One stop shop for all your OCS patches

Microsoft has created a really useful Updates Resource Center with all the latest and greatest patches listed for both Office Communications Server and the clients.

You can also find the updates at this RSS feed.

Note this is meant as a One Stop Shop, it is NOT the place where you’ll be notified first on a new OCS/OC patch.

Good work Microsoft ;-)

Interesting webcast from AudioCodes on OCS integration futures

Besides not being totally honest on what “other vendors” can do (E.g. NET and others provides most of these features and more on top), there were a lot of different interesting news -

They spoke about Direct Connect (Formerly known as “Advanced Gateway” functionality) that apparently is supported in all their gateways from MP11x series to the Mediant (Se their Application Note that doesn’t detail QoE / ICE support however).  The good thing about direct connect is that you get rid of the need to buy and deploy Mediation Server’s  (Bad news are that it’s officially unsupported – so AudioCodes / NET has to support these configurations directly)

Other more interesting functionality was support for third party PBX handsets (Again like NET VX1200 series) on remote locations and survivability for these (If they support it).  Also their own AudioCodes endpoints support registration to OCS, by proxying through their gateways to OCS (Which then handles call control). This includes support for Wideband and future support for presence.

Also Still time to see the #AudioCodes US prez running today at 12:00 noon (EST) / 09:00am (PST) - register here http://bit.ly/8LrYlL. And a recorded webcast should also become available soon (I will update link to it).

Comments on the OCS 2007 R2 Workload Architecture Poster

The recently RTW’ed Architecture Poster provides a very good overview of port and certificate requirements in the different OCS workloads.

This poster of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 describes the traffic flow of protocols and ports used in each workload. Communications Server 2007 R2 supports the following workloads: IM and Presence, Conferencing, Application Sharing, and Enterprise Voice. These filtered views can assist you in architecting your deployment of Communications Server 2007 R2. The different server roles are described along with server certificate requirements. Firewall and DNS configuration requirements are also described.

I like this Poster and the idea/work put in to it and will certainly print one out for the walls in my home office. It provides a visually good overview of the Port usage and signaling/media flows used in OCS.

I have a few comments to the drawing though -

Application Sharing Workload

• Red arrow depicting RDP/SRTP shows inbound traffic to 50,000-59,999. This is not correct – only outbound is required to endpoint. The only place this would be required is for traffic to an OCS 2007 “R1” Edge Server.
• “A/V Edge must have publicly routable IP addresses” – true if implemented in loadbalanced config as shown (But not required for standalone Edge).

Enterprise Voice Workload

• Red arrow depicting RDP/SRTP shows inbound traffic to 50,000-59,999. This is not correct – only outbound is required to endpoint. The only place this would be required is for traffic to an OCS 2007 “R1” Edge Server
• I’m sure G.711 is not used through the A/V Edge as any packet loss would kill it ;-) Siren maybe used for conferencing scenarios.

A/V and Web Conferencing Workload

• Arrows for HTTPS traffic are not correct – they should point towards the LM endpoints, as they are used for downloads of content e.g. slides.

Firewall configuration and ports on the Edge Server. Even though not OCS specific I would personally add port 53 for DNS (To internal or external depending on config) and port 80 to both external and internal (As this port is used for CRL checks). If not in the drawing then in the “Firewall Configuration” text box.

 

I generally like the idea about the DNS and Certificate portion in this poster, but IMHO it is to simplified. If a future update is planned the I think it should have its own page/poster to really handle the different scenarios and namespace requirements in OCS. So for certificates I would still point to the Whitepaper on Deploying Certificates in OCS 2007 and OCS 2007 R2, which does a better job of explaining the complexity of certificates usage/naming in OCS.

BETA Exam 71-404 OCS 2007 R2 – UC Voice Specialization, Will Be Available January 25, 2010

The Voice Specialization exam for OCS 2007 R2 is finally getting closer to release with the launch of the Beta Exam.

Exam 74-404 (Beta Exam 71-404) is designed to validate the skills and experience of technical professional to design, deploy, and administer Microsoft Voice solutions in production based on Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2  (OCS 2007 R2) and including interoperability with OCS 2007, Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, Microsoft® Windows Server Active Directory, gateways and Private Branch Exchanges (PBX’s).

