EASI passport domains support for Live Messenger and LCS PIC

As earlier reported in EASI passport domains support in PIC / LCS 2005 SP1, EASI passports (Custom domains in MSN/Live) has actually been supported in LCS 2005 Public Instant Messaging Connectivity since October 11th 2005, even though the KB article KB897567 "Known issues that occur with public instant messaging after you install Office Live Communications Server Service Pack 1" said that it didn't.

Last I checked (April 2nd 2007) the information still wrongly stated that it wasn't supported, but it has now been corrected (I have reported it several times both through feedback forms and my contacts in US) as follows -

As of October 11, 2005, all EASI Windows Live ID domains are fully supported for the Public IM Connectivity (PIC) service. This means that Microsoft Office Communicator users can communicate with MSN users by using EASI Windows Live IDs through PIC. EASI ID enables MSN users to use the domain name of their choice to create an IM address through Windows Live ID. For example a user’s EASI Windows Live ID could have been username@contoso.com .

This was a great service for MSN users. However, the service caused problems when PIC-enabled users tried to communicate with MSN users by using Office Communicator. With the change of October 11, 2005, you can use the EASI Windows Live ID with PIC by making a simple change when you add a user to your Communicator contact list.

A Communicator user who wants to add the EASI Windows Live ID of username@contoso.com would add the following address to the search field: username(contoso.com)@msn.com

This increases the effectiveness of the PIC service because contacts that have unsupported EASI Windows Live ID domains no longer need to change their domains in order to use the PIC Service.

Remember that if you implement LCS and OCS and SIP with same namespace, as your users has used earlier in EASI passports (E.g. msnuser@inceptio.dk), then the msnusers will be required to change their passports after the PIC service has been activated ... and this is by no means a "smooth process". Read more about this in Issues with EASI passport domains, LCS and MSN Messenger.

Windows Messenger and Office Communicator Port Usage

Microsoft has updated the article "Description of the Windows Messenger client basic protocol port usage for instant messaging, file transfer, audio, and video" which also applies to Office Communicator (At least on Legacy Windows versions a.k.a. XP and 2000 ;-)

If you are looking at firewall configuration the post LCS, Audio/video, file transfers and firewalls may also be worth a read, and if you are looking at Network capacity planning then look at the post Interested in Network Bandwidth Usage of Audio/Video in Office Communicator !?.

PowerShell, bug in Stop-Transcript

Stop-Transcript emits an error even if -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue is used -

Stop-transcript –ea SilentlyContinue
Transcription has not been started. Use the start-transcript command to start transcription.
Stop-Transcript : An error occurred stopping transcription: The console host is not currently transcribing.
At line:1 char:16
+ Stop-transcript <<<< –ea SilentlyContinue

This must be a bug. Luckily, Stop-Transcript is not an important command as such.

You can suppress the error message using one of these method.
1) Set the global variable (or in the script scope)
$ErrorActionPreference="SilentlyContinue"

2) Do it locally in your script (better)
& { $ErrorActionPreference="SilentlyContinue"; Stop-Transcript }

3) Trap the message (probably best)
Trap {Continue} Stop-Transcript

If you need to suppress all output append > $null

Interesting set of webcasts on Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant (a.k.a. EXTRA)

As you might know, EXTRA 1.1 was released to the web on the 4th April (please see www.ExBPA.com for download details).

In order to help with understanding of how to use EXTRA 1.1, we have organized three Webcasts to be presented by the lead developers of the Database Troubleshooter, Performance Troubleshooter and the MailFlow Troubleshooter. They will be showcasing the functionality of these tools and also we are aiming to have Q&A during the Webcast for any questions that you have.

