The answer is YES you can partition your global address list into 2 or more partitions. In today’s blog we are going to understand how to best partition your global address list, the advantage, disadvantages and limitations. What are the best practices and how to get it done?

For illustration we shall use 6 Lync user start Luser1 until Luser6 all enabled for sip domain @contoso.com we have grouped the users into two logical group representing two departments within and organization

Table 1 Test User Setup

Post the Office communication server 2007 R2, starting with Lync Server 2010 we moved to Central Management store and Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) model for the management and storage of settings for user or server objects. The re-engineering of this feature takes into account that many organizations have a very rich structure of OUs, and limiting users to siloes based on OUs became a boundary that was no longer feasible as a user management practice. Users need to have visibility beyond their OU. Lync Server 2010 adds an attribute onto user objects. This attribute, msRTCSIP-GroupingID, can be populated with the Globally Unique Identification (GUID) unique to users that need to be able to search for each other. Unless the user is a member of the tagged group, the search results will not display the user contacts.

Note: Even though a user may not be able to receive search results for specific users by means of the Address Book, this does not prevent them from using email contact information or manual entry of contact sip address or phone number information.

What is msRTCSIP-GroupingID attribute?

Figure 1 msRTCSIP-GroupingID attribute

MsRTCSIP-GroupingID attribute is user/contact attribute which by default is not set when a user/contact account is enabled for Lync Server pool. The use of the attribute only simulates a grouping of users in logical partitions, and does not create a true partition in which the security and privacy of the tenants can be tightly controlled. Hence the attribute msRTCSIP-GroupingID should not be used in a commercial hosting environment and is not supported by Microsoft due to the privacy and security risks when providing multi-tenancy in a hosting environment

Understanding msRTCSIP-GroupingID

Before we discuss how to populate the msRTCSIP-GroupingID with value. Let look at the advantages and disadvantages of using msRTCSIP-GroupingID.

Advantage of using msRTCSIP-GroupingID

As discussed msRTCSIP-GroupingID creates logical partitions that facilitates the Address book Search to search within between the users that share the same value.

Disadvantage of using msRTCSIP-GroupingID

Once the value has been set for msRTCSIP-GroupingID for group of user, user who do not share the msRTCSIP-GroupingID value or have msRTCSIP-GroupingID no set cannot search for these users

From the above example if Group Even has the msRTCSIP-GroupingID unique value set for its user and Group Odd have msRTCSIP-GroupingID unique value set and group other who do not have msRTCSIP-GroupingID value set. Users from Group Odd will not be able to search for users from Group Even using the Lync GAL and visa-versa.

Table 3 How msRTCSIP-GroupingID works

Notes: Once the msRTCSIP-GroupingID attribute is set we cannot have Lync enabled user that can search the entire Lync Address List

Figure 2 Group odd search when the msRTCSIP-GroupingID Attribute is set

Figure 3 Group even search when the msRTCSIP-GroupingID Attribute is set

Notes: Address book segregation or partition doesn’t means that, user from one address book cannot send message to user in another address book. In order to prevent user from one address book communicate with users that part of another address book with  a single Lync environment and third party ethical firewall solution is required.

Set msRTCSIP-GroupingID Value

Setting the msRTCSIP-GroupingID requires making change to the end User Active Directory Attributes, hence is recommended to back up Active Directory and you Lync server 2013. For more information on backing up Lync server please refer https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202160.aspx.

Before implementing these steps in production environment, please ensure proper testing has been done in Lab or test environment

Notes: Based on the number of partition you want to create in your Lync Server setup please choose that many number of unique Hexadecimal Guid.

Manual Method

Open Active directory user and computer snap-in enable advance features in view

Go into user properties in the attribute editor tab and set the unique hexadecimal value for the users who are part of the same group

Figure 4 Sample Hexadecimal

Script Method

Partitioning Lync Address Book using msRTCSIP-GroupingID and OU Based Separation

Please refer to the following script

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/Partitioning-Lync-Address-2450e01d

Verify msRTCSIP-GroupingID has been set

Open Active directory user and computer snap-in enable advance features in view

Go into user properties in the attribute editor tab verify if the msRTCSIP-GroupingID has been displayed as follow

