Microsoft Lync Connectivity Analyzer

Posted on 8 February 2013 by johan

Microsoft has launched a new tool yesterday. This tool will help you to test both your internal and external network for the Lync Apps which are available via both the Windows Store and several other stores for mobile devices such as the MarketPlace.

There are a few parameters you will need to configure before you can start the test:

  • SIP URI
  • password
  • Username
  • If Lync Discover will need to be used
  • If the test is performed from internal or external
  • Voor welke soort App je de test wil uitvoeren

Once these parameters have been specified you can push the start button.

After several seconds the result will be available and you know if your Lync infrastructure can offer service to the Apps.

The tool is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit and can be downloaded via the link below:

Microsoft Lync Connectivity Analyzer  (64-bit)

Microsoft Lync Connectivity Analyzer  (32-bit)

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Customizing Lync meeting requests

Posted on 18 December 2012 by johan

In Lync 2010 it was not possible to customize the meeting requests which was send when creating a meeting request using Outlook. If you want to make some adjustments to it you could do it either via the Transport rules of Exchange or using a 3rd party tool.

With Lync 2013 this has changed, you will now have to ability to customize the meeting requests. This is limited to a few parts:

  • Add the company logo
  • Change the help or support links
  • Add a disclaimer
  • Add a footer

Customizing the meeting can be done by reconfiguring the meeting configuration using  Set-CsMeetingConfiguration or you can create a site specific meeting configuration. Below you will find an example of both methods:

Modify Global meeting configuration:

Set-CsMeetingConfiguration   -LogoURL “http://www.communicativ.nl/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/communicativ_header.png” -HelpURL “http://www.communicativ.nl/support” -LegalURL “http://www.communicativ.nl/disclaimer” -CustomFooterText “All communications during this meeting will be recorded and archived”

Create a Site specific meeting configuration:

New-CsMeetingConfiguration -Identity site:Zeewolde -EnableInviteCustomization $True -LogoURL “http://www.communicativ.nl/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/communicativ_header.png” -HelpURL “http://www.communicativ.nl/support” -LegalURL “http://www.communicativ.nl/disclaimer” -CustomFooterText “All communications during this meeting will be recorded and archived”

If you prefer to make changes by using the GUI you will need to complete the following steps:

  • open the Lync Management Console
  • Select Conferencing
  • Click on Edit or New
  • Configure the parameters
  • Click on Commit

After the configuration has been changed it’s time to test how it really looks like. To do this you will need Outlook

 

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Response Group agents not removed from dbo.Agents table

Posted on 25 November 2012 by johan

Warning: the procedure described in this blog are used as a workaround for an issue. Incorrect changes in the database may cause mailfunctioning of the Response Groups.

In Lync 2010 it’s possible to add users to a group which can be used by the Response Groups. In some scenarios it might be necessary to remove and directly add an agent. This can be the case if a SIP address of a user needs to be changed.

Removing the agent is normally not an issue but adding it directly is. In almost every case the following error will be displayed:

Windows Powershell returned the following errors: Cannot insert duplicate key row in object dbo.Agents with unique index IX_Agents_UserSid.
The statement has been terminated.

This error will tell you that it can’t add the agent because there is an existing entry in the agent table which is used by the Response Groups.

Normally you will have to wait a few minutes before you can add the user again. But this week I experienced that after 3 hours the agent still can’t be added to the group. In the event log nothing strange was being logged. On TechNet you will not find many information how the Response Groups really perform this action. But in some cases it looks like the Response Group will be resetted after making a change and it only resets the Response Group if it is idle.

Because I couldn’t add the user after 3 hours it became quiet irritating. As you may know Lync is using SQL databases. The agents of a Response Group are added to the rgsconfig database. This database can be found on the SQl server which also hosts the CMS.

Within this database you will find a table called dbo.Agents. When you will open this table you will see an overview of the agents which are member of the groups.

Perform the following steps to remove an agent from this table:

  • Right click on the dbo.Agents table and select the option Edit Top 200 rows
  • Search for the user and remove the specific record

By removing the record it will be possible to add the agent to the group again.

The issue is described in this KB article of Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2393943

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Cannot find certificate on local machine with the matching issuer name

Posted on 10 September 2012 by johan

During a check at a customer site we had the following error:

The problem was discovered when installing the SCOM Lync agent which was installed on the watcher node which is required for Synthetic Transactions.

All test command failed with the same error: Can not find certificate on local machine with the matching issuer name. Despite the typos this pointed to a certificate issue. On the Lync Front End Server all cmdlets could be executed without a failure so we decided to have a look at the watcher node. Via the certificate MMC we had a look at the certificates which where installed on the server. It contained a certificate with a correct name but the certificate was expired.

By replacing the certificate and performing the checks again the issue was solved.

