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Archive for the 'OCS' Category

Update: OCS 2007 R2 Client Group Policy Documentation v2.0

This download package contains the Communicator.adm file and a spreadsheet that documents the Group Policy settings for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 clients, including Office Communicator 2007, Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant, and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat.

Click here to download…

OCS 2007 R2 Updates – Oct 2009

New feature: Cumulative Server Update Installer.

So no more applying updates one at a time.  The new installer applies all updates for the appropriate server role in one click.

Click here for the October updates…

Here is one fix that I am particularly looking forward too.

975894 Event ID 44031 for trusted domains is logged frequently in Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

As part of the integration of OCS 2007 R2 with Exchange Unified Messaging, OCS 2007 R2 tries to obtain a list of the Exchange Unified Messaging dial plans and servers from all trusted domains. In this scenario, if a trusted domain cannot be reached or if the trust direction for a trusted domain is incoming only, OCS 2007 R2 cannot obtain the list from that domain. Event ID 44031 is logged in the event log for each such domain.

MS09-056: Vulnerabilities in CryptoAPI could allow spoofing

This security bulletin (KB974571) has been updated with a Known Issues section and FIX for OCS 2007 R2/ RTM, LCS 2005 / SP1 and Office Communicator 2007 / 2005.

DO NOT APPLY KB974571 to LCS/OCS Servers

Hail patch Tuesday.  I woke up this morning to discover that my Access Edge server was offline and federation was broken.  After digging into the event logs this is what I found:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: OCS Server
Event Categeory: (1000)
Event ID: 12290
Description:
The evaluation period for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 has expired.  Please upgrade from the evaluation version to the full released version of the product.

 
WHAT?  Are you kidding me?  So I did some digging on the Internet and quickly came across Doug’s post.  He discovered that KB974571 is causing OCS/LCS servers to believe that they are running an evaluation version and have expired which in turn causes the services to shut down.
 
Until this patch is fixed I HIGHLY recommend that you delay the install of KB974571.

Click here for Doug’s post…

Forefront for OCS error on the Access Edge (Event ID: 10161 & 10162)

Symptoms

The IM Notification Agent on the Access Edge is failing with the following Application Log events:

 

Event ID: 10162
Type: Error
Source: ForefrontNotificationAgent
Description:
“ERROR: Microsoft.FSO.IMClient.dll.IMClient.RaiseLoginDone(“<System.Boolean success><System.String message>”) – Error occured logging in to server: 80072746: .”

 

AND

 

Event ID: 10161
Type: Error
Source: ForefrontNotificationAgent
Description:
“ERROR: ForefrontNotificationAgent.exe.NotificationAgent.imClient_LoginDone(“<System.Object sender><FSOIMClient.ReportSuccessEventArgs e>”) – Failed to login.”

 

More information

You have correctly setup the IM Notification Agent account per the instructions found here on TechNet for an Access Edge server.  You have verified the notification account id and password are accurate by logging in with the notification account from a remote client. Your IM Notification Agent settings look as follows:

IM Notification Agent settings

Use ForefrontRTCProxy Service Credentials: Unchecked
Transport: TLS
Username: domain\userid
Password: *****
SIP URI: sip:userid@company.com
Home or Pool Server: Director FQDN

 

SIP Logging on the director server shows a “SIP/2.0 301 Redirect request to Home Server” message with no response from the home pool.  This tells us that the Director server is treating the Forefront Notification Agent as an inside client and thus is trying to redirect the “client” to the notification account’s home pool.  The Director server should proxy the request, not redirect.  Remote user connections cannot be redirected.  Read here for more information on how a director behaves with internal vs. external clients. Changing the Home or Pool server settings to point to the notification account’s home pool FQDN does not solve the problem.

 

Resolution

Option 1

In the Home or Pool Server field add the FQDN entry for Access Edge external interface (sip.company.com).  However just changing the entry is not enough, you’ll also want to specify the port as follows “sip.company.com:443”.  This is of course assuming that your AE external interface FQDN is sip.company.com.  Make sure the Access Edge server correctly identifies the external FQDN to the correct IP address.  Changing to the AE FQDN will route the Forefront Notification Agent login request through the Access Edge service and then to the next hop server (Director).  The Director will then properly process the login request as a remote client.

Further SIP logging on the Director reveals a successful “Routed a request on behalf of an application” followed by a successful response from the account’s home pool.

IM Notification Agent settings

Use ForefrontRTCProxy Service Credentials: Unchecked
Transport: TLS
Username: domain\userid
Password: *****
SIP URI: sip:userid@company.com
Home or Pool Server: sip.company.com:443

 

Option 2

Another recent fix that was brought to my attention was to enter the SIP URI without the “sip:” prefix.  Your settings would be as follows:

IM Notification Agent settings

Use ForefrontRTCProxy Service Credentials: Unchecked
Transport: TLS
Username: domain\userid
Password: *****
SIP URI: userid@company.com (without sip: prefix)
Home or Pool Server: sip.company.com:443

 

Cause

As for the cause, I cannot speak to what is specifically causing this issue as I feel this is either a bug in the Forefront notification agent OR an error in the documentation.

