Archive for the 'Unified Comms & Collaboration/VoIP' Category

Direct SIP: Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.1

Update - My popular series of video on the subject “Direct SIP with OCS 2007 R2″ is now featured in an updated TechNet Next Hop article. If are looking to connect and interoperate OCS 2007 R2 and Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.1.x, Direct SIP (OCS 2007 R2) and SIP trunk (CUCM) is the way to setup the required connection. To learn how to do this from a Cisco perspective, check out “Direct SIP: Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.1” today!

See also “Direct SIP: Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.1“.

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS, OCS 2007 R2, VoIP, Cisco/CUCM

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Communications Server “14″ TechUpdate

Deutsch / GermanSwitzerland / Schweiz / SuisseAm Dienstag 14. Sep 2010 wird die kostenlose Veranstaltung um Communications Server “14″ bei Microsoft Schweiz, Wallisellen/Zurich (1630 - 1930 Uhr) stattfinden. Die Synopse lautet folgendermaßen:

Erhalten Sie einen Überblick, was der neue Communications Server ‘14′ alles kann! Egal ob neues User Interface, Integration in SharePoint Search oder erweiterte Presence Informationen. Sie erhalten zudem einen Informationen über technische und architektonische Änderungen gegenüber seinem Vorgänger, dabei klären wir Fragen der Koexistenz und Upgrade Möglichkeiten. Ein kleiner Exkurs in die Netzwerktechnik darf auch nicht fehlen, denn dabei klären wir die Grundvoraussetzungen für ein erfolgreiches Deployment von CS ‘14′.

Communications Server

Mehr Informationen und Anmeldung hier.

Technorati tags: Event, Training, LCS/OCS/CS14, Community/User Groups, Communications Server 14

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Macedonian Exchange User Group Event: Communications Server “14″ First Look (Wed 11 Aug 2010)

I am very pleased to be invited by the Macedonian Exchange User Group* to present a session at their upcoming user group meeting. This will take place on Wed 11 Aug 2010 at 1900 hrs (UTC+2) via Live Meeting. An abstract of the presentation cum demo is as follows:

Communications Server

The full feature set of Communications Server “14? was officially disclosed at the recent TechEd North America 2010 conference in New Orleans. Come hear about the exciting changes in areas of functionality, deployment, management, virtualization and PowerShell support, among others …

For more information, visit the Macedonian Exchange User Group today.

* by Vladimir Meloski, Exchange MVP

Technorati tags: PowerShellLCS/OCS/CS14, Community/User Groups, Communications Server 14

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Article: An Administrator’s First Look at PowerShell in Communications Server “14″

Windows PowerShell support officially debuts in Communications Server “14″. Through the CS Management Shell, you can perform all your CS infrastructure management tasks and carry out user administration at the command line or package them into scripts to automate common routines.

Communications Server

My latest Simple-Talk article entitled “An Administrator’s First Look at PowerShell in Communications Server 14” is designed to help you quickly get up to speed with this exciting technology. After a brief history of WMI and PowerShell, you will understand how to optimize search for help to learn (even) more about the various cmdlets and their applications. Subsequently, you will be looking at the new CS “14″ scopes, configuration settings and policies, and how to efficiently conduct administrative tasks by utilizing smart filtering techniques aim at your target objects, before ending with a look at some of the management essentials to better prepare yourself for deploying CS Management Shell in “14″. Have fun!

( this article was written based on the CS “14″ beta milestone bits )

Technorati tags: PowerShell, LCS/OCS/CS14, Communications Server 14

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OCS 2007 / R2 Update Digest (July 2010)

  • Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Hotfix (KB 968802)
  • Office Communicator 2007 R2 Hotfix (KB 2028888)*
  • Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Hotfix (KB 2032881)
  • Office Communicator Phone Edition (2007 R2, KB 2267962)
  • Office Communicator 2007 Hotfix (KB 2028885)
  • Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 (KB 969816)

* update #8 for MOC R2

Keywords: patch, hotfix, update, rollup package, moc, ocs, 2007, r2, cumulative update 6 (CU6)

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS, OCS 2007 R2, Mobile

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CS “14″ System Requirements (Server Roles)

Looking at the excitement around Communications Server “14″, one of the most common question that an IT Professional or administrator should always ask about is the system requirements. Whether in a test, proof-of-concept (POC), migration/co-existence or production environment, a successful roll-out and trouble-free operations require thorough considerations of all aspects of the CS “14″ specifications.