Figure 5: msRTCSIP-GroupingID value set

Additional steps

Server Side

• Open the Lync Management shell as administrator
• Run "Update-CsAddressBook" Cmdlet　

Client side

Sign out exist the Lync client Delete the SIP profile

• For Lync 2010, open <user profile>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Communicator\

• For Lync 2013, <user profile>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync\

For multiple users you can also use a script

https://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2013/09/24/script-to-delete-sip-profile-for-multiple-lync-2013-users.aspx 　

Summary

MsRTCSIP-GroupingID attribute only simulates a grouping of users in logical partitions, and does not create a true partition in which the security and privacy of the tenants can be tightly controlled. Prior to configuring msRTCSIP-GroupingID it’s important to understand its advantages and disadvantages. Even though a user may not be able to receive search results for specific users by means of the Address Book, this does not prevent them from using email contact information or manual entry of contact sip address or phone number information. Once the msRTCSIP-GroupingID Attribute is set we cannot have Lync enabled user that can search the entire Lync Address List. Lync Address book segregation or partition doesn’t means that, user from one address book cannot send message to user in another address book.

What is Presence?

 Presence expresses the availability and willingness of a user to join a conversation by using a SIP client such as Microsoft Lync 2010 or Lync 2013. There are two main activities involved in presence:

• Presence Publication
• Presence Subscription

Let look at each of the two activity in detail. For illustration we shall use two Lync user Luser1 and Luser2 both enabled for sip domain @contoso.com

Presence Subscription

Presence subscription is an operation that lets the Lync client know which users that you are interested in seeing refreshed presence information from and what aspect of their enhanced presence you are interested in. When the Lync client creates a presence subscription for a set of users and a set of enhanced presence information, it sends this request or subscription to Lync server. Then the Lync server responds back with the latest information about the user in response back to the Lync client. Presence subscription happens when one user is trying get the update presence information of another user.

Figure 1 : Presence subscription

In the snooper trace this what it would look like

Presence Publication

The question here is how the Lync server does some to know of a user’s presence?  Presence publication is the publishing of user local presence information using the Lync Client after the user signs in for the use of other users who have subscribed to this presence. Your application can set the presence of the local signed-in user to such availability as available, busy, do not disturb, be right back, off work, or appear away. Presence publication happens when one user is trying update its own presence information to another user.

Figure 2 Presence publication

In the snooper trace this what it would look like

Presence Polling

Lync Client manage contact lists for users requires persistent subscriptions to receive the most current presence state of their contacts. For this reason polling for presence is required at regular intervals. Polling is performing Presence subscription at regular interval. In a polling subscription, the Lync client periodically queries the Lync server to obtain the data. The difference between a subscription and a query lies in the fact that the subscription is tied to a period of time whereas the presence query is one-time only. The difference between a persistent subscription and a polling subscription lies in the fact that a SIP dialog is involved in a persistent subscription whereas it is not in a polling subscription.

For a polling subscription, the Lync Server client repeats the process at a given time interval. For a persistent subscription, the Lync Server pushes the publication down to the subscribers by sending them a NOTIFY or BENOTIFY request containing the presence data is created, modified, or removed. For the NOTIFY request, the server expects the client to respond with SIP response. For the BENOTIFY request, a client response is not needed. The process continues until the subscription is terminated, at the request of the subscribing client or when the subscribing user logs off.

User Presence Change

When user Luser2 changes his or her presence. The Lync Client for user Luser2 send out Presence publication to the Lync server. Lync serve send out Notify or Benotify request all users who have Luser2 added as a contact for presence update.

Figure 3 User Presence Change

In the snooper trace this what it would look like

Summary

Presence subscription is activity done by the Lync user who wants updated presence of another user. Presence Publication is an activity done by Lync user to update  own presence to the other users. Presence polling is activity of keeping every user presence updated to another user in the Lync environment at regular interval.

Let Quickly See Device Detection in Windows 7 and later

When a device is attached, Windows attempts to locate a matching driver package from which it can install a driver for the device. Windows searches for driver packages from various locations and performs this search in two phases

• Starting with Windows 7, Windows automatically downloads matching driver packages from Windows Update without prompting the user for permission. If a matching driver package is found, Windows downloads the package and stages it to the driver store.
• If a matching driver package cannot be downloaded, Windows searches for matching driver packages in the driver store. This includes in-box drivers, installed drivers other than in-box drivers, and preinstalled drivers. Windows also searches for driver packages that were preloaded in the locations that are specified by the DevicePath registry value.

