Lync 2013 February Updates and Downloads

Update (2/27/2013): Added Server CU1 and other tools released!

A few Lync 2013 related updates and downloads were made available this month.  I will update this post when the new server updates are available.

Server (8308.291) – Download – KB 2809243

• Core Components – KB 2781550
• Conferencing Server – KB 2781551
• Web Components Server – KB 2781564
• Standard or Enterprise Server – KB 2781547
• Web Conferencing Server – KB 2787570
• Mediation Server – KB 2796554
• UCMA 4.0 Runtime – KB 2781555
• Call Park Service – KB 2781549

Note: Use the cumulative LyncServerUpdateInstaller.exe to install the updates to make sure all needed updates are applied. Please also follow KB 2809243 to update the backend database.

Clients (15.0.4454.1506)

• Lync 2013 (32-bit) – Download – KB 2812461
• Lync 2013 (64-bit) – Download – KB 2812461
• Lync 2013 SDK (15.0.4454.1509) – Download

Other

• Lync Resource Kit Tools (8308.291) – Download
• Lync Planning Tool (8308.279) – Download
• Lync Connectivity Analyzer 32-bit (8308.289) - Download
• Lync Connectivity Analyzer 64-bit (8308.289) - Download
• Lync Capacity Calculator – Download
• Lync Debugging Tools (8308.291) – Download
• Stress and Performance Tool (8308.279) – Download
• Whiteboard Archiving Viewer (8308.291) – Download
• Persistent Chat SDK (8308.291) – Download
• Persistent Chat Resource Kit (8308.291) – Download
• Documentation Help File (CHM) – Download
• Visio Stencil – Download

Cross-Post: Lync Environment Documentation Script

This post is just to get the word out a bit wider about a script that my colleague, Chris Cook, has developed. 

Basically this script will gather complete information about a Lync environment (server specs, topology, networking, DNS, certificates, etc) and then auto-generate a Word report and Visio diagram.

Please go HERE and read additional information and download instructions.

Can I Install Lync Server 2010 in a Native Lync Server 2013 Environment?

With a background in Exchange Server, you always had to be careful about installing new versions or decommissioning the last server of an older version within an environment.  So I was wondering if it was possible to install/introduce a Lync Server 2010 Front-End server into a completely native Lync Server 2013 environment (an environment that has never had Lync Server 2010 in it).  Also, if it is possible, what is the experience and is it actually functional.

Short Answer: YES it is possible

My Environment:

• Domain Controller – Windows Server 2012
• Lync Server 2013 SE – Windows Server 2012
• Exchange Server 2013 – Windows Server 2012
• Office Web Apps 2013 – Windows Server 2012

Current Topology:

Adding a Lync Server 2010 SE server in the Topology Builder and published:

I have prepped a server for the Lync Server 2010 SE and installed all pre-req’s.  Starting the Deployment Wizard for the Lync Server 2010 shows that Active Directory is already fully prepared!

I won’t bore you with the Lync Server 2010 install, but you can see that the Lync Control Panel now shows both 2010 and 2013 in the environment:

Now it is time to rehome some users to the Lync Server 2010 pool and test things out:

Looks like everything is working:

This post explored whether Lync Server 2010 could be introduced into a native Lync Server 2013 environment.  The installation went smooth and seems like all functionality works as expected.

Microsoft MVP Award for 2013

I am pleased to announce and very honored, that I have been re-awarded the Microsoft MVP award for 2013.

I appreciate everyone that reads my blog and keeps up with me on twitter (@twharrington). I will strive to keep contributing to the community and hope that what I publish helps you out in some way.

Happy New Year!

Disabling IM for Lync 2013 Client

I suppose there are a few reasons that you might want to disable IM functionality for certain users in Lync.  This can be easily accomplished by modifying the registry (which can be controlled with a GPO).

Before we get started, let’s look at what typical options would look like for a Lync 2013:

As you can see, the IM button is present and active for my contacts.  The location in the registry to implement policies for Lync 2013 are in a different location compared to earlier versions.  Now you can locate or create policies in the HKLM (or HKCU)\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync

You can disable IM by running the following command from an elevated command prompt:

reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync /v DisableIM /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

This will result in creating a new DWORD “DisableIM” with a value of “1”:

After exiting and restarting the client, the IM icon is no longer visible:

This post shows you how to disable IM functionality within the Lync 2013 client.

