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).

Office Communicator Server 2007 and Speech Server 2007 Public Beta RTW'ed

As expected the OCS 2007 public beta is now released to the web. The release date says March 23rd, I received the download notification on the 24rd though (Might be a timezone thing ;-))

You can find the downloads here -

• Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Public Beta
• Documentation for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Public Beta
• Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Speech Server Public Beta

Personally I can't wait to get my hands on this release, which is the first stage in a series of releases for TAP customers and partners.

Problems synchronizing Windows Media files to Storage Card on WM5 ?

Out of topic perhaps, but not less important ;-)

If you are using Windows Vista and Windows Mobile Device center and wants to sync your media files to a storage card on a Windows Mobile 5 based phone, then you might experience this problem -

You try to synchronize content from Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 to a Microsoft Windows Mobile 5-based device with AKU 2.3 or a later AKU. When you do this, the phone connects. However, only the internal storage on the phone is available in Windows Media Player as a synchronization target.

Find the fix in in KB 931621 called "FIX: Only the external storage is available when you synchronize content from Windows Media Player 11 to a Windows Mobile 5-based device with AKU 2.3 or a later AKU".

Stupid me used almost an hour trying to fix the problem and found the answer within 5 minutes on Google ;-)

Public Beta for OCS set launch March 26th

I just received an e-mail stating that the private beta will be closing as of April 6th and that the Private Beta for Office Communications Server 2007 is set to launch March 26th.

You can pre-register for the private beta here

Digging old knowledge out of the head

Stupid me!

I used to end my emails with this quote -

There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.

-- Archibald McLeish (1892–1982), American poet

I just learned it the painful way. I had the experience, but it was burried too deep.

I was happily deploying software to our servers with SMS. I normally just push things out, but this time I wanted to install the program manually the first couple of times as it was Windows Server 2003 SP2. Well, I jumped in Add/Remove Programs, clicked Add New Programs and - nothing!

Strange!

I gave policyspy a go. Everything looked fine. I checked eventlog, status messages in SMS etc. Everything looked fine.

But on a few of my servers I could in fact see the expected advertisements.

Then I (finally) realized: If you connect to a computer with Remote Desktop and not to the console of that computer, SMS has a nasty bug and is not able to show advertisements in ARP or interact with the desktop.

Stupid bug. And stupid me for forgetting it.

Updated Office Communicator 2005 hotfix package

Microsoft has released a new hotfix package KB 92900 described in "Description of the Communicator 2005 hotfix package: February 16, 2007". .

Based on the files replaced, the build numbers and the issues fixed its a cumulative update and therefore, as seen before, replaces the October 19, 2006 hotfix package dubbed KB 926404 and all the earlier updates.

Interestingly it fixes an "issue" I have seen at a customer where the custom help link wouldn't launch unless it was part of Trusted Sites zone in Internet Explorer (Which can be/is an issue in global deployments of LCS, where clients aren't centrally managed).

New fixes are -

• A custom help option that uses a fully qualified domain name does not work in Communicator 2005
• An access violation error may occur when you try to exit Communicator 2005

And the old fixes still included are -

• Error message when you try to use Communicator 2005 to log on to Live Communications Server
• Communicator 2005 does not start on a Windows 2000-based computer
• Communicator 2005 contact list may incorrectly list a contact as "Status unknown"
• Your telephone calls are not forwarded after you sign in to Communicator 2005
• Some of the audio control buttons are missing when you resize the Conversation dialog box to its minimum size in Communicator 2005
• A contact cannot be found in Communicator 2005
• A short delay is experienced before music or a voice message is heard in Communicator 2005
• Advanced VoIP calling features are unavailable in Office Communicator 2005
• The status indicator may incorrectly display the Away status for your presence status in Communicator 2005
• Communicator 2005 may quit unexpectedly when it tries to retrieve the free/busy information from an Outlook calendar
• You can use a copy-and-paste operation to transfer the contents of a file when a policy that disables file transfers is applied to a computer that is running Communicator 2005
• Internet Explorer unexpectedly closes when you refresh a Web page
  A telephone number may contain a clock icon instead of the number zero in Communicator 2005
• Error message when you try to shut down Windows: "End Program-WMS Idle"
• You experience poor video quality in Communicator 2005 running through a multipoint control unit
• Communicator 2005 responds to invitations to conversations with a "Busy" reply

More details on Office Communicator Server 2007

It's hardly groundbreaking news that Microsoft is entering the VoIP market, the real news is that Microsoft is disclosing more and more details publicly (I'm member of the private beta for Office Communicator Server 2007, but all the information we get is covered under NDA).

Microsoft's own bold vision is that 100 Million users in 3 years timeframe will have access to VoIP through Microsoft Office applications and that it will cost approx. half of what VoIP implementations do today.

