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Lync Server Management Pack information

A very useful resource of information on the SCOM management pack for Lync Server 2010 is available on MP Wiki.

Microsoft have released a number of tool and app add-ons for Lync Server. Among the tools is the 'IM and Expert', 'Conversation Translator' and 'Tabbed Conversation'. The tools amongst others are available on the Lync Adoption and Training kit site.

Microsoft IT Environemnt Health Scanner

An interesting download available from Microsoft is the IT Environment Health Scanner.

It is a very useful tool to run in an enterprise before you start a Lync installation. It is a concern that the installation of Lync, with it's dependency on a functioning AD, DNS and CA and the changes made to the AD Schema as part of the installation will throw up pre-existing issues that will either affect the deployment of Lync or worse will occur after the deployment and the blame and responsibility for fixing any issues will be put on Lync and the Lync engineer. It is a wise move to check the existing IT environment before starting the deployment and showing the results to the customer.

Windows PKI

Although not strictly related to Lync, this post on WinDoh blog is a very interesting discussion of Certificate Revocation Lists in a Windows CA environment.

Lync resource Kit Chapters

Microsoft are releasing chapters of the forthcoming Lync Server 2010 Resource Kit book for review. The documents can be found on the Download site. All the available chapters can be downloaded as a zip file or individual chapters can be downloaded.

Address Book Service	Download
Client Administration	Download
Conferencing and Collaboration	Download
Direct SIP	Download
Enterprise Voice	Download
Exchange UM Integration	Download
Interoperability with Third party Systems	Download
New Features Overview	Download
Response Group Application	Download
Server Administration	Download
SharePoint Integration	Download
Technical Overview	Download
Troubleshooting Basics	Download

The Resource Kit Tools are available for Download also.

MCITP: Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Administrator

I passed the Lync 70-665 exam today so apart from the paperwork, I am now an MCITP:Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Administrator.

I don't intend to break the NDA, so enough to say, prepare for a lot of reading.

As I studied, I created a guide to the various subject areas, available here and used Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Unleashed book.

Unofficial Study Guide for Exam 70-665: PRO: Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Administrator

This will be a living post as I seek out information covering the topics of the Lync Administrator exam, 70-665.

Latest update:

Phone Usage Records
Bandwidth requirements
E911
Private Lines
CAC
Media Bypass
Plan for DR - Bare Metal Restore
Monitoring objective
Designing Sites and Pools

Skills Being Measured This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam.

Designing a Topology for Lync Server 2010 (25 percent)

Design address book.
- This objective may include but is not limited to: generation; distribution; filtering; normalization; size management
- Microsoft Documentation
- Other Blogs
Design central and branch office topology.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Design mediation topology.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Design archiving and Quality of Experience (QoE) monitoring topology. - Deployment Guide
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Design Edge topology.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Design Call Admission Control (CAC).
- This objective may include but is not limited to: sites; site links;
Calculate bandwidth.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:

Designing a Conferencing and Enterprise Voice Infrastructure (25 percent)

Design a dial plan.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Design for voice routing.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Define voice policies.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Define conference policies.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Design for Response Group Services (RGS).
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Design for emergency services implementation.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Plan for devices.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:

Planning for External Dependencies and Migration (24 percent)

Plan for DNS implementation.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Plan for PKI requirements.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Plan for Exchange Unified Messaging (UM).
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Plan for migration.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:

Planning for High Availability and Business Continuity (26 percent)

Plan for high availability.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Plan for load balancing.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Plan for backup and restore.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Plan for disaster recovery.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Plan for system monitoring.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:
Plan for site resiliency.
- This objective may include but is not limited to:

Lync Phone Usage Records

Lync uses Phone Usage Records to define calling privileges for Enterprise Voice users. Phone Usage Records are simply labels, which can be given descriptive names such as 'Local Calls' or 'Calls to Mobile' or 'International Calls'. One or more Phone Usage Records are then added to an Enterprise Voice Policy which can be applied to users. The Phone Usage Records are also associated with outbound call routes. This is the 'glue' that applies the call privileges or restrictions to a user. The collection of Phone Usage Records in the Voice Policy determines all the authorised routes allowed to a user. When a user places a call, Lync Server matches the dialed number with a route in the authorized route list. If a matching route is found, the call is made. If no matching route is found, the call is not made.

