New Microsoft Lync 2013 Jump Start Series

I am pleased to announce that two new Lync 2013 Jump Start sessions have been announced...and once again I will be presenting in both. The first JumpStart, titled Core Solutions of Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Jump Start will be held live on May 30th and 31st starting at 9:00am PST. Just as I presented last time with Aaron Steele for the first series once again he will be my co-presenter for the first session. The first Lync 2013 Jump Start series will present information to assist you in passing the Microsoft Exam 70-336.

It is EXTREMLEY IMPORTANT to note that the series requires/expects you to have a solid understanding and foundation of Lync 2010 as much of the content will reference the previous version and compare the old to the new.

The second JumpStart, titled Enterprise Voice & Online Services with Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Jump Start will be held live on June 13th and 14th, again at 9:00am PST. Once again, the second series will be co-presented with Rui Maximo as I did in 2010. The second Lync 2013 Jump Start series will present information to assist you in passing the Microsoft Exam 70-337.

Registration for the first session can be found at http://aka.ms/Lync336. The second session is not yet available for registration but will be coming soon to http://aka.ms/Lync337.

I look forward to sharing important Lync information and discussing my hair once again. Do not miss out on this live session - register today!

0 comments - Posted by Brian Ricks at 12:38 PM - Categories: 2013 | Aaron Steele | JumpStart | Lync | Lync Server | Rui Maximo

Douglas Bowersox presenting on the Lync compatible Endpoints from Sennheiser at the PHXUCUG

Our next meeting is on Tuesday April 30th at 3:30pm.  This meeting we will have Douglas Bowersox presenting on the Lync compatible Endpoints from Sennheiser.  Douglas is the Area Sales Manager-Telecom for the southwest at Sennheiser.   This presentation will be live at the Microsoft office and available remotely via Lync.  Remote attendance is limited so if you can, please show up at the Microsoft Office.  Lync details are available when you register.  Register to attend at this link https://clicktoattend.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/EventDetails.aspx?EventID=169604  Hope to see you all there.

0 comments - Posted by Brian Ricks at 10:55 AM - Categories: phone | UC | Lync | Lync Phone Edition | PHXUCUG

Microsoft has released CU April 2013 for Lync Server 2013 and Lync 2010 Apple Mobile Clients

Yesterday Microsoft released CU April 2013 for Microsoft Lync Server 2013. The update only lists a big fix for Live Meeting audio issues so I would not consider a must-have (it is also an update by PSS request). Since February just came out it may be a hard justification to shut down and install a new update but the info is included below. This is the first CU for Lync Server that does not include the database upgrade requirements.

Additional Notes:

Lync Server 2010 build number is 4.0.7577.216
Lync 2010 Client build number is 4.0.7577.4378
Lync Server 2013 build number is 5.0.8308.291
Lync 2013 Client build number is 15.0.4454.1506
Lync Group Chat build number is 4.0.7577.4102
Lync Group Chat Server build number 4.0.7577.4778
Lync Group Chat Admin build number 4.0.7577.4102
Lync Attendee build number is 4.0.7577.4356
Lync Attendant build number is 4.0.7577.4098
Lync Phone Edition Polycom build number 4.0.7577.4372
Lync Phone Editions (other than Polycom) build number is 4.0.7577.4366 (4363 for CX700/8540)
Lync 2010 for iPhone build number 4.7
Lync 2010 for iPad build number 4.7
Lync 2013 for Windows Phone build number is 5.0.8250.0
Lync 2013 for iPad build number is 5.0
Lync 2013 for iPhone build number is 5.0
Lync Basic 2013 build number is 15.0.4420.1017
Lync VDI 2013 build number is 15.0.4420.1017

0 comments - Posted by Brian Ricks at 4:53 PM - Categories: 2010 | mobile | 2013 | Apple | iOS | Lync | Lync Server

Your Smartphone – the New Lync Portable Phone

With the recent release of the various Lync 2013 mobile clients a new wave of Lync desktop and portable phones have come into play. Yes – desktop and the concept of a portable phone – all available for Lync 2013. How you ask? Quite simply.

With the new Lync 2013 mobile client allowing you to hold VoIP calls natively and its ability to interact with the system, you end up with two calling scenarios.

1)      You are on a call using your laptop/desktop/Aries phones. You realize you need to ‘leave’ your desk and you have the Lync 2013 mobile client installed on your smartphone. From the full Lync client, you park the call, enter the retrieval code into your mobile client (i.e. within the Lync dialer itself) and it retrieves the call. Very nice – you can move any Lync call from your desktop Lync client or Aries phone to your smartphone.

2)      You use the smartphone as your desk phone. Assuming you have wireless (and who doesn’t) sign-in to the Lync 2013 mobile client. All incoming calls will ring on your smartphone as well – just answer it.

The second option is how we replace a desktop phone with your smartphone. You could also use a Bluetooth headset paired with your smartphone making it a complete mobile package. There are a few things to consider however.