HKLM\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DevicePath

By default, the DevicePath value specifies the %SystemRoot%\INF directory

Lync Client Audio Device detection

When Lync client startup it queries the DevicePath registry value for a list devices connected to the machine

For Lync 64 Bit Client

HKLM\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DevicePath

For Lync 32 Bit Client on 32Bit Windows 

HKLM\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DevicePath

For Lync 32 Bit Client on 64Bit Windows 

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DevicePath

Once the Lync 2013 client has the list of devices on the machine it, It looks for the

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\UCCPlatform\PrefAudioRenderVendorProductID

Is there is any preferred playback devices set 

 Then Lync.exe looks for Microphone or recording device attached to the machine by querying the following registry

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Capture\

Under Capture key it looks at listed {device GUID} key and within {device GUID} key its looks for the value of DWORD “DeviceState” 

Depending on the number of devices connected to the machine there can be several of {device GUID} key listed under Capture Key, Lync queries all of {device GUID} key

This is what the DeviceState value means

Once the Lync 2013 client has the list of devices on the machine it, then looks for speaker or Playback Device attached to the machine by querying the following registry

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Render\

Under Render key it looks at listed {device GUID} key and within {device GUID} key its looks for the value of DWORD “DeviceState” 

Depending on the number of devices connected to the machine there can be several of {device GUID} key listed under Render Key, Lync queries all of {device GUID} key

Once Lync Client has found all the enabled Audio Playback and Recording devices based on the preference set in Windows multimedia control panel it will populate  the following registry

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\UCCPlatform\Lync\AudioRender\Speaker/HP {product details}

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\UCCPlatform\Lync\AudioCapture\Microphone {product details}

 Troubleshooting No Audio Detected In Lync Client

When a user tries make Lync call or dial a phone number using the Lync client we see the following error

Let’s start by verifying, if the Lync Client is able query Windows Device list it will display a Speaker\Playback Device to be used and a Microphone\Recording device as shown below

 Lync Options

If the Lync client is unable locate either a Speaker\Playback Device or a Microphone\Recording device or even both it will display the following error in Lync Options as shown below

 The next to place to look at would be the in Windows multimedia control panel (Run “mmsys.cpl”)

The Windows multimedia control panel displays a list of all the Speaker\Playback Devices and Microphone\Recording devices.

If no devices are shown in Windows multimedia control panel the next approach, is to check for disconnected or disabled Speaker\Playback Devices and Microphone\Recording devices. We can do that by right clicking in the Windows multimedia control panel as shown below

Even after selecting the “Show Disabled Devices” & “Show Disconnected Devices” if there are no devices shown in Windows multimedia control panel.

 The final place to check within windows would be look at Device Manager

If in Device Manager under the Sound option if any devices show disabled, right client and enable the sound device. Once a devices has enabled in Device manager, please check in Windows multimedia control panel if we see Speaker\Playback Devices and Microphone\Recording devices.

Please Note: Enabling sound device in Windows might require a restart.

If in Device Manager under the Sound option if no devices shown, check the Show Hidden Devices option in Device Manager.

Even after check the Show Hidden Devices option in Device Manager No Sound devices are shown. The only option remains is checking the physical hardware connectivity.

Summary

Windows based application can access Speaker\Playback Devices and Microphone\Recording devices only after Windows has detected the device appropriately.

HTTP and HTTPS are session-state–oriented protocols. This means that if a client starts a conversation with one Lync director or frontend server, that client needs to continue to talk with Lync Server only to complete the entire request. With DNS load balancing, there is no sticky-session state that can be set. As a result, there is no way to ensure that a session is going to be continued on Lync Server.

What does this mean “session-state–oriented protocols?”

Session is a kind of dialogue or a conversation between two or more communicating devices, say Lync client and Lync server. A session is set up or established at a certain point in time, and then torn down at some later point. An established communication session mostly involve more than one message in each direction. Stateful meaning that at least one of the communicating parts needs to save information about the session history in order to be able to communicate.

