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:

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

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

• Highly interactive, virtual classroom setting.
• Watch demonstrations and participate in hands-on activities!
• Many sessions are held several times per week.
• 30-60 minute sessions focus on real-life meeting scenarios.

Live Instructor-Led Training Courses

Click the course titles below to register!

Core Courses

Introducing Microsoft Lync
Microsoft Lync empowers users to communicate and collaborate easily using a range of tools accessible from a single application, including instant messaging (IM), voice, video, and desktop sharing.

Best Practices for Microsoft Lync Conferencing
Learn best practices for managing Online Meetings using Microsoft Lync. From scheduled conferences to instant application sharing, discover how easy it is to collaborate successfully!

Six Steps to a Successful UC Rollout
Deploying Office Live Meeting or Communications Server to your organization? Don’t stop at the desktop! Join us to learn best practices for readiness planning and driving adoption of Unified Communications solutions.

Self-Paced E-Learning Courses

Self-Paced E-Learning Courses
Can't find a class to fit your schedule? On-demand versions of the above training courses, and many more, can be accessed from your desktop anytime, day or night.

OK. This doesn’t happen out-of-box. You can share a video on a desktop screen but we all now how that looks when we are doing an RDP session. Chris Norman’s blog outlined how to do this with two products where the video used in the session is not your video but the video streaming software. I tested this with manycam and it’s awesome! 

With manycam you select the video input as manycam instead of your video camera and then launch the manycam software.

Select a file. I used the default wildlife.wmv file (make sure you unmute it) and then the other attendees can hear the video. I have to do more testing but I’m impressed. Great Partner resource for academic customers.

http://www.manycam.com/

I get asked this question from several of my education customers who are in the process of deploying Lync or are piloting Lync.  I found some nice resources to help here:

Lync 2010 Quick Start Guides

The Lync quick start guides has eight different quick start end user training topics and can be put on a local computer for reference or hosted on an internal website for end users to view in their browsers. Grab them here.

Has some nice end user quick start guidance in HTML format which can also be converted to Word:

Microsoft Lync 2010 Training Decks

This download has seven training PowerPoint decks for internal instructor led end user training or downloadable self-paced end user training. Grab it here.

Simple end user training slides to leverage:

Seven different end user training decks available:

Lync Adoption and Training - Awareness Resources

Looking for end user sign up form templates, posters, t-shirts or email templates to help evangelize and communicate effectively during your Lync rollout? There is a Lync Adoption and Training kit you can download here.

Posters you could post around campus, etc:

Lync 2010 Work Smart Guides

The Lync Work Smart guides provide end users useful tips to leverage Lync on a daily basis. You can either convert the HTML files to Word format for end user distribution or post on an Intranet site. Grab them here.

All in one download

You can download all the end user Lync training listed above in addition to What’s new and short training videos in one file. Grab it here.

The What’s New is for OCS R2 users moving to Lync training:

What’s New videos are simple and effective:

Short Lync end user ‘How to’ videos are also effective:

Here is all you get with the All in One download:

Other end user Lync training

There is also some free self-paced web training available for end users around ‘Introducing Lync’ and ‘Best practices for Lync conferencing’ here.

Additional end user resources can be found on Technet here.

What is a Lync query response bot?

A Lync query response bot is custom developed automation component accessible via IM where end users can query via IM for information against various databases, Internet like Bing, or even connect you with other live experts. I put in a few Lync bots and other Lync customizations below developed using the Lync Server 2010 SDK.

IM an Expert bot

One of our useful Lync bot tools we use inside of Microsoft is called the Lync “IM an Expert” bot.  This bot can be used by Microsoft employees where you can IM the bot a question about many different topics and it will ‘find’ the expert related to the question being asked based on who has signed up as a particular expert. The IM an Expert has connections to search the vast expert knowledge of Microsoft employees around product related expertise, development, HR, Xbox Kinect, home repair, automobiles, and many many other areas of expertise.

