April, 2011

This was asked by a few universities. The answer is yes using our Microsoft XMPP gateway.

Where do I grab the XMPP gateway?

It is free here and there is also an updated fix to the XMPP gateway here. Some more XMPP config information here .

It says it is for OCS R2 does it work with Lync?

Yes, it functions with Lync. The XMPP deployment guide has OCS R2 screenshots but can be applied to Lync. The OCS guy did a step by step Lync walkthrough here.

Any tweaks to the Microsoft XMPP gateway that will help?

Here are a few gateway configuration settings you can make that have helped with Google Talk federation:

1. Enable ‘Never Close Idle Connection’
2. Set XMPP Refresh Connection Timer to 1 hour
3. Under session, set subscription refresh timer to 1 hour

What can I do with Jabber or Google Talk user when federated with Lync via the XMPP gateway?

The Microsoft XMPP gateway allows Lync users to add XMPP capable IM contacts, see presence, and conduct 1 to 1 two-way instant messaging back and forth.  Voice and Video federation only works with Windows Live Messenger or Live@edu or other Lync/OCS federated organization.

What if I want voice and video federation or richer domain granularity, etc between Lync and XMPP IM systems?

I found third party company called NextPlane that can help with a XMPP cloud federation service or on prem gateway if you require some of these richer XMPP federation features:

You couldn’t until today. Now you can grab the Lync Server 2010 Web Scheduler.

Here is what the Lync Web Scheduler can do:

• Scheduling a new online Lync meeting.
• Listing all existing Lync Server 2010 meetings that the user has organized.
• Viewing and modifying details of an existing meeting.
• Deleting an existing meeting.
• Sending an email invitation to meeting participants by using a configured SMTP mail server.
• Joining an existing conference.

Here are the Lync web scheduler deltas vs. the Conferencing Add-In for Microsoft Outlook:

• Lync Web Scheduler does not support scheduling recurring meetings.
• Lync Web Scheduler lists only meetings that were organized by the user. It does not list all meetings that the user is invited to. Further, meetings created using some other tool will not be editable using Lync Web Scheduler.
• Lync Web Scheduler is available only in English.
• Meeting invitations that are generated by Lync Web Scheduler do not look exactly the same as those that are generated by the Conferencing Add-In for Outlook.
• Lync Web Scheduler doesn’t interact with the calendaring server. Calendar updates happen only via email invitations.

Grab it here.

These are our first Microsoft headsets certified for Lync:

LX-4000  USB wired headset – single cup for ear

LX-6000 USB wired headset – dual cup for ears

For more on the headsets visit here

For more on Lync Optimized devices visit here

CU2 update for Lync clients, phones, and servers available:

If you want to be more proactively informed on Lync updates there is a single web page called the ‘Updates Resource Center for Lync’ you can visit that lists all the Lync latest updates here or you can also run the Lync Best Practice Analyzer daily/weekly to ensure you have the latest hotfixes, patches, etc:

A common question for multi-datacenter deployments is how can we configure a DAG where failure will enable a DAG member locally vs. the other datacenter. This requires DAC mode. DAC or Datacenter Activation Mode is a property of the DAG that can be turned on or off and is disabled by default.

In Exchange 2010 SP1, DAC Mode has been extended to support two-member DAGs that each have a member in a separate datacenter. Bottom-line – you can now use DAC with DAG members in same or different AD Sites allowing the capability of using DAC with two or more members of a DAG.

A common deployment I have is with 4 members of DAG, 2 servers in each datacenter. FSW is in the primary Datacenter and will be quorum. Now Primary Datacenter has power outage. Manually, Exchange admin activates the secondary datacenter with an alternate file share witness.

When the power is restored in the primary site. When the two DAG members and witness server comes online, it has a quorum (majority) and will try to activate the databases. This will cause a “split brain syndrome” where both datacenters think that they are hosting the active databases.

DAC mode is used to avoid this and if enabled when the DAG members come online they will leverage Datacenter Activation Coordination Protocol (DACP) before trying to mount databases.

For more information on how this works check out the following Technet article. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979790.aspx

DAG with Four-members in 2 datacenters with 2 AD Sites.

Great write-up from EighTwOne (821) here.

Thanks Michel!!

As discussed with a lot of my customers Exchange UM no longer uses System Center (SCOM). Exchange 2010 with SP1 now has built-in reporting.

Call Data Records (CDR) are generated after each call. The server collects audio quality metrics with the same metrics that are used for the Monitoring server for Lync. Once the audio metrics are received they are stored in the e-discovery mailbox. They also have a lifetime of 90 days at which time they are automatically erased. This value can’t be changed but if you need them longer your can simply import them into a CSV file.

UM reporting features are done via EMC toolbox. If you are a tenant UM Admin you can also see them in ECP.

Call statistics provide stats about calls received or sent by UM Servers. In this case, to generate the CDRs, UM needs to read the CDR, and also need to calculate stats based on the period of time, type of call, dialplan, gateway, etc.

Call Stats are generated once per day and can be filtered by month or day for past 90 days.

More info on Call Statistics and individual call logs can be found here.

The Lync Server product team has completed testing of Lync Server 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2. The product now fully supports SQL Server 2008 R2 on all Lync Server monitoring, archiving, and front-end server databases. At this time, SQL Server 2008 R2 is not supported for group chat databases.

The Lync Server 2010 Supportability Guide and other relevant content in the Lync Server Technical Library will be updated shortly to align to our updated supportability stance.

Yes, Bill found some additional end user self paced training for Lync.

Here is the course agenda:

Getting Started with Lync 2010

• Introduction
• Exploring Lync 2010
• Adding Contacts
• Collaborate with Contacts
• Transfer and Forward Calls
• Customizing Lync 2010
• Customizing Lync 2010 and Adding Contacts
• Self Test

Scheduling Meetings

• Introduction
• Scheduling an Online Meeting
• Start an Unscheduled Meeting
• Set Up Meeting or Conference Call Options
• Set Up Dial-in Conferencing
• Using Lync 2010 to Set Up Meetings
• Self Test

Conducting Meetings

• Introduction
• Set Up Audio and Video
• Join a Meeting
• Managing Participants
• Sharing Information in a Meeting
• Delivering a PowerPoint Presentation
• Record a Meeting and Share a Recorded Meeting
• Using Lync 2010 to Attend Meetings
• Self Test

Grab the 1hr and 30 minute self paced training here.

A university moving away from Modular Messaging to Exchange 2010 UM wanted to know.  Yes, the Exchange team has posted all of the Exchange 2010 UM validated PBXes and SIP gateways config notes here.

These technotes have detailed config information for NEC, Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, Siemens, and many others.

  Excerpts from the Exchange 2010 UM connecting to an Avaya Aura 5.2.1 technote:

Cisco Call Manager 7.x technote excerpts:

Nortel CS1000 excerpts:

Audiocodes SIP gateway config example:

CS1000 config example:

Step 7: Pilot Number Configuration
OVL000
>ld 87
ESN000
MEM AVAIL: (U/P): 2340726 USED U P: 617730 88967 TOT: 3047423
DISK RECS AVAIL: 1151
REQ prt
CUST 0
FEAT cdp
TYPE dsc
DSC 3333
DSC 3333
FLEN 4
DSP LSC
RRPA NO
RLI 13
NPA
NXX
MEM AVAIL: (U/P): 2340726 USED U P: 617730 88967 TOT: 3047423

Attend one of our FREE instructor-led sessions to learn firsthand how easy it is to get started successfully with Microsoft Lync!

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