See more here (And remember to subscribe to their RSS feed if you already haven't done so ;-)

Technical Note on Exchange 2007 UM and Cisco CallManager (CCM 5.1) integration

Microsoft has released a preview configuration note that contains information about deploying Exchange 2007 UM with a Cisco Call Manager 5.1. The requirements to use the example configurations are -

- PBX Vendor: Cisco
- PBX model: Call Manager 5.1
- PBX software: 5.1.0.9921-12
- Protocol: Direct SIP Connection

It also contains a link to a list of trained Exchange 2007 UM partners (I guess you don't get on that list if you can do it without training ;-)

Download it from here.

PowerShell, writing debug output

I have been playing around with redirecting verbose and debugging output. I have pursued debugging the most as I want to log debugging information to another place than the user interface. Verbose output is intended to go there.

My first hope was that Write-Debug would output to the debugger, so I could see the messages in Sysinternals' DebugView. But no. Write-Debug should write to the debug pipeline, but I do not think PowerShell v1 has a way of reading that pipeline.

Luckily, PowerShell is a .Net application, so - would it be possible to tamper with the listeners like I have done in asp.net? The answer to this rhetoric question is yes.

So I wrote two new scripts Set-DebugOutput and Out-Debug. Originally, I would have just overridden the existing Write-Debug statement, but I cannot figure out how to do that. If I create a function called Write-Debug, that will be called - as PowerShell searches functions before cmdlets - but I also want to call the Write-Debug cmdlet. I have searched the Microsoft.PowerShell and System.Management.Automation namespaces without luck. But Out-Debug is also a 'valid' name as it sends information outside the PowerShell environment.

The two scripts are placed in by script library and is included in the path. I do that like this in my $profile -

$myPSConfiguration=(split-path $myinvocation.mycommand.path -parent) 
$libraryDir=join-path $myPSConfiguration Library 
new-item -type directory -path $libraryDir -ea silentlycontinue 
$env:path+=";$libraryDir" 

Explanation: Figure out where $profile is placed, build path, create sub folder - ignore errors, add to search path

Both scripts are raw and not commented as they are so small. Out-Debug uses a method so it processes both arguments and pipeline input. An easy way to do so is to create a local function - f - that does the actual work (always using pipeline input) and then just process $args and $input. Out-Debug calls Write-Debug, so the debug is still visible if $DebugPreference is set to Continue. Set-DebugOutput lets you specify a file which then also receives the debug output.

Set-DebugOutput.ps1 -

param($file) 

[System.Diagnostics.Debug]::Listeners | ? { $_.name -eq "Default" } | % { 
    Write-Verbose "Setting log file to $file" 
    $_.LogFileName=$file 
} 

Out-Debug.ps1 -

filter f{Write-Debug "$_";[System.Diagnostics.Debug]::WriteLine("$_")} 
$args| f 
$input | f 

PS. If you see Dennis, remember to tell him that he has something in his eye...

Correcting SIP address to match SMTP address

Stuart Bennet has created a nice little script that corrects SIP adressess for users that have a change in their Primary SMTP address. This is for users that would like to change the SIP URI when their SMTP address changes (And thereby ensuring that presence shows up correctly in Outlook etc.)

You can find the script here.

We (Actually Per) have created the same script using PowerShell for a customer and when Per gets his act up (Wink, wink) we may post the same and more samples in PowerShell (If he doesn't I will do it and take credit ;-)

Small Update Rollup for Exchange 2007 released

MS has released a update rollup to Exchange 2007 containing the following fixes -

932487 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932487/) The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service stops unexpectedly when the Exchange Server 2007-based server replicates the Public folder

929756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929756/) The DoSnapshotSet method may stop responding in the Exchange store, and a backup application stops responding on an Exchange 2007 server

You can find more info in the KB and the download here.

HMC 4.0 RTW'ed

HMC 4.0 has been Released To Web here and you can find the documentation here (UPDATE The documentation file works now).

Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 4.0 offers hosting service providers with tools, tested best practices, scripts, and code samples designed to efficiently deploy messaging and collaboration services on multi tenant servers. The solution provides both automated and manual procedures for deploying, running and operating a hosted environment.