1)      The smartphone is VoIP – that means data. If you are using the smartphone on your cellular data network, you are using your data allotment. That may or may not be a problem, but here in the US most mobile phones have unlimited calling/phone minute plans but the data plans are restricted.

2)      If you answer/transfer the call while you are using the corporate Wi-Fi, that call is tied to the IP and network of that Wi-Fi. Leaving the facility or range of Wi-Fi means the call would need to switch to cellular, IP would change, and call would drop. I would bet that something is done to address this by a third-party sometime soon – something like NetMotion offers on the desktop (if not a solution from NetMotion themselves).

3)      Unfortunately the Lync 2013 mobile client lacks the ability to transfer the call back to the call park service – something I suspect will come in time. So, once the call is answered or transferred to the smartphone that is where it lives.

For a desktop or mobile replacement within the office, the issues above are non-existent. Using the new client you have another means to answer your calls and remain portable (not to mention a single phone device). For those looking for a means to use the smartphone as a way to start in the office and then leave we have a workable yet restricted solution. The key would be to make sure your Wi-Fi is OFF prior to transferring the call. This way, when you leave the office you are already on the cellular data network (just make sure you have the cellular data MB available). The last option of course is to simply transfer the call over PSTN to your smartphone. The real cost there will depend on your cellular plan and remember, you are tying up two phone lines (and Lync resources) as the Lync server infrastructure is conferencing the outside call and your smartphone call.

Try it out – play with the new mobile client – make an audio and video call from it – it is simply amazing and it opens up all kinds of possibilities and scenarios.

0 comments - Posted by Brian Ricks at 9:31 AM - Categories: Aries | mobile | 2013 | Apple | iOS | Lync | Lync Phone Edition | WP8

Microsoft has released CU March 2013 for Lync Server 2010 and Lync Mobile 2013 Products

Microsoft has released CU March 2013 for Lync Server 2010 and Lync Mobile 2013 Products

Last week Microsoft released CU March 2013 for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and the Windows Phone/Apple iOS mobile clients for Lync 2013 (with February’s Cumulative Update). The WP8 app was already discussed on my blog (a quick shout-out) but never the iOS. All the mobile client links are included below (their respective stores could be searched too) as well as the Lync 2010 Cumulative Updates.
Don't forget the required SQL update once the CU has been installed...

Install-CsDatabase -Update -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn <EEBE.Fqdn> -UseDefaultSqlPaths

Additional Notes:
Lync Server 2010 build number is 4.0.7577.216
Lync 2010 Client build number is 4.0.7577.4378
Lync Server 2013 build number is 5.0.8308.291
Lync 2013 Client build number is 15.0.4454.1506
Lync Group Chat build number is 4.0.7577.4102
Lync Group Chat Server build number 4.0.7577.4778
Lync Group Chat Admin build number 4.0.7577.4102
Lync Attendee build number is 4.0.7577.4356
Lync Attendant build number is 4.0.7577.4098
Lync Phone Edition Polycom build number 4.0.7577.4372
Lync Phone Editions (other than Polycom) build number is 4.0.7577.4366 (4363 for CX700/8540)
Lync 2013 for Windows Phone build number is 5.0.8250.0
Lync 2013 for iPad build number is 5.0
Lync 2013 for iPhone build number is 5.0
Lync Basic 2013 build number is 15.0.4420.1017
Lync VDI 2013 build number is 15.0.4420.1017

2 comments - Posted by Brian Ricks at 11:11 AM - Categories: 2010 | Microsoft | mobile | Update | 2013 | Apple | Cumulative Update | iOS | Lync | Lync Server | WP8

Help! I cannot join an external company’s Lync meeting!

Recently I was involved with an on-premise Lync 2010 deployment that ended up 'breaking' the ability for users to join an externally hosted Lync meeting. The issue arose once Lync was deployed internally and users found they could join their own meetings, external participants could join those same meetings, but if an external company sent a Lync meeting invite - the meeting join failed. My business partner John Lockett and I worked out a matrix to help describe the issue which is found below.

In a nutshell - if on-premise Lync 2010 is deployed with an Edge server, federation is enabled for both the Lync pool and the user, open federation is not utilized (with the external company NOT listed in their allow list), policy kicks in and prevents the meeting join from being successful.

The logic - as far as I can tell - is that an organization and user are authorized to federate, yet the external company the federation is attempting to communicate with is not on the allow list. Therefore, by policy, the join is denied. As a small step-back if you are internal to your LAN - i.e. you can reach your Edge server's internal network card - Lync will proxy your communication for you to the external party. Imagine a meeting join is started, the SIP communication is sent to your front-end server where it asks to communicate with the external SIP meeting. Your Lync server checks/validates that the communication is allowed and if not, the ability for the Lync server (and thus the Edge server) to join on your behalf is denied. Ideally the Lync client would then try the alternative route of joining the external meeting directly but that logic does not seem to currently exist. I have yet to test this same join behavior with Lync 2013 but will do so shortly.