Communications Server

In this blog post, you will find a summary that you can adopt as a guide to the recommended requirements. Microsoft noted that the enterprise configuration is tested to be capable of supporting up to 10′000 user pool with ten Front-End and one SQL Back-End physical servers running all CS “14″ modalities. Naturally your mileage may vary depending on your unique environment.

Unless otherwise stated, the suggested configurations are applicable to all CS “14″ roles (Front/Back-End, Edge, Monitoring, Archiving, etc.). They are based on official information released during Tech.Ed NA 2010 (New Orleans) and are subject to change.

Hardware Requirements

  • Intel/AMD CPU 8-core x64 (dual quad-ore) 2.00GHz+
  • 12 GB+ (Front-End), 32 GB+ RAM Memory (Back-End)
  • 72GB+ size, 10K+ RPM hard disk storage (multiple spindles preferred)
  • 2 network adapters, 1 Gbps+ (with 1 NIC dedicated for CS “14″)

Software Requirements

Apart from those that are shipped in the Windows platform, CS “14″ will prompt you to install the necessary setup prerequisites for the selected server roles/services if they are missing (marked with *):

  • x64 editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008 SP2 (Standard, Enterprise, Data Center Editions)
  • Windows PowerShell v2.0 RTM
  • .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
  • selected IIS modules e.g. IIS logging*
  • IIS Rewrite Module 2.0 (redistributable)*
  • Visual C++ 2008 (redistributable)*
  • Message Queuing (MSMQ)*

Back-End Database

The Standard Edition of CS “14″ comes with SQL 2008 Express Edition and is automatically installed as an integral part of the server role. For the Enterprise Edition, the back-end requirements are listed here. As of this writing, no announcement has been made for the support of SQL Server 2008 R2.

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP1 or SQL Server 2005 SP3
  • x86 or x64 editions of SQL Server (64 bits recommended)
  • SQL 2005 Back Compatibility Mode*

Active Directory Environment

The Forest and Domain Functional Levels can be one of the following listed. Note that Read-only Domain Controllers (RODC) are supported and no specific Windows Server 2008 R2 features are used by CS “14″.

  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows Server 2008 R2

On top of the pre-requisites for software requirements, the “Active Directory Domain Controller Tools” feature and CS “14″ PowerShell Provider are required if the AD Schema Prep step were to be performed remotely on a member server.

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS/CS14, Communications Server 14

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Tutorial: OCS 2007 R2 Direct SIP - Videos Back Online!

“Direct SIP with OCS 2007 R2″ has been and continues to be one of the most popular tutorial series in a video screen-cast format that I have produced to-date. The video series is designed to walk you through the setup of Direct SIP in OCS 2007 R2 and Cisco Call Manager 5.x. Due to the decommission of the external Silverlight Live online service where they were originally hosted, the videos lost their home for a while; until now.

With overwhelming demands and by popular requests, I managed to retrieve backup copies and reinstated them back online. My only request to you is that if you have and will be using the videos in any form, _please_ let me know by dropping a comment to this blog post with your real name, company and email contact*. This will encourage me to produce titles that are relevant to the community and real-world practitioners like yourself.

Once again, my sincere thanks to all of you who pinged and provided important feedback and constructive comments. Keep them coming!!!

Tutorial: OCS 2007 R2 Direct SIP (1/6)
Tutorial: OCS 2007 R2 Direct SIP (2/6)
Tutorial: OCS 2007 R2 Direct SIP (3/6)
Tutorial: OCS 2007 R2 Direct SIP (4/6)
Tutorial: OCS 2007 R2 Direct SIP (5/6)
Tutorial: OCS 2007 R2 Direct SIP (6/6)

The videos were made with Camtasia Studio courtesy of the great folks at TechSmith.

* will not be publicized without your consent

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS, OCS 2007 R2, VoIP

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CS “14″ PowerShell: The Mystery of Get-CsUser and Get-CsAdUser

While preparing for my new article(s) on Communications Server “14″ PowerShell, I had to run some tests using the new CS Management Shell. Specifically, I was looking for AD users that have not yet been enabled in CS.