Most notably it now includes Exchange Server 2007 and WSS 3.0 hosting. If you are not familiar with the product you can read more about the solution here (Or better yet contact us at Inceptio A/S for an introduction / Architectural Design Session ;-)

Viridian and Virtual Server Timing Update (A.k.a. delayed)

Mike Neil who is the general manager for virtualization strategy has announced an updated/delayed timeplan for Viridian and Virtual Server -

The public beta of Windows Server virtualization will ship in the second half of 2007, not in the first half as previously disclosed.

Still 180 days after the longhorn release

The final version of Virtual Server 2005 R2 service pack 1 now will be available in Q2, not Q1 as previously stated. In the interim, customers and partners can download a Release Candidate (RC) version later this month - this is code complete and an update to the current beta 2.

I still wonder why Virtual PC 2007 supports 64 bit guest OS and Virtual Server doesn't - anyway IMHO after approx. 6 months since the the release of beta 2 its about time for the RC ;-)

Read the complete announcement here. Originally seen here.

Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta available on MSDN and TechNet Plus

FYI - Exchange 2007 SP1 is now available at MSDN and TechNet Plus and it's a whopping 717 Mb download.

For more information on what's in SP1 look at my earlier post here.

Source (And a few others)

Mail and Public folder replication not flowing between Exchange 2003 and newly installed 2007 ?

Then it might be because the Routing Group Connector (RGC) that should be automatically created during installation of the first Exchange 2007 Hub Server role somehow wasn't created (Took me more time to figure out than I'm ready to admit ;-)

If you open ESM on Exchange 2003 it should look like this ("Borrowed" from TechNet illustration) -

If the connectors aren't there, then you can create them from Exchange Management Shell as described in the article How to Create Routing Group Connectors from Exchange 2007 to Exchange Server 2003".

PowerShell, Convert-TsvToCsv

The other day, I exported some data from SQL 2000 analyzer to a CSV-file. The database was across the internet but I had no direct database connection and I had to get it down to my PC for analysis. The easiest way was to export it directly to my PC's file system using \\tsclient\c.

On my PC, I had created a PowerShell script, to analyse the data. After getting strange results, I realized that SQL exported values with commas without quoting them. This made the cmdlet Import-Csv ‘shift’ some of the records, as it parsed the records.

To overcome this, I exported the data as TSV i.e. with the tab character as delimited. But Import-Csv does not read TSV or any other delimited than comma (see also my earlier entry about Export-CsvCultureAware). Consequently, I had to convert it to a correctly-formatted CSV-file. I did it with this script –


PS> type Convert-TsvToCsv.ps1

# Convert a tab separated file to comma-seperated, enclosing each element in double quotes
# quotes within the values are doubled
$v=new-object system.text.stringBuilder 1000
$input | % {
 $v.length=0 # empty sb
 $e=$_.split("`t")
 $e | % {
  $null=$v.append(",")
  if ($_[0] -eq "`"" -and $_.endswith("`"")) {
   # already quoted - strip them
   $_=$_.substring(1,$_.length-2)
  }
  $null=$v.append('"'+$_.replace('"','""')+'"')
 }
 $v.tostring().substring(1)
}

Comments to the code –

• This is a quick and dirty solution
• Pipe your tsv-file into the script file and output will be csv
• A single StringBuilder is used to optimize memory usage, I had to convert a file with 15.000 lines, 13 MB file, so speed mattered
• To make the logic easier, the string always starts with a comma and then does not output it at the end – hence the substring(1)

Share it!

PS. Code formatted with CodeHTMLer

PowerShell, Export-CsvCultureAware

I stole this joke in an entry http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2007/01/06/cliff-notes-of-convertto-html-other-language-blogs.aspx by Jeffry Snover -

• How do you describe someone that can speak multiple languages?
  Multi-lingual.
• How do you describe someone that can speak two languages?
  Bi-lingual.
• How do you describe someone that can speak one language?
  American

And this also goes for PowerShell as well!