Here is a sample of the workflow of how IM an Expert bot works:

You can now have our IM an Expert bot for free:

Grab the Lync IM an Expert Setup documentation here.

Grab the Lync IM an Expert bot here.

Other Lync bot examples:

We have another Microsoft bot we can use to translate, get stock quotes, get product information, do a who is, do a bug lookup, etc.

You could think of education scenarios here such as a student IMing a bot for a course schedule, loan status, or maybe finding a financial aid expert on campus.

IM language translator add-in:

Here is a cool Lync IM translator add-on for Lync which leverages the Bing Translator web service:

If you want to install this translator add-on to use with Lync use this registry entry:

Create the registry key by opening a new Text file and copying the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Communicator\ContextPackages\{54C2C31A-A291-4DFA-825A-18994EBE9877}]

“Name”=”Conversation Translator”

“ExtensibilityApplicationType”=dword:00000000

“ExtensibilityWindowSize”=dword:00000001

“DefaultContextPackage”=dword:00000000

“InternalURL”=”http://input.microsoft.com/translator/OCTranslatorTestPage.html”

“ExternalURL”=”http://input.microsoft.com/translator/OCTranslatorTestPage.html”

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains\microsoft.com\input]

“http”=dword:00000002

Save the Text file and change the extension to .reg file. Close Lync and run the Reg file.

Notification bot:

We have another Microsoft bot for scheduling reminders where it will call you back on your Lync or mobile endpoint and provide text to speech over VOIP based on what you put in quotes:

This might be a nice education add-on for teachers and students to get mobile phone reminders about tests, labs, etc.

A few other examples of the extensibility of Lync:

Timecard Lync integration:

Timecard add-on for Lync from Modality Systems. This is nice since it will IM you as reminder to enter your time and then you can enter it right from the Lync client.

Add in timecard approval workflows, etc:

Lync Call tracking app from Geomant called UC Client Accounting:

Building Map extension for Lync:

We developed an internal mapping program that will map a Lync user’s building/cube to a map:

Lync Voice to VHF two-way radio via twistedpair solutions useful for campus security or other scenarios:

GPS capable two way radios will show a Bing map location of the person with the radio inside of Lync:

Lync IM to SMS text via Geomant solution called SMSforLync:

ContactSync for education by The Via Group:

Pulls the class roster out of a student information system and can prepopulate fellow classmates as contacts, show your courses and schedule, etc. Students really liked this feature as they could IM fellow students and connect and share desktops on projects, etc. They could also IM professors and teacher assistants on the bottom, etc.

Blackboard Lync/OCS integration with Enabling Technologies Corp:

Speech recognition, Tellme, and IM text to speech integration with Lync with Gold Systems Vonetix 7:

This is cool demo on how Gold Systems combined several interesting technologies with Lync into a product called Vonetix 7 for contact centers, etc.:

Vonetix 7 from Gold Systems

The are many many more ISVs developing examples like above with Lync using our CEBP and SDK. I hope this gives you a good taste of what some ISVs are working on and even some of the Bot scenarios that can really leverage the power of Lync.

For more on Lync Bot samples including the Lync IM Bing translator bot see here and here.

This is good news that you can be licensed for Lync IM and Presence via new Core CAL suite coming August 2011. 

See the upcoming CORE CAL here:

*Suite components currently planned for August 2011, and would be available with active Software Assurance coverage on or after the products become available for purchase in Volume Licensing. Because Microsoft must be able to respond to changing market conditions, these plans are subject to change at any time.

As a refresher, Lync Server Standard CAL provides you:

Activate Presence in Exhange, SharePoint and Microsoft Office:

See availability information for your organization and initiate communications from within Microsoft Office 2010 applications.

Enterprise Instant Messaging:

Collaborate using 1:1 and group chat. Manage compliance with archiving/retention policies. Federation connects users to trusted external organizations.

Peer to Peer Voice and Video Chat:

Escalate an IM to a call or video in the same conversation and save money by using peer to peer voice and video instead of making phone calls.