Administering Lync 2010 and 2013 Coexistence

As everyone is out migrating their Lync 2010 environments to Lync 2013, you must plan for coexistence.  This post will discuss the appropriate tools to use to administer certain scenarios once Lync 2013 is introduced into the environment.

Topology Changes

For any Topology changes (including adding Lync 2010 pools), you must use the Lync Server 2013 Topology Builder.  This is true even if a Lync 2010 pool is still hosting the CMS.  If you attempt to open the Lync Server 2010 Topology Builder, you will receive the following error:

“The topology is from a later version of the product.  Use the correct version of Topology Builder to open this topology.”

Moving Users Across Pools of Different Versions

For all user moves across pool versions, the Lync Server 2013 tools must be used (Control Panel and Management Shell).  If you try to move a user from Lync 2010 to Lync 2013 or from Lync 2013 to Lync 2010 with the Lync 2010 tools, you will get the following error:

“Move to or from the future version of the product is not supported.”

Moving Users Across Pools of Same Version

For all users moves across pools of the same version, that version of tools can be used to move the user.  This means that Lync 2010 tools can be used to move users between 2010 Lync pools and Lync 2013 tools can be used to move users between 2013 Lync pools.  Also, you can use the Lync 2013 tools to move Lync 2010 users between 2010 pools, but you cannot use Lync 2010 tools to move users between Lync 2013 pools.

Assigning User Policies or User Settings

Assigning user policies or changing user settings can be performed with either set of tools no matter what version of pool the user is homed on.

Summary

Below is a summary of the different scenarios above. 

	Lync 2010 Tools	Lync 2013 Tools
Topology Changes	no	YES
Move user from 2010 to 2013	no	YES
Move user from 2013 to 2010	no	YES
Move user between 2010 pools	YES	YES
Move user between 2013 pools	no	YES
Assign user policies and settings	YES	YES

Conclusion

To avoid any confusion, I recommend using the Lync 2013 tools exclusively for any administrative tasks once you have introduced Lync Server 2013 into your environment.

Exploring Default Installation and SQL Paths in Lync Server 2013

A shift has been made in Lync Server 2013 to process more SQL transactions local on the server than on Lync Server 2010.  One of the main reasons for this is to provide better resilience across all workloads (including user/conferencing services) compared to just voice resiliency in Lync Server 2010.  This post will review different installation paths of Lync components based on drives available at the time of installation.

First let’s review the SQL Express instances that are running local on the Lync Front-end servers.  In my example, I will be looking at the Standard Edition of Lync.  The Enterprise Edition Front-End server will only have LYNCLocal and RTCLocal SQL instances.

The following lists each SQL instance and the databases associated with it:

• LYNCLOCAL
  • Lyss
• RTC – located on local Standard Edition servers and in back-end SQL instance for Enterprise Edition
  • RTCab
  • CpsDyn
  • RgsConfig
  • RgsDyn
  • RTCShared
  • RTCXDS
• RTCLOCAL
  • XDS
  • RTC
  • RTCDyn

I wanted to see what would happen to default installation locations based on drives available.  Here are the scenarios that I tested:

Scenario #1 – C: drive only, default installation path

In a very default installation with only a C: drive, obviously all components get installed in their default locations.  The following screenshots shows the location of each Lync component.

Drive configuration:

Lync installation path:

SQL installation paths:

RTCReplicaRoot path:

Database and Logs paths:

Note that the RTCLocal database and log for XDS will always be located on the C: drive in the SQL installation path

Scenario #2 – C: and E: drive, default installation path

The following screenshots shows the location of each Lync component.

Drive configuration:

Lync installation path:

SQL installation paths (on C: ):

Note that the RTCLocal database and log for XDS will always be located on the C: drive in the SQL installation path

RTCReplicaRoot, Database and Log paths for RTC, RTCLocal, and LYNCLocal instances (all on E: ):

Note that you can tell what SQL instance each database belongs to by looking at the parent folder to the DBPath/LogPath folders.