To be fair, I have only found few problems: Export-Csv and Import-Csv are not culture-aware!

In Denmark, amongst many other cultures, comma is used between integers and decimals and dot is used to make integers more readable. Semi-colons are used in argument list like between Excel function arguments and when saving a CSV-file from Excel. The normal American 1,234.56 is 1.234,56 here and 1,2,3 becomes 1;2;3. What does this mean? This means that Excel is using these culture rules when parsing input and consequently, arguments in Excel functions and fields in CSV-files are expected to be separated with semi-colon.

So when I do –

PS> Something | export-csv x.csv; ii x.csv

Excel is not able to parse my CSV-file directly. I either have to
1) change the regional settings before starting Excel or
2) use the text-to-data wizard in Excel.

The worst part is that PowerShell knows the concept of cultures – as it is based on .Net – and has the info –

PS> (Get-Culture).textinfo | select listSeparator

ListSeparator
-------------
;

So it should have been culture-aware or at least provided a -seperator argument.

I also tried setting $OFS - the output field seperator, but that did not change the result.

This work-around works (wrapped for formatting reasons) -

PS> something | % {$h=@()} { if(!$h) {$_.psobject.properties | % {}
{$h+=$_.name} {[string]::join(";",$h)}}; $r=$_;$_.psobject.properties |
% {$f=@()} {$name=$_.name;$f+=$r.$name} {[string]::join(";",$f)} }

Dirty ;)
But as always, the quick-timers can be converted to a nice function. The function also includes quoting of all values, but does not handle values with quotes -

function Export-CsvCultureAware($file=$(throw "File must be specified")) {
# First, construct the header by picking up all the property names
$sep=((get-culture).textinfo | select listseparator).listSeparator
$sep='"'+$sep+'"'
$header=@()
$input | % {
   if (!$header) {
      $_.psobject.properties | `
        % {} `
          {$header+=$_.name} `
          {'"'+[string]::join($sep,$header)+'"'} `
    }
    # Next, process all the data records/objects
    $record=$_
    $record.psobject.properties | `
        % {$fields=@()} `
          {$name=$_.name;$fields+=$record.$name} `
          {'"'+[string]::join($sep,$fields)+'"'} `

} | out-file $file -encoding ascii
# Only ASCII files seems to be supported in Excel for CSV
}

PS. The blogger editor gives me a hard time formatting these code
examples, so a vertical bar or such may have slipped. Any suggestions
of how to improve editing are highly welcome. I currently use pre-tags
but if I switch to Compose view, strange things happens.

PowerShell training in Denmark

I normally do not use this channel for commercial things, but this time I find it relevant as it is linked to one of my favorite subjects - PowerShell. I just finished creating a training course for PowerShell called PowerShell 1, 2, 3. The idea is to split the training up into 2 to 3 small courses targeting the level of knowledge your are aiming at achieving. Between the courses, you are expected to use and explore PowerShell, so you get the learning-by-doing combined with course training. Read more here and read our brochure here. Sorry, but it is in Danish. The training itself can be held in English (all the material is in English) and outside Denmark, if wanted. In case you are interested in this, email info(at)inceptio(dot)dk.

Congratulations! You have received the Microsoft MVP Award

Dear Dennis Thomsen,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2007 Microsoft® MVP Award!

The Microsoft MVP Award is our way of saying thank you and to honor and support the significant contributions you make to communities worldwide. As a recipient of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional award, you join an elite group of technical community leaders from around the world who foster the free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing your real world expertise with users and Microsoft. Microsoft salutes all MVPs for promoting the spirit of community and enhancing people’s lives and the industry’s success everyday.

