Johann's Unified Communications : r2

OCS R2 Site Resiliency

jkruse — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:55:00 GMT

Using backup and restoration procedures for site disaster recovery as described in the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 documentation library topic Backup and Restoration, can entail some downtime for users.

This white paper describes a site resiliency solution for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The solution includes an Enterprise pool that spans two geographically separate sites. The solution provides a failover mechanism between the two sites to ensure that Office Communications Server functionality such as instant messaging, presence, and conferencing remains available even if one of the sites becomes unavailable.

This white paper is divided into three main sections:

The Solution section provides an overview of the tested and supported site resiliency solution described in this paper.
The Test Methodology section describes the testing topology, expected behavior, and test results.
The Findings and Recommendations section provides practical guidance for deploying your own failover solution.

To successfully follow this paper, you should have a thorough understanding of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering.

Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c930febb-3a44-4bf3-969d-1c52675a7063

Click-to-join conference in CoMo

jkruse — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:41:00 GMT

We have released an update to Communicator Mobile that introduces some new capabilities, the best of which IMHO is “click-to-join” for OCS R2 conferencing (i.e. audio conferences and LiveMeetings). There is no longer any need to dial the # and look up & enter conference IDs and PINs – now you can just choose “Join Conference” from your mobile calendar and OCS will call you back and sign you into the conference.

Issues that this hotfix package fixes

Homescreen support for new homescreens in Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.

Integration within the phone dialer for Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.

Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 now recognizes when the phone is roaming, and by default does not sign in to roaming networks.

Additional support for joining conference calls from a Windows Mobile appointment. To do this, press Menu, and then press Join Conference.

Enables users to log on with a username of the format user@example.com, in addition to domain\user.

When placing Call via Work calls, callbacks are now automatically accepted.

Microsoft Installer (MSI) installation on Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) fails. In this situation, users should install Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 by using a .Cab installation.

AT&T FUZE devices set for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) connection cannot handle voice and data at the same time. This causes Call via Work calls to fail unless the device is reverted to 3rd Generation (3G) by disabling HSDPA.

More information and download at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969816

Download free OCS R2 e-books, but be quick!

jkruse — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:01:20 GMT

For the next few days you can download free copies of some MS Press e-books on OCS 2007 R2. Simply sign up for the Microsoft Press Book Connection Newsletter for notification of offers, register, and download the selection of the month.

Programming for Unified Communications with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Step-by-step programming scenarios show you how to deliver high-quality VoIP, presence, click-to-communicate, and contextual collaboration across the enterprise and across time zones.

Click here to download

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit

Get the definitive resource for deploying, configuring, and supporting Office Communications Server 2007—now fully updated.

Click here to download

Getting Rid of Your PBX Can Be Liberating

jkruse — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:42:28 GMT

Jamie Ryan, CIO at Aspect, has written a great post about the benefits of replacing your legacy PBX or IP-PBX with Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

When I tell people that Aspect is the in the midst of a Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 rollout, they often ask me if we are really able to live without our PBX’s. Believe it or not, many times they look wistful when they ask the question. It’s almost like they equate PBXs with an old friend who is moving to a far off land and will be sorely missed. My answer is always the same. I’m actually happy to be rid of my PBXs. We had too many - from too many different vendors. They were not integrated. And, they were expensive to manage. Plus, technology has come so far in recent years – why would I stay with the old, when the new is here and better?

Read it at http://blogs.aspect.com/2009/06/21/getting-rid-of-your-pbx-can-be-liberating/

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Documentation

jkruse — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:17:49 GMT

The full documentation pack for OCS R2 is now available for download.

The full set of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 documentation is contained in the download file named Communications_Server_2007_R2_Documentation.chm. Selected, high-value sections of the documentation are also provided as separate Word documents.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=e9f86f96-aa09-4dca-9088-f64b4f01c703

OCS 2007 R2 Virtualisation Support

jkruse — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:15:02 GMT

We are pleased to announce official support for server virtualisation for Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

We are introducing support for both a fully distributed virtualised topology across several hypervisors and for a single server virtualised topology. These topologies are supported on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and any Server Virtualisation Validation Program (SVVP) certified partner solution (http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx?svvppage=svvp.htm).

Presence, Instant Messaging (including remote access, federation, and Public IM Connectivity) and Group Chat workloads are supported. The following server roles can be deployed:

Front-End Servers
Back-End SQL Server 2008 64 bits
Group Chat Channel Servers
Group Chat Compliance Servers
Archiving Servers
Monitoring (CDR only) Servers
Edge Access Servers

The virtual machines must be running on Windows Server 2008 64-bit. Archiving Server and Monitoring Server can be connected to a virtualised Enterprise pool, but they must run on a physical server. The fully virtualised distributed topology has been tested to handle up to 40,000 users, including 10,000 group chat users.

Virtualisation of the other workloads is not supported because of possible quality issues with real-time media.

