Lync / Skype4B

I needed a method to recharge departments call costs from Microsoft Lync and came across the following article by Frederik Lefevre: http://www.ucprofessional.com/2012/01/lync-cdr-report.html I found this was exactly what I required but unfortunately the SQL views were not compatible with Lync 2013. This is a simple guide on how to get this working on Lync 2013 for call costs in the UK: **SQL Database Configuration ** On the Lync Monitoring and Archiving SQL instance, create a Linked Server named “ADSI” with the following settings: ...

This script will backup Lync 2013 core data and settings off all servers in the topology as per Technet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202170.aspx The script does the following: Backup the Central Management Store Backup the Location Information Service Data Backup the user data on each Front End pool Backup the Response Group configuration on each Front End pool Backup the Voice Configuration It will create a new folder with a date stamp for each backup. It will also clean up backups older than x days. To use the script: ...

I recently deployed an SBA at a branch office and configured an RGS for the Reception. If the receptionist does not answer within a certain time period then the call is forwarded to an external party. When calling the reception response group, after the queue timeout period the call would be forwarded to the external party (simple!). I came across a problem where my the RGS is hosted on a Lync Front End server in the UK data centre (as SBA does not support RGS). The Front End server has a site Voice Policy configured to route all PSTN calls via the UK gateway. The problem was when the queue timed out, my RGS would forward the call out of a central gateway in the UK rather than the gateway built in to the SBA (in the Netherlands). To resolve this issue I had to assign a User Voice Policy to the Response Group that had the correct PSTN usage, route and trunk to the gateway. ...

When designing your Lync 2013 topology it is easy to overcomplicate the topology with Enterprise Pools in each datacenter. Spanning pools is not supported across metropolitan datacenters in Lync 2013 which means as a minimum recommendation you would require 3 Front End servers in each datacenter pool. Then on top of that you require SQL backend servers, Edge Servers, Reverse Proxies, Office Web App Servers, File Servers, Load Balancers and Persistent Chat servers! Not to mention you require Active Directory, a Certificate Authority and Exchange UM if you want Voicemail! ...

After deploying a Lync 2013 pool alongside an existing Lync 2010 deployment, users were unable to join conferences created by users registered on the 2013 pool. They would get the error “Conference Error”. This affected users who were moved from the 2010 pool and new users created on the 2013 pool. When trying to change the Lync meeting options in Outlook or trying to reset the Assigned Conference Information via the Dial-in conference settings page it would generate an error. ...

I recently started building a Lync 2013 Pilot Pool alongside my Lync 2010 deployment. When publishing the topology I got the following errors: _Publishing in progress _ _Failed adding “AccessWrite” permissions for “RTCComponentUniversalServices” Failed adding “AccessRead” permissions for “RTCComponentUniversalServices” Failed adding “AccessWrite” permissions for “RTCHSUniversalServices” Failed adding “AccessRead” permissions for “RTCHSUniversalServices” Failed adding “AccessWrite” permissions for “RTCUniversalServerAdmins” Failed adding “AccessRead” permissions for “RTCUniversalServerAdmins” _ _Access control list (ACL) might fail on UNIX file shares. Refer to the deployment guide to manually set the ACLs in the file share. _ ...

In this post I will cover how to deploy the Lync 2010 client with a CU (Cumulative Update) and MUI (Multilingual User Interface) pack. I used this method to deploy Lync 2010 with Microsoft SCCM. Create a package source folder (e.g. Lync_2010_MUI_CU7, then download the following files place them into two subfolders named “32bit” and “64bit”: 32bit Folder: LyncSetup.exe (Lync 2010 32bit setup file) Lync.msp (Lync 2010 32bit CU - Download CU 7) LyncMUI_32bit.exe (Lync 2010 32bit MUI setup file - Download) ...

In this post I will cover how to hide Response Groups from the Lync Address Book. You can hide users by setting the msExchHideFromAddressLists value to TRUE either by using the Exchange Management Console or Exchange Management Shell (If you have MS Exchange). You can also hide contacts (e.g. Common Area Phones/Analogue Devices) by setting the same value to TRUE using adsiedit. Microsoft also provide a tool in the Lync Resource Kit called ABSConfig that lets you configure who to include in the Address Book files. ...

It is important to backup your Lync environment so that you can restore service in the event of a disaster. The following Microsoft TechNet articles explain how to backup Lync Server 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202170 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202171 In this article I would just like to share how I have simplified this process. Ben Lye at onesimplescript.com has written an excellent script that enumerates your Lync Topology and backs up your Topology Configuration data, Location Information Service data, Response Group configuration data from all pools and persistent user data from all registrars. The script can be found here: http://www.onesimplescript.com/2012/05/automating-backups-of-lync-2010.html ...

This neat little tool will scan your Outlook contacts and suggested contacts and tell you who you may be able to federate with! Download the tool from here: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Who-Can-Federate-Tool-a9e00d23