What can be delivered

From a customer perspective sometimes they think that base all phone systems on Lync can be single point of...

Lync Conference in San Diego

http://www.lyncconf.com

Are you going there?

Lync2013 certifications is out..........!!!!!

From what I can  see on Microsoft.com there has come out 2 certifications for Lync2013
MS 70-336

Core Solutions of Microsoft Lync Server 2013

and
MS 70-337

Enterprise Voice & Online Services with Microsoft Lync Server 2013

It's time to start to get ready for those exams.......:-)

Be aware that this are the BETA exsams and for the RTM they will be out 15th february 2013.

Installing Office Web App Server Lync2013

1         Installation of Office Web App Server

This document describes the installation of Office Web App Server for Lync2013

Deployment of Persistent Chat Lync2013

1         Deployment of Lync2013 Persistent Chat

We are now going to do the deployment of the Persistent Chat Server.

We open the topology builder and download the current topology.

Then we goes into Lync Server 2013

Persistent Chat

In some day's I will start to install the Persistant Chat server i our Lync Demo environment.
We have installed the Lync Office web App and there will come one other post about this.

/Kai

Lync2010 Enterprise ED to Lync2013 Enterprise ED

Normaly when you want to upgrade from Lync2010 to Lync2013 and if this is a Enterprise Ed, you have a SQL server running. You have your Lync2010 on a instance.

MSN messanger going dead....Skype will take over

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/5/3603014/windows-live-messenger-retirement-skype

Lync2013 to customers

After spoken to Microsoft the other day, they told me when clients will be able to download Lync2013.
VL customers will be able to download it from mid November.
GA customers will be able to download it from mid February 2013.

Volume Licensing customer in about 2 weeks time on their MS Portal........
Time to start working.....:-)

Lync2013 RTM is out!!!

Last wedensday Microsoft delivered Lync2013, Exchange 2013, Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 RTM. This can be downloadet from Technet and MSDN.

Happy Downloading...........

Lync2013 client on Office 365

From what I understand on Microsoft. If you runs Lync in the cloud with Office 365. There is no way problems useing the Lync2013 Preview client.

I have never tested it but I asked around.........Please contact med if you tries it out and tell me the experience.

Persistent Chat Server

Lync Server 2013 Preview, Persistent Chat Server communications software is part of the Lync Server 2013 Preview infrastructure.
Deploying Lync Server 2013 Preview, Persistent Chat Server requires that you:

• Use Topology Builder to define, or import, and subsequently publish your topology and the components that you want to deploy.
• Prepare your environment for deploying Persistent Chat Server components.
• Install and configure Persistent Chat Server components for your deployment.

