Download Lync 2010 Cumulative Updates

Posted over 4 years ago

by

Maged Ezzat

These are the new released Lync 2010 cumulative updates and fixes:

Cumulative update package for Lync 2010 (64bit) & (32 bit): January 2011 http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2467763
Cumulative update for Microsoft Lync 2010 Phone Edition for Polycom CX700 and LG-Nortel IP Phone 8540: January 2011 http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2493722
Cumulative update for Lync 2010 Phone Edition for Aastra 6721ip and Aastra 6725ip: January 2011http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2493724
Cumulative update for Lync 2010 Phone Edition for Polycom CX500, Polycom CX600, and Polycom CX3000: January 2011 http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2493723
Cumulative update for Lync 2010 Attendee – Administrator level installation: January 2011 http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2467762
Cumulative update for Lync 2010 Attendee – User level installation: January 2011 http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2467761
Cumulative update for Lync 2010 Attendant: January 2011 http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2467760
Update for Lync 2010 Group Chat Client: January 2011 http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2467765
Update for Lync Server 2010, Group Chat Administration Tool: January 2011http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2467764

Lync Server Open Interoperability Program OIP http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/01/10/lync-server-open-interoperability-program-oip.aspx

Download Lync Server 2010 Planning Tool: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/02/10/download-lync-server-2010-planning-tool.aspx

Lync Server 2010 Best Practices Analyzer available for download: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/02/22/lync-server-2010-best-practices-analyzer-available-for-download.aspx

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Dynamic Collection

Posted over 4 years ago

by

Maged Ezzat

1 Comment

In this post I will go through a new System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 feature which is Dynamic Collection that can increase collection speed and decrease load on Configuration Manager Database,

Query-based collections in Configuration Manager 2007 are periodically evaluated, based on a schedule you specify to update their membership from the site database. Even if there are no changes in the collection being evaluated, the entire collection is still processed. The default period between collection evaluations is 1 day. You can decrease this period, but evaluating collections with many members might cause a high load on your site database.

Dynamic collection evaluation in Configuration Manager 2007 R3 allows you to scan only certain resources that have been newly added to the site database. Because this improves the speed at which you can evaluate collections and also lessens the processing load on the database, it is possible to increase the frequency at which you evaluate collections and therefore keep the data shown in the administrator console more up to date.

The following resources can be evaluated by dynamic collection evaluation:

· Resources that have been initially discovered.

· Resources that have been provisioned with operating system deployment.

· Resources that have reported initial hardware inventory.

· Resources that have been upgraded to a newer version of the Configuration Manager 2007 client.

To configure dynamic collection evaluation

1. In the Configuration Manager console, navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Computer Management / Collections.

2. Right-click the collection that you want to configure for dynamic collection evaluation, and then click Properties.

3. In the Membership Rules tab of the <Collection Name> Properties dialog box, enable the checkbox” Dynamically add new resources”.

4. Click OK to exit the <Collection Name> Properties dialog box.

· Computer objects

· User objects

· Security group objects

· System group objects

It is really another good feature that in general enhance Configuration Manager Performance.

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Delta Discovery

Posted over 4 years ago

by

Maged Ezzat

3 Comments

In the past discovering new objects from Active Directory and to start managing any new object was taking long time, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 introduce a new good feature called Delta Discovery.

In this post I will go through a new System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 feature which is Delta Discovery that enhances the discovery capabilities of Configuration Manager by discovering only new or changed resources in Active Directory instead of performing a full discovery cycle. The interval by which delta discovery searches for new resources can be configured by the user to a short interval as only discovering new resources does not affect the performance of the site server as much as a full cycle. Delta discovery can detect the following new resource types:

· Computer objects

· User objects

· Security group objects

· System group objects

Delta discovery only reads Active Directory attribute changes which are replicated. Non-replicated attributes, which are changed, such as the memberof attribute, are not collected by delta discovery unless a change to a replicated attribute is made at the same time. For example, adding a user or machine account to a particular group or Organizational Unit (OU) does not force the object to be replicated at the next delta discovery cycle. The value that we look at in Active Directory is the USNChanged value.

