Using MAP Toolkit to Assess your Lync Server Licensing

 

MAP Toolkit has been updated to capture Lync Usage Tracking information for Enterprise and Plus usage. In MAP Toolkit 7.0, the Lync Usage Tracking scenario only captured Standard user and device usage. This blog will provide the instructions for running the MAP Toolkit to capture Lync active user and device information and show you how to see the results.

How the MAP Tool collects Lync Usage information

The MAP Toolkit connects to the Lync front-end server through PowerShell to determine connection information to access the Lync monitoring databases. Once the MAP Toolkit connects to the Lync monitoring databases, it will run a series of queries to determine users and devices Standard, Enterprise, and Plus usage. The MAP Toolkit determines usage based on the Lync user licensing offerings that are described at https://lync.microsoft.com/en-us/get-lync/Pages/lync-licensing.aspx. 

 

Lync Scenario Pre-requisites

• On the Lync front-end server
  • Enable remote PowerShell
  • Enable remote administration
• Obtain these Lync environment credentials for the MAP Toolkit
  • Admin account for the Lync front-end server
  • Lync credentials for Lync PowerShell and Lync monitoring database, this account needs access to the LCSCDR/QOEmetrics databases
• Install the MAP Toolkit

 

Additional MAP Toolkit Resources

• For additional information on running the MAP Toolkit or to provide feedback to the development team see this blog post: https://blogs.technet.com/b/mapblog/archive/2012/11/20/getting-help-using-the-map-toolkit.aspx .
• See the MAP Toolkit Survival Guide on preparing your environment for running the MAP Toolkit at https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1640.microsoft-assessment-and-planning-toolkit-en-us.aspx

 

Running the Lync Usage Tracking Scenario

1. Launch the MAP Toolkit

2. Create an inventory database

3. Launch the Inventory Wizard by clicking on the Perform an inventory

 

4. Select the Lync Server scenario and click Next to continue.

 

5. Select how you would like to discover devices for the Lync Usage Tracker scenario. Generally, you will either select Use Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) or Scan an IP address range to inventory devices running Lync . If you just want to capture Lync usage data and not inventory devices running Lync software, you can select to manually enter the Lync front-end server names by selecting Manually enter computer names and credentials or Import computer names from a file. Click Next to continue. (NOTE: for this blog, I will select enter computers manually)

 

Here is an overview of each option:

• Use Active Directory Domain Services -- This method allows you to query a domain controller via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and select computers in all or specific domains, containers, or OUs. Use this method if all computers and devices are in AD DS.
• Windows networking protocols -- This method uses the WIN32 LAN Manager application programming interfaces to query the Computer Browser service for computers in workgroups and Windows NT 4.0–based domains. If the computers on the network are not joined to an Active Directory domain, use only the Windows networking protocols option to find computers.
• System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) -- This method enables you to inventory computers managed by System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). You need to provide credentials to the System Center Configuration Manager server in order to inventory the managed computers. When you select this option, the MAP Toolkit will query SCCM for a list of computers and then MAP will connect to these computers.
• Scan an IP address range -- This method allows you to specify the starting address and ending address of an IP address range. The wizard will then scan all IP addresses in the range and inventory only those computers. Note: This option can perform poorly, if many IP addresses aren’t being used within the range.
• Manually enter computer names and credentials -- Use this method if you want to inventory a small number of specific computers.
• Import computer names from a files -- Using this method, you can create a text file with a list of computer names that will be inventoried.

 

6. Specify the credentials to connect to Windows machines, the Lync front-end Servers and Lync Monitoring databases. If the same credentials are used to connected to the Lync front-end server through PowerShell, select PowerShell also. Otherwise, specify different credentials for PowerShell. Click Next to continue after saving the credentials.

 

7. Specify the credential order. Click Next to continue.

NOTE: Generally, you will just keep the default.

 

 

7. Unselect “Validate SSL Certificate” if you don’t want MAP to verify SSL certificate. If you want MAP to verify the certificate, then you need to have the certificate installed on the machine running MAP. Click Next to continue.

 

NOTE: Even if MAP does not verify the certificate, MAP will still use SSL when connecting.

 

9. Verify your selections and then click Finish to start the inventory process.

 

Viewing the Lync Results

1. After the inventory has completed, select the Usage Tracking scenario and then you can view the Lync Server tile as shown below. This tile will give you a quick summary of the total number of devices and users that the MAP Toolkit discovered when connecting the Lync monitoring database.

 

2. Next, you can click on the Lync Server tile to see additional information and to generate the Lync Usage Tracking Report. Here is a screenshot of the detail view.

 

3. The Lync Usage Tracker report contains 5 worksheets showing the details of the usage that was captured from the Lync monitoring databases. The report puts the usage for users and devices into the Standard, Enterprise, and Plus usage buckets.

• Overview Worksheet: This worksheet provides a high level overview of Lync deployments and usage in your environment. The other worksheets contain details about servers, devices and users.
• Report Details: This worksheet provides information on the report definition.
• User Details: This worksheet provides information about users that might require Client Access Licenses based on authenticated usage of Lync servers. The usage is as recorded in the Lync Monitoring databases.
• Server Details: This worksheet provides details about Lync servers detected in your environment. It includes servers of all roles, as well as both full and evaluation installations. If you do not want Evaluation servers to be included in this report, you should exclude them at the time you run the inventory.
• Device Details: This worksheet provides data about devices that might require Client Access Licenses (CALs) for authenticated usage of Lync servers. Computers with Lync Client might require CALs even if "Insufficient data" is displayed in some columns. Common Area Phones require Standard and Plus device CALs regardless of actual usage.

 

Understand the Results

As I mentioned early, the MAP Toolkit connects to the Lync monitoring databases to determine usage by running several queries. Lync does not always provide enough information in the monitoring databases for the MAP Toolkit to determine the usage. This is indicated within the Lync Reports by Insufficient Data. So for example, if you look at the Device worksheet of the LyncUsageTracker report, you will see Insufficient Data for Computer Devices.

 

What do the values in the report mean:

Here is a summary of the possible licenses that are required based on the MAP Toolkit assessment. The values have these meanings:

• Yes: This license type is required
• No: This license type is NOT required
• Insufficient Data: Could not determine if this license type is required

 

Device/User	Standard	Enterprise	Plus	Comments
Common Area Phone	Yes	No	Yes	If a Common Area phone is deployed, it will always require Standard and Plus license.
Phone	Yes	No	Yes	If a Common Area phone is deployed, it will always require Standard and Plus license.
Computer	Yes or Insufficient Data	Insufficient Data	Insufficient Data	For computer devices, cannot determine if Enterprise or Plus license is required.   If the standard column says, “Insufficient Data”, this means the device has the Lync Client Software, but no usage data was found.
User	Yes or No	Yes or No	Yes or No	Can determine usage.

 

 

 

Download:

The MAP Toolkit can be downloaded at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd537566.aspx.

 

 

Submit Feedback:

At any time you can send an email to mapfdbk@microsof t.com with recommendations, questions, or any other feedback you have. Our entire development team monitors this email alias so we all see and consider every email that comes through. Additionally, you can submit feedback through the MAP In-App feedback, see https://blogs.technet.com/b/mapblog/archive/2012/05/29/providing-feedback-about-the-map-toolkit.aspx for more information.