This is the first of many responses to Feedback and Questions that we gathered up from the TNX TechNet Exchange tour feedback/comments as well as the many personal emails and discussions Damir and I had throughout the tour.

This one goes out to Jason Parente… He was an attendee at the Montreal TechNet presentation and followed up with me after the show to ask me a couple of questions.

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Hi Rick,

We met at last Montreal TechNet, you had asked that I forward you my questions by e-mail. So here it goes:
#1: Are there any know issues of using LCS 2005 SP1 in co-existence with LCS 2003 in production on a long-term basis(i.e. months, years)?
#2: What’s is Microsoft plans for LCS 2006(any info is welcome).

 Thanks a bunch,

Jason
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The simple answer is check out the whitepaper on Upgrade and Coexistence from the following Microsoft download link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1CAEEBC1-F274-4953-9BF7-1B879A1373E3&displaylang=en

A couple of pertinent points pulled from the documentation:

  • LCS 2003 front end servers can still be “in front” of either LCS 2003 or LCS Standard or LCS Enterprise 2005 pools.
  • LCS 2003 front end server cannot be used to transmit requests between an Access Proxy and LCS 2005 Standard or Enterprise.
  • Federation is only between LCS 2005 servers and is not supported on LCS 2003 systems.
  • A LCS 2005 Access Proxy or Director servers can not be “in front” of LCS 2003 home servers.

I will let you read the document – it’s a good step-by-step document that will be invaluable for any LCS 2003 administrators who are contemplating how to handle an upgrade and coexistence period.

As for the next version of Office Live Communications Server X - You'll have to check back later. ;-)