Server is currently not supported.

(2) Monitoring Server can perform call detail record (CDR) collecting for a virtualized Enterprise pool, but must itself be deployed on a physical server. Virtualization of the Monitoring Server is currently not supported. Because voice workload is not supported with a virtualized Enterprise pool, the QoE Service (component of the Monitoring Server) was not tested and therefore is currently not supported in a virtualized Enterprise pool.

 

I highly recommend reading the following whitepaper on running OCS 2007 R2 in a virtualized topology.

Exchange 2007 SP2 coming in Q3 of 2009

Right on par with the release of Exchange 2010 as this is a pre-requisite to interoperability between Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010.

Click here to read all about it…