The graphic below shows a simple example. We have two Enterprise Voice users. Mr Big is the manager and is allowed to make calls to National, Mobile and International numbers. Joe Bloggs is not to be allowed to make international calls. We already have outbound routes to National, Mobile and International (the examples shows Irish numbering where all national calls begin with a single 0, mobiles begin with 08 and international calls begin with 00). We create two Enterprise Voice Policy records called Manager and Staff. We assign these to Mr Big and Joe as appropriate. The Manager policy has Phone Usage Records called 'National', 'Mobile' and 'International', while the Staff policy only has 'National' and 'Mobile' Phone Usage records.

When either user makes a 'National' call, the Phone Usage Record of the 'National' route is compared against the list of Phone Usage Records assigned to the user, through the Voice Policy. In this case, both users will have a match and the call is allowed. When Mr Big makes an International call, again the Phone Usage Record for the route appears in his list of Phone Usage assignments and the call proceeds. On the other hand when Joe attempts an International call, the usage record on the route ('International') does not appear on his list of Phone Usage Records and the call is barred.

Generally, Phone Usage Records are created for two reasons – to restrict calls because of cost (e.g. International calls) or to restrict calls to inappropriate numbers (e.g. premium content services). In the example shown, the user Joe either needs to make calls to mobile (cell) numbers or the call cost to these are the same as calls to National numbers and therefore there is no point in restricting the calls. However, premium calls are generally not appropriate for business calls and are therefore restricted. This is shown in the graphic by the fact that the 'Premium' phone usage record is not applied to any Voice Policy – neither user could make Premium calls.

More Lync Resource Kit chapters available

Resource Kit Book Chapters:

Microsoft Lync 2010 Adoption and Training Kit Released

Microsoft have released a Lync Adoption and Training kit.

The kit provides:

A workbook that provides step-by-step guidance for each phase of the rollout and adoption process
Adoption and training resources, such as primers, email templates, and templates for a custom Lync 2010 intranet site to help organizations successfully roll out Lync
Modular, reusable, rebrandable, and in most cases, customizable user education and training materials, including frequently asked questions, Quick Start guides, how-to videos, Work Smart guides, and training videos
Buzzworthy applications such as IM an Expert and learning tools such as the Lync How-to that you can use to generate user excitement and drive the adoption of Lync

Hardware virtualisation support for Exchange UM Announced

Microsoft have announced support for the Exchange 2010 SP1 Unified Messaging role on hardware virtualisation. The Technet blog article is here and the official Exchange 2010 system requirements are available here.

Specifically, the UM role has the following requirements -

Four virtual processors are required for the virtual machine. Memory should be sized using standard best practices guidance.

Four physical processor cores are available for use at all times by each Unified Messaging role virtual machine. This requirement means that no processor oversubscription can be in use. This requirement affects the ability of the Unified Messaging role virtual machine to utilize physical processor resources.

Lync Server Troubleshooting

When you are looking at a system that isn't working and have a customer waiting for an update it's good to have a plan. Stale Hansen has given his thoughts on how to go about troubleshooting a Lync issue

Lync Bandwidth Requirements

The bandwidth requirements for Lync are difficult to determine for a given customer installation especially since the nature of Lync is to change how people communicate. The starting point for understanding the network bandwidth requirements are documented on Technet and Microsoft have released a bandwidth calculator.

The bandwidth usage is determined by a number of factors, the Codec used (along with overhead), the Stream activity level and for video, the resolution/quality and frame rate.