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Lync Server 2013 – Setup – What has changed?

Posted on 14 August 2012 by johan
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Process was not able to update its health status

Posted on 7 August 2012 by johan

During the implementation of Lync I got a strange issue. The problem occured on the Front End Server and more specific in the conference part of Lync

The following message was displayed in the event log of the Lync Front End Server:

This process was not able to update its health status
The Web Conferencing Server failed to send health notifications to the MCU factory at https://fe01.corp.local:444/liveserver/mcufactory/.
Failure occurrences: 28, since 7-8-2012 13:33:21.
Cause: Either the Front End service is not running, or poor network connectivity.
Resolution:
Verify that the Front End Service is available, and its machine is visible over the network.

As you can see it has some issues with performing the health check. Using this checks Lync does determine the status of the specific service. In this case the MCU factory which cannot be reached.

The strange thing was that IM-to-IM gave no issues and also managing the server worked without an issue.  After some searching on the Technet forums I found the following solution:

  • Open Regedit
  • Browse to the following location: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL
  • Create a new Dword Sendtrustedissuerlist
  • Set the value to 0

The problem is caused by the amount of root certificates in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities folder. When a large amount of certificates is stored here Windows will not see it when doing a query of the certificates which are located in the folder. By creating the value the limit will be removed so Windows will see the certificate.

In this case there were added some root certificates since they were missing. This resulted in passing the limit which resulted in not getting back the certificate when the service performed a query.

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Wildcard certificates and Lync Phone devices

Posted on 18 June 2012 by johan

One of the fixes which is included in CU6 for Phone devices is the support for wildcard certificates. Caution this is only for the support for Exchange and not for Lync. For Lync the following rules still apply.

When a Lync devices is use it will setup a connection to an Exchange 2010 CAS Server that uses a wildcard certificate you will have some issues prior CU6. Microsoft has acknowledged that this is an issue and has fixed it in CU6 so from know one wildcard certificates on CAS Servers is no problem from that point of view.

But for which functionalities does Lync use EWS? EWS is used for several features among them these:

Voicemail
The Lync Phone device will use EWS to check if voice mails are available. By default a phone will contact Exchange every 3 minutes to see if a voicemail is available. This parameter can be changed and will be configured using in-band provisioning.

Contact search
Since Exchange 2010 SP1 EWS will be used for searching contacts. Before Exchange 2010 SP1 the phones where using MAPI as the primary way to search for contacts. If MAPI was not available EWS was used.

Free/busy
Just like Outlook 2007 and newer the Lync Phone devices will use EWS to retrieve the availability information. If EWS is not available then MAPI will be used. By default the Exchange Server is polled every 30 minutes to see if there is an update.

Working hours
When looking at the Lync contact card or in Outlook you will see what the working hours are for a user. This functionality does only use EWS, is EWS not available then this functionality doesn’t work. Because the working hours are a part of the free/busy it will be updated every 30 minutes.

Out Of Office (OOF) Message
Primarily EWS is used to retrieve the OOF. If EWS is not available the Lync Phone will fall-back to MAPI to retrieve the OOF. Every 30 minutes a check is performed to see if the OOF has changed.

These where most functionalities which are using EWS to gather the info.

Microsoft has published a document which describes how Lync uses the Exchange functionalities. The document can be found here.

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Lync CU 6 released

Posted on 18 June 2012 by johan

Microsoft has released CU6 for Lync this weekend. These updates contain several updates for the issues in both Lync Server 2010 and the Lync clients.

More information about the fixes can be found on the following KB pages:

  • 2703311 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2703311/ ) The Activity Feeds tab or the Phone tab is displayed unexpectedly in Lync 2010
  • 2703315 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2703315/ ) Garbled text appears in the Notes section of a Contact window in Outlook after the Korean MUI Package for Lync 2010 is installed
  • 2703317 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2703317 / ) Federated partners do not receive archiving disclaimers in Lync 2010
  • 2703312 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2703312/ ) A user cannot join a Lync Online meeting that is created in another organization by using Lync 2010
  • 2703318 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2703318/ ) Your Lync 2010 client joins an online meeting in an unmuted state after you schedule the online meeting
  • 2703320 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2703320 / ) You cannot paste text enclosed in <fieldset> HTML tags from a web browser to a Lync 2010 conversation window
  • 2703319 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2703319 / ) Enter key does not work as expected when you enable the IME and then type inside the search box in Lync 2010
  • 2703321 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2703321 / ) “This Web page is unavailable” error message when you press F1 to view the Lync 2010 Help page in Lync 2010
  • 2709670 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2709670 / ) “Please wait for the System Event Notification Service” error message when users try to log on or log off a terminal server that is running Lync 2010
  • 2684798 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2684798 / ) The CorePlaybackEngine.resources.dll file is not localized correctly in a Lync 2010 client
  • 2688945 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2688945 / ) Dial-in conferencing information is not displayed when a user uses Lync 2010 to join a meeting
  • 2703309 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2703309 / ) The screensaver does not start when you perform media connectivity actions in Lync 2010
  • 2689469 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2689469 / ) IM history is not stored in the default Exchange mailbox when you use Lync 2010
  • 2707956 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2707956 / ) MS12-039: Vulnerabilities in Lync could allow remote code execution: June 12, 2012

