Monday, February 20, 2012

Configuring Accounts for Synthetic Transactions in Lync Server

Lync Server has numerous “Test-“ cmdlets that will allow for Lync administrators to validate certain functions.  Below are just some of the “Test-“ cmdlets that are available (a full list can be viewed here):

  • Test-CsAddressBookService
  • Test-CsAddressBookWebQuery
  • Test-CsAVConference
  • Test-CsDialinConferencing
  • Test-CsGroupIM
  • Test-CsIM
  • Test-CsP2PAV
  • Test-CsRegistration

When trying to run one of these cmdlets, you will get the following error:  “There is no test user assigned for <poolName>. Please check test user settings.”

Our example runs the following command:

Test-CsIM –TargetFQDN pool.twhlab.com

Lync ST - before error 1

You could run this command and specify user accounts, passwords, and SIP addresses every time, but this can get a bit cumbersome if you plan on using the “Test-“ cmdlets frequently or use an automated job.

The following procedure will show you how to configure user accounts to be used with synthetic transactions.

First Step - Create two user accounts

These can be (and should be) disabled since these accounts will only be used to run the “Test-“ cmdlets.  After creating the AD accounts, enable them for Lync.

Lync ST - Users

Note: you should create two test accounts for each Lync pool.

Second Step - Configure the Lync test accounts for Synthetic Transactions

Run the following command:

New-CsHealthMonitoringConfiguration –Identity <poolName> –FirstTestSamAccountName <FirstUserAccount> –FirstTestUserSipUri <FirstUserSIPAddress> –SecondTestSamAccountName <SecondUserAccount> –SecondTestUserSipUri <SecondUserSIPAddress>

In my example, I run:

New-CsHealthMonitoringConfiguration –Identity pool.twhlab.com –FirstTestSamAccountName Homelab\LyncSynthUser1 –FirstTestUserSipUri “sip:LyncSynthUser1@twhlab.com” –SecondTestSamAccountName Homelab\LyncSynthUser2 –SecondTestUserSipUri “sip:LyncSynthUser2@twhlab.com”

Lync ST - New-CsHeath

Once the accounts have been configured, you can change or remove the configurations with the Set-CsHealthMonitoringConfiguration or Remove-CsHealthMonitoringConfiguration cmdlets.

Step Three – Test the configuration

Now that the accounts have been provisioned and configured for synthetic transactions, it is time to test.  If the accounts were set up correctly, you should be able to run previous command that failed (without specifying users or credentials):

Test-CsIM –TargetFQDN pool.twhlab.com

Lync ST - before sucess1

Configuring synthetic transactions allows administrators to run tests without having to supply user names or passwords for the required test accounts.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Exchange 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 1 Available

An update for Exchange 2010 SP2 has just released and can be downloaded at: Exchange 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 1 Download. This will take you Exchange version up to 14.2.283.3

For a description of all the included fixes, see KB 2645995

For those of you running DAGs, please see the following article: Applying Updates to Exchange 2010 SP1 and SP2

If you are running third party products (like anti-virus, etc), it is important that you disable them before updating.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Lync Snooper: More Than Just Log Analysis (Reporting)

I recently ran across some great features in the Snooper tool that I not very aware about.  Snooper is part of the Resource Kit Tools and is primarily used to analyze logs generated from the Lync Server Logging Tool.

When Snooper is open, clicking on the “Reports” menu will expose options for querying the backend database for errors, user activity, conferencing statistics, etc.

Lync - Snooper - Reports menu

Error Analysis…

When clicking on the “Error Analysis…” option, you will need to fill in the blanks for the Lync SQL instance that holds the Monitoring database.  This report will show errors generated by client programs.

Lync - Snooper - Analyze error reports

Here you have the option of searching for errors by user or by error.  Also, selecting the “Generate Error Report” option will give a web view of the report.  Below are example outputs.

Lync - Snooper - Analyze error reports - list

Lync - Snooper - Analyze error reports - generate

Conferencing and Presence…

The “Conferencing and Presence” option has several great reports to choose from.  Start by entering in the SQL instance name that contains the backend RTC database, then choose the report to run.  A few example report outputs follow.

Lync - Snooper - Conf Pres reports

User

The User report has a ton of information in it.  By searching on a user’s sip address, a few of the things that can be seen include:

  • Pool information
  • Contact information
  • Conferencing data
  • Certificates provisioned to user

Lync - Snooper - Conf Pres reports - user1

Lync - Snooper - Conf Pres reports - user2

Conference

I was really impressed by the Conference reports.  By searching on a conference ID, a few of the things that can be seen include:

  • Conference scheduling time
  • Access times
  • Invitees and roles
  • MCUs used
  • Which attendee used which MCUs

Lync - Snooper - Conf Pres reports - conf1

Lync - Snooper - Conf Pres reports - conf2

I am not showing examples of the Resolve Conference, MCU Health, or Diagnostic reports.  Check them out, there is some great information.

Stored Procedure Error Analysis…

This report shows SQL stored procedure errors over a specified block of time.  Start by entering in the SQL instance name that contains the Lync databases, then choose a date range.  This will list and graph any errors found.

Lync - Snooper - Stored Proc reports

I know I will definitely be using Snopper then more than just log analysis.  Hope this helps.