Lync Client Authenticaition

Here is a great article on how Lync Client authentication works, from both an internal and external perspective.

Amazed at some of the posts on the Lync NextHop website...

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2012/11/28/lync-2010-client-authentication.aspx

Lync 2013 Client Address Book Update

The Lync client by default will download the address book from the Lync FE server after a random amout of time once the address book is more that 24 hours old.

There is a Registry Key that can be updated to set the initial delay to 0 mins, in other words as soon as your local file is either: 

1. Not on the PC (has been deleted)
2. Or is more that 24 hours old

The following reg add is the key, its slightly different to from the 2010 client as Lync 2013 policies now reside under the office 15.0 side of things.

reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync /v GalDownloadInitialDelay /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

The address book files on the client are now also stored at a different location.

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync\sip_<lync_signin_address>

Lync Client Comparison Tables

I attended the Lync 2013 Ignite training the other week in Sydney and was keen to get some more information around Lync client capabilities.

Well Microsoft have published a nice little article on what each client functionality is:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425836%28v=ocs.15%29

Lync Server Install Fails on SQL Express Install

Have run across this issue a few times now and it always take me a while to find to find the registry key that needs to be updated so thought I would port about it.

The issue is that the SQLExpress install fails as the systems thinks there are pending file deletes to happen during a reboot, but even after the reboot you get the same error.

The below is the error that is seen.

The registry key that needs to be updated is under:

HKLM > SYSTEM > ControlSet001 > Control > Session Manager > PendingFileRenameOperations

Just open the entry and delete the contents, close the Lync Deployment Wizard and re-run the Lync Bootstrapper.  All should be good.

Lync IP Phones Software Update

The update process for Lync IP Phones is a simple process with five (5) steps:

1. Download the UCUpdates.zip file from MS for the required phone types
2. Unpack the .exe file to get the .cab file
3. Upload the phone firmware to the Lync Front End Servers
4. Approve the update from Lync Control panel
5. Wait for the phone to update

Step 1.

Phone firmware can be found from the MS site at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/gg131945

Step 2.

The downloaded file from step 1 is an .exe file, this file needs to be run to get the required .cab file.

Double click the UCUpdates.exe file

Agree to the MS Licencing Agreement

Select the location for the .cab file to be stored

Click Finish, this will now have create a file called UCUdates.cab in the required location

Step 3.

Next step is to upload the .cab file upto the web server service on the Lync Front End Servers, this step needs to be completed for all FE severs in your Lync deployment.

From the Lync Management Shell run the following command:

Import-CsDeviceUpdate -Identity service:webserver:lyncserver.FQDN -FileName "path to file just extracted"

Step 4.

From the Lync Server Control Panel, select "Cleints --> Device Update"

This will show the updates for Phones installed, approved versions of firmware and Pending versions.

Select the phone hardware type, select "Action --> Approve", this will allow ALL phone to update to the newly installed version of firmware.  

If you wish to only update selected phones for "testing" select "Clients --> Test Device", this will show a list of phones addressed via either Serial number or MAC address that the update will be available for.

Step 5.

Once a Lync IP phone has been idle for approx 10mins it will check the web service to see if any available updates are available. If updates are available the phone will start the update process.

The update process generally requires the IP Phone to reboot, if PC are network attached via the Phone they will loose connectivity.  So be careful when you approve the updates.

Lync Server 2013

There has been some information released overnight with a preview release of Lync 2013.  Hoping to have some time over the next few days to get it installed in my lab and see how it looks.


Some links if you are after more information.

• Lync Server 2013: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh973393
• Lync 2013 Client: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh973391 (need to install the Office 2013 cloud software to get the client)
• Technet Articles: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg412892%28v=ocs.15%29

NET UX MoH

So everyone knows by now that the Lync IP phones don't support Music on Hold (MoH), the some of the early Lync phone clients would let you place calls on hold from the Lync client on the PC and then MoH would be played from the PC.  But this seems to have been "removed" as a feature during a CU update.


From version 2.1.x of the NET UX gateway you can now have MoH played to PSTN callers when a Lync IP Phone places a call on hold.

The supported file types include:

• PCMA
• PCMU
• WAV 
• PCM
• G726

The supported file must have a sampling rate of 8KHz and be a mono channel.

There is also a limit to the size of the file that can be uploaded. On the UX1000 the max file size is 1MB and 4MB for the UX2000.


Steps in configuring the UX for MoH include:
Upload the selected file to the DSP of the UX gateway, from the Settings tab, select "Media --> Media System Configuration" and select "Upload Music File"

Once the upload has been completed you will get the following "Upload Status"

Verify that the MoH file has been uploaded into the UX DSP's by selecting "System --> DSPs"

The next steps involve updating the signalling groups to allow for the MoH, select the SIP signalling group to the Lync Mediation server, there are three (3) options

• Disabled
• Always Enabled
• Enabled for 2-Way Hold Only

MoH	Meaning
Disabled	Music is never played
Always Enabled	Music is always played for the extension placed on hold. This is one-way only
Enabled for 2-Way Hold Only	Music is only played when both parties to a call have placed the call on hold. For example, if party A and party B both place the call on hold music will be heard by whichever party takes the call off hold first, indicating that the other person has placed the call on hold.

The usual setting for this value is "Always Enabled"