More on that subject later in this posting, first there is some interesting information on Shell's planned deployment of Office Communicator Server 2007 from an article in NetworkWorld called "VoiceCon: Shell bets big on Microsoft for global VoIP plans" following are some snippets from the article –

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is planning a global VoIP rollout with tens of thousands of IP phones that will ultimately run off of a mostly Microsoft-based server platform.

According to the article Shell is already using Live Communications Server 2005 and around 1.000 IP Phones hosted by Nortel IP PBX and with OCS 2007 it is planning to do a phased migration to a full-scale OCS deployment. From the start the dialplan will be based on Active Directory and Shell will have a mixture of IP hardphones from Nortel that are hosted by Nortel CS1000’s and Office Communicator softphones hosted by OCS 2007. If this is successful the next phase will be to move hundredsof disparate PBX systems to Nortel and OCS and eventually have all phones managed by the OCS environment. In the end Nortel VoIP gateway equipment, based in three datacenters, will only be used for PSTN breakout.

On the reliability issue, Shell says that it is already relying heavily on Microsoft for e-mail and IM, and states that “For many people, these technologies are as important as voice, if not more important,".

The entire Network World article is certainly worth a read if you're interested in a customer's view on OCS. I especially like the comment about duplicate user directories and how customers prefer to have one identity and one logon for all of their communication needs (Be it e-mail, collaboration in SharePoint, audio/video/webconferencing, IM or telephony). This is line with what I talk with my customers about, professional Instant Messaging is very valuable to businesses; but they see the convergence of technologies as even more valuable.

Back to the press release from Microsoft based on a keynote by Jeff Raikes (president of Microsoft Corp.'s Business Division) at VoiceCon. Microsofts approach is of course PC and software centric and this is how it believes that large savings on VoIP implementations will be accomplished. Microsoft states that 40-45 % of the costs of VoIP deployments are used for buying "branded IP handsets". Also it, as Shell does, sees it as "both and" scenario were OCS is deployed together with existing PBX equipment and that it will be a gradual transition towards full scale OCS deployments (The press release from Microsoft is also accompanied by a short video with Jeff Raikes).

One concern for many customers is of course voice quality and it is stated that –

The listening and call quality offered by a pre-release version of Office Communications Server 2007 was "considerably better than that provided by [a leading provider's] IP phones and CallManager" according to an independent benchmark study conducted by Psytechnics, a firm specializing in voice-quality research.

Furthermore, in the Psythechnics report it is concluded that -
Users have been cautious about PC desktop telephony, but our tests show that concerns about speech quality have now been addressed by software, " said Mike Hollier, CTO at Psytechnics. "This evaluation emphasizes the positive transformation that software-based VoIP solutions will have on unified communications and telephony in the future. The familiar PC can now outperform the IP phone."

So what does all this mean for Microsoft’s UC partners and competition? Well for one Microsoft is now very open about the fact that it will partner with all the traditional PBX and IP PBX vendors, but IMO it is certainly not hiding that in the VoIP and Unified Communications area it has a strategy of eventually “ruling the world”.

As a follow-up to the introduction at VoiceCon, Network World Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth interviewed Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president, of Microsoft's Unified Communications Group and he had some interesting comments on how Microsoft sees the competition that I have taken the liberty to quote here –

… We see a lot of folks going down these one-way streets [with PBX and IP telephony vendors]. They might find themselves in a situation where they've deployed a solution, and because it is not an open solution, it is slow in terms of innovation.

Are you talking IP PBX products from companies such as Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, and so forth?
Yes. These are closed systems. They're just like mainframes. Once you bought the computer or IP PBX in this case, you pretty much every component you buy from that vendor. They'll tell you about openness, and say "you can buy any SIP phone, sure," but when you call product support, they'll tell you, "sorry, if you're not using their phone, we can't guarantee the voice experience." It sort of builds on the fear that voiced cannot be delivered in an open platform.

Many of IP PBX vendors at VoiceCon are calling Microsoft a partner. Is OCS a complementary product, or a competitive product for these companies?
[There are] Enterprises which have a TDM PBX today and are looking to move to an IP solution. Then you have some enterprises which have some TDM PBXs and some IP PBX and their goal is to replace all of their TDM PBXs with IP PBXs. What we are telling both groups of users is that we believe, over time, you can be totally based on Office Communications Server. For now, we also want to help customers deal with missing features they may not have, or to help along those who are saying, 'oh, can I trust my voice entirely to Microsoft.' They can keep their current system in place, and put Office Communicator next to it, and slowly phase out the old one.

In addition, there is some good news for Telco's/Service Providers/Hosters offering Microsoft hosting based solutions in the interview. Gurdeep says that is not planning on making a distinct carrier based version of OCS for telcos, but it is focused on making OCS available on a hosted platform.