Imagine you are signed using Lync Mobile client and we are using DNS Load Balancer for three Lync front-end servers. You search a contact this now new request and hits another Lync server since DNSLB doesn’t maintain your state for https/https, this new Lync server doesn’t have your state information so you might be prompted to sign in. You sign have found the contact and you add him. After a while you start IM session and DNSLB send the traffic to the third Lync Server again this server doesn’t have your state information again you have to setup the session again. This approximately would be the end user experience for all functionality in Lync that use Http/Https protocol. Hence you do need a Hardware Load balancer for HTTP/HTTPS traffic in Lync Server.

HLB addresses this session problem by caching the client-server state information; when the next request comes in from Client, the HLB refers it back to same Lync Server Hence, for Web-based traffic, DNS load balancing is not a solution

Some of the advantages of using Hardware Load Balancer are as follows:

• Quicker Automatic Failure of Client connection
• Support for all type of Lync Server federation scenarios
• Support for all Public IM providers (PIC)
• Support a wide range of VOICE gateways and IPBX

The bottom line is that if you have Lync Server Enterprise edition deployment with high availability in mind a Hardware Load Balancer is a must. The added advantage is that most of time you can also use this Hardware Load Balancer as reverse proxy as well (though not advisable from a network security stand point) however it can be done for medium or small scale deployment.

As part of these blog series I will be sharing information, about Lync Server 2013. The information will include operational guidance such backup-restore, patch updating, and handy deployment tips.

In this post we shall discuss how to test connectivity to Office Web App server used in Lync Server 2013 environment  for PowerPoint presentation. In most environments there would be SharePoint Administrator or separate Admin managing the Office Web App Server. As Lync Engineer or Administrator your assistance might be required to isolate the problem. A single Office Web app installation can  be shared between SharePoint and Lync Servers.

To troubleshoot the Lync Server and Office Web App server connectivity we shall first see how Lync Server detects the  Office Web App server

Office Web App server detection in Lync Server

Once the Lync Admin has added the Office Web App server to topology and published the topology

The RTCDATAMCU component or the Lync Server Web Conferencing service running on the Lync Front-end server will try and connect to the Office Web App server discovery URL published in Lync Topology, this is an HTTPS connection. (e.g.. https://wac.contoso.com/hosting/discovery/)

1) Once Lync Server Web Conferencing service is able to connect to the Office Web App server discovery URL (eg. https://wac.contoso.com) it will check if PowerPoint content is enabled if Yes  we can see the following event id in the event viewer Lync Frontend server.

Log Name:      Lync Server
Source:        LS Data MCU
Event ID:      41034
Task Category: (1018)
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Description:
Web Conferencing Server has successfully discovered Office Web Apps Server, PowerPoint content is enabled

2) Then Lync Server Web Conferencing service will check for the presenter and attendee pages

Office Web Apps Server internal presenter page
Office Web Apps Server internal attendee page
Office Web Apps Server external presenter page
Office Web Apps Server external attendee page

Once this detection succeeds we should see the following event if on the Lync Frontend server

Log Name:      Lync Server
Source:        LS Data MCU
Event ID:      41032
Task Category: (1018)
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Description:
Web Conferencing Server Office Web Apps Server (WAC) discovery has succeeded

Office Web Apps Server internal presenter page: https://wac.contoso.com/m/Presenter.aspx?a=0&e=true&
Office Web Apps Server internal attendee page: https://wac.contoso.com/m/ParticipantFrame.aspx?a=0&e=true&
Office Web Apps Server external presenter page: https://wac.contoso.com/m/Presenter.aspx?a=0&e=true&
Office Web Apps Server external attendee page: https://wac.contoso.com/m/ParticipantFrame.aspx?a=0&e=true&

If any one of the above detection fails we would see the following event id on the Lync Frontend server

Log Name:      Lync Server
Source:        LS Data MCU
Event ID:      41033
Task Category: (1018)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Description:
Office Web Apps Server (WAC) discovery failed, PowerPoint content is disabled.

Attempted Office Web Apps Server discovery Url: https://wac.contoso.com/hosting/discovery/
Received error message: Wac discovery did not return any Powerpoint actions for HTTPS zone
The number of retries: 8046,
Cause: Office Web Apps Server may be unavailable or network connectivity may have been compromised.
Resolution:
Check HTTPS connectivity from this box to the Office Web Apps Server deployment using the discovery Url.