Audio Codec Bandwidth

Audio codec	Scenarios	Audio payload bitrate	Add IP header only	Also add UDP, RTP and SRTP	Also add FEC
RTAudio Wideband	Peer-to-peer	29.0	45.0	57.0	86.0
RTAudio Narrowband	Peer-to-peer, PSTN	11.8	27.8	39.8	51.6
G.722	Conferencing	64.0	80.0	95.6	159.6
G.711	PSTN	64.0	80.0	92.0	156.0
Siren	Conferencing	16.0	32.0	47.6	63.6

The bandwidth rates are in Kbps (as are all bandwidth rates in this post) and assume 100% stream activity, which is not the normal case. (Note: The online Technet document shows KBPS (i.e. Kilo Bytes per second for the base Audio payload bitrate, it should be Kbps – reference Wikipedia)

Video Resolution Bandwidth

Video codec	Resolution	Maximum video payload bitrate	Minimum video payload bitrate
RTVideo	Main Video CIF	250	50
RTVideo	Main Video VGA	600	350
RTVideo	Main Video HD	1500	800
RTVideo	Panoramic Video	350	50

The maximum bitrate values shown (Kbps) are applicable for maximum frame rate and maximum quality. The minimum bitrate is for 1fps. HD Video is only available for peer-to-peer sessions. By default, only SD video is allowed, to allow HD video at Global or Site level use Set-CsMediaConfiguration –Identity:Global -MaxVideoRateAllowed HD720p15m

Bandwidth usage by participant

The raw bandwidth specified above is used only when the situation requires it, in other words, depending on what individual users are doing with the session determines their bandwidth requirements.

Peer-to-Peer

Endpoints send audio streams only when the users speak.
Both participants receive audio streams.
If video is used, both endpoints send and receive video streams during the entire call.

Conference

Endpoints send audio streams only when the users speak.
All participants receive audio streams.
If video is used, only two endpoints send a video stream at a time (the active speaker and the previous active speaker).
If video is used, all participants receive video streams.

Stream Activity Levels

Scenario	Media	Estimated stream activity (%)
Peer-to-peer sessions	Audio	61
Peer-to-peer sessions	Main video CIF	84
Peer-to-peer sessions	Main video VGA	83
Peer-to-peer sessions	Main video HD	80
Peer-to-peer sessions	Panoramic video	74
Conferencing	Audio	43
Conferencing	Main video CIF	84
Conferencing	Main video VGA	83
Conferencing	Main video HD	80
Conferencing	Panoramic video	74
PSTN	Audio	65

This is based on customer data gathered by Microsoft.

Added to the media bandwidth requirements is the requirement for control traffic in the form of Real Time Control Protocol (RTCP)

RTCP Bandwidth

Media	RTCP maximum bandwidth
Audio	5
Video	10

Overall Bandwidth by session type

Combining all this information together, Microsoft have come up with a table of maximum bandwidth utilisation (with and without FEC) and also typical bandwidth utilisation.

Audio/Video Capacity Planning for Peer-to-Peer Sessions

Media	Codec	Typical stream bandwidth	Maximum stream bandwidth without FEC	with FEC
Audio	RTAudio Wideband	39.8	62	91
Audio	RTAudio Narrowband	29.3	44.8	56.6
Main video CIF	RTVideo	220	260	Not applicable
Main video VGA	RTVideo	508	610	Not applicable
Main video HD	RTVideo	1210	1510	Not applicable
Panoramic video	RTVideo	269	360	Not applicable

Audio/Video Capacity Planning for Conferences

Media	Typical codec	Typical stream bandwidth	Maximum stream bandwidth without FEC	with FEC
Audio	G.722	46.1	100.6	164.6
Audio	Siren	25.5	52.6	68.6
Main video CIF	RTVideo	220	260	Not applicable
Main video VGA	RTVideo	508	610	Not applicable
Panoramic video	RTVideo	269	360	Not applicable

Audio Capacity Planning for PSTN

Media	Typical codec	Typical stream bandwidth	Maximum stream bandwidth without FEC	with FEC
Audio	G.711	64.8	97	161
Audio	RTAudio Narrowband	30.9	44.8	56.6

E911 in Lync Server

I admit that I am no expert on E911 since it is a US based standard. I therefore personally only need to know about it for the 70-665 exam. So I will let others explain how it works and how it is configured...