Read more about the upcoming CORE CAL suite capabilities here.

For more on the Lync Standard, Enterprise and Plus CALs visit here.

updated – 3-16-11 with new information

What is Lync Group Chat?

• Persistent topic-based discussion forums support dispersed teams
• “Channel dock” makes participation simple and efficient
• Multiple content types enable flexible information sharing
• Customizable notifications and alerts control interruptions
• User-defined filters enable “intelligent consumption” of information
• Backchat search transforms chat into a knowledge asset

What are some use case scenarios of Group Chat in education?

• Class chat rooms - students join a class chat room and collaborate with other students, professor and grad students. Can also be used for office hours.
• School topic chat rooms - School district creates a chat channel such as ‘Civil War Discussion’ and then all the students within different schools in a school district can collaborate and discuss topics.
• IT helpdesk peer to peer
• End user helpdesk chat room
• Tutoring chat rooms
• Teachers, Professors chat rooms – a school district could setup a History Teachers chat room and teachers could share thoughts, lesson plans, best practices, collaborate
• Graduate students – projects, etc.
• Research - campus research working on a cancer research,etc.

What are some new features of GC in Lync?

The first big change is the Lync GC client has be re-written to support Lync standards such as it leverages the Unified Communications Client Platform (UCCP) API and Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API (UCMA) 3.0.

The look and feel are similar to GC in OCS R2 however there are some changes:

The Group Chat user interface and its accompanying icons, including its emoticons, have been upgraded and resized to match the Lync 2010 Group Chat user interface. Colors, notifications have been enhanced as well.

Can open multiple GC windows

Tweaks to the Ego filter such as:

The Ego filter no longer triggers whenever you type “IT”; for example, “Sara Davis (IT Dept)”. The text can be excluded only if the “bracket pair” in question is closed. For example:

• “Sara Davis (IT Dept)” becomes “Sara Davis”
• “Sara Davis (IT Dept” becomes “Sara Davis IT Dept”
• “Sara Davis [IT Dept (HR Unit)” becomes “Sara Davis IT Dept”

Other enhancements include:

Unicode support – Support for Arabic, Chinese, and other UTF-8 languages

Client side logging disabled by default- to save disk space

Enhanced GC health monitoring via an SCOM management pack for the following:

• Group Chat Channel service
• Group Chat Lookup service
• Group Chat Compliance service

Is federation still supported with Lync GC?

Yes, Lync GC can support partners, customers, students logging in from off-campus via the Internet.

Can I extend Lync GC into applications?

Yes, using the Lync GC SDK.

How does Lync Group Chat Server scale?

3 GC servers can handle 60,000 concurrent connections

What license do I need for Lync Group Chat?

Lync Standard CAL provides a license for Lync Group Chat.

Where do I get the Lync GC bits?

Grab the Lync Group Chat client here.

Grab the Lync Group Chat Server here.  Note: a prereq to get GC working is Lync Server 2010 must be deployed first

Is there a web or mobile client for Lync GC?

Not out of the box however there is a nice add-on from Formicary that has Lync GC web browser support. They also have developed a mobile GC lync client and an Outlook GC add-in.  View more here.

Formicary’s Browser based Lync group chat client works on any major browser (IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome):

Formicary’s Silverlight based Lync group chat client:

Formicary’s GC mobile client for iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile:

For more information around installing Lync Group Chat Server see here.

This is a question I get a lot from my customers. In addition to using the new Lync Server 2010 Planning Tool, we just shipped a few tools to help you with the sizing of your Lync servers whether physical or virtual.

Two new tools have just shipped to help here:

• Lync Server 2010 Capacity Calculator grab it here. 

It has some nice flexibility since you can tweak users, calls, conferencing usage, etc:

It will also provide estimates on total number of servers needed and what roles for both physical and virtual (4 core):

How do I stress test my Lync hardware or VM?

