Here is a quick getting-started reference for debugging direct SIP traffic between OCS and an IP-PBX.
OCSLogger.exe Overview
The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Logging Tool (OCSLogger.exe) is installed by default on most OCS server roles. It can be used to capture logging and tracing information while the server is running. You can analyze protocol logs for the following components:
- Office Communications Server SipStack (SIP)
- Office Communications Server S4 (SIP)
- Office Communications Server Conferencing signaling traffic (C3P), including MCU Infra C3P and Focus C3P
- Office Communications Server Web conferencing traffic (PSOM)
- Office Communications Server Unified Communications Client Platform client (UCCP)
- Error reports from the archiving database
To Start a Debugging Session
1 .Run the OCS logging tool: OCSLogger.exe. It is located in “%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\Tracing”
2. Set a folder for the OCSLogger.exe log files (e.g. C:\Windows\Temp)
3. Select your logging level: If you are trying to debug a problem, start with just “Errors”. If you are investigating something, start with “All”
To View the Incoming SIP traffic from the IP-PBX to the OCS Mediation Server & the Protocol Traffic from the OCS Mediation Server to the OCS Front-End
4. Select the following Components in the Logging Options:
- Mediation Server (this will give all the Mediation server protocol in/out processing)
- S4 (this will log the SIP protocol requests – including the SIP traffic to/from the IP/PBX)
5. Select “Start Logging” and place a sample call. Select “Stop Logging” after the sample call is finished.
6. After you have ended the debug session, click Analyze Log Files to view the log files. Note, the Snooper tool is launched to view the log files.
7. Notes:
- The underlying log files are in .ETL format.
- The times displayed in OCSLogger are in GMT!
View the Protocol Communication and Internal Tracing of the Microsoft Office Communicator End-point
When debugging direct SIP sessions, it is also useful to see the full end-to-end information. In some circumstances the call will make it through to the Communicator end-point, and Communicator will reject the call. Do view the internal tracing of the Communicator end-point:
1. Turn on tracing in Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2: Tools | Options | General | Turn on logging in Communicator.
2. Navigate to the Communicator 2007 R2 trace file directory (i.e. C:\Users\<user-id>\Tracing)
3. Open the most recent Communicator trace file named Communicator-uccapi-<integer>.uccapilog with the Snopper.exe tool. Snooper.exe is a tool included in the OCS 2007 R2 Resource Kit that can be used to help you analyze SIP and C3P protocol logs.
4. Note: the Resource Kit installed into “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\ResKit”.
More Information
- TechNet: Using Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Logging Tool
- Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit Tools
I recently co-authored a Microsoft Next Hop article that gives an introduction to configuring Direct SIP between Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 and Cisco Call Manager 7.1 – see Direct SIP: Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.1. This post gives addition information about further integrating the systems from an end user perspective.
In addition to the information in the Next Hop Direct SIP article, it is worth clarifying that a new range of phone numbers assigned to Communicator endpoints must be defined in CUCM. This new range needs to be separate from any existing number range used for Cisco desk phone endpoints. For end users who have both a Cisco desk phone and a Communicator client, this means that the same number cannot be used for inbound and outbound dialing. This restriction exists because call routing for Communicator clients in CUCM is achieved by creating a new SIP trunk used solely for Communicator endpoints, and multiple device endpoints cannot share the same number when the call routing is defined on different SIP trunks.
One option to use an existing Cisco desk phone number for Communicator inbound and outbound calling is by implementing the CUCM Simultaneous Ring feature. CUCM will ring the Communicator endpoint for incoming Cisco desk phone calls, and outbound Communicator calls will show the caller-id of the users Cisco desk phone. Simultaneous ring is configured on a per user basis in a user’s Cisco Remote Destination Profile. See the Cisco document “Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition using Direct SIP to Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.0(1) Simultaneous Ring Feature“. Additional references are included at the end of this article.
The CUCM Simultaneous Ring feature is configured per user on the Cisco IP-PBX, and is accomplished by setting a secondary extension to ring for that user when an incoming call is placed for their Cisco desk phone extension. The next section details the steps to configure it for a user.