Scenario #3 – C:, E:, and F: drive, default installation path

The following screenshots shows the location of each Lync component.

Drive configuration:

Lync installation path:

SQL installation paths (on C: ):

Note that the RTCLocal databases and logs (XDS) will always be located on the C: drive in the SQL installation path

RTCReplicaRoot, Database and Log paths for RTC, RTCLocal, and LYNCLocal instances (on E: ):

Note that you can tell what SQL instance each database belongs to by looking at the parent folder to the DBPath/LogPath folders.

Log paths for RTC, RTCLocal, and LYNCLocal (on F: )

Scenario #4 – C:, E:, and F: drive, Change installation path to E:

The following screenshots shows the location of each Lync component.

Drive configuration:

Lync installation path:

SQL installation paths (on C: ):

Note that the RTCLocal databases and logs (XDS) will always be located on the C: drive in the SQL installation path

Lync Program Files, RTCReplicaRoot, Database and Log paths for RTC, RTCLocal, and LYNCLocal instances (on E: ):

Note that you can tell what SQL instance each database belongs to by looking at the parent folder to the DBPath/LogPath folders.

Log paths for RTC, RTCLocal, and LYNCLocal (on F: )

The 2013 Collaboration Wave Has Arrived!

 

Today was a big day for Microsoft…  No, I am not talking about Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 or Surface or Windows Phone 8.  Wow, it is truly a big year.  I am the most interested in the Office 2013, Lync 2013, Exchange 2013, and yes even SharePoint 2013 RTM releases.  Today, all of these products are available for download via MSDN/Technet.  If you do have a subscription, start downloading and learning about the final releases of these products.  Here are a few resources to help along the way:

Lync 2013

• Help CHM file
• Visio Stencils

Exchange 2013

• Help CHM file

I will be sure to update my Lync and Exchange References pages in the near term as new resources become available.  Happy downloading and installing!

Looking forward to a lot of new blogging material.

Lync October 2012 Server and Client Updates Released

The Lync team has released server and client updates for October 2012. Here are all the details:

Server Updates (7577.205) – Download – KB 2493736

• Core Components (KB 2740403)
• Web Components Server (KB 2737902)
• Standard/Enterprise Edition Server (KB 2737915)
• UCMA API 3.0 Runtime (KB 2740406)
• Mobility Service (KB 2743736)

Note: Use the cumulative LyncServerUpdateInstaller.exe to install the updates to make sure all needed updates are applied.

Clients (7577.4356)

• Lync 2010 (32-bit) – Download – KB 2737155
• Lync 2010 (64-bit) – Download – KB 2737155

OCS 2007 R2 September 2012 Updates Released

Microsoft released a few updates for OCS 2007 R2 in September 2012.

Here are the components that were updated:

Group Chat (6907.265)

• Server – KB 2728998
• Admin Tool – KB 2728997
• Client – KB 2735021

XMPP Gateway (6907.263)

• KB 2742290

Failover\Fallback SQL Mirror in Lync Server 2013

NOTE: The following post is based on Lync Server 2013 Preview. Procedures and screenshots are subject to change when Lync Server 2013 is RTM.

In my previous post, I described how to add a SQL mirror to your back-end database for SQL high availability.  In this post, I will describe how to failover and then fallback the SQL databases between the mirror.

Before failing over the SQL mirror, you need to determine whether or not your back-end database is hosting the Central Management Store (CMS) database.  You can determine this by running the following command:

Get-CsService –CentralManagement

If the output shows the pool that you are failing over the back-end for then you must failover the CMS database.  In my lab I have all databases as part of the mirror configuration: User, CMS, Archiving, Monitoring, Apps, PersistentChat, PersistentChatCompliance:

Primary SQL Node:

Mirror SQL Node:

You can also check the state of your mirror status by running the following:

Get-CsDatabaseMirrorState –PoolFQDN pool01.w15lab.local –DatabaseType User

The supported –DatabaseType values are: App, Archiving, CentralMgmt, Monitoring, Provision, User, PersistentChat, PersistentChatCompliance