Once you buy the hardware and you want to stress it you can use the LyncPerf load tool to stress the following roles:

• Instant messaging (IM) and presence
• Audio conferencing
• Application sharing
• Voice over IP (VoIP), including public switched telephone network (PSTN) simulation
• Web Access Client conferencing
• Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendant
• Response Groups
• Distribution list expansion
• Address book download and address book query
• E9-1-1 calls and location profile (dial plan)

User creation tool:

You can create groups, contacts for each user:

Create phone DIDs:

You can even create locations for the LIS for E911 testing:

Comes with several PowerShell scripts to populate and configure Lync:

You can create various Lync load files using the User profile generator tool:

You can specify various loads per role:

Different VOIP parameters:

Once you have the config files created. You need to actually run the stress tool from the cmd line with something like this:

RunClient0.bat C:\Program Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\LyncStressAndPerfTool\LyncStress 

or

LyncPerfTool.exe /file:IM_client0.xml /displayfile

There are many performance counters provided for each area of Lync you can look at during or after the test run such as:

• Lync Server 2010 Stress and Performance Tool grab it here. 

I was asked this by a university in San Diego. 

What are the supported Lync roles that can be virtualized?

All Lync Server 2010 roles can be virtualized.  Here is a list of supported roles:

· Instant Messaging (IM)

· IM conferencing

· Presence

· Enterprise Voice (PSTN)

· Audio Conferencing

· Video Conferencing

· Web Conferencing

· Application Sharing

· Remote Access, Federation (Edge Server)

· Response Group service

Can I virtualize an SBA?

No, an SBA is typically an appliance and cannot be virtualized.

Which are supported Hypervisors for Lync?

· Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (For details about hotfix, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 981836, “Network connection is lost on a Windows Server 2003-based Hyper-V VM” at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=201212)

· Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (For details about hotfix, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 981836, “Network connection is lost on a Windows Server 2003-based Hyper-V VM” at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=201212)

· VMware ESX 4.0

Does that include Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V?

No, only Windows Server 2008 R2 has been tested and optimized for Lync.  I would recommend also installing Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 since it includes some new dynamic memory management components.

What guest OS can I use for Lync VMs?

The only guest OS that is supported for a Lync VM is Windows Server 2008 R2.

What type of guest storage is supported?

Fixed VHD or pass through.

Can I mix virtual and physical role servers in the same pool?

It is not recommended to do this because VMs vs. Physical may not provide a consistent experience from a load balancing perspective. You can mix physical and virtual such as SQL physical servers, edge physical servers, front end virtual servers, conferencing virtual servers or any combination listed.

What about Live Migration and Vmotion support?

Not supported and should not be used as a substitute for high availability with Lync (multiple front ends, clustered SQL backends , etc)

What about oversubscription?

Oversubscription is not supported.

What type of overhead is there?

The rule of thumb is to add 10% perf hit for guest VMs. Other limits may include virtual proc limits – e.g. max of 4 procs in VM when 8 procs are recommended which will knock your sizing of Lync down by 50%.

What is a physical vs. virtual sizing chart? note: this is based on a 4 core VM and it can be more cores depending on hypervisor

(chart from Lync virtualization whitepaper here)

Feature definition:

IM&P = IM and Presence

AS = Application Sharing

AV = A/V Conferencing (collocated if Front End Server)

EV = Enterprise Voice (Response Group Service/PSTN access), Mediation Server

Reg = Registrar (subset of IM&P)

AP = Access Proxy (Edge Server)

DP = Data Proxy (Edge Server)

MR = Media Relay (Edge Server)

What is the max conference size in a VM?

The max conf size drops from 250 physical to 125 virtual when using a 4 core VM.

Can I really scale voice in a VM?

Yes, Miercom was able to stress test Lync voice all the way up to 4.1 million consecutive calls without failure all against a virtualized Lync environment. See test results here.

Should I virtualize or go physical for Lync?

I have had customers do both for their production Lync deployments with equal success. I think as long as you follow the guidelines in the Lync virtualization whitepaper and understand some of the limitations with Lync when you virtualize you can have success.