Overview

The Office Communications Server Netmon Parsers are a set of files that extend the parsers in Microsoft Network Monitor. The Microsoft Network Monitor tool loads these files and uses the rules defined in them to analyze network traffic.

Click here to download…

Other noteworthy links…

• Network Monitor Open Source Parsers
• Network Monitor Blog
• Download Network Monitor

Hot off the presses…

Click here to review the official release and download the April 2010 updates for the Communicator and Live Meeting clients.

Alternatively if you would like to review and download the CU5 updates directly use these links…

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 CU5 Update
Office Communications Server 2007 R2 CU5 Database Update
Office Communicator 2007 R2 CU5 Update
Office Communicator Phone Edition 2007 R2 CU5 Update
Office Communicator Attendant Console 2007 R2 CU5 Update
Live Meeting 2007 April 2010 Update
Live Meeting Conferencing Add-in April 2010 Update

Thanks Aaron for putting together this list…

Interesting client fix of note:

• 981414 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981414/ ) Microsoft Office Communicator may no longer make daily synchronize changes to its address book.

Other noteworthy fixes:

CWA:

• 981248 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981248/ ) You cannot install Office Communicator Web Access Plug-in in Windows Vista, in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2.

Mediation:

• 981218 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981218/ ) A call is dropped when a media time-out occurs on the gateway side of the Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Mediation Server

Core:

• 981172 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981172/ ) The Intelligent IM filter tool does not block URLs that contain certain characters

Web Components:

• 968880 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968880/ ) Response Group Service cannot start if you assign a certificate that has a wildcard in the Subject Name to Communications Server 2007 R2
• 968878 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968878/ ) Response Group Service cannot start if you assign a certificate that has a wildcard in the Subject Name to Communications Server 2007 R2

Conferencing Announcement Service:

• 972723 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972723/ ) No entry tone or exit tone is played to Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) users to indicate that someone from a Live Meeting console has joined or has left a Live Meeting conference in Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Conferencing Attendant:

• 981219 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981219/ ) Interop or coexistence issues when a user calls Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant to try to join a meeting that is hosted on a Microsoft Communication Server 2010 pool

  (INTERESTING, note that OCS is now called Communication Server 2010)

UM API:

• 977547 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977547/ ) New features are included in a cumulative update for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redistributable package 64-bit version
  • Support to install a client on a Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) 64-bit operating system or on a Windows 7 64-bit operating system.
  • Voice interoperability with third-party IP PBXs and SIP Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) gateways for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

I supposed it was only a matter of time before someone took up this challenge.  The new Group Chat service that comes with Office Communication Server 2007 R2 is a great tool however it is strictly a Windows only tool.  Clients are not available for any other platform and this can be a major roadblock to a large deployment among most organizations.

Enter WebChat by Formicary…

Formicary WebChat integrates real-time group discussion forums and private, one-to-one instant messaging
sessions within other thin-client applications and/or portals; including Microsoft Offce SharePoint Server
WebChat also provides advanced intelligent message management, real-time notifcation and alerts capabilities
that already exist within OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat; enabling easy connectivity to key external customers and
business partners.

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…

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.

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…