Microsoft Lync

This post explains an easy way to block nuisance callers using an AudioCodes SBC. Whilst it’s possible to use New-CsInboundBlockedNumberPattern with Microsoft Teams, what if another type of PBX or Contact Centre hooked up to your SBC? These calls would bypass the Teams rule. Maybe you just want to do your blocking closer to the SIP carrier which is completely acceptable. I’m achieving this by using AudioCodes Dial Plans which are a super efficient way of routing calls rather than having lots of IP-to-IP rules or Number Manipulations. ...

Are you using Citrix or any other 3rd party application that handles media (e.g. Call Recording / Contact Centre) with Skype for Business? You may find you’re not marking this traffic with the correct DSCP markings. You should configure QoS in the usual method using a Windows GPO. Mark Vale documents this process really well: https://blog.valeconsulting.co.uk/2015/09/07/skype-for-business-configuring-quality-of-service-qos/ Pat Richard has a really useful QoS Calculator here: https://www.ucunleashed.com/2821 “Why does it matter if I’m using Citrix or a call recording application like Verba?” Answer - They have their own executables and don’t use the standard SfB exe’s to send/receive media! ...

Note this script is provided as an example only - By default a user can set their own Client Pin via the Dial-In Conferencing page (usually dialin.domain.com). You may have a requirement to bulk set a Client Pin if you’re rolling out a large number of VOIP phones. The script example below sets a 6 digit client PIN consisting of a two digit prefix followed by the last 4 digits of the users LineUri: ...

When you deploy Lync and assign internal certificates to your Lync servers (E.g. Front End, Internal Edge, SBA and Gateways) by default you will only have a 2 year certificate from the “Web Server” template. I like to create a new Certificate Template for Lync with a 5 year lifespan as it can be quite annoying having to renew certificates, especially on the Edge servers and Gateways where you have to export the cert request. I have tried creating a 10 year Certificate Template but the Lync Deployment Wizard complains that the cert is valid for over 5 years. It’s also a good idea to set your Certificate Authority validity period to a long period, I usually opt for 20/25 years. This article will cover how to create a 5 year Certificate Template for Lync. By assigning Certificates to your Lync servers with a longer validity period you won’t have to renew them as often. ...

Lync 2013 introduced a new feature called Pool Pairing. Given the scenario below with 2 sites using Lync Standard Edition with paired pools, in the event that Front End 01 was to fail, or Site 1 failed completely all users will automatically register to Front End 02. However they will receive an error in their Lync client “Limited Functionality due to Outage”, lose their buddy lists, presence information, conferencing features and any Response Groups that were homed on FE01. They will still be able to make inbound and outbound PSTN calls (assuming you have resilient Voice Routing) and they will still be able to search contacts to make P2P audio and video calls. To restore full functionality you need to manually failover the pool following the procedure here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj204678.aspx ...

So you need to calculate how much bandwidth Lync will use, you launch google and type “Lync bandwidth requirements”. You click the top link for Microsoft Downloads “Lync 2010 and 2013 Bandwidth Calculator” here http://windowspbx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/simple-smb-lync-bandwidth-calculator.html. You download the zip, open the excel file then realise you don’t have a degree in quantum physics or it’s Friday and you just want some quick figures to work with. Behold Matt Landis’ “Very Simple SMB Lync Bandwidth Calculator” here: http://windowspbx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/simple-smb-lync-bandwidth-calculator.html ...

The scenario is you have created a Response Group (IVR) with an option to call an Out Of Hours engineer. You configure a queue overflow to forward straight to a mobile telephone number outside of your organisation as follows: The out of hours engineer changes on a rota and you want staff to be able to change the queue overflow number without giving them having to access the Lync Control Panel. I have created a PowerShell script that allows users to accomplish this. They can select from a list of names in the menu or manually type a number. Any changes are logged to a text file. ...

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. ...