The updates can be found on the sites below:

  • Lync 2010 Server – download
  • Lync 2010 (Communicator) – download (x86 client / x64 client)
  • Lync 2010 Attendant Console (32bit/64bit combined patch) – update will be distributed via Windows Update
  • Lync 2010 Attendee Client – update will be distributed via Windows Update
  • Lync 2010 Group Chat Client – download
  • Lync 2010 Group Chat Administration Tool– download
  • Lync 2010 Phone Edition (Aries for Polycom CX500, CX600 & CX3000) – download
  • Lync 2010 Phone Edition (Aries for Aastra 6721ip and Aastra 6725ip) – download
  • Lync 2010 Phone Edition (Aries for HP 4110 and HP 4120) – download
  • Lync 2010 Phone Edition (Tanjay for Polycom CX700 & LG Nortel 8540) – download
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Microsoft Releases updates for OCS 2007 R2

Posted on 16 April 2012 by Jelle

Microsoft released another set of updates at the 13rd of April 2012. The release updates some vital components of OCS 2007 R2 Server. The components that are updated with this release are shown below:

Update for Standard/Enterprise edition Server
2695383   Description of the update for Office Communications Server 2007 R2: April 2012
Update for Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit
2647091   Description of the cumulative update for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit: January, 2012
Update for Web Conferencing Server

2686823   Description of the update for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit: April 2012

The full Knowlegde Article can be found here: KB968802

 

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Microsoft releases update for Lync client

Posted on 28 March 2012 by johan

 Microsoft released another update at the end of February for Lync 2010. With this update Microsoft reintroduces Remote Call Control (RCC). This was announced earlier by Microsoft but till now it was not available. Using the RCC functionality users will have the ability to participate in a video call or conference. For the audio part of the call the Lync client will be used.

Besides the RCC functionality the following fixes can be found in the update:

  • 2672922 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2672922/ ) The typing status message is not displayed when you use an IME to type double-byte characters in Lync 2010
  • 2672924 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2672924/ ) Text that is typed by using the right-to-left reading order is displayed by using the left-to-right reading order in the sent message pane in Lync 2010
  • 2672944 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2672944 / ) A contact is displayed with an incorrect picture and incorrect presence information in Lync 2010
  • 2666324 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2666324 / ) The Windows logoff process is delayed when Lync 2010 is started
  • 2666702 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2666702 / ) The time stamp that is displayed in the IM conversation windows is truncated in Lync 2010
  • 2666704 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2666704 / ) You cannot use client policy to exclude a folder from contact search in Lync 2010
  • 2672933 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2672933 / ) A global client policy in which the “EnableExchangeContactSync” parameter is set to False does not work in Lync Server 2010
  • 2666340 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2666340 / ) A RTF header is displayed instead of the conversation history in the Conversation tab of Lync 2010
  • 2661952 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2661952 / ) A user whose display name is in Korean cannot be found in Lync 2010
  • 2666709 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2666709 / ) An update is available for RCC enabled users to make video calls or conference calls in Lync 2010
  • 2644148 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2644148 / ) A server rejects the INFO request from a client by using a “401 Unauthorized” response in a Lync Server 2010 environment
  • 2666343 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2666343/ ) The department field in the contact card of a user is empty when the card is retrieved by a UCMA 3.0-based application
  • 2666338 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2666338/ ) A customized Lync 2010 Help URL does not work in Lync 2010
  • 2672945 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2672945 / ) Double-byte text is transparent in desktop alerts on a computer that is running Windows XP and that has Lync 2010 installed
  • 2665270 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2665270 / ) The “Lync New Online Meeting” button in Outlook does not work in a Lync Server 2010 environment
  • 2670467 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2670467/ ) Large increases in load on the OrgID service because of recurring authentication requests from Lync 2010
  • 2637105 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2637105 / ) “Please verify your logon credentials and try again” error message when a user signs in to Lync Server 2010
  • 2672943 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2672943/ ) A user cannot add a custom location to their contact information by using an application that is developed by using Lync Server 2010 SDK
  • 2664812 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2664812/ ) You receive a System.UnauthorizedAccessException exception when you disconnect a call in a Lync 2010 SDK-based application
  • 2681509 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2681509/ ) Users have to manually input the user name every time that they sign in to the Lync 2010 client

The update can be downloaded via the site below.

download

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