Steps to Configure for a User for Simultaneous Ring
#1] Have the user log into the Cisco Unified CM Administration tool. By default this is installed at https://<ccmhost>/ccmadmin/showHome.do. CUCM can be configured to use the users AD credentials, or separate credentials for users. Here is a screen shot of the login screen:
#2] Select the ‘Remote Destinations’ menu option from the User Options | Mobility Settings menu on the left-hand side of the top menu bar.
#3] Select ‘Add New’ from the top menu. Note: if a user already has an existing Remote Destination Profile that they want to Edit, select the Find button in this menu to list the existing Remote Destination Profiles. The Find button is highlighted in red in the screenshot below for this step.
#4] Specify a name for this Remote Destination Profile, and more importantly, the extension to ring. This will be the extension that will ring thru to OCS and ultimately the recipient Microsoft Office Communicator.
Additional Information
If you have just renewed the certificate on your OCS Front-End and are having Communicator sign-in issues with some clients, you might want to check that they have a updated list of trusted Root CA’s on their client machine.
Some Certificate Authorities change certificate details such as the name in the “Issue By” field when a certificate is renewed, which will cause Communicator to give the infamous: “There was a problem verifying the certificate from the server. Please contact your system administrator” error. Other changes can cause certificate cross-signing issues.
If you suspect that this is the case, check the details of your old certificate and new certificate and contact your Certificate Authority if there was a change.
Some CA’s such as digicert have test websites that clients can point their browser to and check whether this CA is trusted by their client machine. See digicert Trusted Root Authority Certificates for an example.
Microsoft has a package that client machines can download to update the trusted CA list: Windows root certificate program members has a link to an update package that clients can download to update the trusted root CA list.
More Information:
• OCS Mac Messenger Certificate Trust Errors with Digicert (Brian Desmond Blog entry)
• digicert Trusted Root Authority Certificates
• digicert – Intermediate Certificate Troubleshooting
If you have recently renewed the certificate on your OCS Front-End and are having Communicator sign-in issues with some clients, you might want to check that those client machines have an updated list of trusted Root CA’s on their client machine.
Some Certificate Authorities change certificate details such as the name in the “Issue By” field when a certificate is renewed, which will cause Communicator to give the infamous: “There was a problem verifying the certificate from the server. Please contact your system administrator” error. Other changes can cause certificate cross-signing issues.
If you suspect that this is the case, check the details of your old certificate and new certificate and contact your Certificate Authority if there was a change.
Some CA’s such as digicert have test websites that clients can point their browser to and check whether this CA is trusted by their client machine. See digicert Trusted Root Authority Certificates for an example.
Microsoft has a package that client machines can download to update the trusted CA list: Windows root certificate program members has a link to an update package that clients can download to update the trusted root CA list.
More Information
The July, 2010 updates to the Office Live Meeting client and the Outlook Conferencing Add-In are available. This is in addition to the previously released July 2010 Updates to Communicator and OCS Server (Cumulative Update 6).
Office Live Meeting Window Client
Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook
A quick update on the reported issues with installing OCS 2007 R2 on machines that have .NET 4.0.
In a nutshell, if you try to install any of the OCS 2007 R2 roles or Group Chat Server, on a server that has the .NET 4.0 Framework installed along side the .NET Framework 2.0 or .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1), you’ll get an error.
A Knowledge Base article was released this morning that provides more details and gives a workaround: You cannot install Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist or Office Communications Server 2007, Unified Communications Managed API v1.0 Redist.
A frequent nuisance on Communicator Conference and VoIP calls, is significant background noise from one or more participants.
Forget all the great technology around Acoustic Echo Cancellation, Automatic Gain Control, Noise Suppression, Forward Error Connection, RTPC metrics, and Mean Opinion Scores – many times Communicator just does not make a good default choice for which device to use for the microphone.
If a user has both a video camera and an microphone (e.g. on a headset), Communicator will frequently choose to use the microphone on the connected video camera device (as the default) instead of a more appropriate audio device – such as one on the users headset. The tell-tale signs of this is very noticeable background talking near one of the participants (e.g. office co-workers in the background), and the amplification of any noise associated with desk activity (such as keyboard typing).
If you suspect this is the case, have the participant open the Audio and Video tuning wizard in Communicator (Tools | Set Up Audio and Video…), and ensure that the best device for a microphone is selected. If the device used for a microphone is different from the one Communicator selected as a default, you need to choose “Custom” in the drop-down box as show below.
