Client Updates

Note: the updates will appear in Microsoft Update on April 26, 2011.

Server Updates

If you are unsure what updates you have installed on your servers, Jens Trier Rasmussen has made a script available that should help you identify which update you have installed:

• Script to see highest version of a component installed on a OCS/Lync server (Cumulative Update)

Microsoft Federated Edge Server IP Address Change March 18, 2011

If you are federated with Microsoft and have done so using the IP address of their Edge server, you will want to read this:  http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2011/03/08/microsoft-federated-edge-server-ip-address-change-march-11-2011.aspx.

Note: this will be supported in the upcoming release of OCS – Communications Server “14”.

The key requirement for a Communicator file transfer to work is that each client needs to be able to locate each other on the network.  If a firewall exists on the network path between the client end-points, the file transfer will not work. File transfer scenarios such as one internal Communicator client (inside a corporate firewall) and one external Communicator client (outside the firewall with no VPN) are not supported.

Attempting to transfer a file in MOC without each client able to locate each other directly produces the dreaded “You cannot receive the file…. This may due to firewall restrictions or network problems” as shown below.

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Summary:

• The live meeting conferencing functionality will be rolled into Communicator “14″.  There will be one client, Communicator, for all media modalities and the associated features.
• There will be a new Silverlight-based web client available for those users wanting to joing a web conference, but don’t have the rich Communicator client installed.  This is a new client and not a replacement for Communicator Web Access.
  • When a user clicks to join a meeting from a link, it detects whether the Communicator client is installed. If it is not, you can join via the Silverlight client.
  • Participation via the Silverlight client is anonymous (i.e there is no sign-in required).  This is a powerfull feature that will make it a whole lot easier for external (to your organization) attendees join a meeting.
• MCS 14 will federate with Windows Live “Wave 4″ and will support Audio and Video with Windows Live Messenger contacts.
• All MCS 14 features were designed ground-up to work on-premise, cloud, or hybrid:
  • both in terms of supporting a percentage of MCS users on-premise, in the cloud, and,
  • in terms of having some or all Exchange & SharePoint services in the cloud
• Supported virtualization for all server roles in MCS 14 (with the normal audio and video caveats;  i.e. you must closely follow the virtualization guidelines to support audio and video, and even then it could be more suceptible to jitter and latency)
• The MCS 14 will support a media bypass feature which will allow a consolidated MCS “14″ front-end server to go direct SIP to a supported IP-PBX’s without having to through a mediation server when the call is going to a locally dialed PSTN number.
  • the Media by-pass, coupled with the branch office survivability will remove the need for Mediation servers in most local or branch sites (in most cases)
• Multiple SIP Gateways can be connected to one Mediation server.
• Communicator “14″ will support the G.711 codec and will be able to talk to certified MCS “14″ media Gateways to go out local PSTN access points.
• The visual Presence circle is changing to a square in Communicator “14″!  :-)

Office Communicator “14″

• Many new features nicely summarized in this Microsoft Showcase video: What’s New in Microsoft Communicator “14″.

Management

• A new Silverlight web-based management console (Communication Server Control Panel) that is built on a new set of Communications Server PowerShell cmdlets.
  • Support for Role Based Access Control administration (similar to Exchange 2010)
  • Support for cut-and-paste in the UI (i.e. easily copy Normalization Rules)
  • Can easily see all the Policies (i.e. Voice, Conferencing, Client) for a particular user in one place
• A new Central Management Store (CMS)
  • a central database the holds XML documents that describe your deployment
  • all topology changes get written to the CMS, and a read-only copy is pushed to all servers in the topology
  • the topology is pushed out via a file transfer agent and via HTTPS for the the Edge role
• New tools to help with certificates!
• New support for ’server maintenance’ – a server can be put into maintenance mode for O/S and hardware maintenance
• New PowerShell cmdlet’s
  • Everything in the new UI can be done through PowerShell
  • Cmdlets to manage users, configuration, devices, policies
  • Support for synthetic transactions (test phone calls, sip registrations, simple conferencing)

