Trouble dial forreign countries from Lync with SIP trunk

I have noticed some trouble due to timeout when calling abroad.
What I have done that fixed this problem was:

Configuring Parameters
Some of the above timeouts can be configured. The file which has the configurable parameters is 'OutboundRouting.exe.config”  Use caution when changing these values, as a rule of thumb try not to increase or decrease the value by more than 25% of its original value.

from OutboundRouting.exe.config
<configuration>
    <appSettings>
      <add key="FailOverTimeout" value="10000"/>
      <add key="MinGwWaitingTime" value="1"/>
      <add key="MaxGwWaitingTime" value="20"/>
      <add key="FailuresForGatewayDown" value="10"/>
      <add key="FailuresForGatewayLessPreferred" value="25"/>
      <!-- Valid values are between 5 and 600 -->
      <add key="HealthMonitoringInterval" value="300"/>
      <!-- Valid values are between 60 and 3600 -->
      <add key="GatewayStateReportingInterval" value="1800" />
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

The FailOverTimeout should be increased to the desired time limit.
The file is found under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\Server\Core

Change this from 10000 to 20000 (20 sec). Save the file and reboot the frontend server.
<add key="FailOverTimeout" value="20000"/>

Skype and that is why we are looking forward to Lync2013

here is some more information about Lync2013. I am looking forward to RTM.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/2012/09/20/skype-and-so-much-more-why-we-re-so-excited-about-the-new-lync.aspx

Office Web app Server

One of the new things thats comes with Lync 2013 is Office Web App Server.
So what is this, and that is a good question to ask. Do I need this??
This is a part of the topology builder and it ask you if you have a Office Web App server already running in you network. If not, well then you have to install a new one if you want.

From the deployment document we can read this:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj204792%28v=ocs.15%29

In Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Preview PowerPoint presentations were viewed in one of two ways. For users running Microsoft Lync 2010, PowerPoint presentations were displayed using the PowerPoint 97-2003 format and were viewed using an embedded copy of the PowerPoint viewer. For users running Lync Web App, PowerPoint presentations were converted to dynamic HTML files then viewed using a combination of those customized DHTML files and Microsoft Silverlight. Although generally effective, this approach did have some limitations:

• The embedded PowerPoint Viewer (which provided the optimal viewing experience) is only available on the Windows platform.
• Many mobile devices (including some of the more popular mobile phones) do not support Silverlight.
• Neither the PowerPoint Viewer nor the DHTML/Silverlight approach support all the features (such slide transitions and embedded video) that are found in the more recent editions of Microsoft PowerPoint.

To help address these issues, and to improve the overall experience of users presenting or viewing PowerPoint presentations, Lync Server 2013 Preview employs Office Web Apps and the Office Web Apps Server to handle PowerPoint presentations. Among other advantages, this new approach enables:

• Higher-resolution displays and better support for PowerPoint capabilities, such as animations, slide transitions, and embedded video.
• Additional mobile devices to access these presentations. That's because Lync Server 2013 Preview uses standard DHTML and JavaScript to broadcast PowerPoint presentations instead of customized DHTML and Silverlight.
• Users with the appropriate privileges to scroll through a PowerPoint presentation independent of the presentation itself. For example, while Ken Myer is presenting his slide show, Pilar Ackerman can look at any slide she wants to, and without affecting Ken's presentation.

But there is more, you can use Sharepoint2013 to communicate with Office Web App Server. So there might be a good way when RTM comes out to start to plan for this environment.
I have not found any "server spesifications" yet, so if anyone out there has something please inform me...........

Cool feature in the Lync Client

I have installed Lync 2013 preview client form Office2013 preview running on my Windows 7 X64. The Lync environment on server side is still Lync2010 .
But when I join meetings I will if I have or can see picture of those who are in the meeting, name on who is speaking.
Great feature, just love it :-)

Lync Client 2013

The Lync client for 2013 is working fine with Lync 2010 server. I have tested it for 1 week now and evrything works as I expected. I have used it to conferencing, dialin, desktop shareing.
Evrything works just as I was waiting.
Lost calls is even logging in Outlook.
-----------------------------

Lync Certificates

As we know Mircosoft say that *.domain.com (wildcard certificates) is not supported under Lync.
This is also the issue under Lync 2013 preview.
Documentation from Microsoft say's its ok to use wildcard certificates on TMG/UAG reverse proxy.
If you plan to use Polycom with Lync Phone Edition on any versions of Lync, please do not think about useing wildcard certificates. And not on the "frontend server" and on the internal NIC for Edge. This will give you trouble download the certificate to your Polycom device.
For the internal NIC of Edge server and for the "frontend" server use certificate from the PKI server.

Telephony in Lync2013 Preview

During the next week, we will start to work on a telephone solution for the Lync 2013 environment.
We will use a NET UX-1000 mediagateway connected to an MX-one from Aastra where we will get the SIP trunk and connect it to the Mediation server. The mediationserver will be Colocated on the frontend server.
How this is done, will be showed in the blog when we are ready.