Depending on your topology, you can install Persistent Chat Server on a single computer or multiple computers.
A Persistent Chat Server pool can exist with a Lync Server 2013 Preview Enterprise Edition Front End pool. However, you cannot collocate Persistent Chat Server for Enterprise Edition with any other server. For more information about Persistent Chat Server collocation restrictions, see Set Up System Platforms in the Deployment documentation, and Supported Lync Server 2013 Preview Topologies in the Supportability documentation.
In addition, you cannot add the Microsoft SQL Server database that is used by the Persistent Chat Server pool to SQL Server Express (which is the setup used by Lync Server 2013 Preview Standard Edition). We recommend that you install the SQL Server database for Persistent Chat Server on a dedicated computer, although collocating Lync Server 2013 Preview SQL Server and Persistent Chat Server SQL Server on the same computer is supported on the same SQL Server instance.
A Persistent Chat Server pool can be collocated on the Lync Server 2013 Preview Standard Edition server by using SQL Server Express. We do not support high availability for Persistent Chat Server with Standard Edition server, and performance and scale will be limited. We also do not support an upgrade of Lync Server 2010, Group Chat Standard Edition server to Lync Server 2013 Preview Persistent Chat Server Standard Edition server. We support only new Lync Server 2013 Preview Persistent Chat Server Standard Edition server deployments.
For details about available topologies and the technical and software requirements for installing Persistent Chat Server, see Planning for Persistent Chat Server in the Planning documentation.
For details about acquiring certificates, creating the SQL Server database, and creating file stores, see Deploying Lync Server 2013 Preview in the Deployment documentation.
If your organization requires compliance support, you can opt to have it installed by using Topology Builder. The Persistent Chat Server Compliance service is installed on the same computer as the Persistent Chat Server Front End Server. A separate database is required for compliance. For details about compliance requirements for Persistent Chat Server, see Planning for Persistent Chat Server in the Planning documentation.
Persistent Chat Server can support up to 150,000 provisioned users. The number of chat rooms supported is 33,077, comprised of 32,000 small chat rooms, 1067 medium chat rooms, and 10 large chat rooms. Each large chat room can accommodate up to 16,000 users.
Persistent Chat Server is also supported on a virtual server. The virtual server can support up to 20,000 users if it matches the specifications of the physical server. We recommend four-core processors and 8 GB of memory.
At a minimum, each topology requires a server with Lync Server 2013 Preview installed and a server with SQL Server database software installed.
Topology Builder supports multiple Persistent Chat Server pools. Follow the same deployment instructions for deploying multiple Persistent Chat Server pools as you would for any pool from the Deploying Lync Server 2013 Preview in the Deployment documentation.

Day 5 @Lync2013 Ignite in Frankfurt (final post from Ignite 2013)

The partner expo was great. Talking to different partner. Got showed some new stuff, and got a Snom 760 telephone for Lync. Going to try it and see if this is something we can offer our clients.

The day today is about SQL Mirroring and VDI and ofcoure Mobility-

Since there is no cluster support for installing Lync2013, it now support Mirroring. But if you read about SQL2012, it does not support Mirroring but has "Always On".
Should you be worried??

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/nebraska-sql-from-dba_andy/2012/03/09/database-mirroring-deprecated-in-sql-2012/

don't think so, because it will be supportet but it will disapeer in future..........

VDI, now works as it should. The sound and picture is syncroniced....

That's it folks, hope you enjoyed these updates from Frankfurt.

Lync2013 Ignite in Frankfurt Day 4

The day startet with Voice Routing Enhancements.
KeyNote: Responsegroups, Managed and Unmanaged groups. The big news is that we now have an application where Managers can do changes for the response groups.

Then we went into Hybrid Voice. The thing here is that you can combine Onpremise and LyncOnline. How the call will flow and so on.

Then we are now on High Availability & Disaster Recovery.
Keynote: SQL can't be clustered more. You need to build SQL Mirroring with og without vitness.
You does this in the Topology Builder and the installation program will configre this for the SQL Server.

We will later on have Make It Real session designing solutions and a Partner Expo.

/Kai

Day 3 @Lync2013 Ignite Part 2

Well what a day. The new web client is fantastic. You have to look forward to it.
Microsoft has desided that it will not be Silverlight based. Just a plugin for you browser.

The we had the integration with Telepresence systems. From what I saw, in the Cisco world you still need to have vsc (gateway).
For Polycom as I understand it, we you will not need it, since Polycom is certified for Lync2013, and so i LifeSize.

This was the news and more will come tomorrow.............

Day 3 in Frankfurt @Lync2013 Ignite Part 1

The day has so far been about WAC, installing Office Web Application server.
Then we went on to Collaboration (client), Video Experience & Infrastucure.

More information will come later this evening CET time.

Lync2010 CU 7 is out

Some days ago Microsoft published CU 7 for Lync server 2010 and Lync client.
More information is here:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/hot/archive/2012/10/12/lync-server-2010-cu7-has-been-released.aspx

Second day @Lync2013 Ignite Part 2

The last part of today was Persisten Chat Server. This replace to old group chat server in Lync2010.
The good news is that we don't need a separate client.
We can if you have installed Enterprise Edition, then we can build a pool of Chat servers.