To learn more about the MVP Program, visit: www.microsoft.com/mvp

What can I say other than thank you! Especially to the brilliant Microsoft people in Charlotte, Turkey, Redmond and Denmark who helped me getting this award and in developing my competencies around Live Communications Server and Unified Communications (You all know who you are ;-)

I look forward to joining the MVP community and especially to contribute more to the community on the subjects of Office Communications Server and Unified Messaging.

My MVP profile can be found here.

Breaking news from The Exchange Team !!

Here are my favourites -

• Outlook team has just checked in a warning that pops up when your PST reaches two terabytes. It says: "Really... two terabytes oughtta be enough for anybody!!"
• In an attempt to allow our customers to achieve work/life balance, a new BPA setup prerequisite check is being introduced; it will prevent installations of Exchange server during working hours. Administrators everywhere have welcomed that idea.

Go read the rest here ;-)

Nortel and Microsoft to Deliver Carrier-Hosted Unified Communications

As I wrote about in my post More details on Office Communicator 2007 Microsoft is planning to offer their Hosted Messaging and Collaboration solution in a version that includes OCS and offers possibilities for Hosters/SP's to provide VoIP and PSTN break-out services through OCS and third-party gateways.

Nortel and Microsoft has now released more information on the offerings it are going to provide as part of their Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA) -

Nortel and Microsoft’s alliance will allow carriers to host unified business communication and collaboration services for their business customers, including e-mail, instant messaging, VoIP, click-to-call, video conferencing and other multimedia services. This will enable carriers to derive greater value from their existing network investments and resources, while allowing SMBs and enterprises to benefit from unified communications without bearing the burden of purchasing, installing and managing additional network infrastructure.

Building on their existing Innovative Communications Alliance, Nortel will integrate its Communication Server 2000 (CS 2000) softswitch with the Microsoft® Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration, which incorporates hosted versions of Microsoft’s familiar, world-class enterprise products Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and Windows® SharePoint® Services.

Look for more details at Nortel and Microsoft to Deliver Carrier-Hosted Unified Communications and in CIO India that quotes from the presentation that -

"First, you'll get smart unified clients," which ties together Microsoft messaging, Nortel softphone and hardphone technology. "After that, we'll deliver transformed backend. "Over the next two to three years, Ballmer said, customers of Nortel and Microsoft "can expect to go from a separate, PBX and separate server software [environments], to one where [OCS] ... and Nortel [VOIP] servers deliver the full telephony experience, with both platforms running on standard Intel architecture with common Windows software, development and management tools."

and Network World in the article Nortel, Microsoft lay ground for hosted services says ...

... the initiative has been expanded toward service providers, allowing the carriers to provide a richer equivalent of the Centrex services that small and midsize businesses often use instead of buying their own phone switch. By crafting systems for carriers, the alliance for the first time is going after the market Nortel traditionally knows best.

Really interesting news for many of my customers ;-)

Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta around the corner ?

Microsoft has RTW'ed the Readme file for the Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta. There are many changes, but the most interesting (IMHO) are the integration between Office Communicator Server 2007 and Exchange 2007 SP1 and the enhancements to "standalone" UM. Following is a list of changes from the readme file (All changes but not all details) -

Client Access Features
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 1 adds several new features to the already robust set of client access features.
Outlook Web Access (General)
Personal distribution lists
This feature enables Outlook Web Access clients to create new and edit existing personal distribution lists.
Ability for users to edit server side rules
This feature enables Outlook Web Access clients to create server side rules.
The 2007 Microsoft Office system file format converter
This feature enables Outlook Web Access users to view the most common 2007 Office system file attachments as HTML documents. Converting file formats works for Microsoft Office Word 2007 (.docx), Microsoft Office Excel 2007 (.xslx), and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) file types.
Deleted item recovery
This feature enables Outlook Web Access clients to recover items that have been deleted from the Deleted Items folder. Recovered items will be moved back to the user's Deleted Items folder.
Public folders
This feature enables Outlook Web Access users to access, post, post a reply to, and search public folders.
Outlook Web Access (S/MIME)
Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) is the Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 1 feature that enables Outlook Web Access users to read and compose messages that are digitally signed or encrypted.