Troubleshooting

The first troubleshooting step would be to verify that we are able to browse Office Web Apps Server discovery Url mentioned in Error event id 41033 (e.g. https://wac.contoso.com/hosting/discovery/ )

When you browse Office Web Apps Server discovery Url  front the Lync frontend server  ideally We should see Web Application Open Platform Interface Protocol (WOPI)-discovery XML file in the web browser. shown below

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<wopi-discovery><net-zone
name="internal-https"><app name="Excel" checkLicense="true"
favIconUrl="https://wac.contoso.com/x/_layouts/images/FavIcon_Excel.ico"><action
name="view"
urlsrc="https://wac.contoso.com/x/_layouts/xlviewerinternal.aspx?<ui=UI_LLCC&><rs=DC_LLCC&>"
default="true" ext="ods"/><action name="view"
urlsrc="https://wac.contoso.com/x/_layouts/xlviewerinternal.aspx?<ui=UI_LLCC&><rs=DC_LLCC&>"
default="true" ext="xls"/><action name="view"
 

If we are unable to browse Office Web Apps Server discovery Url, verify the information entered in the Lync topology is correct. We could use a https debugging tools such as Fiddler or network tracing utility such as wire shark  to troubleshoot this further. Involve in the Office Web Apps Server Admin to check IIS logs on the Office Web Apps Server.

If we are able to browse the Office Web Apps Server discovery Url manually and are still getting Error event id 41033 on the Lync frontend server

On the Office Web Apps Server open Windows PowerShell as administrator run the  Get-OfficeWebAppsFarm cmdlet shown below is an sample output of the cmdlet with important parameter

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-OfficeWebAppsFarm
FarmOU                            :
InternalURL                       : https://wacint.contoso.com/
ExternalURL                       : https://wac.contoso.com/
AllowHTTP                         : True
SSLOffloaded                      : True
CertificateName                   : WAC
EditingEnabled                    : True

Please verify that Office Web Apps Server discovery Url is point either to InternalURL or ExternalURL  from the Get-OfficeWebAppsFarm cmdlet

Also CertificateName  parameter displays the friendly name of the certificate used by the  Office Web Apps verify the certificate has entry for the  InternalURL or ExternalURL name.

If the Get-OfficeWebAppsFarm cmdlet doesn’t display a result please verify the Office Web Apps Server service is running. if yes then refer to Deploy Office Web Apps Server documentation to configure Office Web Apps Server.

Once the change has been made to Office Web Apps Server in Lync Topology or on the Office Web Apps Server to reinitiate detection process immediately by the Lync front-end server restart the Lync Server Web Conferencing service on the Lync Front-end servers

Lync Server 2013 supports several types of client software that you can deploy to your organization’s users, including computer-installed client software, web-based clients, and mobile devices.

Lync clients can further be differentiated into two categories

1. SIP clients: These clients use SIP Protocol primarily to sign-in to  the Lync servers 

2. HTTPS clients : These clients use HTTPS to sign-in to  the Lync servers 

    

Note: SIP client might use https protocol to connect for additional functionality however the SIP is primary registration protocol.

Lync Server 2013 also supports some of Lync 2010 client, for more information on Lync Server 2013 client please refer to https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398996.aspx

Let discuss more about SPOP & MPOP before we do that let’s run through some common understanding about presence. The user that publishes presence information is a presentity, whereas the users that consume this presence information are called watchers.

What is SPOP?

SPOP is single point of presence. At any one point in time Lync enabled user is just signed in one Lync client only to publish his presence. There is no other Lync client this user is using to communicate with the Lync server. There is only one endpoint registered for this user in Lync server database hence user can update his presence from this single endpoint only. This is no practical in today world

What is MPOP?

MPOP is multiple point of presence. At any one point in time a Lync enabled user is signed in using multiple Lync clients. There are multiple endpoint registered for this user in Lync server database hence user can update his presence from multiple endpoint. The server will aggregate this presence information and provide all ‘watchers’ a unified view of the presentities presence.

Note: One thing to keep in mind is that if you lock your device one of your Lync client but do not sign out Lync client or exit the Lync client or log off the user session on the device. Technically speaking Lync is still running on the device, and you are still MPOP’ed.

