Byron Spurlock's Blog - OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2 & VOIP Insights

Webcast - Capacity Planning with OCS 2007

MSDN Archive — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:02:00 GMT

Here is another webcast that I did on Capacity Planning with OCS 2007.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032372033&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Till next time again...

Webcast - DNS, Certificates, and Load Balancers

MSDN Archive — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:56:00 GMT

I wanted to provide a URL to the webcast that I did regarding configuring OCS 2007 with DNS, Certificates, and Load Balancers.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032343625&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Till next time...

OCS 2007 R2 Web Scheduler Now Available!

MSDN Archive — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:45:59 GMT

In OCS 2007 R1 the web scheduler was a nice to have handy to allow people to schedule meetings and not have to have the full client or add-ins available. Now in R2 the web scheduler is back and available once again. Keep in mind that the support agreement still applies and that’s a best effort support with the tool. Some of the main features of the scheduler are as followed:

Authentication using Windows credentials
Schedule a Live Meeting or a Conference call
Verify names of enterprise invitees
Specify Meeting Access Types
- Open
- Closed
- Anonymous
View List of Scheduled Conferences
Modify\Delete Scheduled Conferences

Take a look at the link below to get a copy of the tool…

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6d6848ec-e7d6-41f4-82d9-5bed3526fcbd&displaylang=en

Communicator Attendant Console (Part 1)

MSDN Archive — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:41:00 GMT

In today’s blog we will discuss the Attendant Console which is a new client in Office Communicator Server 2007 R2.

[Figure 1]

The first thing for us to take a look at today what is the Attendant Console (AC)? The AC is the client side application similar to Office Communicator (OC), we can make voice calls, send IM, participate in conference calls, and much more. Probably the most used case of the AC will come from the “Boss\Admin” scenario. What is the “Boss\Admin” scenario you ask, well this is for those scenarios where executives have delegates and have delegates answering phone calls on their behalf.

This was a major need that was asked from customers when OCS 2007 was released and now in R2 its here. Scenarios that cause for delegation to additional personnel the AC fits the need. This blog might take several posts to get you everything you should know with the AC, but we will take this step by step and let you know about the user interface first.

What you see above in figure 1 is the main interface of AC; the interface is broken down into two panes, a right and left pane. The right pane contains your contact list that is familiar to how OC would see it and the left pane contains the views that you will probably be in most.

The top portion of the left pane contains the area for incoming calls, this is where to look for when calls are coming into the main switchboard of your organization. The middle section contains the active conversation; the active conversation is where you just took the call, typing a message, or sending an IM. The third pane is at the bottom and contains the pending or on hold conversation.

So an operators AC would have the following views while attending to calls at the front desk…

1) Call comes into the front desk of the organization = top pane

2) Operator answers the call and is talking to the caller = middle pane

3) Operator sees another call that is incoming and puts the current caller on hold = bottom pane

Pretty simple right? Great! What we will look at in the next post is more detailed information with user interface for AC.

Byron

Deployment Validation Tool (Auto Answering Agent - updated)

MSDN Archive — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:59:46 GMT

To begin with I’ve been getting a lot of hits on my blog about the DVT tool which is good, the downside is not all have been successful with installing and configuring it. So I’ve decided to go ahead and update the blog with more screen pics.

You might be saying, more screen pics, you didn’t have any screen pics before, well lets not dwell on that part but let’s look at the glass half full and see if this blog that’s been revived with screenshots that i created in my lab this morning don’t help out more people with the ability to call Rita successfully.

As you begin the installation of the deployment validation tool, you should see the following screenshots…

initiating setup…

Accepting the ULA….

Choosing a location for installation…

Watching the installation…

Deploying the Auto Answering Agent…

If this message appears after executing the dvtagent file, don’t worry, just click ok

Go ahead and execute the ucmaredist file

Watch it install..

Once it finishes installation, go back to the dvtagent and execute once again…

Click next…

Accept the ULA…

Choose location for installation…

Setting up the service account….make sure that information entered here has already been created. You will need to create a service account for the Auto Answering agent to run, (create the account information in AD and make sure you give it a valid email address too, such as DVT@litwareinc.com)

proceed through installation…

If you encounter this message, don’t worry click ok and proceed on…

Configuring the Auto Answering Agent…

1) Make sure you give a valid SIP URI (which is the email address of the service account you created earlier)

2) Choose Manual Configuration and specify the FQDN of your pool (mine is ocs-std.litwareinc.com)

3)Make sure the port is set to 5061

4)Switch the agent type to Answering Agent

5)Click ok to complete this dialog window

Click on close…

Go to services and be sure to restart the DVT service…

Log onto Office Communicator as the DVT Account that you created earlier…

Confirm that you are logged on with available presence and then sign out of communicator…

Log onto a communicator client as another user and confirm that the DVT account is available…

Calling the DVT agent to confirm everything is working…

My call was completed and I can talk to Rita…

Hopefully this updated blog of how to deploy the auto answering agent provides the much needed screenshots that many where asking for. Thanks for your patience…

Byron

Edge Planning Tool for Office Communications Server 2007 R2

MSDN Archive — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:31:00 GMT

The following is a link for the R2 Edge planning tool; I highly recommend going through this planning wizard before you deploy your edge server(s).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=ec4b960c-3fe2-41bd-abdf-ae89cfcb8c6c

Which Server(s) to deploy the (DVT) Deployment Validation Tool

MSDN Archive — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:45:00 GMT

Once again i will talk about one of my favorite tools with OCS and that's the DVT Tool. However in this blog I will talk about where you should and shouldn't deploy the DVT tool. First lets explain what the tool is; The DVT tool can be found in the OCS 2007 R2 Resource kit. It allows administrators to find out about problems with audio quality before a user reports a problem. The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Deployment Validation Tool simulates audio traffic so that you can proactively identify and resolve audio issues.

