Unified Collaboration

#Lync Server 2013 Whiteboard Archiving Viewer

In Lync Server 2013, the whiteboard(s) used during the meetings is archived as an XML file into the archiving store (file share if using database or Microsoft Exchange 2013).  You can use this tool to convert Lync Server 2013 whiteboard content archived by Lync Server 2013 Web Conferencing service, into an HTML5 format, so you can view the whiteboard in a supported browser.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36822

Microsoft #Lync Server 2013 Resource Kit Tools Released

The Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Resource Kit Tools contain the following tools. The details of each tool and their usage are described in the accompanying documentation.

• ABSConfig
• Audio Extractor
• Bandwidth Policy Service Monitor
• Bandwidth Utilization Analyzer
• Call Parkometer
• DBAnalyze
• Error Log Replayer
• Error String Display
• LCSSync
• MsTurnPing
• Network Configuration Viewer
• Response Group Agent Live
• Response Group Export-Import
• SEFAUtil
• Snooper
• TopologyValidator
• Watson Support Tool for Lync Phone Edition
• Web Conf Data

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36821

Planning Tool for #Lync Server 2013

The Microsoft Lync Server 2013, Planning Tool asks you a series of questions about your organization and the features that you are interested in. The planning tool will then use your answers to recommend a topology based on the tested Microsoft Lync Server 2013 user model.
Your organization may have a different user model. If so, you should adjust the recommended topology as necessary to fit your organization’s needs.
What’s New in the Planning Tool for Lync Server 2013?

• The Planning Tool now allow user to have up to 10 sites, including central site and disaster recovery site
• Lync Server Planning Tool 2013 offers the capacity guidance for Lync Server 2013 new and updated features, including below areas. User can answer the question regarding these features through Planning Tool, and then the suggested topology will contain the information, e.g hardware, network, DNS, certificate, IP, etc, according to the Lync Server 2013 user model.
  • Persistent Chat
  • Archiving with Exchange integration
  • Mobility
  • Multi-view Video
  • High Availability and Disaster Recovery
  • Office Web Apps
  • Exchange Mailbox
• Lync Server Planning Tool 2013 allow user to have IPv6 IP address
• Planning Tool identifies the IP conflicts across sites in the suggest topology. User can choose to show or hide IP conflict in the topology.
• Planning Tool offers a more user friend FQDN/IP/Port editing dialog
• Planning Tool updates the suggested hardware requirement, DNS and certificates with Lync Server 2013 changes
• Planning Tool updates the planning steps and deployment steps with Lync Server 2013 changes
• Lync Server Planning Tool 2013 support the better accessibility requirement
• Lync Server Planning Tool 2013 offers the better exported Visio and Excel files. Visio file matches the suggested topology diagram in Planning Tool well.
• Lync Server Planning Tool 2013 does not support the below features any more
  • Virtualized server design
  • Export the Planning Tool file to Topology Builder

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36823

#Lync Server 2013 Cumulative Update 1 Released #Lync

Lync Server 2013 Cumulative Update 1 is released.

Don’t forget to run the install-csdatabase commands for updating the backend!!

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36820

Updates that are released for Lync Server 2013

• Update for Core Components
  2781550

        (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2781550/            )

  Description of the cumulative update for Lync Server 2013, Core Components: February 2013

• Update for Conferencing server
  2781551

        (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2781551/            )

  Description of the cumulative update for Lync Server 2013, Conferencing Server: February 2013

• Update for Web Components server
  2781564

        (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2781564/            )

  Description of the cumulative update for Lync Server 2013, Web Components: February 2013

• Update for Standard or Enterprise edition server
  2781547

        (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2781547/            )

  Description of the cumulative update for Lync Server 2013: February 2013

• Update for Web Conferencing server
  2787570

        (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2787570/            )

  Description of the cumulative update for Lync Server 2013, Web Conferencing Server: February 2013

• Update for Mediation server
  2796554

        (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2796554/            )

  Description of the cumulative update for Lync Server 2013, Mediation Server: February 2013

• Update for Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit
  2781555

        (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2781555/            )

  Description of the cumulative update for Lync Server 2013, Unified Communications Managed API 3.0 Runtime: February 2013

• Update for Call Park Service
  2781549

        (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2781549/            )

  Description of the cumulative update for the Lync Server 2013 Call Park service: February 2013

A certification journey: Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert Communications (aka #Lync2013)

Yesterday I took the final exam of the MCSE Communication certification track. In this post I want to inform you about the journey I took to pass the track.

The following figure gives a proper outline how the certification track is build up:

++=

70-336 Core Solutions of Microsoft Lync Server 2013

For me the MSCE certification started by preparing myself for the 70-336 Core Solutions of Microsoft Lync Server 2013. With a couple of hours of preparing myself and taking my experience of Lync Server 2010 I thought too take the exam and pass. And that was a big mistake….However very close I failed to pass the exam. This wasn’t a proper preparation and before retaken the exam I forced myself to prepare in a proper way. For me this was taken the TechNet website with the Lync 2013 Planning documentation and start studying and studying. And after a week of hard studying I took the exam again and passed! So this was the first exam of the three required for the exam!

These are the preparation material I used:

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398616.aspx (with focus on Planning and deployment chapters and what’s new in Lync 2013.
• http://windowspbx.blogspot.nl/2012/09/new-microsoft-lync-book-microsoft-lync.html

   

70-417 Upgrading You Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012

The second step in my certification track was upgrading my MSCA Windows Server 2008 certification to MSCA 2012. For this upgrade there is a combined exam available for those who have done a previous MSCA track. After taking a couple of weeks of preparation I took the exam and I passed.