A frequent nuisance on Communicator Conference and VoIP calls is significant background noise from one or more participants.
Forget all the great technology around Acoustic Echo Cancellation, Automatic Gain Control, Noise Suppression, Forward Error Connection, RTPC metrics, and Mean Opinion Scores – many times Communicator just does not make a good default choice for which device to use for the microphone.
If a user has both a video camera and another device for their microphone, Communicator will frequently choose to use the microphone on the connected video camera device (as the default) instead of a more appropriate audio device – such as one on the users headset. The tell-tale signs of this are very noticeable background talking near one of the participants (e.g. office co-workers in the background), and the amplification of any noise associated with desk activity (such as keyboard typing).
If you suspect this is the case, have the participant open the Audio and Video tuning wizard in Communicator (Tools | Set Up Audio and Video…), and ensure that the best device for a microphone is selected. If the device used for a microphone is different from the one Communicator selected as a default, you need to choose “Custom” in the drop-down box as show below.
Now, if it was only easier to identify the offending participant  .
There has been a new round of updates for Communicator 2007 R2, OCS 2007 R2, and OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat – known as Cumulative Update 6 (CU6).
** July 30, 2010 Update **: It appears that the reported CU6 problems have been attributable to either the back end database update not being installed first, or the OCS 2007 R2 .NET Framework 4.0 issue. Having said that, there was at least one report (on this blog) of the “mismatch error” even after the database install was applied first.
** July 26, 2010 Update **: There have been several reports of problems (failure of the Front End Service to start) after applying the CU6 updates on the server. Consider holding off applying this update until more information is known. It is important to install the CU 6 update to the back end database role first (see Description of the cumulative update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 database: July, 2010). So far, the problems appear to be related to this, but more information to come.
Client Updates
Communicator 2007 R2:
Communicator 2007 R2 Phone Edition:
Communicator 2007 R2 Mobile:
OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat Client:
Server Updates
OCS 2007 R2 Server:
OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat Server:
OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat Admin Tool:
There has been a new round of updates for Communicator 2007 R2, OCS 2007 R2, and OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat – known as Cumulative Update 6 (CU6).
Client Updates
Communicator 2007 R2:
• The July, 2010 update for Communicator 2007 R2 can be found here: Description of the cumulative update package for Communicator 2007 R2: July 2010. This update brings the Communicator version up to 3.5.6907.206 from the last update in April 2010 (3.5.6907.196).
• Note: the links to the knowledge base article for the individual fixes do not work right now, or not ready yet, on the Microsoft support site.
• The update can be downloaded here.
Communicator 2007 R2 Phone Edition:
• The July, 2010 update for Communicator 2007 R2 can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2267962/.
• The update can be downloaded here.
OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat Client:
• The July 2010 update can be found here: Description of the update for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Client: July 2010.
• The update can be downloaded here.
Server Updates
OCS 2007 R2 Server:
• The Cumulative 6 updates can be found here: Updates for Communications Server 2007 R2.
• The updates can be downloaded here.
• It looks like the update includes new hotfixes for the following server roles: Audio/Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing Server, Core Components, Communicator Web Access, Conferencing Attendant, Standard/Enterprise edition Server Back End, and the UCMA Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit.
• Note: the links to the knowledge base article for the individual fixes do not work right now, or not ready yet, on the Microsoft support site.
OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat Server:
• The Cumulative 6 updates for the Group Chat Server can be found here: Update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Server: July 2010.
• The Group Chat Server update can be downloaded here.
OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat Admin Tool:
• The update can be found here: Description of the update for the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Administration Tool: July 2010.
• The update can be downloaded here.
There is a new (July 2010) update for Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2. KB article 969816 describes the issues that it fixes (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969816). The issues that this update addresses are below.
You can download the update here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=93062936-f216-4d97-aa13-105a20454322.
Note: Microsoft recommends that you uninstall all prior versions of Communicator Mobile before installing the new version.
Issues that this hotfix package fixes
Provides home screen support for new home screens in Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.
Provides integration within the phone dialer for Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.
Enables Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 to recognize when the phone is roaming and by default prevents Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 from signing in to roaming networks.
Provides additional support for joining conference calls from a Windows Mobile appointment. To do this, press Menu, and then press Join Conference.