Instant message delivery

Lync server will only consider a message “delivered” if the conversation was actually accepted by receiver on the Lync client or if it is auto-accepted Lync desktop client.

Let look at instant message delivery in SPOP & MPOP message receiving scenarios between Lync clients

Scenario 1: SPOP: Sender is using Lync Desktop or laptop client and Receiver is using Lync Desktop or laptop client

Sender will send initial message to receiver or better known as an invite in Lync to the receiver. The receiver see will pops up a “toast” in the corner of their computer screen informing them about the request or invite.  Since in this case user is signed in only one endpoint which is Lync desktop client, user has 15 seconds to respond to the request. If they do not respond the Lync desktop client will auto-accept the message and generate missed conversation on the receiver end   

Scenario 2: SPOP: Sender is using Lync Desktop or laptop client and Receiver is using Lync mobile client

Sender will send initial message to receiver or better known as an invite in Lync to the receiver. The receiver will get an alert informing them about the request or invite.  Since in this case user is signed in only one endpoint which is Lync mobile client, user has 60 seconds to respond to the request. If they do not respond a missed conversation will be shown in Lync mobile client and sender will receive gets an error that the "Your message can't be delivered” Even though the receiver has received the message. 

Scenario 3: MPOP: Sender is using Lync Desktop or laptop client and Receiver is using multiple Lync clients

Sender will send initial message to receiver or better known as an invite in Lync to the receiver. The receiver depending on the Lync client they are using will see an alert or toast informing them about the request or invite on all the endpoints they are signed in from.  Since in this case user is using multiple Lync clients, and if one these client is Lync desktop or laptop client user has 15 seconds to respond to the request. If they do not respond the Lync desktop client will auto-accept the message and generate missed conversation on all the receiver Lync clients  

A missed conversation will be shown in all the receivers Lync mobile client and sender will receive gets an error that the "Your message can't be delivered” Even though the receiver has received the message.

Summary

Lync server will only consider a message “delivered” if the conversation was actually accepted by receiver on the Lync client or if it is auto-accepted Lync desktop client. The message delivery notification might differ and is based on the Lync client or clients the receiver is logged into.

In today post we shall be talking about

 How to apply Windows updates or other updates to your Lync 2013 servers that require reboot.

 Let consider the following scenario

Scenario

 Environment

Lync Front-end pool –Lyncfepool.contoso.com

There are 3 front-end severs in the pool

The Windows server administrator applies windows patches to the Lync 2013 servers and reboots them after reboot the Lync front-end services is stuck on starting on all your Lync server 2013 front-end servers

In the Event Viewer for Lync front-end server we see might see the following events  

Log Name:      Lync Server

Source:        LS User Services

Event ID:      32169

Task Category: (1006)

Level:         Warning

Keywords:      Classic

User:          N/A

Description:

Server startup is being delayed because fabric pool manager is initializing.

Cause: This is normal when Pool is bootstrapped and indicates that the Front-End is waiting for a quorum of other Front-Ends to be started.

Resolution:

If this event recurs persistently, ensure that 85% of the Front-Ends configured for this Pool are up and running. For 2 or 3 machine Pools, initial cold-start of the Pool requires all machines to be started. If multiple Front-Ends have been recently decommissioned, run Reset-CsPoolRegistrarState -ResetType QuorumLossRecovery to enable the Pool to recover from Quorum Loss and make progress.

Log Name:      Lync Server

Source:        LS User Services

Event ID:      32170

Task Category: (1006)

Level:         Error

Keywords:      Classic

User:          N/A

Description:

Pool Manager failed to connect to Fabric Pool Manager.

Cause: This could happen because insufficient number of Front-Ends are currently active in the Pool.

Resolution: Ensure that 85% of the Front-Ends configured for this Pool are up and running. For 2 or 3 machine Pools, initial cold-start of the Pool requires all machines to be started. If multiple Front-Ends have been recently decommissioned, run Reset-CsPoolRegistrarState -ResetType QuorumLossRecovery to enable the Pool to recover from Quorum Loss and make progress. 

All your Lync front-end servers that are part of the pool are started Hence we don’t want to run Reset-CsPoolRegistrarState -ResetType QuorumLossRecovery as no front-end server have been decommissioned   

How to fix it? 