These are the preparation material I used:

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2012/06/04/free-ebook-introducing-windows-server-2012.aspx
• http://www.amazon.com/Exam-Ref-70-417-Upgrading-Windows/dp/0735673047

70-337 Enterprise Voice & Online Services with Microsoft Lync Server 2013

And then it was time for my final exam. Before taking the exam I knew this was a hard one to study for. For this exam it is required to have experience deploying voice with MS Lync. It is loaded with questions about Exchange UM, Normalization rules, Trunks and Voice features and besides that it contains a proper knowledge about how to integrate with O365. But I took the exam and I passed and therefore I finally succeeded and got certified. Although it is not a master certification I am proud and I recommend it to everyone who is working with Lync Server today!

These are the preparation material I used:

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398616.aspx
• http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/tutorial/Dialing-rules-and-restrictions-for-Unified-Messaging-users
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj204805(v=ocs.15).aspx

General Tips:

• Take a proper preparation time for preparing yourself. Because I didn’t I had to retake the exam and that is a waste of time.
• Build your own Lync lab, include Exchange UM and get experience.
• Use TechNet it is your friend, especially because there are no official books on Lync 2013 released yet!
• And finally don’t get depressed if you fail an exam. It happened to me I got back on the horse and carried on!

Good Luck!

#Lync 2013 Reference Topologies

Hi,

An important chapter from the Lync Server 2013 Planning Guide. The given reference topologies can guide you for deploying Lync Server 2013 in a supported way:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398254.aspx

FIX: Monitoring Server Reports experiences poor performance in Lync Server 2010

Assume that you deploy Monitoring Server Reports in a Microsoft Lync Server 2010 environment. If the Call Detail Recording (CDR) and Quality of Experience (QoE) databases are populated by more than 2,000 users, the out-of-the-box reports are delayed by 2 to 10 minutes. Additionally, Monitoring Server Reports experiences poor performance.

To resolve this issue, download and install the following cumulative update:

To install this cumulative update, follow these steps:

1. Run the Lyncserverupdateinstaller.exe file.
2. Upgrade and redeploy the Monitoring Server Reports pack. For more information about how to do this, go to the “More information” section.
   Note You must redeploy the monitoring pack as soon as the install-csdatabase –update command is run on the monitoring server.
3. Upgrade the Monitoring database. For more information about how to do this, go to the “More information” section.

Upgrade Monitoring Server Report

To upgrade the Monitoring Server Reports pack, follow these steps.
NoteYou can apply these steps when you deploy Monitoring Server Reports for the first time.

1. As a member of the DomainAdmins group, log on to any server in the domain that has the cumulative update installed.
2. Run the Setup.exe file in the Lync Server 2010 installation folder or media to start the Deployment Wizard.
3. In the Deployment Wizard, click Deploy Monitoring Server Reports.
4. On the Specify Monitoring Server page, specify the Monitoring server that will collect and store the CDR and QoE data.
5. On the Specify Monitoring Server wizard page, specify the instance of SQL Server Reporting Services that will publish the reports.
   NoteTo publish the reports, you must disable the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)-compliant algorithm policy on the Reporting Services Server. Alternatively, you can apply the workaround that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
   911722

   You may receive an error message when you access ASP.NET Web pages that have ViewState enabled after you upgrade from ASP.NET 1.1 to ASP.NET 2.0

6. On the Specify Credentialpage, specify the user credentials that will be used to access the Monitoring Server store (QoEMetrics and LcsCDR databases). For more information, go to the following MSDN website:
   Specifying credential and connection information for report data sources (SSRS)
7. On the Specify Read-Only group page, specify the domain group that will be granted read-only access to the Monitoring reports.
   Notes
   • This step is optional.
   • You can also configure the read-only group by using SQL Server Reporting Services.
   • This read-only group must exist to run the command successfully.
   • This read-only group refers to the local group on the computer that is running SQL Server Reporting Services. This is true even when you run the deployment remotely.
   • Do not include the computer name when you specify a read-only group.
   • Add users to this group to grant them the access to the reports.

Upgrade the Monitoring database

To upgrade the Monitoring database, follow these steps:

1. As a member of the DomainAdmins group, log on to any server in the domain that has the cumulative update installed.
2. Click Start, click Microsoft Lync Server 2010, and then click Lync Server Management Shell.
3. Run the following Lync Server 2010 PowerShell command:
   Install-CsDatabase –DatabaseType Monitoring –update –sqlserverfqdn <MonitoringStoreBox> –sqlinstancename <SQL Server Instance Name>

   For example, the following command upgrades a Monitoring store that is installed on server01.contoso.com\Monitor:

   Install-CsDatabase –DatabaseType Monitoring –update –sqlserverfqdn server01.contoso.com –sqlinstancename Monitor

Important When you run the Install-CsDatabase command without the DatabasePaths parameter or the UseDefaultSqlPath parameter, as occurs in step 3, the command uses a built-in algorithm to determine the best placement for the log and data files. The algorithm works only for stand-alone SQL Server implementations. It is not intended for use on SQL Server clusters. SQL Server clusters should use either DatabasePaths to define the paths for log and data files, or UseDefaultSqlPath.
Note The articles that are listed in the “References” section contain more information about how to use the Install-CsDatabase Lync Server 2010 PowerShell command.

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2703324/en-us