Specifically, voice, video, live meeting and desktop sharing workloads cannot be part of the virtualised deployment. Therefore audio/video/web conferencing servers, audio/video/web edge conferencing servers, dial-in conferencing, Communicator Web Access, enterprise voice, or Remote Call Control may not be deployed as part of the virtualised pool.

If any one of these workloads is required, a new pool with physical servers must be deployed for those users. For more information about support for client virtualisation technologies, please refer to the official support statement at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951152.

In order to plan both their physical and virtualised topologies, customers can use Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Capacity Planning Tool, which can simulate user load for the available workloads. This will help customers validating the hypervisor load and scalability before going to production.

For more information there is a whitepaper available for download: “Running Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 in a Virtualized Topology” - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a45d921-3b48-44e4-b42b-19704a2b81b0&displaylang=en

This document describes the results of a series of configurations that were run in a Hyper-V environment to validate that Office Communications Server on Hyper-V provides stable performance and scalability for production use.

The support statement at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd572860(office.13).aspx will be updated in the next few days to reflect this.

Integrating Telephony with OCS R2

jkruse — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:10:47 GMT

Updated for OCS 2007 R2, this white paper covers everything you want to know about Voice Interoperability with OCS. Topics include Media Gateways, IP-PBXs, SIP Trunking, PBX integration Scenarios, Standards Compliance, Integration Features and Migration Strategies.

Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8CDE0C3A-042E-445B-A514-2D12ED5B2AC2&displaylang=en

NBN + UC = :D

jkruse — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:19:00 GMT

The recent National Broadband Network (NBN) announcement in Australia is the best piece of news I have heard in some time.

Fibre To The Home (FTTH) with speeds of 100Mbps is going to dramatically change how Australians work, play and socialise online. I haven’t heard yet if these speeds are symmetrical or asymmetrical (i.e. if uplink speeds are equivalent to downlink, or not), but I guess it may be too early in the process to know.

At home I have a Naked ADSL2+ connection from Internode (via an Optus DSLAM) which is great in theory, but in practice I only get about 4Mbps down and 384Kbps up.

I work from home a lot, and at the moment at least 10% of my time is spent video-conferencing with customers and workmates. With reductions in travel budgets this is likely to increase in the coming years.

384Kbps uplink is sufficient for CIF video in Office Communicator 2007, but now in R2 we support VGA and HD video which of course have greater bandwidth requirements. Currently I have to physically travel to the office in North Ryde to send VGA or HD video, which kind of defeats the concept of Unified Communications (collaborate from anywhere – work is something you do, not somewhere you go).

So this is why I’m excited about the NBN – faster uplink speeds will enable higher fidelity video-conferencing at home, which will provide more opportunities for remote collaboration, travel reductions, flexible meetings, and work/life balance.

Now if only they could get it up and running in < 8 years :)

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 VHD

jkruse — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:54:51 GMT

This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 for 60 days.

Start evaluating Office Communications Server today. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 delivers streamlined communications for your users so they can find and communicate with the right person, right now, from the applications they use most (like Office Outlook).

Note:

1. This trial software is intended for evaluation purposes only.
2. There is no product support for this trial. You are welcome to share your trial experience with others and to ask for advice by participating in the forums.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is required to use this virtual machine
In addition to the system requirements for Windows Server 2008 as described in the release notes, a 64-bit system with hardware-assisted virtualization enabled and data execution prevention (DEP) is required.

Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=3bfe2fb6-493b-42d6-859e-eddddf04e2e8

Dialogic Media Gateway upgrades for OCS R2

jkruse — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:44:48 GMT

The following Dialogic Media Gateway Series have been qualified for use with Office Communications Server R2 through the Microsoft Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program:

Dialogic^® 1000 Media Gateway Series (DMG1000 Series)
Dialogic^®2000 Media Gateway Series (DMG2000 Series)

There is a new firmware release for the DMG1000 and DMG2000 Series→Software Version 6.0 Service Update 3.0.
The new firmware must be used with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and has backward compatibility with previous versions. It is now available to upgrade existing gateways in the field via the following process:

1. Make a backup copy of your gateway's configuration by exporting your current config.ini file
2. Download the DMGxxxx (depending on your model) Version 6.0 Service Update 3.0 install package from the Dialogic support web site at: http://www.dialogic.com/support/helpweb/mg/downloads.htm
3. Extract the files that were downloaded into a folder
4. Log on to the gateway web interface
5. From the menu on the left of the page select the upgrade page
6. Browse to the folder were the extracted files reside
7. Select the xxxx_6.0_SU3.pkg file
8. Select install
9. After the upgrade is complete, restart the gateway
10. The gateway is now ready to be used with either Office Communications Server 2007 or Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

For more information, please contact your local Dialogic account team. Stay tuned for updates to the Dialogic^® 4000 Media Gateway Series coming in April 2009.