With Chat server you can build Project rooms for you company, but be aware that you can not invite federated users.

Chat server can connect to SQL Express or your regular SQL. It's up to you but since SQL Express has limited functionality due to database size in SQL 2012 Express the limitation is 10GB pr database.

The Lync client after you have been connected to rooms then they will show as a catalog in the client.

Tomorrow we have the third day and more information will come then.

Second day @Lync2013Ignite Part 1

Some news about the agent:
Lync Attendee client will not be in Lync2013. The webclient will do the work.
Lync Attendent client will not be in Lync2013, you have to use the regular Lync client.

More information will come later today..............

Frist day done @Lync2013Ignite

First day is done. And what a day..........
1. Lync2013 does not support SQL Cluster anymore unless you does an upgrade from Lync2010. If you go for a new Lync2013 you can use SQL Mirroring.
2. If you have an Preview installation of Lync2013 and want's to upgrade to RTM, well then you have to place up new servers and move your user from the old to the new.
3. Archiveing, Monitoring role can now be collocated on the frontend server.


More information will come later.....................

In Frankfurt

Finaly I'm in Frankfurt Germany. It's raining and in just few hours the Lync2013 Ignite will start. Looking forward to this. Mariott Hotel is the place to be for the week.

/Kai

Off tomorrow

So tomorrow I will go to Frankfurt and for the Lync2013 Ignite. 5 days starting Monday at 9am, and registration starts at 8am.

I'll be back with blog after every day..............

Be aware of this kb2661254

I had one client that has installed this patch for their computers. KB2661254.
Well after this Lync stopped working, even they had 2048 bit on their certificate.
We had to uninstall this patch to get the clients to connect back to Lync.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2661254

Soon, off to Frankfurt and Lync2013 Ignite

It's just day's left before I will go to Lync2013 Ignite in Frankfurt.
I will deliver some blogs from there.

C U l8ter

Trouble dial forreign countries from Lync with SIP trunk

I have noticed some trouble due to timeout when calling abroad.
What I have done that fixed this problem was:

Configuring Parameters
Some of the above timeouts can be configured. The file which has the configurable parameters is 'OutboundRouting.exe.config”  Use caution when changing these values, as a rule of thumb try not to increase or decrease the value by more than 25% of its original value.

from OutboundRouting.exe.config
<configuration>
    <appSettings>
      <add key="FailOverTimeout" value="10000"/>
      <add key="MinGwWaitingTime" value="1"/>
      <add key="MaxGwWaitingTime" value="20"/>
      <add key="FailuresForGatewayDown" value="10"/>
      <add key="FailuresForGatewayLessPreferred" value="25"/>
      <!-- Valid values are between 5 and 600 -->
      <add key="HealthMonitoringInterval" value="300"/>
      <!-- Valid values are between 60 and 3600 -->
      <add key="GatewayStateReportingInterval" value="1800" />
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

The FailOverTimeout should be increased to the desired time limit.
The file is found under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\Server\Core

Change this from 10000 to 20000 (20 sec). Save the file and reboot the frontend server.
<add key="FailOverTimeout" value="20000"/>

Skype and that is why we are looking forward to Lync2013

here is some more information about Lync2013. I am looking forward to RTM.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/2012/09/20/skype-and-so-much-more-why-we-re-so-excited-about-the-new-lync.aspx

Office Web app Server

One of the new things thats comes with Lync 2013 is Office Web App Server.
So what is this, and that is a good question to ask. Do I need this??
This is a part of the topology builder and it ask you if you have a Office Web App server already running in you network. If not, well then you have to install a new one if you want.