USNChanged value is an incrementing value that is specific to a particular Domain Controller (DC). This is how the DC does sequencing of changes. Every time an object is updated, that object is tagged with the current USNChanged value for that DC, then the DC increments its USNChanged value. When we do a Delta Discovery, we write to the database the current USNChanged value for that DC. Therefore, the next time we kick off a Delta Discovery we check all objects that have a USNChanged value greater than the value that we stored from the last Delta Discovery. Since this value is unique to a particular DC, we will always try to go back to that DC to complete the Delta Discovery process so that we pull only changed values. If for some reason, that DC is offline or inaccessible, then we will fall over to another DC. However, this will force a full Discovery as the USNChanged value will be different on this device and we cannot accurately tell what objects are changed.

Delta discovery is not enabled by default in Configuration Manager 2007 R3. When enabled, it will run, by default every 5 minutes.

To Configure Delta Discovery

1. In the Configuration Manager console, navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Site Management / <site code> – <site name> / Site Settings / Discovery Methods.

2. Right-click one of the following discovery methods and then click Properties:

· Active Directory System Group Discovery

· Active Directory Security Group Discovery

· Active Directory System Discovery

· Active Directory User Discovery

3. In the Polling Schedule tab for the selected discovery method, enable the option Enable delta discovery.

4. In the Delta discovery interval (minutes) field, specify the interval in minutes at which delta discovery will run.

5. Click OK to close the Discovery Method dialog box.

It is really good feature that will make different with System Center IT Administrators.

Comparison between ALM and TFS

Posted over 4 years ago

by

Mohammad Hassan

I would like to clarify very important issue, which is the blog subject, what is the different between ALM and TFS as a part of Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) , first of all let’s know what every abbreviation means:

ALM : Application Lifecycle Management

TFS : Team Foundation Server

But really it isn’t what I mean by the different between them, definitely there is a big different between both, first of all let’s start to define each one:

ALM is a continuous process of managing the life of an application through governance, development and maintenance

TFS is a Microsoft tool that we should use to implement ALM, while as mention before it’s a part of Visual Studio Team System .

Also there are a map between both, ALM has 9 process area and TFS has many Product features, I will map every TFS feature to one of Process area to help for implementing ALM at the Software house for their Software Application, first lets list ALM 9 process area and TFS features:

ALM 9 Process areas:

Area	Description
User Experience (UX)	User Experience (UX) is a term used to describe the overall experience and satisfaction a user has when using a product or system.
Requirements Management	Requirements management is the science and art of gathering and managing user, business, technical, functional requirements and process requirements within a product development project.
Quality & Test	Quality Assurance covers all activities from design, development, production, installation, servicing and documentation. The main goal of QA is to ensure that the product fulfills or exceeds customer expectations.
Code Quality	The way a program is written has important consequences for the maintainers. Some quality code attributes; • Readability • Ease of maintenance, testing, debugging, fixing, modification and portability • Low complexity • Low resource usage
Architecture & Design	Consists of software components, their external properties, & their relationships. Documenting software architecture facilitates stakeholder communication, documents decisions about high-level design, & allows reuse of design components & patterns.
Project Management	Project management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources in such a way that these resources deliver all the work required to complete a project within defined scope, time and cost constraints.
Software Configuration Management	The management of the various configurations of hardware and software components within the technical environment and enables recreation of each build as well as recreation of earlier environments in order to maintain previous versions of a product.