MSITPRO Certification

Today 15.august 2012, I took the Lync Server 2010, Administrator MS70-665 Certification with the score of 887 of 1000.
This was the second certification that I passed on Lync Server 2010. I have now:

MS70-664 Lync Server 2010 Configureing
MS70-665 Lync Server 2010 Administrating

Dedeployment Lync2010 part 3, the last action

We are as I mentioned in part 2 ready and done but we need some small things to be done before we can't sendt the bill to our client :-)

Upgrading from Lync server 2010 to 2013 should now be complete.

Now to remove Lync 2010 components from the old server do the following:

1.      Run Lync Server 2010 – Deployment Wizard on the Lync2010 server and go to “Install or Update Lync Server System”.

2.     Click “Run” button under STEP2 Section which is “Setup or Remove Lync Server Components”.

3.     Once the setup is run it will remove all Lync Services from the Standard Edition server.

4.     Now from Add/Remove programs remove SQL Server, when prompted first remove RTC Database and then re-run the SQL uninstallation wizard to remove RTCLOCAL Database.

Now we are done and thanks to Kjetil Lindløkken for the help to figure out the last stuff to get this all done.

Dedeployment Part 2 Remove the conference directory

We will now remove the Conference directory. If you have one, this will be the next step for you.

In this example “lync01” is the old 2010 server and Lync2013fe the new 2013 server.

To move the conference directory you can use this command

Move-CsConferenceDirectory -Identity 3 -TargetPool lync2013fe.xxxxxxxxx.no

Then we start the Topology builder and now we can remove the frontend server for Lync2010 and delete it.
Then we need to publish this.

here we answer Yes to All.

Upgrading from Lync server 2010 to 2013 should now be complete.

--------------------------Coffee time---------------------------

Dedeployment Lync2010 Part 1 Central Management Store

After we have published the new topology we are now ready to remove Lync frontend server.
We open Powershell and start with this command

This to find out all the information about the trusted application.
The we shall remove the trusted application with this command
Remove-CsTrustedApplication -Identity "FQDN/urn"
Then answer Y to do this.

Then we have to move CMS to the new server, but first we need to install the database on our SQL.
This is the command for this:
Install-CsDatebase -CentralmanagementStore - SQLserverFQDN <fqdn for SQL> -SqlInstanceName <example. RTC"
When this is done succesfully  then we have to enable-topology

We can now move the CMS by this command:
Move-CsManagementServer

Then it gives you Current State and Proposed State
If this is what you want to do then press Yes or All.

When done, then we have to run local setup on the old Lync2010 server that are no longer defined in the topology.

When we have done this, then we will need to restart the Lync2010 server.
---------------------time for a coffee-----------------------
When we are back and we will now check the replication status, this is done by this command

Then we run also this command

Both of this shall get the status "false".
Then we will uninstall the old database:

 Then we have remove it and there is time for another coffee.

In Part 2 we will take care of the conferenceing directory.

Video in Lync2013 preview

One of the news in Lync2013 preview is that they have fixed the video/sound delay in when you run VDI.
Since we have clients that want to use Lync in XenDesktop we had to try this is in our lab.
The good news is that video and sound is working just fine. There is no delay either on the video or the sound.

Installing Lync 2013 preview

The first we does is to make the server ready. It's important that we use Windows2008R2 SP1 or higher.
Then we update the server with the latest patches from Mircosoft Update.
Then we start to install the prereq for the Lync server. They are :
Message Queuing Server
Desktop Exprerience
GPO Management

14th to 20th October

In the middle of  October 2012, I'm going to Frankfurt in Germany for the Lync 2013 Ignite training for Microsoft Partners. Anyone else who is going there???

Upgrade from 2010 to 2013

After working on a upgrade from Lync 2010 to 2013 Standard Edition, there was some issues during the move of CMS and Conferencingdirectories. The complette documentation will come out some time next week for this upgrade. Be aware that I only have done the upgrade for the Lync FrontEnd server.

Next week

Next I am planning to do and document a Lync2010 upgrade to Lync 2013. The whole document will come here when then job has been done.

DNS entry Lync 2013 for Edge server og TMG/UAG

From the documentation on the preview there has been no changes in the DNS records.
These are still for  TMG/UAG

Dialin.domain.com
meet.domain.com
lyncdiscover.domain.com
webext.domain.com
There is still no support for wildcard certificate for EDGE server role but wildcard can be used for TMG/UAG.

For Edge server these are normal the DNS/SAN names to be used:
sip.domain.com
av.domain.com
webconf.domain.com

Lync 2013 Preview downloaded

From today I have downloaded the Lync2013 Preview. I will from the beginning for August start to work on an update from Lync2010 to Lync2013.
Then I will try to document all the procedure of this documentation.

/Kai