Topology Changes

• More support for role collocation.  More roles, including the Mediation role and CWA, can be installed with the Front-End
• A new “Site” topology entity which can be used to represent a geographic boundary such as a center or branch location.  A site contains one or more pools
• Similar roles as OCS 2007 R2 (i.e. a backend role that defines a pool, Edge Mediation, AV Conferencing, Archiving, Monitoring, Director, Group Chat)
• The Director role now streamlined and includes a local SQL Express database – removing the need for a separate back-end SQL database.
• The concept of Standard and Enterprise edition still exists
• Support for DNS load balancing within a pool
• New Topology Builder UI which helps you build your topology document

Virtualization

• Support for the virtualization of almost all roles
• Client virtualization support is similar to Communicator 2007 R2 (i.e. IM and application sharing but audio/video is not supported)
• Cannot virtualize the new branch office workload

Monitoring

• New SCOM 2007 R2 management pack:
  • Support for synthetic transactions (monitor the user experience)
  • Media quality alerts
  • Call failure alerts
  • Actionable alerts
• Monitoring role can be collocated with the front-end role
• The ability to ‘heal’ the audio of a particular end-point if the Monitoring role detects degradation in quality.

Office Communications Online

• Second-half of 2010:
  • Peer-to-Peer Audio/Video and File Transfer across the firewall
  • Communicator Mobile
• First-half of 2011:
  • Federation and PIC
  • IM Archiving
  • Recording and Playback
  • Application Sharing
  • Unified Voicemail
  • ACP Integration

Additional Information

• More information on the end-user experience in MCS 14, see Microsoft’s  Communications Server “14″ web site.
• The new Microsoft Communications Server “14″ Powershell Page
• Jeff Schertz -  Communications Server ‘14’ Full Disclosure write-up
• Next Hop’s write-up on Call Admission Control in Communications Server “14″
• Mary-Jo Foley’s writeup: Microsoft shares more details on its next version of its PBX alternative, OCS 14
• UCStrategies Microsoft’s Communication Server 14 at TechEd write-up

Stay tuned – much more to come.

But how can users schedule Communicator conferences directly from the Communicator 2007 R2 client?

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 introduced a Meet Now option that let the users create a Communicator conference and invite participants (internal or federated contacts) both in real time via or through email. When the Invite by Email option is used, an Outlook e-mail message is created with a link to join the conference.

If a user wants to schedule a Communicator conference as part of a regular Outlook meeting request, they can create an Outlook meeting and cut-and-paste the “join the conference” link provided in the email invitation.  This is a great way to leverage the power of Outlook meetings with the simplicity of Communicator conferences.

A description of the “Meet Now” feature in Office Communicator 2007 R2 can be found here: Meet Now Conferencing.

An easier way to schedule a Communicator Conference call if you have the Microsoft Conferencing Add-In for Outlook installed is to use the “Schedule a Conference Call” button on the Conferencing toolbar which the add-in installs into Outlook.  I remember situations where this button was not available, so make sure your users are running Communicator 2007 R2 and the latest version of the Conferencing Add-In for Outlook is installed (available here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102368901033.aspx).

The following are two screen shots of where to find the “Meet Now” functionality and the associated invitation options in Office Communicator 2007 R2.

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Office Communicator 2007 R2

• The download and more details can be found here: Description of the Communicator 2007 R2 cumulative update: January 2010 (KB 976135).
• This update brings the Communicator 2007 R2 version number to 3.5.6907.83 (.83 from the last update which was .56).
• There are 3 new Communicator 2007 R2 Client issues fixed in this hotfix:
  1. Office Communicator 2007 R2 crashes when you receive an incoming instant message notification (KB 978161)
  2. A hyperlink is converted to plain text format when you input the hyperlink into an Office Communicator 2007 R2 conversation window (KB 978162)
  3. You cannot call a user by using the Actions button in Office Outlook 2007, but you can call the user through Office Communicator 2007 R2 (KB 978163)
• Note: this hotifx also fixes some issues with Outlook 2010 Beta integration with Communicator on a 64-bit platform (although it is not mentioned in the KB article).