Now that we know what it is, let's talk about where you should deploy it. The DVT tool comes in two parts, an Oragnizer and Agents. The Organizer will be responsible for collecting all the data from the agetnts that are deployed in an enviroment. You should not deploy the Organizer on a OCS Standard Edition Server if you have a single server pool or you shouldn't deploy the Organizer on any of the Front-End Servers that make up your pool. So you may be asking yourself, where does that allow me to deploy it? Good question and glad you asked, the Organizer can be deployed on server that is not going to be leveraged a lot in the enviroment, also one that you can afford to install SQL Exress on for this is what the Organizer needs to be installed, for this is where the data that is collected from agents will be stored in. So let's say you have an enviroment such as a Monitoring server (formerly QOE Server) this is a perfect server for the Organizer. What about an Archiving server that you can install SQL Express on, this is another perfect scenario. What if you didn't deploy either, well possible you have a file server that is not utilized very much where you can deploy SQL Express on, this might be a good choice to host the organizer as well.

Now that we know where we want to deploy the Organizer, we should look at places not to deploy the Organizer. As I mentioned before, the Front-End Servers should be out of the question, neither your edge serves for the Organizer. What about Mediation Servers and Group Chat Servers? I wouldn't deploy it on either of them for you have to keep in mind that the Organizer is a service that runs on these machines, and aside from that requires that SQL Express be installed. These two servers mediation for voice should and group chat servers shouldn't contain any extra applications if possible running on them, specifically the mediation server.

As for the Agents, well the agents will talk to the Organizer on whatever polling interval that is setup in the admin console of the organizer, by default every 60 seconds. Agents should be installed on workstations or possibly file servers at locations you are interested in gathering data from. I would prefer File servers for workstations are far and few between with regards to finding a dedicated workstation that nobody is using. If you where to install it on person's PC, yes it will install and yes it would work, but now your results would not be accurate. For everytime the person shuts down their machine, the agent would be "offline" and now your no longer polling for that location because the PC is off and now the agent is "offline"; that is why i said a file server earlier. In almost every organization where I rolled out the DVT to the headquaters and branch locations, there have been file servers to install the agents. For remember, the basic premise of installing the agent is mearly to get a snapshot of the physical acting as an endpoint going back to the organizer. The organizer doesn't care if its on a PC or file server, but only the connection is alive and the basics regarding latency, delay, and roundtrip from the location of the agent (more than likely a branch location or office on a different subnet).

Note: Agents can be installed on servers (technically), but in some scenarios i would ask you to ask yourself, doesn't really make sense for me to install an agent on an Archiving Server, Front-End Server, Mediation Server, Group Chat Server, etc....Probably not.

In conclusion this blog was to enlighten you on which servers you should and shouldn't deploy the "Organizer" and where to deploy the "Agents".

OCS 2007 Resource Kit Book R2 - Chapters

MSDN Archive — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:26:00 GMT

For those that haven't gone out and gotten the Resource Kit Book R2 yet, I've figured I would go ahead and give you a little incentive by stating what the chapters are in the book.

Chapter 1 - Overview of OCS 2007 R2
Chapter 2 - New Features Overview
Chapter 3 - Server Roles
Chapter 4 - Infrastructure and Security Considerations
Chapter 5 - Basic IM and Presence Scenarios
Chapter 6 - Conference Scenarios
Chapter 7 - Remote Access and Federation Scenarios
Chapter 8 - Public IM Scenarios
Chapter 9 - Remote Call Control Scenarios
Chapter 10 - Dual Forking Scenarios
Chapter 11 - VOIP Scenarios
Chapter 12 - Voice Mail Scenarios
Chapter 13 - Enterprise Voice Application Scenarios
Chapter 14 - Planning Example
Chapter 15 - Deployment Example
Chapter 16 - Monitoring
Chapter 17 - Backup and Retore
Chapter 18 - Administration
Chapter 19 - Client and Device Administration
Chapter 20 - Diagnostic Tools and Resources
Chapter 21 - Troubleshooting Problems
Chapter 22 - Routing and Authentication

OCS 2007 R2 Edge Server Topologies

MSDN Archive — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:27:00 GMT

For those that have already deployed OCs 2007 R2 and have external users working with IM, Conferencing, and perhaps voice as well have seen the changes we have for R2 Edge.

In OCS 2007 we had four different topologies that one could deploy:

1) Consolidated Edge
2) Single - Site Edge
3) Scaled - Single Site Edge
4) Multi Site Edge

Now with R2 we have done some changing around with the topologies. To being with one of the biggest new items that comes to R2 is the concept of the consolidated edge topology now. This is where we have all three roles (Access Edge, Web Conferencing Edge, and Audio Video Edge) all on the same box. Now the other roles that we have consist of the Load Balanced Edge, and the multi-site edge. The last two don't differ from the first one all that much.

So with the three topologies we have now with the Edge for R2, now you mau be wondering where does that leave me if I deployed something not like the ones above for R1? Pretty simple, NOT SUPPORTED. This may sound harsh but, in reality its true and unfortunate.

So not to leave you on a sour note, there are some nice things about having these consolidated edge topologies now.

1) Simpler Edge deployments
2) Load Balancing the Edge (with two boxes now)
3) Support for Multiple Access Edge Servers in a Forest now

More blogs coming soon...

MSDN Archive — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:04:00 GMT

Over the next few blogs I will be posting information regarding tools that will assist people with deployment and troubleshooting OCS 2007 and OCS 2007 R2.

The following are just a few of the tools that i will be covering in depth:Deployment Validation Tool, LCSDiscover, DBAnalyzer, LCSClean, and VOIP Test Tool just to name a few.

Stay tuned.