Exchange ActiveSync
CAS-CAS Proxying
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 1 continues to support CAS-CAS proxying for Exchange ActiveSync. The CAS-CAS proxying feature enables you to publish a single, external URL for your Exchange organization. When this feature is used, all Exchange ActiveSync client requests go through the single, external URL and are proxied to the Client Access server that is located in the same Active Directory site as their mailbox. After you install Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 1 on a computer that is running the Client Access server role, a new virtual directory named EAS is created. This new virtual directory was added for future Exchange ActiveSync devices to benefit from the bandwidth optimizations that were added in Exchange 2007 SP1.
Remote Wipe Confirmation Exchange
ActiveSync for Exchange 2007 enables administrators and end users to send a remote wipe command to a mobile device. Administrators can issue the command from the Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell. Users can issue the command from within Outlook Web Access. Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta 1 introduces a remote wipe confirmation for both the user and the administrator.
Exchange ActiveSync Default Policy
Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta 1 introduces a default Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy. Administrators can define a default policy and apply it to all users who do not already have a policy applied. After a default policy is created, any new mailboxes that are created will automatically have the default policy applied.

Unified Messaging Features
Unified Messaging has been improved in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 1. To use most of these features, you must correctly deploy Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 in your environment. Specifically, to use these features, you must meet the following requirements:

• You are running Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 1 on all Unified Messaging servers in your organization.
• You are running Office Communications Server 2007 (Beta 3 Refresh) in your organization.
• Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 1 and Office Communications Server 2007 are configured correctly.

The following is a summary of the Unified Messaging features that are available in an integrated Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 1 and Office Communications Server 2007 Public Beta environment:

Support for additional types of UM dial plans
To interoperate with Office Communications Server 2007, Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta1 Unified Messaging supports the following additional types of UM dial plans: Sip_Name and E164. You can configure these UM dial plans by using the Exchange Management Shell and also by using the Exchange Management Console. The Exchange Management Console also enables you to create Sip_Name and E164-type UM dial plans by using the New Dial Plan Wizard and to supply Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) when you enable users for SIP_Name UM dial plans.
Additional logic for resolving internal calling numbers
The scope of internal calling number resolution is significantly increased. The original release version of Exchange 2007 resolves internal extension numbers against only two sources. These sources are the extension numbers for other UM-enabled users in the same UM dial plan as the user who is being called and the contact list of the user who is being called. In addition to these two sources, Unified Messaging in Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta1 resolves internal extension numbers against all users in the Active Directory forest.

Support for recording high-fidelity voice messages in Exchange Unified Messaging
Support for high-fidelity sound is added when Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta 1 is used with Office Communications Server 2007. This feature is available when a voice call is initiated by using Office Communicator 2007 and the recipient of the voice call plays the message by using Outlook 2007 or Outlook Web Access 2007. In particular, the following two scenarios support the high-fidelity recording and playback feature: Scenario 1 If a Unified Messaging server answers a call on behalf of a subscriber and either of the following is true:

• The subscriber's audio codec setting (UMMailbox.CallAnsweringCodec) is set to WMA.
• The subscriber's codec setting is not set (this is the default setting) and the subscriber's associated UM dial plan audio codec setting (UMDialPlan.AudioCodec) is set to WMA.
  