Technet
Ken's two part explanation is available here and here

Private Lines

Private lines is a Enterprise Voice feature added to Lync Server 2010. Private lines are a secondary, incoming only number assigned to an existing Lync user. A private line is usually used by company executives. Calls to the private line always ring through even when the user sets their status to Do Not Disturb, with a special ringtone. Also private line numbers do not appear in the address book and are not searchable.

Private lines are configured through Powershell

Set-CsUser -Identity "sip:joe@contoso.com" -PrivateLine "Tel:+14255551212".

CAC and Media Bypass in Lync Server 2010

Update: Configuring CAC from Powershell

Within a Lync Server 2010 deployment there are a number of features which have been introduced to meet the needs of an Enterprise class VoIP solution; namely Call Admission Control, Media Bypass and E911. This post will investigate the first two of these features.

Each of these features is based on the networking configuration of Lync Server 2010. Before configuring any of the features the network configuration has to be defined. Lync views the network as a number of Network Regions, each with one or more Network Sites connected by Network Links.

Network regions consist of multiple network sites. A network region represents a network hub or backbone. Network regions are interconnected through a wide area network (WAN) link. A network region is a collection of sites inter-connected by high speed links. Essentially, the sites within a region don't need to have CAC applied because the available bandwidth is abundant. Each region has a central Lync Site that manages the bandwidth. A single Lync site can be associated with multiple Network regions.
A note on terminology: Microsoft documentation gives examples of network regions, such as North America, Europe and Asia-Pac. However, if the enterprise has a branch location with restricted bandwidth to the HQ or Data Centre, then the branch site would be a region.

Network sites identify locations within a network region. A network site represents a physical location that belongs to an organization such as a branch office or a regional office.

Network links refer to the WAN link that connects two network regions. Such WAN links have limited bandwidth capacity compared to LAN links; therefore, call admission control is enforced on such network links.

Network route refers to the network regions traversed between two given endpoint regions.

This information is probably already available with the enterprise's Network support team.

Call Admission Control (CAC) is defined by a call admission policy which defines the audio and video bandwidth allocated over a network route.

Call admission control policy defines the following information:

Maximum total bandwidth to allocate for audio

Maximum total bandwidth to allocate for video

Maximum bandwidth that can be allocated for a single audio call (session)

Maximum bandwidth that can be allocated for a single video call (session)

Call admission control is enforced at the client level by the receiving client and only if that client is Lync 2010 (not Office Communicator).

Each network site is comprised of one or more subnets. The subnets specified in the Lync configuration must be the subnet as configured on the client, super-netting or subnet aggregation is not supported. Also, the external IP address of the AV Edge server(s) must be added with a 32 bit subnet mask.

How Media Bypass Works

When you enable media bypass, a unique bypass ID is automatically generated for a network region and for all network sites without bandwidth constraints within that region. Sites with bandwidth constraints within the region and sites connected to the region over WAN links with bandwidth constraints are each assigned their own unique bypass IDs.

When a user makes a call to the PSTN, the Mediation Server compares the bypass ID of the client subnet with the bypass ID of the gateway subnet. If the two bypass IDs match, media bypass is used for the call. If the bypass IDs do not match, media for the call must flow through the Mediation Server.

When a user receives a call from the PSTN, the user's client compares its bypass ID to that of the PSTN gateway. If the two bypass IDs match, media flows directly from the gateway to the client, bypassing the Mediation Server.

At the Global level, media bypass configuration has two options: Always Bypass or Use Site and Region Information. Always Bypass is used where there is no need for CAC. Always Bypass assigns all networks the same bypass ID.

The system automatically assigns a single unique bypass ID to each region.

Any site connected to a region over a WAN link without bandwidth constraints inherits the same bypass ID as the region.

