This blog closing down

This is the last post I will be making in this blog, which is now closing down as I head off for pastures new. It’s been fun to post here but life moves on.

In future, my posts on the subject of OCS are to be found posted to my technical blog: Under The Stairs at http://tfl09.blogspot.com.  I also post PowerShell Scripts to my other blog: PowerShell Scripts Blog at http://pshscripts.blogspot.com. Some existing posts will be left here for a while, but will gradually go or move to my technical blog as appropriate. Eventually I’ll remove this blog, so adjust your short cuts and RSS feeds.

For those of you how have read this blog I thank you and for those who have communicated via this blog double thanks.

As the words in the song go: What a long strange trip it’s been!

Back Home after TechEd

Well – TechEd NA 2009 is over, and I’m home. The talk went pretty well. I received an overall score 3.77 out of 4 which was above average and above the UNC track’s average too. Pretty much as to be expected, my VM blew up as I started my first demo – thankfully I had all the demos pre-captured so was able to recover simply from that. 75 minutes on SIP was way too short – I wonder if I can convince MS to do an entire day on SIP for TechEd EMEA?

Updates for Communications Server 2007 R2 (almost SP1!)

Microsoft has released a set of 13 patches for OCS 2007 R2. You might think of this as SP1 for OCS 2007 R2 (but that’s not the say MS is marketing it). Irrespective of what they call it, this set of patches is probably worth adding if you are deploying R2. As ever with patches, check the details to see if your systems are affected by each of these patches and which ones.

Due to the complex nature of OCS Deployments, patching is hard as there’s not just a single patch you can apply to all systems – you have to apply some patches on some systems and other patches on other systems. For example, an OCS 2007 R2 SE system needs 9 patches, while the Edge Server needs three. So plan this carefully as, at the least, you’ll need some service outages to apply the fixes.

The KB article: List of available updates for Communications Server 2007 R2: April 2, 2009, lists all 13 patches and describes which patch needs to be installed on which server role. You can drill down into each of the 13 individual patches – each has its own KB article. Most of these KB articles explain the issues resolved by the patch. KB 967675 that describes the fix to the Mediation server does not contain details of the fixes, but that’s probably just a doc error that will get fixed soon. For each individual issue, there’s a link to (another!) KB article describing the specific issue in more detail which include the symptoms of the (resolved) issue.

All in all, this is a useful update and well packaged. Next time though, couldn’t we have a mondo-patch (R2PatchAug09.exe for example) that you must apply to every related OCS system. That would help with the deployment and could reduce support calls especially from organisations deploying distributed Enterprise pools.

Technorati Tags: OCS 2007 R2,OCS,patch

TechEd Talk Preparation

I’m just counting the days till TechEd NA. As I noted earlier, I’m giving a talk: UNC404 SIP: Naked in All Its Glory, which is a 400 level talk on the protocols that support OCS 2007. The allotted time of 75 minutes is inadequate to convey everything about all the protocols, let alone do all the demos. I could easily spend several days talking about all this (oddly enough, I do spend days talking about this stuff on a regular basis). Unfortunately, I’ve been pretty ill – at home with pneumonia but on the mend – thank heavens for good antibiotics! I will be well enough to travel and speak, but I doubt there will be much partying this year for me!

I’ve spoken at multiple TechEds over the years and kind of know what expect. But this year, the TechEd Organisers are going to even more extraordinary efforts on quality. My deck has been reviewed twice by the product team and I’ve had two dry runs. Today, I have some speaker coaching. As a trainer, I find all speaker coaching to be worthwhile and today’s session was particularly good. We spent a long time working on the areas of public speaking where

The bad news is that my deck is due tomorrow – and the deck I submit is the deck I have to present (no exceptions). After today’s speaker coaching, I want to tear it up and re do it (but there’s certainly not time). But the deck is strong, and with the benefit of the last deck review and the speaker coaching, I’ll have a good presentation. In some ways, that’s not a bad thing – it means I can rehearse what I’ll be saying, rather than changing stuff at the last moment and not quite getting it right. When the talk is all completed, I will post the final deck and the demos for those who are interested!

I wonder if attendees know just how much work a TechEd talk can be is!

Technorati Tags: TechEd

TechEd Talk – continued

My talk for TechEd 09, “SIP Naked in All Its Glory” is moving forward. Yesterday, I had a dry run rehearsal, using Live Meeting. It was nerve-wracking, but a very useful experience. I got some great feedback on the talk and learned a bunch about how to setup my laptop to do the demos.