Scenario 2 If a Unified Messaging subscriber, whose associated UM dial plan (UMDialPlan.AudioCodec) property is set to WMA, logs on to Unified Messaging, locates someone in the directory, and leaves them a message.
Play on Phone calls cannot be automatically forwarded when they are played on Office Communicator 2007
In the original release version of Exchange 2007, the UM Play on Phone feature enables users to view a voice mail message in Outlook or Outlook Web Access and forward the message to a telephone number of their choice. When Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta 1 is used together with Office Communications Server 2007, Play on Phone calls cannot be forwarded beyond the Office Communicator 2007 client. This change in functionality is beneficial because it ensures that a voice message is not forwarded to anyone other than its intended recipient.
Outlook Voice Access can be accessed from Office Communicator 2007 without requiring the user to enter a PIN
If a user is logged on to Office Communicator 2007, the user can access Outlook Voice Access directly by pressing the Call voicemail button in Office Communicator 2007. Because the user is already authenticated to the server that is running Office Communications Server 2007, the user is not prompted to enter their Outlook Voice Access PIN.
Office Communicator 2007 clients can associate subjects and priorities to voice messages
When Office Communicator 2007 clients make calls, they can associate a subject and priority with the call. When a call has been associated with a priority or a subject, the Unified Messaging server relays the subject and priority of the call in the e-mail messages it generates for missed call and voice mail notifications. Additionally, if a call is initiated from an e-mail message that the user is reading, Unified Messaging uses the original e-mail subject and priority when generating e-mail messages for the missed call and voice mail notifications.
Support for media streams to traverse firewalls
This feature enables Unified Messaging servers to communicate with end points outside an enterprise firewall. The A/V Authentication Service authenticates media traffic as it flows through the Communications Server 2007 Access Edge Server. In this scenario, the Unified Messaging server is associated with an Office Communications Server pool and obtains the appropriate authentication tokens from the Communications Server 2007 Access Edge Server computer that is serving that particular Office Communications Server pool.
Integration of missed call notification e-mail messages with Office Communicator 2007
In deployments that include the original release version of Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging and Office Communicator 2005 clients, call notifications are generated independently. For example, if a UM-enabled user who is using Office Communicator misses a call, two missed call notification messages are generated in the user's Inbox (one from Unified Messaging, and one from Office Communicator 2005). When Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta 1 is integrated with Office Communications Server 2007, subscribers using Office Communicator 2007 receive only one, unique missed call notification in their Inbox.

The following features are available in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 1
.. without integrating your Unified Messaging environment with Office Communications Server 2007 (Beta 3 Refresh).
Secure Realtime Transport Protocol (SRTP) support
This feature enables SRTP media traffic to flow to and from Exchange Unified Messaging. You can configure this feature by using the Exchange Management Shell or the Exchange Management Console. The secure SRTP configuration settings are located on the UM dial plan object.
Exchange Management Console support for configuring Transport Layer Security (TLS)
In Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 1, the Exchange Management Console has been extended to enable you to manage TLS. The TLS configuration settings are located on the UM dial plan object.

HMC 4.0 information (mostly sales)

Just stumbled across a set of (sales/business) presentations on the new Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 4.0 solution (We are actively working with customers on this release, but all information is under NDA until the final release in April).

The Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 4.0 event, held by Microsoft’s UK Software as a Service team, covered the new release of HMC version 4, which is based on the release of Exchange and Sharepoint 2007.

Download Marketing Best Practices
Download Hosting Unified Communications
Download SharePoint Products and Technologies
Download Launching Your Hosted CRM Business
Download Partnering With Microsoft
Download Service Provider Licence Programme Update
Download Hosted Exchange Sales Toolkit (Nice zip file that includes logos, sales pitches, objection handling etc.)

You can find a bit more information on the Microsoft Global Hosting Summit 2007 (Held last week) and in the two videos in the press release from the summit -

Hosted Messaging and Collaboration v4.0 - Announced by David Thompson, Corp. VP, Information Worker Enterprise Group, Microsoft Corp.
Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting v4.5 - Announced by John Zanni, Director of Worldwide Hosting, Microsoft Corp.

Personally I think it's a very interesting release, but I look even more forward to the release where Office Communicator Server 2007 is included (Enabling a full Unified Communications experience).