Inside OCS

Here are 10 frequently used factoids when you are contemplating a Lync 2010 migration from OCS 2007 R2 (or if you are considering co-existence):

1. Lync 2010 Servers Can Coexist with OCS 2007 R2 Servers (in an OCS 2007 R2 Deployment)

• They can coexist in the same AD Forest and AD Domain, but not in the same OCS 2007 R2 Pool.
• Lync Server 2010 can coexist with OCS 2007 servers also, but it CANNOT coexist in an OCS deployment with BOTH OCS 2007 and OCS 2007 R2 servers at the same time.  If you have a mixed OCS R1 and R2 environment, you need to finish the OCS R2 upgrade first.

2. An Inside-Out Lync Deployment Approach is Generally Recommended

• For example, in an existing OCS 2007 R2 deployment, the internal Lync server pilot pool should be deployed first, followed by the Lync Edge Server and Director, etc…
• A Lync pool can use an OCS 2007 R2 Edge

3. Side-by-Side is the Only Supported “Upgrade” Path

• There is no ability to do an in-place upgrade of an existing OCS 2007 R2 server.
• Users can be moved from the OCS 2007 R2 server /pool to the Lync 2010 server/pool with the Lync management tools (the Lync Control Panel or Lync Management Shell) after the OCS topology has been merged with your Lync topology (see #9 below).

4. Using the Lync 2010 Client against an OCS 2007 R2 Server is Not Supported.

• Using a legacy Communicator 2007 R2 client against a Lync 2010 server IS supported.

5. The Lync 2010 Client Cannot Run side-by-side with Communicator 2007 R2.

• If you install the Lync client on a client with Communicator 2007 R2 installed, it silently removes Communicator 2007 R2.  It does keep registry settings such as those in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Communicator.

6. There is a 32-bit and 64-bit Version of the new Lync Client

• This is not entirely true. The “64-bit” version is actually just a 64-bit installer wrapping a 32-bit version.
• The 64-bit installer version integrates with the 32-bit version of Microsoft Office.

7. The Lync Edge and Lync Director should be Deployed in Parallel

• You should not mix Lync Server and OCS versions of the Edge and the Director role – they should be upgraded (or deployed in parallel) at the same time.
• A OCS 2007 R2 Edge is supported with a Lync Server 2010 pool.
• If your users are experiencing a “Presence Unknown” for federated and PIC contacts after you have recently configured your Lync pool to use the existing OCS 2007 R2 Edge, consider rebooting the OCS 2007 R2 Edge. See Quick Tip – External Contacts with Lync Coexistence for more information.
• A Lync Server 2010 Edge is NOT fully supported against an OCS 2007 R2 Pool.
• See Chapter 6 – Planning for External User Access.doc – of the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Planning Guide for more information.

8. The Lync Edge and Lync Mediation server should be Deployed in Parallel

• This is not well documented, but if you are using enterprise voice, you should not mix the Lync and OCS versions of the Edge and Mediation roles.

9. The Topology Builder or the Lync Management Shell can be used to Merge the OCS Topology into Lync

• From the Topology Builder, use the Merge Topology Wizard in the right-hand Tasks Pane.
• In the Lync Management Shell, use the Merge-CSLegacyTopology and the Import-CSLegacyConfiguration cmdlet’s.  See the Import-CsLegacyConferenceDirectory cmdlet if you have OCS 2007 R2 conferencing directories.

10. The Lync and OCS Administration Tools must be used with their Respective Server Version

• With the exception that you can view a read-only copy of your OCS deployment in the Lync Topology.
• See Lync and OCS Administration Tools (http://blog.insideocs.com/2010/12/10/lync-and-ocs-administration-tools/) for more information.

11. OCS Meetings are Migrated to Lync Server 2010 (Bonus Tip #1)

• See Migration Considerations for Meetings (Office Communications Server 2007 Migration) for more details.
• One caveat is that any meeting content that the organizer uploaded is not moved over. You can manually move the content over.
• A new Lync Server service called the Lync Server Web Conferencing Compatibility is used to listen on port 8058 for Persistent Shared Object Model (PSOM) connections from the Live Meeting client and previous versions of Communicator.

12. Backup Your OCS User Settings Before you Migrate the User Accounts to Lync (Bonus Tip #2)

• It is very helpful to have a record of your OCS users settings so you can verify equivalent feature sets once that accounts have been migrated to Lync.
• See Saving OCS User Settings Before a Lync Migration for more information.

Note: one of the original Top 10 used to be that Lync did not support SQL 2008 R2 for it’s databases.  As of April 2011, Lync is fully supported with SQL 2008 R2: http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2011/04/20/lync-server-2010-support-for-sql-2008-r2.aspx.

Lync 2010 Migration Resources

InsideOCS - Migrating your OCS Federated Partner Settings to Lync

Microsoft TechNet  (excellent short video on the basics) - Migrating from Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to Lync Server 2010

Microsoft TechNet - Migration from Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to Lync Server 2010

Microsoft TechNet - Migration from Office Communications Server 2007 to Lync Server 2010

Microsoft Video: Migrating from Office Communications Server 2007 to Lync Server 2010

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Planning Guides: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da9fa26-e032-4dcf-b487-da916ddc508f