This talk is all about SIP on the wire – looking at how OCS 2007 uses SIP and related protocols. The thing that came most clearly out of yesterday’s rehearsal is that I could easily spend a WEEK talking about all this stuff- if not more!

TechEd Talk!

I am super excited that I’ve had a talk accepted for TechEd North America. I submitted a number of talks, but only one got accepted: SIP: Naked in All Its Glory.

The talk will look at how OCS uses SIP, as well as a short discussion of TCP/IP, TLS, SDP and RDP. The talk will also look at the many extensions that MS has made to these protocols (as I noted over on my technical blog). The talk spends time looking at the key tools (i.e. WireShark and Snooper) as well as examining a number of network captures. Serious 400 level geekness!

I’ve got the talk nearly done and am working on my demos. Next week I have two dry-run rehearsals in front of an on-line audience. MS are also requiring me to have canned demos just in case anything goes wrong. If there’s something around this topic that you’d like to see added, feel free to ping me!

Sadly, my talk is right at the end of the conference – last thing on the Friday. If you’re around TechEd – I’ll also be hanging out on the UC booth.

 

 

Technorati Tags: TechEd US,SIP,OCS

OCS 2007/2007 R2 User Awareness and Training Materials

I’m just back from a week in Redmond, attending OCS Voice Ignite 1.2 – an advanced training course in OCS and Voice. A fantastic week – serious geek heaven!

One interesting thing that was released last week was the UC 2007/2007 R2 User Awareness and Training Materials. These are a set of tools to help speed the usage and adoption of UC technologies inside your organisation. There are things llike posters, door hangers, quick reference cards, etc to help both IT Pros and End Users get to grips with UC.

If you are planning or involved in a deployment of OCS these materials may be very useful!

Technorati Tags: UC,OCS 2007 R2

OCS 2007 R2 E-Learning from Microsoft

Microsoft has just released a new E-Learning collection entitled: Collection 10051: Exploring New Features in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2. This collection “collection” includes two  E-Learning clinics (aka 1-hour modules):

• Clinic 10052: Introduction to Enhancements in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2
• Clinic 10053: Implementation Strategies for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2

This collection provides a brief overview to what’s new in OCS 2007 R2 and is at around the 150 technical level – it concentrates on the key features of R2 but not dive too deeply. The first clinic looks at what’s new in R2, while the second clinic looks at how you can deploy and migrate to R2.

And a nice feature – these are free.

Technorati Tags: OCS 2007 R2,OCS R2,e-learning

Managing OCS 2007 R2 from the Command Line

Greg Stemp and Jean Ross (who use to be The Scripting Guys), have written a good article on TechNet: Office Communications Server: Managing OCS 2007 R2 from the Command Line.

This article looks at how to use LCSCMD to do useful stuff with OCS. As usual with Greg and Jean’s stuff, the writing is good, and examples are most relevant. And for OCS wanabe-gurus, there are a couple of cool  bits of information I’ve not seen elsewhere (application IDs for example). Well worth a read and a bookmark!

However, LCSCmd.Exe is not the only Command Line tool. The (ex) Scripting Guys have forgotten PowerShell! There’s no mention of PowerShell in this article at all, which is a curious omission. Or possibly the by-product of a word count limit on TechNet).

I’ll write more on this soon over on my Technical Blog: Under The Stairs.

Technorati Tags: OCS

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 is completed

I have it on good authority that Microsoft has completed their work on OCS 2007 R2, which is due for launch in Feb 09.  As of now, it’s not reached MSDN but I’d expect is fairly soon. Allegedly, it’s build 6907. Note that it’s 64-bit only!

Although coming just 18 months after OCS 2007 RTM, R2 is more than just a service pack – it both introduces some cool new features e.g. Attendant Console3, Dial-in Conferencing Support, a much improved CWA and persistent chat to name a few.

I am hoping we’ll see a OCS 2007 R2 Ignite in the new year.

Technorati Tags: OCS,OCS 2007 R2

Edge Planning Tool for Office Communications Server 2007

One of the biggest support call generators for OCS 2007 relates to deployment of the Edge Server. OCS’s Edge Server role can be complex to deploy mainly due to the combination of roles, ports, and IP addresses involved. To help you to deploy your Edge, Microsoft have produced the Edge Planning Tool for Office Communications Server 2007. This is a free download!

The Edge Planning tool produces reports you can use to get your Firewall/DNS/etc folks to do the right thing.

A nice tool.