TFS Features:

Feature	Description
Work item tracking	Work item is unit of work which used to identify, manage and track any piece of work in the project like (Task, Bug, Risk,OoS,...) with different status (Active, resolved, closed,...) and can be associated with projects documents.
Source code control	Enterprise scale repository for source code and other file-based documents, support branching and merging operation and check-in policy
Automated Build	Automated compilation of source code, Execution and automated test, Performance of source code analysis with daily build automation
Metrics and Reporting	The most favorite features for project managers some reports into metrics stored within TFS Data warehouse
Project Portals	For every Team Project VSTS creates and associated project portal which build on WSS, Maintain the documentation produced by the project team and They also have collaborative functionality such as version history and document check-in and check-out
Office Excel and Office Project Integration	Integration with VSTS work item services and theWork item repository is fully accessible through office project and office excel providing two-way synchronization (between work item and MS Excel and MS Project

Now I will map every process area with the TFS feature that we could use to implement ALM on the software lifecycle which improve the quality of software at the end:

Process Area	TFS Feature
User Experience (UX)	· Using Architecture features in VSTS · Project Portals
Requirements Management	· Office Excel Integration · TFS Template (MSF for CMMI or MSF for Agile) with workitem tracking · Project Portals
Quality & Test	· Automated Test and Quality Metrics (features in VSTS) · Automated Build · Project Portals
Code Quality	· Quality Metrics · check-in Policy · Project Portals
Architecture & Design	· Using Architecture features in VSTS · Project Portals
Project Management	· Metrics and Reporting (reporting based on reporting services) · Office Project Integration · Project Portals
Software Configuration Management	· Source code control · Project Portals

It’s absolutely important to be sure that delivering a high quality solution comes from healthy, well managed, controlled, collaborated, integrated and monitored environment. Simply you could create this environment by encourage software house to understand ALM (application lifecycle management and how to implement it by using tools like TFS (Team Foundation Server).

App-V 4.6 step by step installation guide: Part 5

Posted over 4 years ago

by

Mohammed Saad MEA

1 Comment

Streaming Servers:

Open the MDOP server installation and choose App-V server then streaming servers

Click Next in the welcome screen as shown below

Accept the EULA and click next

Enter the user name and org name

Leave the default installation path default and click next

Leave the default for now and click next on the certificate page

Leave the default port selected and click next (Unless you have a reason to change it)

In the content path, please ensure to enter the UNC path for the content share (that maybe on file server, DFS or even one of the management/streaming servers)

Leave the default settings and click next

In the installation configuration please click Install

Once installed, please click finish.

By now you have all your infrastructure ready!

Here is few notes:

Go to this link and ensure you’re complying with the below

Best Practices for the Application Virtualization Sequencer

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351420.aspx

· Follow the steps in this guide to sequence office 2010

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983462

· Make sure to follow the following steps to make Office 2010 work

o Download the Office 2010 Deployment Kit and extract it to C:\app-v

o Run the kit by exactly executing this command: msiexec /i C:\app-v\offvirt.msi PROPLUS=1 (if you’re using the office professional edition)

· For troubleshooting:

o Make sure that the app-v service is started and you can telnet to the server by port 554 from the other servers and client zone

o Make sure that there are no packets being dropped between the client and server. To test that, please leave the client idle for 10 minutes, then run ping command to the app-v management server NLB name/IP and it succeed from the first packet.

o Make sure that the SQL service account is granted Logon As Service permission on both SQL servers, otherwise the failover/failback will fail

o Make sure that the App-v service account is:

§ Granted Logon As Service permission on both management servers

§ Has read permission on the local NTFS permission of the content shares

§ Has read permission on the share permission of the content shares

§ In case of future publishing and using RTSPS, this account should has read permission on the certificate private key

§ Has administrative privilege on the SQL DB used for App-V

§ Make sure that this account has SPN registered in AD

· Install SCOM Agent on App-V Servers. Download and import the App-V management pack from this link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=82b0397f-fac8-4c5a-b906-e87d0e57982a&displaylang=en

· Install SCOM Agent on SQL Servers. Make sure that the SQL management packs are already imported, otherwise it should be imported.