Below is the flowchart that details the logic. A solution for the issue may be one of many:

·          Disable federation for the effected user

·          Disable federation for the pool

·          Add the external company to the SIP Federated Domains in the Lync Control Panel under Federation and External Access

·          Enable Open Federation (Enable partner domain discovery) in the Lync Control Panel under Federation and External Access | Access Edge Configuration

4 comments - Posted by Brian Ricks at 5:21 AM - Categories: 2010 | Lync | Lync Server | meeting join error

Microsoft has released CU February 2013 for Lync Server 2013 Products

Yesterday Microsoft released CU February 2013 for Microsoft Lync Server 2013. The update is a significant one as it adds the necessary components for UCWA to work correctly with the newly announced Mobility clients (as well as any custom REST apps created).

The update process is a little more involved should you be utilizing the new database mirroring feature of Lync Server 2013 so make sure you follow the steps to a tee. In addition to the standard Updater additional resources were released including the Capacity Planner for 2013, the SDK for UCMA and Lync itself, and additional language support for Lync Basic and the VDI plugins.

Three tidbits of information.

1) The –Update switch is no longer needed as the command will detect if an updated is required and if not, will do nothing. If you include the –Update switch it will drop/read sprocs and reACL permissions regardless if an update is required (it of course will update it as well but why have an outage if it is not required).

2) It is reported that bootstrapper (or the Deployment Wizard Step 2) is required prior to invoking the Enable-CsTopology command although I personally have not seen any updates processed while performing this command. It does not hurt to run however so to be on the safe side just go ahead and run bootstrapper.

3) Reboots of the Front-End servers is required. Sometimes – not sure why – the Edge server must be rebooted even if not prompted (good idea to simply do this). And finally the Lync client must be restarted after the two patches are installed below.

The update process for an SE install of Lync Server 2013 is straightforward. After the update of the Lync bits have been applied simply run from the Lync SE 2013 Server’s Lync Server Management Shell (highly important or the system will not function correctly):

Install-CsDatabase –CofiguredDatabases –SqlServerFqdn yourlyncserver.domain

Followed from a command prompt on the Lync SE server and (if applicable) the Lync Edge server(s):

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2013\Deployment\bootstrapper.exe

And then finally back top Lync Server Management Shell:

Enable-CsTopology

If you have an Enterprise install of Lync Server 2013 the process is a little more involved (more moving pieces). To update an EE deployment without a database mirror start from a Front-End server running from Lync Server Management Shell:

Install-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn SqlServerBE.domain –UseDefaultSqlPaths

Install-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn ArchMonBE.domain  –UseDefaultSqlPaths

Install-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SqlServerFqdnCMS.domain -SqlInstanceName DBInstanceName –UseDefaultSqlPaths

Followed from a command prompt on each FE server and (if applicable) the Lync Edge server(s):

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2013\Deployment\bootstrapper.exe

And then finally back top Lync Server Management Shell:

Enable-CsTopology

If you have an Enterprise install of Lync Server 2013 the process is a little more involved (more moving pieces). To update an EE deployment with a database mirror the process is more involved as you must drop the mirror, update the servers, and then re-create the mirror. This process will most likely be streamlined in upcoming Lync updates – something that we will continue to see often and with high value – but with such a short release cycle it is understandable why the process is what it is today.

Rather than hash the requirements and steps for a mirrored process visit the Microsoft KB article and follow the steps found there (KB2809243). Although it currently does not state a requirement to run bootstrapper on the FE and Edge servers do yourself a favor and run the command to cover all bases (see above cmdlets).

The current update list (and of course all previous updates are included and assumed and thus not listed) is displayed below. It is important to note that the Lync client updates are 2-part and both are required. The table is quite large and as such has been placed into a link which may be found here - the current versions are listed below.

Lync Server 2010 build number is 4.0.7577.205
Lync Client build number is 4.0.7577.4356
Lync Server 2013 build number is 5.0.8308.291
Lync 2013 Client build number is 15.0.4454.1506
Lync Group Chat build number is 4.0.7577.4102
Lync Group Chat Server build number 4.0.7577.4071
Lync Group Chat Admin build number 4.0.7577.4102
Lync Attendee build number is 4.0.7577.4356
Lync Attendant build number is 4.0.7577.4098
Lync Phone Edition Polycom build number 4.0.7577.4372
Lync Phone Editions (other than Polycom) build number is 4.0.7577.4366 (4363 for CX700/8540)
Lync Basic 2013 build number is 15.0.4420.1017
Lync VDI 2013 build number is 15.0.4420.1017

0 comments - Posted by Brian Ricks at 4:40 AM - Categories: Microsoft | mobile | patch | Update | 2013 | Lync | Lync Server