Technorati tags: Edge, OCS, OCS2007, Office Communication Server

OCS Voice Ignite – Back on the Road

Technorati tags: OCS, OCS Voice Ignite, Microsoft

I’m in Paris this week, and plan to be in Bangalore next week on OCS Voice Ignite. This week, I’m attending the updated version of this cool 5-day technical training session. Next week, I’ll be running a Voice Ignite event at Microsoft’s Technology Centre in Bangalore.

I can’t say much about this training, since it’s covered by NDA. But I can say a) it’s pretty cool training with what looks to be good labs and b) it’s a must if you are seriously going to deploy OCS Voice in your enterprise.

If I can get permission, I’ll post more details.

RampUp – Free Developer Training From Microsoft

If you are a developer, Microsoft has some new free training. Microsoft explains Rampup as: “free, online, community-based learning program, with a number of different tracks that will help you build your portfolio of professional development skills. Ramp Up has a solid foundation of premium technical content from subject-matter gurus, and provides easy-to-access content in a variety of forms that guide you in learning the important skills. Join Ramp Up (it's free!) and help advance your career”

The current offerings and current web site are clearly a work in progress. The site is a little clunky with the integration between MSDN and MS Learning being less than totally seamless. There’s a lack of discoverability, little integration between this training and the MSDN Library content and the material is not bang up to date. But that’s just work that needs to be done – the free training is still of benefit.

I’ve suggested that the next course to go up on the RampUp site should be PowerShell for developers. We’ll see if MS take me up on this suggestion.

So if you’re a developer, why not head on over to the new Ramp Up site and sign up?

Technorati tags: Rampup, training, Microsoft, PowerShell

Office Communications Server R2- 64 bit only!

The news is out: Office Communications Server Team Blog - the next release of OCS requires a 64 Bit OS (x64). This decision was made some time ago, but was only externally announced Last Friday (the Friday before Labor day – a great day to bury news).

For OCS this makes a lot of sense. Running on the X64 OS enables significantly more memory to be allocated. There’s also some evidence that says X64 is a more secure platform. However, there are some real downsides. For OCS 2007 customers, there’s no direct or easy upgrade path – you need a new OS install and a fresh install of OCS 2007 R2. And for those of us doing training, etc, there’s the very real downside that you can’t run x64 apps like OCS 2007 R2 in either Virtual PC or Virtual Server. We’ll either have to use Hyper-V (which is not very laptop friendly), or move over to VMware Server/Workstation. Currently, I’m probably leaning towards VMware as it’ll mean I can run OCS R2 on my laptop without requiring an OS Upgrade. Although MS have not said anything in public, I’m hoping there will be a 32-bit version of the product for training, as is the case with Exchange 2007.

MS has also announced shipping of the beta for OCS R2 although as of this morning, it’s not available on TechNet or MSDN. Hopefully this will be out soon.

Technorati tags: OCS R2

Authentication Cisco Switch Login using IAS

I’ve been playing around the past couple of days with setting up a Cisco 2960 switch to use MIcrosoft’s IAS (aka Radius) to do authenticate logins based on Active Directory. This has not been all that easy as I’m no Cisco guru (yet) and the Cisco manuals were less then helpful to me.

But after a lot of trial and error, and some googling I managed to get both telnet and SSH to login against Radius. The IAS setup was relatively easy – just add a policy, adjust the profile a bit and Radius authentication could work. Getting the switch setup was a bit more tricky.

Starting from a bare switch (no startup-config), here’s the configuration I used that worked against my IAS box:

! setup fundamental stuff
hostname oslo
ip domain-name gktrain.net
enable password cisco
username tfl password 0 line
!
interface vlan 1
ip address 10.1.1.10 255.255.255.0
! Setup HTTP stuff
ip http server
ip http client username http
ip http client password oslo
! ssh/telnet basic setup
! first – generate keys
! note the key length is on a separate line to enable copy/paste
crypto key generate rsa
512
ip ssh time-out 120
line vty 0 15
transport input telnet ssh
password line
login
! Now Setup Radius to authenticate
aaa new-model
radius-server host 10.1.1.100 auth-port 1812 acct-port 1813 key cisco
! Setup server group for simple addition of more servers
aaa group server radius Radius-Servers
server 10.1.1.100 auth-port 1812 acct-port 1813
aaa authentication login TRAuthlist group Radius-Servers
aaa authentication login  TRAuthlist group Radius-Servers
aaa accounting connection TRAuthlist start-stop group Radius-Servers

line vty 0 15
login authentication TRAuthlist
transport input telnet ssh

That all seems to work relatively well – however I am not seeing any accounting records being sent to the Radius Server, despite the configuration above. I guess that’s a mystery for another day

Technorati Tags: Cisco,IAS,Microsoft,SSH,Telnet,2960