OCS now talks to Jabber & Google Talk via an XMPP Gateway

A couple of big changes were announced at the end of last week:

  1. A PIC license will no longer be required for federation with AOL.
  2. Federation costs with Yahoo! will be reduced by 50%.
  3. A new XMPP Gateway for OCS 2007 R2 provides presence and two-party IM interoperability with the XMPP based systems of Jabber and Google Talk.

More Information

Click here to read the official announcement from the OCS Team…

Click here to download more information on the XMPP Gateway

XMPP Gateway limitations

  • Virtualization of the XMPP Gateway is not supported.
  • Collocation of the XMPP Gateway with other OCS roles is not supported.
  • Only plain text is supported.
  • Notes from OCS are not supported nor is custom status on the XMPP clients seen by OCS.
  • The XMPP Gateway will only federate with OCS 2007 R2 and OCS 2007.  LCS 2005 federation is not supported.
  • Messages from the MOC client are not delivered to the last active instance of the XMPP client when an XMPP user is logged in with two or more clients.
  • When an XMPP user adds an OCS buddy, the OCS user’s presence is not seen on the XMPP client until the OCS user’s presence changes.
  • Conferencing is not supported on the gateway.

Configuring the XMPP Gateway

Connectivity to Gmail…

Connectivity to Jabber XCP 5.4…

OCS comes to the iPhone

Came across this hiding in the Apps on the iPhone this afternoon.  Not written by Microsoft or Apple but by a company called Modality.

Few tidbits…

  • The application uses Communicator Web Access (CWA) and not the Access Edge server.  So this means you’ll need to have CWA deployed externally to get this app to work outside your network.
  • It cost $9.99

Click here fore more information from Modality…

OCS 2007 R2 Client and Devices Technical Reference Guide

Overview

This guide provides in-depth technical information on Office Communications Server 2007 R2 clients and devices. It covers the details behind device and client configuration, group policies, security and certificates, and device diagnostics and logging. It also discusses third-party integration, compatibility among clients, and interfaces with other products such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

Click here to download…

OCS PIC Changes

There have been some changes the way Microsoft is handling the PIC (Public IM Connectivity) federation.  Several changes went into effect on July 1st, 2009.  These changes include:

  • The Live Communications Sever Public IM Connectivity (LCS PIC) license will be renamed Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity (OCS PIC) license.
  • Customers with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or Office Communications Server 2007/Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Standard CAL with Software Assurance will no longer require an additional license to federate with Windows Live.  (A license will still be required for federation with AOL & Yahoo!.)
  • With Windows Live federation, customers are able to add Windows Live contacts to their Office Communicator contact list, view presence and send and receive instant messages.

Please take a moment to read the post from the OCS team for more details.  Also available for download is the OCS PIC Provisioning Guide which outlines the entire PIC provisioning process.

Overview

This document describes the requirements and processes for activating and provisioning public instant messaging (IM) connectivity for Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Office Communications Server 2007, and Live Communications Server 2005.

Public IM Connectivity Licensing Option Office Communications Server Version and Eligibility Requirement* Federation Partner Eligibility* Usage* Provisioning Process
Office Communications Server Standard Client Access License (CAL) Standard CAL for any of the following:

· Office Communications Server 2007 R2

· Office Communications Server 2007 with active Software Assurance (SA)

· Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 with active SA

Note: Office Communications Server 2007 or Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 without active SA requires purchase of a per-user Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity License for federation with Windows Live.

· The Windows Live™ network of Internet services

Note: AOL® and Yahoo! ® are not currently eligible federation partners with only a standard CAL. Federation with these public IM service providers requires the purchase of an Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity license.

· Valid for all eligible users · Section 1A and Section 2 of this document
Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity License Standard CAL for any of the following:

· Office Communications Server 2007 R2

· Office Communications Server 2007

· Live Communications Server 2005 SP1

· Windows Live

· AOL

· Yahoo!

· Users with valid Office Communications Server public IM connectivity licenses · Section 1B and Section 2 of this document
Trial Standard CAL for any of the following:

· Office Communications Server 2007 R2

· Office Communications Server 2007

· Live Communications Server 2005 SP1

· Windows Live

· AOL

· Yahoo!

· Valid for up to 20 users in your organization for 120 days · Section 1C and Section 2 of this document

· Section 3 (only for migration from a trial to a qualified license)

* Complete terms and conditions are provided to you at the time you start the provisioning process, and they must be accepted by you in order to proceed with provisioning.

Planning tool for OCS 2007 R2 Update v6907.32

Overview

The Planning Tool for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 is a Windows Presentation Foundation standalone client application. The Planning Tool Wizard asks interview questions about features that the system administrator is interested in enabling in the Enterprise, as well as information about the Enterprise.
The Planning Tool uses the information gathered from the administrator to dynamically draw a recommended topology for every site that the administrator identifies. Additionally, the Planning Tool calculates the types and amounts of hardware needed across the entire Enterprise, as well as for each site. The Planning Tool also provides links to documentation of the specific planning and deployment tasks that the administrator will need in order to deploy the topology.

Click here to download…

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…

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