The CsEnabled property is present in both the Get-CsUser and Get-CsAdUser cmdlets so I started off with the latter:

PS C:\> Get-CsAdUser -Filter {CsEnabled -eq $False} | ft
SamAcco Sid SidHist Passwor UserAcc UserPri Primary Id AltSecu Assista
untName ory dLastSe ountCon ncipalN GroupId rityIde nt
t trol ame ntities
——- — ——- ——- ——- ——- ——- — ——- ——-
Admi… S-1-… {} …ount 513 CN=A… {}
Guest S-1-… {} …word 514 CN=G… {}
krbtgt S-1-… {} …ount 513 CN=k… {}

So far so good. When I switch over to use Get-CsUser, it returned no results:

PS C:\> Get-CsUser -Filter {CsEnabled -eq $False} | ft
WARNING: No result found.

Curious as to why this turns out to be the case, I changed the filter to $true:

PS C:\> Get-CsUser -Filter {CsEnabled -eq $true} | ft
SamAcco UserPri FirstNa LastNam Windows Sid LineSer Origina AudioVi IPPBXSo

untName ncipalN me e EmailAd verURI torSid deoDisa ftPhone ame dress bled Routing Enabled
——- ——- ——- ——- ——- — ——- ——- ——- ——-
fchan fcha… Freddy Chan S-1-… False False
wmue… wmue… Wendy Mueller S-1-… False False
wfou… wfou… wave four… S-1-… False False

As expected, CS-enabled users showed up in the query. The same set of results was returned with Get-CsAdUser.

Although both cmdlets are designed to work with user accounts, Get-CsADUser is the sole one that will return all aspects of an AD account information regardless of whether an account is Cs-enabled or not. In contrast, Get-CsUser deals explicitly with accounts that are *already* Cs-enabled.

The reason behind this is that attributes specific to CS are added to an account when it is Cs-enabled. The CsEnabled is one property that allows Get-CsUser to correctly determine the CS status (configured using Set-CsUser or Enable-CsUser). Through Disable-CsUser, the Cs-related attributes are permanently deleted while keeping everything else known about the AD account. This effectively means that the account is no longer enabled for CS. In order to maintain these CS specific information, you should use the Disconnect-CsUser.

Besides the CsEnabled property, the following is a list of overlapping attributes that are present in both Get-CsUser and Get-CsAdUser:

CsEnabled
DisplayName
Identity
SamAccountName
SipAddress
TenantId
UserPrincipalName

So the conclusion is - use the right cmdlet with care!

See “Properties Returned By Get-CsUser and Get-CsAdUser” for more information on this subject (where I had the pleasure to work with Greg from the CS PowerShell team to investigate this).

Technorati tags: PowerShell, LCS/OCS/CS14, Community/User Groups, Communications Server 14

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Update: Swiss IT Pro User Group Event: Tue 6 Jul 10

Due to an unforeseen event, Marc thepowershellguy.com will not be able to moderate the PowerShell Script Club session as part of the Swiss IT Pro User Group every 1st Tuesday monthly event.

Same time, same place (Tue 6 Jul 10 from 1815 hrs UTC+2) in its place, I shall be delivering a presentation on the following topic. The other session on Communications Server “14″ First Look will go on as planned.

PowerShell Script Club – Introduction to PowerShell Remoting

Windows remoting is a new feature in Windows PowerShell and widely deployed in many Microsoft enterprise applications from Exchange 2010 to the new Communications Server “14”. What is actually the fuss about? What do I need to start using this advanced feature? This presentation will walk you through with a basic introduction to this essential topic.

The entire team and community looks forward to seeing you in person!

Technorati tags: PowerShellLCS/OCS/CS14, Community/User Groups, Communications Server 14

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Swiss IT Pro User Group Event: Tue 6 Jul 10 - Communications Server “14″ First Look and PowerShell Script Club

The Swiss IT Pro User Group’s next every first Tuesday monthly evening event will take place as usual in Zurich on 6 July 2010. We shall have a first look at Communications Server “14″ and the PowerShell Script Club by our very own resident MVPs!

A brief abstract of the breakout sessions is outlined here:
PowerShell

Script Clubs are like a hands on lab with no set topic or teacher. You bring an idea for a script, and ask your fellow PowerShell users for help getting the script written …

Communications Server 14

The full feature set of Communications Server “14″ was officially disclosed at the recent TechEd North America 2010 conference in New Orleans. Come hear about the exciting changes in areas of functionality, deployment, management, virtualization and PowerShell support, among others …

Free registration and more information here. See you there!

Technorati tags: PowerShellLCS/OCS/CS14, Community/User Groups, Communications Server 14

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