Lets users log on by using a user name in the user@example.com format, in addition to the domain\user format.
Enables the functionality by which callbacks are now automatically accepted when the user uses the Call via Work option.
Resolves the problem in which the Microsoft Installer (.msi) installation fails on a Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)-based computer. In this situation, users should install Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 by using a (.cab) installation.
Fixes the problem in which AT&T FUZE devices that are set for a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) connection cannot handle voice and data at the same time. In this situation, calls that use the Call via Work option fail unless the device is reverted to 3rd Generation (3G) by disabling HSDPA
There is a new (July 2010) update for Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2. Knowledge base article 969816 describes the issues that it fixes and how to install it. Note: this KB article looks to be old (July 2009).
You can download the update here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=93062936-f216-4d97-aa13-105a20454322.
Note: Microsoft recommends that you uninstall all prior versions of Communicator Mobile before installing the new version. This will bring update your CoMo version to 6906.29.
The Call Detail Record (CDR) and Quality of Experience (QoE) data available through the OCS 2007 R2 Monitoring Server role enables very good usage and quality of experience reporting. This blog post covers how to estimate the size of the database, and how to manage the database data rentention and purge time.
1) QoE and CDR Database Sizing
Based on a sample Microsoft OCS feature usage model (the same one used for the OCS 2007 R2 Capacity Planning), the CDR database grows 8.8 KB per day, and the QoE database grows 16.8 KB per day. Once we know this, we can estimate the database size using this formula:
> Database size (KB) = (DB growth per user per day) * (Number of users) * (Number of days)
For example, the CDR and QoE database in a 3500 OCS user organization would consume a total of 5.3 GB in 60 days ((8.8+16.8) * 3500 * 60).
2) Setting the Data Retention
The default data retention for both CDR and QoE data is 60 days. Every night the purge process will delete any records which are older than this value. The retention setting can be viewed and set in the OCS Administrator Console by doing a right-click | Properties on particular monitoring server in the left-hand tree. The property page looks like the following:
Set the Maximum Days Logged to the number of days that you wish to retain the respective data sets.
Note:
- To purge everything, use a value of zero.
- Leave the checkbox unchecked to turn-off purging all together.
- You can also manage these settings through WMI.
3) Setting the Purge Time
Specifying the time of day that the SQL database purges the data cannot be set through the OCS Administrative Console. You need to use WMI to make this setting. The WMI classes to set the QoE and CDR purge times are shown below:
- QoE: use the MSFT_SIPQoESetting class and set the PurgeJobStartTime property. The value is an integer representing the number of hours after midnight to start the purging (i.e the hour based on a 24 hour clock). For example, a value of “1” will start the purging at 1am.
- CDR: use the MSFT_SIPCDRServiceSetting class and set the PurgeTime property. This also is an integer value representing the number of hours after midnight to start the purging of outdated records.
These classes are only installed and available on the Monitoring Server. However, you can use the “-computername” parameter in WMI provider to remotely view and set value.
For example, the following two lines of Powershell, can be used to remotely set the Purge Time for the CDR database to be 4am:
> $CDRObject = Get-WmiObject -class MSFT_SIPCDRServiceSetting -computername <monitoring_server_hostname> | Select-Object
> $CDRObject.PurgeTime = 4
> $CDRObject.Put()
Note: if you are using multiple monitoring servers connected to one monitoring database, it is important to not start the purging on each server simultaneously. See the TechNet article Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Configuring Retention of QoE and CDR Data for more information
Addition Information
InsideOCS founder and main contributor Curtis Johnstone is pleased to announce that I have been presented with an 2010 Microsoft® MVP Award for my community contributions around Microsoft OCS!
Thanks to all the InsideOCS followers who have provided plenty of real world challenges and feedback through the resources I have made available. A special shout-out to the 1st-class IT expertise of Thomas, Steve, and Wayne at Quest Software for sharing their wealth of experiences and information.
I am looking forward to more OCS, especially the Communication Server “14″ release, and collaborating with other OCS MVP’s in 2010.
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Legal The posts and information on this blog are provided "as is" with no warranties and confer no rights. The opinions expressed on this site are mine and mine alone, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer or anyone else for that matter. All trademarks acknowledged. Copyright 2009 Curtis Johnstone.
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