A site associated with the region over a WAN link with constrained bandwidth is assigned a different bypass ID from that of the region.

Subnets associated with each site inherit the bypass ID for that site.

Media bypass and CAC work together to manage bandwidth control for call media. Media bypass facilitates media flow over well-connected links; CAC manages traffic on links with bandwidth constraints. If you enable CAC, you cannot select Always Bypass, and vice-versa, because the two configurations are mutually exclusive.

Windows 2008 R2 Bare Metal Restore

A very interesting and informative article on the Bare Metal Restore capabilities of Windows Server 2008 R2 is available on the Technet Ask the Core Team blog.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Resources–Part I

Aviraj Ajgekar of Microsoft has pulled together in one place a number of Lync 2010 resources, the original article is published here.

Resources
Lync 2010 Attendee
Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendee is a conferencing client that allows users without Microsoft Lync 2010 installed, to participate in online meetings. A user with an administrator account on the computer can install Lync 2010 Attendee so that users of the computer can join Microsoft Lync Server 2010-hosted meetings.
Lync Web Scheduler
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Web Scheduler provides a Web-based online Lync meeting scheduling and management experience for Lync Server 2010.
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 New Features Overview
This download contains the New Features Overview chapter of the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Resource Kit book. This book is currently being developed. Chapters will be available for download while this book is being completed.
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Resource Kit
The Lync Server 2010 Resource Kit is the technical reference for the product. This book extends the product planning, deploying, and managing documentation in the Lync Technical Library. This book serves as a companion to the product documentation to learn how the product works under the hood.
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Technical Overview
This download contains the Technical Overview chapter of the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Resource Kit book. This book is currently being developed. Chapters will be available for download while this book is being completed.
Lync Server 2010 Administration Guide
This document contains procedures and guidance for administering a Lync Server 2010 deployment.
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Active Directory Guide
This document guides you through the process of preparing Active Directory for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and includes the Active Directory schema reference.
Lync Server 2010 Capacity Calculator
A spreadsheet for calculating a user’s hardware requirements based on information about users and traffic.
Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool
The Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool provides prescriptive guidance to get you started with planning your topology.
Lync 2010 Bandwidth Calculator
A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that calculates WAN bandwidth requirements for a Lync Server deployment based on administrator-specified user profiles and network information.
Lync Server 2010 Visio Stencil
This stencil provides over 125 shapes to help you create a visual presentation of your Lync Server architecture.
Lync Server 2010, Best Practices Analyzer
The Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Best Practices Analyzer is designed for administrators who want to determine the overall health of their Lync Server environment.
Lync 2010 SDK
The Lync 2010 SDK is the client-side API set that enables the integration and extension of Lync experiences.
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Security Guide
The Security Guide provides guidelines for assessing and managing security risks to your Lync Server 2010 deployment.

Understanding and Troubleshooting Exchange Integration

Microsoft have published a document describing the integration of Lync with Exchange.

An Alternative guide to 70-665 preparation

Enrigue Lima has published a prep guide based on technet resources for the Lync 70-665 exam

Lync Powershell Cmdlets Mindmaps

The guys at the Technet Blog describe a great aid to those of us struggling through the hundreds of Lync Powershell Cmdlets. Tom Arbuthnot has developed a Flash based online interactive application that groups the cmdlets by category and verb. Tom's article is available here and there are mindmaps with category and verb views.


Lync Cmdlets by Category

Lync Cmdlets by Verb

Microsoft Buys Skype for $8.5 Billion. Why, Exactly?

This is a technology focused blog but the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft has the potential for changing the game in relation to Microsoft's UC strategy. The ability for Skype to break out to the PSTN is something would have needed to be implemented for Lync Online, now Microsoft have a head start. An interesting analysis of the move is available on Wired.

The Lync Server Databases

A great explanation of the various Lync Server databases is available on Inside Lync blog by Curtis Johnstone

Lync Monitoring role

The Lync monitoring role gathers data from Lync endpoints, servers and Lync phones. The data specifies media quality and usage data and stores them in a SQL database. The server also provides access to the data trough a reporting engine.