Views from Tech’spresso

jkruse — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:13:31 GMT

On Friday morning I attended Dimension Data’s Tech’spresso on OCS R2 in Sydney. It was a full house, and great stuff from Roland Leggatt and Tim White.

Where to download OCS 2007 R2

jkruse — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:03:29 GMT

Today is the official launch of OCS 2007 R2 (sign up for the Virtual Launch!).

What’s new?

Streamlined Communications

Call management capabilities let receptionists and team assistants take a large volume of incoming calls and quickly route them to the intended recipients. Delegation allows executives to give complete management of their phone calls to assistants.
Desktop-sharing capabilities allow users on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms to collaborate with one another while they talk to each other using enhanced audio conferencing features.
Group chat lets organizations set-up searchable, topic-based chat rooms that persist over time, which allows geographically distributed teams to collaborate with one another efficiently while preserving organizational knowledge.

Operational Flexibility and Control

On-premise audio conferencing capability puts IT in control of audio conferencing infrastructure while saving on outsourced audio conferencing costs.
Single Number Reach allows IT to log business calls placed from mobile phones for accounting purposes. It also helps to ensure that the same dialing rules that apply to calls from a work phone extends to mobile calls.
Video monitoring capabilities allow IT to monitor the quality of video calls and conferences on their network and make adjustments if necessary.
Support for SIP-trunking removes the need to manage on-premise gateways.

Extensible Communications Platform

Automate business processes with instant messaging, voice, and e-mail workflows with familiar development tools like Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.
Agent Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, built using the published platform APIs in Office Communications Server 2007 R2, gives call center agents the ability to see presence information and the ability to “click-to-communicate” from within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM screens.

And of course the most important bit – where can you download it? There is a 180-day trial available now. It’s also worthwhile checking out the FAQ and release notes before installing. Enjoy!

OCS R2 videos

jkruse — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:20:45 GMT

There a bunch of videos showing OCS R2 and its capabilities on YouTube…

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=OCSR2Launch&view=videos

OCS 2007 R2 Launch

jkruse — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:03:47 GMT

Streamlined Communications

Today, users face the challenge of managing their communications across many devices and applications, which negatively impacts productivity. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 streamlines the way users manage communications, enabling them to find and communicate with the right person, from whichever applications they use most.

New call management capabilities let receptionists and team assistants take a large volume of incoming calls and quickly route them to the intended recipients with a simple click, while delegation features allow executives to completely hand over the management of their phone calls to their assistants. New desktop-sharing capabilities allow users on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms to collaborate with one another at the same time they talk to each other using enhanced audio conferencing features. The Group Chat feature lets organisations set up searchable, topic-based chat rooms that persist over time, allowing geographically distributed teams to better collaborate with one another while preserving organisational knowledge.

Operational Flexibility and Control

IT environments are very complex and create extra administrative overhead for IT administrators. IT is also called upon to deliver on imperatives like cost control, security, integration with existing infrastructure, and managing compliance requirements. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 allows IT administrators to meet these challenges effectively by giving them the ability to provide flexible communications solutions to users and by delivering the tools they need to help manage secure, compliant communications.

The new on-premise audio-conferencing capability puts IT in control of their audio-conferencing infrastructure while saving potentially millions of dollars in audio-conferencing costs. The Single Number Reach feature allows IT to log business calls placed by users from cellular phones for accounting purposes while helping to ensure that the same dialling rules that apply to calls made by users from their work phone also extend to their cellular calls. The new video monitoring capabilities allow IT to monitor the quality of video calls and conferences on their network, while support for SIP-trunking does away with the need to manage expensive on-premise gateways.

Extensible Communications Platform

One of the biggest advantages of having a software-based communications infrastructure is that businesses can embed communications capabilities into existing line-of-business applications and use communications and workflow capabilities to automate business processes, which saves money, saves time, and improves customer service. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 delivers an extensible communications platform that works with an organisation’s existing messaging and telephony infrastructure and can adapt to changing business needs.

The new Agent Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics CRM built using the published platform APIs in Office Communications Server 2007 R2 gives call centre agents the ability to see presence information and the ability to click to communicate right from within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM screens. Additionally, software developers can automate business processes with instant messaging (IM) and e-mail workflows using such familiar development tools as Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

To find out more about this new release, register for the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Virtual Launch Event. OCS 2007 R2 will be available to customers and partners at launch.

Communicator Mobile 2007 R2

jkruse — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:40:39 GMT

At the Office Communicator Team blog we’ve just released information on the soon-to-be-released Communicator Mobile (aka CoMo) R2 client.

Those who have used CoMo 2007 will be happy to know that we have made huge improvements in data consumption and battery life with R2 – In fact I now have the client permanently signed in on my HTC Touch Diamond, and I don’t notice a difference in battery life at all!

It also includes Single Number Reach allowing you to place calls originated from your company phone on your mobile device.

There will also be a client available for Java devices (e.g. Nokia, Motorola Razr).