From the deployment document we can read this:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj204792%28v=ocs.15%29

In Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Preview PowerPoint presentations were viewed in one of two ways. For users running Microsoft Lync 2010, PowerPoint presentations were displayed using the PowerPoint 97-2003 format and were viewed using an embedded copy of the PowerPoint viewer. For users running Lync Web App, PowerPoint presentations were converted to dynamic HTML files then viewed using a combination of those customized DHTML files and Microsoft Silverlight. Although generally effective, this approach did have some limitations:

• The embedded PowerPoint Viewer (which provided the optimal viewing experience) is only available on the Windows platform.
• Many mobile devices (including some of the more popular mobile phones) do not support Silverlight.
• Neither the PowerPoint Viewer nor the DHTML/Silverlight approach support all the features (such slide transitions and embedded video) that are found in the more recent editions of Microsoft PowerPoint.

To help address these issues, and to improve the overall experience of users presenting or viewing PowerPoint presentations, Lync Server 2013 Preview employs Office Web Apps and the Office Web Apps Server to handle PowerPoint presentations. Among other advantages, this new approach enables:

• Higher-resolution displays and better support for PowerPoint capabilities, such as animations, slide transitions, and embedded video.
• Additional mobile devices to access these presentations. That's because Lync Server 2013 Preview uses standard DHTML and JavaScript to broadcast PowerPoint presentations instead of customized DHTML and Silverlight.
• Users with the appropriate privileges to scroll through a PowerPoint presentation independent of the presentation itself. For example, while Ken Myer is presenting his slide show, Pilar Ackerman can look at any slide she wants to, and without affecting Ken's presentation.

But there is more, you can use Sharepoint2013 to communicate with Office Web App Server. So there might be a good way when RTM comes out to start to plan for this environment.
I have not found any "server spesifications" yet, so if anyone out there has something please inform me...........

Cool feature in the Lync Client

I have installed Lync 2013 preview client form Office2013 preview running on my Windows 7 X64. The Lync environment on server side is still Lync2010 .
But when I join meetings I will if I have or can see picture of those who are in the meeting, name on who is speaking.
Great feature, just love it :-)

Lync Client 2013

The Lync client for 2013 is working fine with Lync 2010 server. I have tested it for 1 week now and evrything works as I expected. I have used it to conferencing, dialin, desktop shareing.
Evrything works just as I was waiting.
Lost calls is even logging in Outlook.
-----------------------------

Lync Certificates

As we know Mircosoft say that *.domain.com (wildcard certificates) is not supported under Lync.
This is also the issue under Lync 2013 preview.
Documentation from Microsoft say's its ok to use wildcard certificates on TMG/UAG reverse proxy.
If you plan to use Polycom with Lync Phone Edition on any versions of Lync, please do not think about useing wildcard certificates. And not on the "frontend server" and on the internal NIC for Edge. This will give you trouble download the certificate to your Polycom device.
For the internal NIC of Edge server and for the "frontend" server use certificate from the PKI server.

Telephony in Lync2013 Preview

During the next week, we will start to work on a telephone solution for the Lync 2013 environment.
We will use a NET UX-1000 mediagateway connected to an MX-one from Aastra where we will get the SIP trunk and connect it to the Mediation server. The mediationserver will be Colocated on the frontend server.
How this is done, will be showed in the blog when we are ready.

MSITPRO Certification

Today 15.august 2012, I took the Lync Server 2010, Administrator MS70-665 Certification with the score of 887 of 1000.
This was the second certification that I passed on Lync Server 2010. I have now:

MS70-664 Lync Server 2010 Configureing
MS70-665 Lync Server 2010 Administrating

Dedeployment Lync2010 part 3, the last action

We are as I mentioned in part 2 ready and done but we need some small things to be done before we can't sendt the bill to our client :-)

Upgrading from Lync server 2010 to 2013 should now be complete.

Now to remove Lync 2010 components from the old server do the following:

1.      Run Lync Server 2010 – Deployment Wizard on the Lync2010 server and go to “Install or Update Lync Server System”.

