A quick tip to anyone integrating a Polycom Room Telepresence solution (e.g. the HDX series) with Microsoft OCS 2007 R2.

If you are having trouble signing into OCS 2007 R2 with the OCS conference room user on the Polycom unit, read-on, and consider upgrading the software on the Polycom.

Older Polycom software had a requirement that the OCS 2007 R2 user used with the Polycom unit (aka ‘Conference Room User’) COULD NOT be fully enabled for Enhanced Presence. By “fully enabled” I mean that the “Enabled enhanced presence” check-box was enabled on the OCS account AND the account has been logged into at least once with Office Communicator 2007, Communicator 2007 R2, or Communicator Web Access.

Once the OCS 2007 R2 conference room user was enabled for enhanced presence and had logged into OCS 2007 R2 at least once, the Polycom unit could not sign-in.

Enhanced Presence is supported on newer software releases for the HDX units (for awhile now). Recent Polycom support guides and software downloads can be found at the bottom of this page: http://support.polycom.com/PolycomService/support/us/support/strategic_partner_solutions/microsoft_software_download.html.

The latest version of the Microsoft UC Integration Guide that covers both Lync and OCS is available here: http://support.polycom.com/global/documents/support/setup_maintenance/products/video/Deploying_Visual_Comm_Admin_Guide_WV4.pdf.

Some older Polycom guides still show in Internet searches and are out-of-date, such as this one:  the Polycom® HDX and RMX™ Systems Integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Deployment Guide.

A Refresher on the Multiple States of Enhanced Presence: When a new user is created in OCS 2007 R2 the Enhanced Presence checkbox is enabled by default. The state that the OCS user is in before they sign into OCS at least once with Communicator 2007 or 2007 R2 is referred to as “Stage 2″ in this good blog article which describes the 3 different stages an OCS account can exist in regards to enhanced presence: http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/2008/03/06/differentiating-between-stages-of-enhanced-presence.aspx.

Tip: For the adventurous spirits out there, I attempted to ‘revert’ an OCS 2007 R2 Conference Room User from Stage 3 to Stage 2 by changing the associated “RichMode” value to False in the OCS database, and this did not work. I believe signing in the first time with Communicator 2007 or 2007 R2 must also change other settings which cannot be reverted.

Also, if you encounter this error “The registrar has rejected the system’s attempt at registration“, Jeff Schertz has a good blog write-up on why this could be happening and how to resolve it: http://blog.schertz.name/2011/01/hdx-sip-registration-with-server-2008-r2/.

For more on OCS 2007 R2 Enhanced Presence see the InsideOCS blog post: Enhanced Presence and Upgrading Communicator Clients.

> http://blog.insidelync.com/2011/04/the-lync-server-databases/

The initial pricing for Lync was publicly made available recently and can be viewed here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/pricing-licensing.aspx. The full licensing guide can be downloaded here: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9746239.

It follows the same Server/Client Access License (CAL) model as Microsoft OCS 2007 R2, which essentially has 3 types of licenses you may need to purchase for an on-premise deployment:

1. A Lync Server 2010 License:  this is required for each operating system running Lync Server.
2. Client Access License (CAL): a license for each device connecting to the Lync Server.  There are 2 types of CALs: Standard and Enterprise.  Each types licenses that device for certain features (see the tables in the article for the feature lists).
3. Client (Lync 2010) Software License

Most existing OCS 2007 R2 licenses purchased with Software Assurance can be transitioned to Lync licenses.  See the “License Transition from Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to Lync Server 2010” table in the Microsoft Lync Pricing and Licensing article for more details.

Here are the details on each of the three Lync  license types mentioned above:

1) Lync Server License

• The Lync Server licenses come in two offerings:  Standard and Enterprise.
• Can be purchased as standalone licenses or as part of the Microsoft Enterprise CAL (ECAL) Suite.
• The publicly announced estimated license costs for North American customers (in USD) are:
  • Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition: $699
  • Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Edition: $3,999
• Note: there is no longer require a license for the Edge Server. The only Server Role that requires a license is the Front End Server Role.

2) Client Access License (CAL)

• The license that allows devices, including the Lync clients, to connect to the server, comes in 3 offerings: Standard, Enterprise, and Plus.
• They can be purchased as standalone licenses or as part of the Microsoft Enterprise CAL (ECAL) Suite.
• See the feature matrix’s under “CAL Offerings” for which specific features you get with each type of license.
• The publicly announced estimated license costs for North American customers (in USD) are:
  • Lync Server 2010 Standard CAL: $31
  • Lync Server 2010 Enterprise CAL: $107
  • Lync Server 2010 Plus CAL: $107

3) Lync 2010 Client License

• The Lync client is licensed separately, but can be purchased via Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, Office 2007 Pro Plus, and Office 2007 Enterprise.
• The publicly announced estimated license costs for North American customers to purchase the standalone Office Communicator 2007 R2 client is $31.  I haven’t seen the estimated amount for the new Lync client.

As always, reseller prices may (and probably will), vary.

Notes on Licensing for Devices:

• Analog Devices and USB Peripherals Devices do not require a license to connect to the Lync Server.
• An IP Phone (or PC) can be covered under a User Licence or a Device Licence.  If you have multiple users using the device, it will be cheaper to just get a Device Licence – it covers all users who use the device.

The details and download  are available from the Microsoft KB article 968802 (”Updates for Communications Server 2007 R2″): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968802.

Included in this update is a fix for the Response Group Service (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2400367/).  This addresses the previous CU6 issue with the Response Group Service (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2400367/).

There are also updates to the Core Components, Admin Tools, UCMA 2.0 API, and the Web Components.

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.

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.