Requirements
To deploy the monitoring role requires a server (hardware and software spec as per all other Lync roles). A full edition of SQL server is required, which can be the same server as the backend of an Enterprise pool. Message Queuing is required on the monitoring server.

Collocation
The monitoring role can be co-located with the Archiving role. Full details on collocation can be found here.

Capacity

One Monitoring server can be associated with multiple pools. A single Monitoring server can capture data for 250,000 users. Based on the Lync Server user model, the CDR database grows 31.5 KB per user per day, and the QoE database grows 28 KB per user per day.

The Monitoring server database size can be calculated from the following formula
DB size = (DB growth per user per day) * (Number of users) * (Number of days)

Installation
The Monitoring role comprises a number of components:

Data Collection Agent - automatically installed on all FE servers
Monitoring server - collects data sent by FE via Message Queuing and stores it in the database
SQL database - QoEMetrics Schema details and LcsCDR Schema details
Message Queuing - installed on Monitoring server as well as FE server
SCOM management pack (optional)
Monitoring Server Reports (optional)

Installation requires:

Iinstalling and configuring MQ
deploy SQL and SQl Reports Service
define Monitoring roles in the Lync Topology and publish
Install Lync Monitoring servers
Install Monitoring Server reports

Supported SQL Server versions
The same SQL Server versions are supported as for pool database

SQL 2008 Std/Ent SP1
SQL 2005 Std/Ent SP3

[Note:SQL 2008 R2 now officially supported but the documentation has not all been updated and for exam purposes for a while we can assume any questions will reference 2005/2008 only.]

SQL Server 2008 Express and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition are not supported.

You can use the following cmdlets to configure Monitoring Server:

To configure CDR settings, use New-, Set-, Get- and Remove-CsCdrConfiguration.
To configure the QoE settings, use New-, Set-, Get- and Remove-CsQoEConfiguration.

Lync Updates April 2011

Updates released for Lync April 2011, info here

LyncAddContacts - add standard company contacts to Lync

Jeff Guillet over at EXPTA blog has written a script called LyncAddContacts.

It provides similar functionality as the OCS Resource Kit tools, LCSAddContacts.

To quote Jeff - "The purpose of LyncAddContacts is to add the same contact groups and contacts to multiple users programmatically. For example, you may want to import a contact group called "Company Contacts" that contains contacts for everyone in the company."

Essentially you need to manually create a template user with the required contacts, use LyncAddContacts to export this configuration and then use LyncAddContacts to import the contacts into each user or OU.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Web Scheduler

Lync Server 2010 Web Scheduler provides a Web-based online Lync meeting scheduling and management experience for Lync Server 2010. It is available for download from Microsoft.

Lync Web Scheduler is a resource kit tool for Microsoft® Lync Server 2010. It provides a Web-based alternative to the add-in for the Microsoft Office Outlook® messaging and collaboration client for the purpose of scheduling a meeting using Lync Server 2010. It also provides a browser-based conference management experience that includes operations such as the following:

Scheduling a new online Lync meeting.
Listing all existing Lync Server 2010 meetings that the user has organized.
Viewing and modifying details of an existing meeting.
Deleting an existing meeting.
Sending an email invitation to meeting participants by using a configured SMTP mail server.
Joining an existing conference.

Installation

This is a very simple application to install. Run the WebScheduler.msi file on (all) the Front End servers. The only configuration required is to set the SMTP server to be used to send emails. This configuration is done in IIS Manager. Navigate to the Lync External Web Site and expand to list all web applications. Select Scheduler and click SMTP E-mail. Enter the SMTP Server address, port and authentication settings. Repeat for the Lync Internal Web Site. The External site needs to be publish through the Reverse Proxy, if required.

Using Lync Web Scheduler

Access the application on https://<internal pool FQDN>/scheduler or https://<external pool FQDN>/scheduler.

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