It is highly recommended that candidates for Exam 74-404 have experience with OCS 2007 R2 and have completed the Unified Communications Voice Ignite v 2.0 (R2) Workshop. A preparation guide for the exam will be available soon. Click here for more details.  

Do remember that Inceptio Learning Solutions provide fully qualified UC Voice Ignite Workshops on-site at your company/training provider (almost) anywhere in the world (Contact my.initials@inceptio.dk for further info).

Happy testing ;-)

Maybe I should redefine “Office 2010 x64 fully working with OC” ?

I have now been working with Office 2010 x64 a week or so as per my post Office 2010 x64 now fully working with OC and LiveMeeting Add-in. I have some intermittent problems though – when I log-in everything works fine, then on occassion I get an -

The problem appears after a while and then disappears again later. Integration seems to work fine except that this problem appears from time to time – did anyone get the same error or no error at all? (Perhaps with only one Exchange mailbox – I have two Exchange mailboxes which has other issues – so it may be part of this problem).

Reference Variables

If you want to change a value inside a function, you have to use reference variables. They do not work the same way as they do in C, C# or VbScript.

This is a simple example -

function a([ref]$v) {
    "a1 v=$($v.value)"
    $v.value++
    "a2 v=$($v.value)"
}

$x=0
"begin x=$x"
a ([ref]$x)
"end x=$x"

Note that must use [ref] when declaring the argument and also when calling. Note also that you must use ([ref]$x) in the call. Finally, you can see that [ref] actually converts the variable into a PSReference object and that you must use .Value to set/get the value.

But what if you want to transfer the reference variable across multiple function calls? Well, the logical approach is this -

function b([ref]$v) {
    "b1 v=$($v.value)"
    $v.value++
    "b2 v=$($v.value)"
}

function a([ref]$v) {
    "a1 v=$($v.value)"
    $v.value+=10
    b ([ref]$v)
    "a2 v=$($v.value)"
}

$x=0
"begin x=$x"
a ([ref]$x)
"end x=$x"

The pattern is simply repeated. Just like you would in other languages. But THIS WILL NOT WORK. As the first call creates a PSReference object, using ([ref]$v) creates another level of redirection and things will fail. The correct solution is -

function b([ref]$v) {
    "b1 v=$($v.value)"
    $v.value++
    "b2 v=$($v.value)"
}

function a([ref]$v) {
    "a1 v=$($v.value)"
    $v.value+=10
    b $v
    "a2 v=$($v.value)"
}

$x=0
"begin x=$x"
a ([ref]$x)
"end x=$x"

Note that in the second call, $v – a PSReference object – is simply transferred.

Bottom line: Avoid [ref] when you can. Return values or use scoped variables when possible. Remember that it is very easy to return multiple values from a function and assign them to different variables -

function c{
    "Per"
    "Denmark"
    44
}
$Name,$Country,$ShoeSize=c

Simple script for extracting CDR records from OCS Monitoring Server

Andre Blumberg created instructions and a small script for extracting CDR records for outbound calls. Find it here and do remember to provide your feedback for him (So we all can benefit from your/Andre’s enhancements to the script ;-)

Office 2010 x64 now fully working with OC and LiveMeeting Add-in

First part of the solution was the January Office Communicator Update to 6907.83 that solved the Outlook integration issues/error (Which forced me to “downgrade” to 32 bit Office).

The last part of this solution was the release of the 64-bit LiveMeeting add-in which can be found here and while you’re at it the update to the LiveMeeting console can be found here.

Before upgrading do remember that there is a problem with file uploading in LiveMeeting – only supported file format is native PowerPoint files. Also remember the workaround to make updating OC running 64 bit OS work correctly.

Happy installing/upgrading to 64 bit  ;-)

Workaround for Client Version Filtering problem using 32 bit OC on X64 OS

My colleague Claus-Ole also found and fixed the problem, but Michael Sneeringer (A OCS MCM) was kind enough (hint, hint) to describe the problem and solution in Client Version Filtering on Windows x64.

OCS Wave 14 features

FYI - Curtis Johnstone has revealed some of the essential OCS Wave 14 features – find them in his post OCS in 2010 - The UC 14 Wave.

As an MVP I’m under NDA so I can’t add to the above, but what I can say is that the future for OCS looks promising ;-)