• Using Lync management shell as administrator
• Run “Stop-CsWindowsService “on all the Lync front-end servers part of the same pool this stop all Lync related services, This might error out when trying to stop RtcSrv however it is ok to proceed to the next step at this point
• Then run  "Reset-CsPoolRegistrarState -PoolFqdn "LyncFepool.contoso.com" -ResetType FullReset –NoReStart"

NOTE: If you large setup where Administrator does not wish to start the Lync services manually you can also use Reset-CsPoolRegistrarState -PoolFqdn "LyncFepool.contoso.com" -ResetType FullReset Please also note a full reset is time consuming process

• Verify Lync Server front-end services is stopped on all the Lync front-end servers part of the same pool
• On one Lync front-end servers start Lync Server front-end service manually or using cmdlet
• Start-CsWindowsService –Name RtcSrv –Computer “<Lyncfront-end server FQDN>”Wait for 2 minutes
• Then sequentially start Lync Server front-end service on remaining front-end server

On the Lync front-end server you should see the following

Log Name:      Lync Server

Source:        LS User Services

Event ID:      32109

Task Category: (1006)

Level:         Information

Keywords:      Classic

User:          N/A

Description: Pool Manager changed state of Registrar with FQDN: Lync-Front-end.contoso.com to Active.

 At this point after few minutes depending on the number of user you have homed the Lync Server front-end service should be “running” fine  

Why did this happen?

Windows Fabric is a Microsoft technology used for creating highly reliable, distributable, and scalable applications such as Lync Server 2013. Hence Microsoft recommendation is have a minimum 3 front-end servers in Lync enterprise pool. Abrupt reboot of Lync servers cause a change in the Windows Fabric thus affecting the application.

How do I avoid such situation?

Follow the Microsoft recommendation to update Lync front-end servers

To upgrade front end servers, you must follow these steps:

1.      On a front end server in a pool, run the following cmdlet:

Get-CsPoolUpgradeReadinessState

If the State value of the pool is Busy, wait for 10 minutes, and then try to run the Get-CsPoolUpgradeReadinessState cmdlet again. If you see Busy for at least three consecutive times after you wait 10 minutes in between each attempt, or if you see any result of InsufficientActiveFrontEnds for the State value of the pool, there is an issue with the pool. If you cannot resolve this issue, you may have to contact Microsoft Support

(https://support.microsoft.com/contactus/)

. If this pool is paired with another front end pool in a disaster recovery topology, you must fail the pool over to the backup pool, and then update these servers in this pool. For more information about how to fail over a pool, go to the following Microsoft website:

How to fail over a pool

(https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj204678.aspx)

If the State value of the pool is Ready, go to step 2.

2.      The Get-CsPoolUpgradeReadinessState cmdlet also returns information about the upgrade domains in the pool, and about which front end servers are in each upgrade domain. If the ReadyforUpgrade value for the upgrade domain that contains the Server that you want to upgrade is True, you can upgrade the server. To do this, you must follow these steps:

Stop new connections to the front end server(s) by using the Stop-CsWindowsServices -Graceful cmdlet.

Run the Update to upgrade the front end server(s) associated with an upgrade domain.

NOTE: If you upgrade or update front end servers during scheduled server downtime, you can run the cmdlet in step 2 without the -Graceful parameter. More specifically, run the cmdlet as Stop-CsWindowsService. This action immediately shuts down services, and the server does not wait until each existing service request is fulfilled.

Is there a simple way?

There is, all you need to know is does the Lync Enterprise edition pool contains more than 2 servers or not. If the Lync Enterprise edition pool contains 2 servers follow the solution mentioned above under “How do I avoid such situation?” section. If the Lync Enterprise edition pool contains more than 2 servers the simplest method of applying updates to Lync Server 2013 is as follow.

• Apply update to one Lync front-end server at a time after stopping all Lync Services
• Reboot the server
• Wait for all Lync related services to be running state on the rebooted server

Once all Lync related services are in the running state move to the next Lync front-end server in the pool

 Summary

Follow the recommended step to update Lync Server 2013 for both Lync Server updates or Windows update and reduce downtime for your environment  

Lync mobility is the latest offering from the Microsoft Lync Server team.

https://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2012/02/21/troubleshooting-external-lync-mobility-connectivity-issues-step-by-step.aspx

For more on the update please refer to https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2665354

https://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26835