Office Communications Server 2007 R2

• The download and more details can be found here: Updates for Communications Server 2007 R2 (KB 968802).
• There are 4 new updates and a cumulative server update installer available.
• Note the update for the database backend (Update for Standard/Enterprise edition Server Back End – KB 977349) will NOT be installed by the cumulative installer, and needs to be manually installed.
• Four new OCS 2007 R2 Server issues fixed in this hotfix:
  1. Update for the Administration Tools (KB 977344)
  2. Update for the Core Components (KB 977343)
  3. Update for Standard/Enterprise edition Server Back End (KB 977349)
  4. Update for Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit (KB 977351)

There are also updates reported on Aaron Tiensivu’s blog for the OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat server and the OCS 2007 R2 Tanjay Phone.

Happy updating .

In a nutshell, the 32-bit version of the Office 2010 Beta integrated well with both Office Communicator 2007 R2 and the Live Meeting Conferencing Add-In.

The 64-bit version of Office 2010 Beta has some issues with Communicator 2007 R2 and the Live Meeting integration as described below.

Remember – only a 32-bit version of Communicator 2007 R2 and the Live Meeting Add-In is available today (which of course can be installed on an x64-bit O/S via WOW64). I have seen references to Office Communicator 2010 in relation to Office 2010 – I imagine this will have a 64-bit version available.

As a side note, as reported on Dec 16, 2009, it is looking like Office 2010 will not support Window XP 64-bit nor 64-bit Windows 2003.

Communicator Integration

Communicator R2 was able to get free/busy and Out-of-Office information for my Contacts, but I received the infamous “Outlook integration error” and my Presence was not being updated in conjunction with my 64-bit Outlook 2010 calendar. Outlook 2010 would also not display Presence or provide other Communicator integration functionality.

Details of the Outlook integration error were as follows: “There was a problem connecting to Microsoft Office Outlook. Outlook is not installed correctly. Repair or reinstall Outlook, and then update the personal information manager setting on the Personal tab in the Options dialog box”.

I also could not save my Communicator conversation history into Outlook 2010, and despite my best registry tweak attempts, I could not make it work.

Live Meeting Outlook Conferencing Add-In Integration

With Outlook 2010 the Meeting functionality (i.e. “Schedule a Meeting”) is available without installing the Live Meeting Conferencing Add-In. For good measure I tried installing it anyway. As with Communicator R2, everything installed and worked fine with the x32-bit version Beta of Office 2010. Also, installing the Add-In extended some meeting functionality – it made available a “Conference Call” toolbar button that which allows you to “Change meeting to an Office 2007 Communicator Call” as shown below:

Trying to install the 32-bit version of the Live Meeting Conferencing Add-In with the 64-bit version of Office 2010 however produces the following error when you attempt to install it on a 64-bit o/s with the 64-bit version of Office 2010 Beta: “Please install Microsoft Office Outlook 2002 or higher and then try again. Note that Outlook 14 64 BIT IS NOT SUPPORTED”. Indeed in the Office 2010 Beta release notes it also says “Note that the 64-bit edition of Office is not compatible with 32-bit Office add-ins”.

Built-In Outlook 2010 Meeting Functionality

Here are some other notes about the meeting functionality in Outlook 2010 (and other Office 2010 applications):

1. The “Meeting” functionality is more visible and accessible:
   1. Easily accessible via the Contact Card when you click or hover-over a contact (see the screen shot below).
   2. In an Outlook email, there is a “Meeting” button available in the toolbar.
2. The Meeting details are auto-populated with the context from where the Meeting request was launched in Outlook (e.g. if a user launches the meeting request from an email recipient, the meeting subject is pre-filled with the email subject and the meeting participants are pre-filled with the email To: and Cc: fields).

Schedule a Meeting from a Contact Hover-Over in Outlook 2010