These products are getting rather large and complex, especially if a company wants to utilize all the features of Exchange 2007 and OCS 2007, and as this as creating a even larger market for hosting companies (and not only for the smaller companies as until now). Furthermore, for companies with current VoIP and PSTN offerings there are some interesting scenarios in offering PSTN break-out capabilities as part of the OCS offering.

In general I'm impressed with Microsoft vision for Unified Communications; it might not deliver everything all companies want in the first wave of products, but this may be accomplished utilizing a mixed environment like Shell plans to do. The quality of the latest Beta 3 release of Microsoft Office Communicator Server is also looking good and I like the way it integrates to Exchange Unified Messaging for voicemails and also the accompanying gadgets that Microsoft are delivering (or helping others to deliver) looks promising. A simple thing as the USB headsets and the Wireless Earbuds is a big step forward not only in voice quality, but also in user experience, because OC intelligently select the right device for the job instead of going through an audio/video configuration wizard (Just choosing the right microphone is often a problem for users, when there are several different to choose from e.g. from the webcam or the built-in microphone).

Also, when I speak with Microsoft employees and TAP customers that have switched entirely to Office Communicator 2007 as a softphone, the message is that the quality and user experience is indeed very good and "We are never going to switch back to a standard phone".

Interested? The public beta is just around the corner, so go sign-up to be notified about the public release at the TechNet Beta Central.

Exchange 2007 mailbox migration methods

I was looking for references on how to migrate mailboxes CrossOrg in Exchange 2007 and found these interesting articles (All from the primary source of Exchange info You Had me At EHLO)

Exchange 2007 migration overview
The process of migrating mailbox content between Exchange servers has been greatly improved for Exchange 2007. Differently than previous versions, our tools are now part of the server code and are therefore more integrated and functional (Covers Intra Org moves).

Exchange Server 2007 Export Mailbox task
Export-Mailbox is a task developed by the migration team to allow Administrators to export content from active mailboxes to a folder inside other active mailboxes. The initial idea for this task was to be a complete replacement for ExMerge. The implementation of some of this functionality was problematic and it required more time than initially planned. In this post I will describe what we are missing, which workarounds are available, and some of our future plans. (Contains all the excuses as to why PST export/import isn't supported until SP1).

Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2007 mailbox migration
Migrating mailboxes from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange Server 2007 directly is not supported. Using native tools, administrators will have to perform this kind of migration as a two-step process which includes:
1. Migrating from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003
2. Migrating from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007

Exchange 2007 Cross Org Mailbox Migration
Cross Org migrations are the ones where a mailbox needs to be moved from one Exchange Organization to another. Since there can only be one Exchange Organization per Forest, that means moving the mailbox between two different Forests.
Exchange Migration Wizard was used to perform this task in Exchange 2003. Exchange 2007 has incorporated Cross Org migrations into the server code base, so now Administrators can perform these moves by using the same task used for Intra Org migrations: Move-mailbox.

Happy reading ;-)

Windows Server 2003 SP2 released

As awaited SP2 was released this week. There are (luckily) no kernel changes in SP2 so the upgrade path should be much smoother than SP1.

News are replacing RIS with WDS, WPA2 support, icacls an updated version of Cacls that correctly propagates inherited ACLs (hmmm sounds like a song we've heard before) etc. For a more comprehensive list of new functionality look here.

SP2 for x86
SP2 for x64 (Also used for Windows XP x64 edition)
SP2 for Itanic

WBH 4.5 and WBH for Applications 1.5 released

Just a quick note (I have more posts on the way in the following weeks, but I've just come back from almost 3 weeks of "downtime" so my backlog is huge)

As announced earlier WBH 4.5 and WBH for Applications 1.5 was in beta, but they are now released. You can find further info on what's new in the earlier post.

The Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting version 4.5

The Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting for Applications version 1.5

Windows Server 2003 RTM - End of Support

The 'gold', non-SP, RTM version of Windows Server 2003 is not supported after April 10th 2007. This was a surprise to me, so maybe it is that to you as well.

You can see all the support dates at Lifecycle Supported Service Packs, server products here and Windows (client and server) here.

Wildcard certificates are not supported in LCS 2005 SP1

Just a quick note - I've seen problems with wildcard certificates that have been used in LCS implementations and just received a comment on this and the documentation from Microsoft is very sparse on the subject.

Wildcard certificates are not supported in LCS, you may get it to work in a simple scenario, but in general it means trouble and it is unsupported.

The only written documentation on this can be found on page 17 in the presentation "How to plan for and deploy certificates in Live Communications Server 2005 SP1" by Shawn Mahan here.