I need to run the following commands to failover all databases:

Invoke-CsDatabaseFailover –PoolFQDN pool01.w15lab.local –DatabaseType User –NewPrincipal mirror

Now I run the similar command for the rest of my database types:

Invoke-CsDatabaseFailover –PoolFQDN pool01.w15lab.local –DatabaseType App –NewPrincipal mirror

Invoke-CsDatabaseFailover –PoolFQDN pool01.w15lab.local –DatabaseType CentralMgmt –NewPrincipal mirror

Invoke-CsDatabaseFailover –PoolFQDN pool01.w15lab.local –DatabaseType Archiving –NewPrincipal mirror

Invoke-CsDatabaseFailover –PoolFQDN pool01.w15lab.local –DatabaseType Monitoring –NewPrincipal mirror

Invoke-CsDatabaseFailover –PoolFQDN labad03lyse01.w15lab.local –DatabaseType PersistentChat –NewPrincipal mirror (note that my persistent chat pool is my Standard Edition server)

Invoke-CsDatabaseFailover –PoolFQDN labad03lyse01.w15lab.local –DatabaseType PersistentChatCompliance –NewPrincipal mirror (note that my persistent chat pool is my Standard Edition server)

After all commands have been executed, I can look at my SQL nodes again and see that my mirror node now has the active database:

Primary SQL Node:

Mirror SQL Node:

When you are ready to fallback to the primary SQL node, just run the same commands but change the –NewPrincipal parameter to “primary”

Invoke-CsDatabaseFailover –PoolFQDN pool01.w15lab.local –DatabaseType User –NewPrincipal primary

This post describes how to manually fail your mirror databases over to the secondary SQL node and then fall back.

Adding a SQL Mirror to an Existing Lync Server 2013 Back-End

NOTE: The following post is based on Lync Server 2013 Preview. Procedures and screenshots are subject to change when Lync Server 2013 is RTM.

Lync Server 2013 now supports SQL mirroring (synchronous) for back-end databases.  In fact, this is the preferred/supported configuration.  This post will describe how to add a SQL mirror database to an existing pool’s back-end SQL instance.  This post is not meant to show SQL specific configurations. 

Here are a few prerequisites, requirements, and notes:

• All SQL servers including the mirror must be at the same SQL version
• The two SQL mirror nodes must use the same Edition, the mirror can be different
• Use a witness server if you want to achieve automatic failover of the SQL database between the mirror
• You must deploy the witness at the same time as the mirror is set up within the Lync topology
• The database instance that will be used as the mirror should have the same LUN/file path configuration as the primary database
• The SQL mirror does not need to be configured beforehand, publishing the Lync topology will configure and enable mirroring
• The SQL servers and witness must be members of the same domain

In my example, I am going to deploy the SQL mirror without a witness server due to lab constraints.  This post also assumes that you have a second SQL instance already configured to host the mirrored databases.

If you are adding the SQL mirror after deploying your primary database, make sure that the mirroring port is configured on the SQL instance in the topology.  You can see this setting by navigating to Site –> Shared Components –> SQL Server Stores

First step is to edit the topology.  Navigate to the Enterprise Front-End pool and select Edit Properties…

Check the option to Enable SQL Server store mirroring, then click the New… button:

Next define SQL server store for the mirror:

Click OK and then publish your topology.  You will be prompted to configure a File Share on the Create Mirror Databases dialog:

Click on the “File Share is required” error and click Settings… button and define a files share:

Remember, for your file share to make sure the proper permissions are set up so that both SQL servers have access to the share.  Thanks to Doug Deitterick’s Blog for that help.

Finish the Publishing Wizard, make sure everything is a “Success”. 

Also, check the “To-Do List” link. It says I need to restart my Lync services on the FE Pool servers.  This can easily be done by running:

Get-CsWindowsService | Stop-CsWindowsService

Get-CsWindowsService | Start-CsWindowsService

Checking the SQL Mirror Node, we can see the Lync databases:

You can also added your Monitoring and Archiving databases to the SQL mirror by editing the topology and adding the already defined mirror on those databases:

This post described how to add SQL mirroring to your Lync Server 2013 back-end.