OCS R2 July 2012 Updates Released

Microsoft has released a few updates for OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat Server.

Here are the components that were updated for this round of updates:

Group Chat (6907.258)

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

Big Wave (15) Rolling In…

When Microsoft decided to roll-out (preview) the next collaboration wave, they did it with fireworks.  Today marks the day that Microsoft has released all “Wave 15” products to the public in “Preview” (beta) format.

Obviously, this is going to generate lots of great blog posts which I am really excited about.  There is going to be much more information releasing about this “Wave” in the coming days, but here are some links to get you started.

Lync Server 2013

• Download –> HERE
• Documentation –> HERE
• What’s New –> HERE

Exchange Server 2013

• Download –> HERE
• Documentation –> HERE
• CHM File –> HERE
• What’s New –> HERE

SharePoint Server 2013

• Download –> HERE
• Documentation –> HERE
• What’s New –> HERE
• Deployment Guide eBook –> HERE

Office ProPlus 2013

• Download –> HERE
• Documentation –> HERE
• CHM File –> HERE
• Deployment Guide eBook –> HERE

Other Miscellaneous Downloads –> HERE

There is a lot to get through here, and I will be working on bringing you up to date articles explaining the new 2013 features and providing configuration and implementation help.

What a great day!

Configuring Location Information in Lync Without E911

One of the most underutilized features in Lync is the Location Information Server (LIS) database.  This is due usually to the following:

• LIS is marketed in the same discussion as E911, which only North America (really US and Canada) can use
• The configuration is completely performed in powershell

The LIS can also be very helpful for an organization (no matter what country you are in) for publishing…well, location information.  If a company is very spread-out, either regionally with many campuses or globally with many offices, wouldn’t it be great to auto-populate a user’s location information based on where they are actually sitting that day?  I mean Lync unleashes us from our cubicle and now it is hard to know if someone is actually in the office or working from another company location.

LIS can be configured to do just that, publish location information for your users based on where their Lync client is connecting from.  This post will step you through the minimum requirements to make that happen.

Location information is based off of network components, such as subnets, switches, etc.  When looking at Lync configuration options for network components, it might be a little confusing.  Lync will use network information (subnets) for four different uses and understanding what the authoritative source is crucial.

Lync Functionality	Subnet Definition Location
Determining Location	LIS Subnets (powershell)
Determining Location Policy (used in E911 config)	Lync Subnets defined in Lync Control Panel
Call Admissions Control (CAC)	Lync Subnets defined in Lync Control Panel
Media Bypass	Lync Subnets defined in Lync Control Panel

If we are just interested in determining our location and publishing the information, only the LIS subnets need to be defined.  Subnets (including location information) will be configured using the Set-CsLisSubnet cmdlet.

In our example, we will be creating two different locations.  If you are only interested in publishing location information into the Lync client and do not care about E911 configuration, only the “Location” and “City” field are used to populate the client.  You can use both or either for your configuration.  The following commands are used in my environment:

Set-CsLisSubnet –Subnet 192.168.1.0 –Location “Building 40” –City “Redmond”

Set-CsLisSubnet –Subnet 10.0.2.0 –Location “Home Office” –City “Texas”

Once we have our subnets defined, we need to publish the information to the LIS database.  The can be achieved by running: Publish-CsLisConfiguration cmdlet:

Once everything has been replicated, we can log-off of our client and back in.  The location information is now published into the client depending on what subnet the user sign’s in from.

You will also notice that others users will see this information about other user’s presence within their client:

Note that we did not have to configure anything in the Lync Control Panel for Network Sites and Subnets:

This post showed how to configure location information and publish that information in the Lync client.

Becoming a Master

I just spent one of the longest three weeks of my life getting certified for Lync Masters.  It was long by two fold: the day to day grind of 12+ hour days (this isn’t a 5 day work week…) focusing on nothing but Lync and then the three weeks away from my family.  It was a great feeling that I came back on top!

I want to give a special shout out to my study group and fellow Masters (yes we were 100% in our group): Jeroen Reijling and Luke Kannel.  These guys are at the top of their game.  Also great on going conversations/contributions with the rest of Rotation 15.  It was definitely a team effort.

If you are thinking about Lync Masters, I will give you one piece of advice: do not come to class without being at least familiar with all the features of Lync.  This includes Enterprise Voice, Response Groups, CAC, Exchange UM, and even Group Chat.  Do not expect to learn them on the spot.  Also some bonus advice…do not come to Masters without first tying up loose ends with your company, projects, and family.  Distractions will be your downfall.

Here are a couple of good blog posts that I referred to during the process: Blog1 and Blog2.

Again, a big thanks to my family, study group, and my company Azaleos (as well as my colleague Chris Cook who held down the fort while I was gone) for allowing me the opportunity.

Lync June 2012 Server and Client Updates Released (CU6)

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

Server Updates (7577.199) – Download – KB 2493736

• Core Components (KB 2701663)
• Conferencing Attendant (KB 2701659)
• Web Components Server (KB 2710559)
• Standard/Enterprise Edition Server (KB 2701585)
• Web Conferencing Server (KB 2708616)
• Mobility Service (KB 2708617)

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

Clients (7577.4103)

• Lync 2010 (32-bit) – Download – KB 2701664
• Lync 2010 (64-bit) – Download – KB 2701664
• Attendant Console (7577.4098) – Download – KB 2496326

Phone Edition (7577.4100)

• Polycom CX500, CX600, CX3000 – Download – KB 2701671
• Polycom CX700, LG-Nortel 8540 – Download – KB 2724545
• Aastra 6721ip, 6725ip – Download – KB 2701667
• HP 4110, 4120 – Download – KB 2701670

Group Chat (7577.4102)

• Client – Download – KB 2701665
• Admin Tool (7577.4071) – Download – KB 2707265

Slow Month…For Blogging

It is going to be a slow month for me blogging.  On the other hand, it will be one of my busiest and most challenging months in my professional career.  I am headed off to Redmond for Lync Masters training.  If you are not familiar with Masters training, it is a 3-week “immersive” training program held on the Redmond campus and taught by the product group and SME’s in the field.  More info about the Lync Masters program can be found here: Lync Masters.

I am looking forward to this great opportunity that my company (Azaleos) and my family has allowed me to attend.  See everyone on the other side…

Exchange 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 3 Available

An update for Exchange 2010 SP2 has just released and can be downloaded at: Exchange 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 3 Download.

This will take you Exchange version up to 14.2.309.2

For a description of all the included fixes, see KB 2685289

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.

More information can be found on the Exchange Team Blog site.