I have had quite a bit of interest in education with the new OCS R2 Group Chat Server functionality.
We are just starting to use this internally and people are really liking this great new way of collaboration and idea sharing vs. traditional email threads, etc. I am all for unclogging the inbox!
What is Group Chat Server?
Group Chat Server is a new server role in OCS 2007 R2 and is based upon our Parlano acquisition a few years ago.
The chat server essentially allows users and admins to create chat rooms that persistently maintain conversations within a room. This way chat room users can come and go yet still see the conversations being discussed while they were away.
Breakdown of features:
How could I use Group Chat Server in Education?
Many uses in Education here are a few ideas I have seen:
What HW do I need for a Group Chat server?
System Component
Minimum Requirement (same as SE)
Processor
Dual processor, quad-core 2.0 GHz +
Memory
8 GB RAM
Disk
2x 72 GB, 15K or 10K RPM, RAID 0 (striped) or equivalent
Can I run Group Chat Server collocated with other R2 roles?
No, GC server must be run as stand alone and cannot be collocated.
How does it scale?
You can scale Group Chat servers up to a maximum of two servers for redundancy.
From the performance data I could find, both GC servers can handle 40 messages a second, up to 1000 users per chat room, with 60,000 concurrent chat users. Results may vary based on HW, load, bandwidth, etc.
Update 10/2: a new QFE for Group Chat update is required to scale to 60,000 concurrent users. See here.
What are the Group Chat Server requirements?
A single Group Chat server requires three service accounts:
A SQL Server database for chat data
If compliance is required, the single-server topology must also include:
Windows Server 2003 SP2 / Windows Server 2008 Components:
Other requirements:
Client requirements
There are two Group Chat client components. Group Chat Console and Group Chat Administrator Console.
Operating System:
Software components:
Reboot is required
What ports do I need?
Server
Port
Protocol
Notes
Group Chat Server
443
HTTPS
Used for secure file transfer with the Group Chat Web service.
8010
TLS
Used for peer server synchronization/WCF ports for the Lookup Server.
8011
Used for peer server synchronization/WCF ports for the Channel Server.
5041
MTLS
Used for listening port for the Channel service.
5061
Used to communicate to internal servers using SIP/TLS.
Can I access Group Chat server from off campus without VPN?
Yes, via the Edge Access role. Additionally, federated OCS users can be allowed access to chat rooms.
More references for Group Chat Server:
Group Chat quick reference guide here.
Grab the Group Chat client deployment guide here.
Group Chat server deployment reference here.
Where are the bits for Group Chat Server?
They aren’t on the OCS R2 install DVD. There is a separate download:
Note: In order for Group Chat Server to work, OCS 2007 R2 to be in place first (see flow diagrams above). Grab a 180-day eval copy here.
I love the idea of group chat but its a different client to Office communicator. any plans to integrate the two into one client?
Phil,
They are still working out the plans there.
May I know what kind of Certificates and how many certs we need when we deploying 2 x Group Chat servers in the 3rd party load balancer
Any plans on integrating the clients together in the next release?
Our department would like to use one client rather than considering something like Jabber.
Tim,
You can install the cert on the HW Lb. It is basically a web cert template. The other option is to install the same cert on both front ends with the FQDN being the load balanced VIP.
See here for more cert info:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd441364(office.13).aspx
Jim,
The details for next release are still being worked out.
In a GChat only environment what does the OCS2007 server that the users are shown connecting to in the diagrams above actually do?
Is it acting as a pool manager / comminication federation layer? Can I add more pairs of Chat servers to extend my user base to beyond 20,000 concurrent users?
David,
I haven't seen a Gchat only deployment as typically folks want to leverage IM, Conferencing, voice components of OCS as well. If you are planning Gchat only, we still require OCS front ends to proxy the SIP request to the Gchat server, to allow for off campus Gchat access via Edge, and to incorporate presence into Gchat server.
Right now, only 2 Gchat servers are supported. Remember that number is concurrent not total number of Gchat users therefore you could provision quite a bit of Chat users.
Tell me more about external access in Group Chat? Does this work simply through the Edge Server? How about file transfers? Would I need to publish the web address and make it available externally through ISA?
This was a question coming from an education customer in Minnesota deploying OCS R2 Group Chat Server:
Is there a way to configure the Group Chat history retention policy? IE it will only keep a week or two of history before it purges the history from the persistant chat channel?
To those people looking for a single-client experience, I thought it might be worth mentioning that the Group Chat client includes its own support for person-to-person IM. For people who use Communicator only for person-to-person text IM and want to add Group Chat capabilities, the Group Chat client can actually replace Communicator. You can also use GPO settings to turn off text-IM in Communicator, making Group Chat your preferred IM client while still allowing you to use Communicator to make voice calls.
But what our company wants is a least group chat appearing in a tab to MOC. Is there palns to do that?
Hi to all, I'd like to know if there is a way to calculate the storage that is required for the Group Chat Server Instance in SQL, because each time we requiere an instance, the next question is the storage, thanks in advance.
Can PIC clients (Yahoo, MSN or AOL) participate in Group Chat Channels hosted by us, if NOT, is Microsoft planning to add this functionality in future build of Group Chat?