2.     Click “Run” button under STEP2 Section which is “Setup or Remove Lync Server Components”.

3.     Once the setup is run it will remove all Lync Services from the Standard Edition server.

4.     Now from Add/Remove programs remove SQL Server, when prompted first remove RTC Database and then re-run the SQL uninstallation wizard to remove RTCLOCAL Database.

Now we are done and thanks to Kjetil Lindløkken for the help to figure out the last stuff to get this all done.

Dedeployment Part 2 Remove the conference directory

We will now remove the Conference directory. If you have one, this will be the next step for you.

In this example “lync01” is the old 2010 server and Lync2013fe the new 2013 server.

To move the conference directory you can use this command

Move-CsConferenceDirectory -Identity 3 -TargetPool lync2013fe.xxxxxxxxx.no

Then we start the Topology builder and now we can remove the frontend server for Lync2010 and delete it.
Then we need to publish this.

here we answer Yes to All.

Upgrading from Lync server 2010 to 2013 should now be complete.

--------------------------Coffee time---------------------------

Dedeployment Lync2010 Part 1 Central Management Store

After we have published the new topology we are now ready to remove Lync frontend server.
We open Powershell and start with this command

This to find out all the information about the trusted application.
The we shall remove the trusted application with this command
Remove-CsTrustedApplication -Identity "FQDN/urn"
Then answer Y to do this.

Then we have to move CMS to the new server, but first we need to install the database on our SQL.
This is the command for this:
Install-CsDatebase -CentralmanagementStore - SQLserverFQDN <fqdn for SQL> -SqlInstanceName <example. RTC"
When this is done succesfully  then we have to enable-topology

We can now move the CMS by this command:
Move-CsManagementServer

Then it gives you Current State and Proposed State
If this is what you want to do then press Yes or All.

When done, then we have to run local setup on the old Lync2010 server that are no longer defined in the topology.

When we have done this, then we will need to restart the Lync2010 server.
---------------------time for a coffee-----------------------
When we are back and we will now check the replication status, this is done by this command

Then we run also this command

Both of this shall get the status "false".
Then we will uninstall the old database:

 Then we have remove it and there is time for another coffee.

In Part 2 we will take care of the conferenceing directory.

Video in Lync2013 preview

One of the news in Lync2013 preview is that they have fixed the video/sound delay in when you run VDI.
Since we have clients that want to use Lync in XenDesktop we had to try this is in our lab.
The good news is that video and sound is working just fine. There is no delay either on the video or the sound.

Installing Lync 2013 preview

The first we does is to make the server ready. It's important that we use Windows2008R2 SP1 or higher.
Then we update the server with the latest patches from Mircosoft Update.
Then we start to install the prereq for the Lync server. They are :
Message Queuing Server
Desktop Exprerience
GPO Management

14th to 20th October

In the middle of  October 2012, I'm going to Frankfurt in Germany for the Lync 2013 Ignite training for Microsoft Partners. Anyone else who is going there???

Upgrade from 2010 to 2013

After working on a upgrade from Lync 2010 to 2013 Standard Edition, there was some issues during the move of CMS and Conferencingdirectories. The complette documentation will come out some time next week for this upgrade. Be aware that I only have done the upgrade for the Lync FrontEnd server.

Next week

Next I am planning to do and document a Lync2010 upgrade to Lync 2013. The whole document will come here when then job has been done.

DNS entry Lync 2013 for Edge server og TMG/UAG

From the documentation on the preview there has been no changes in the DNS records.
These are still for  TMG/UAG

Dialin.domain.com
meet.domain.com
lyncdiscover.domain.com
webext.domain.com
There is still no support for wildcard certificate for EDGE server role but wildcard can be used for TMG/UAG.

For Edge server these are normal the DNS/SAN names to be used:
sip.domain.com
av.domain.com
webconf.domain.com

Lync 2013 Preview downloaded

From today I have downloaded the Lync2013 Preview. I will from the beginning for August start to work on an update from Lync2010 to Lync2013.
Then I will try to document all the procedure of this documentation.

/Kai