Author: Thomas Binder

Publication date: April 2009

Product version: Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Administrators, users and troubleshooters value the possibility in Outlook 2007 to get status about the connections: by holding the ctrl key while right clicking the Outlook icon in the notification area and choosing “Connection Status” (see also http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP010363941033.aspx).

With the new R2 version of the client, Microsoft introduces a similar dialog for Office Communicator 2007 R2. Hold Ctrl while right clicking the OC 2007 R2 icon in the notification area, choose “Configuration Information…” and it will open the following screen:

 

The values listed in this screen are retrieved during login by inband provisioning from the server and/or set by group policy. While you could read all this information from the Office Communicator logs and the registry, the dialog presents them in a easy to read manner and might be a good starting point for troubleshooting.

 

DG URL Internal The client will use this URL if connected to the internal environment, to connect to the web service that expands distribution groups.
DG URL External The client will use this URL if connected to the external environment, to connect to the web service that expands distribution groups.
Quality Metrics URI Quality Metrics will be sent to this Monitoring Server. The client will send it to the Front End it is connected to, where Microsoft Message Queue will send it to the Monitoring Server. Having this entry here basicly tells you, that Monitoring is activated for the pool homing this user.
URL Internal From Server Internal users will use this URL to download the address book for Office Communicator.
URL External From Server External users will use this URL to download the address book for Office Communicator.
Voice mail URI To call the user directly on voice mail, this URI has to be addressed. Having this entry shows also, that the user is enabled for voice mail.
MRAS Server MRAS is the Media Relay Authetication Service, providing credentials to use the AV Edge Server. Having the information “ENABLED” here, tells us that the client has valid credentials for AV Edge. However, this does not provide information, if the client is also able to access the AV Edge server or if there might be firewalls blocking the connction.
GAL Status We can see here which address was used to download the address book and if the download was successful.
Controlled Phones This setting shows if Office Communicator can be coupled with a Tanjay. For more information about this topic see “Pairing Office Communicator Phone Edition (Tanjay) to Communicator “ in this blog entry: http://communicatorteam.com/archive/2009/01/13/381.aspx
PC to PC AV Encryption Specifies if RTP traffic between two participants has to be encrypted. The setting can have range from “Require encryption”, over “Do not support encryption” to never encrypted. “Encryption supported”  will encrypt the AV traffic, if the communication partner is capable of encryptions. If you still have Office Communicator 2005 clients in your environment, “Encryption supported” should be the setting of your choice as because of different encryption mechanisms in Office Communicator 2005 and Office Communicator 2007 or newer, encrypted calls between these clients will not work.
Focus Factory The focus factory is responsible for creating conferences for a user. The listed SIP URI will be used whenever we create a conference.
Line Line shows the phone number that is configured for the user.
Line Configured From “Line configured from” shows where the line was configured. In this case, the line was configured on the server.
Location Profile The location profile the user is assigned to.
MAPI Info MAPI info tells us, if the client was able to connect to mailbox using MAPI in order to publsih free/busy information and OOF messages.
Inside User Status Shows if the user is connected to the internal OCS servers (“TRUE”) or through the Edge Server (“FALSE”).
Auto Update Download Started OCS 2007 R2 provides automatical updates for clients. If there is an update in progress, this line shows us the start of the download.
Auto Update Download Completed This line tells us, if the update download was completed.
Last Auto Update Request To determine when the last auto update request was send, we can leverage this line.
Pairing State “Paring State” refers to the “Better Together” feature, where a Tanjay phone is connected via USB to the desktop computer, to function as a handset and speakerphone for Office Communicator 2007 R2. Conferences and calls can be managed from the Tanjay as well as from the Office Communicator 2007 R2 client.
Server SIP URI Server SIP URI tells us, if we are connected through TCP (unencrypted) or TLS (encrypted).

 This insight into Office Communications Server 2007 R2 was created as part of Thomas Binder’s participation in the Microsoft Certified Master program.

The Microsoft Certified Master Program: The Microsoft Certified Master: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 program provides the most in-depth and comprehensive training available today for Office Communications Server 2007. This three-week training program is delivered by recognized experts from Microsoft and Microsoft partner organizations

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