13 facts of Lync 2013

| Consultant

13 facts of Lync 2013 :

1- office web apps server can be configured to use one URL for internal and external farm , for example “WAC.domain.com” assigned to one public certificate

2-When you migrate from OCS or lync 2010 to lync 2013 you cant install Lync database on same SQL server the have instances host Old OCS or lync 2010 users database. You have to define separated new SQL server with new instance.

3-Lync edge server recommended to be deployed with 3 IP addresses , For edge services:
Access Edge , Web conference and Audio Video ,why? Because all these services will use standard secured port 443 .”user friendly ” firewall configuration as most of Organization allowed port 443 , but when you use ; one IP address with one FQDN like “sip.domain.com” in that case you have to configure edge topology with customized ports Like:
Access Edge 5061 , Web conference 444 , Audio Video conference 443 . And most of network/security expert doesn’t open these ports and always they refuse that , even your network configuration allow that open but the other party you may conference with will not allow these ports.

4-Lync mobile 2013 can make A voice or video over WiFi or 3G, I tried login from Ipad with Lync 2013 client connected to 3 G and am able to landing to my office number and make PSTN call .

5-Lync client will give error “can’t connect to exchange web server ” and this happen if :
– Exchange EWS URLs not configured.
– Auto discover public SRV or A records not created

6-Lync 2013 client will be installed side by side with other old OC or Lync client.

7-Wild card certificate will work with Lync 2013 but it’s not recommended .

8- Lync full deployment will need UCC or SAN public certificate with 8 DNS names.
9- Lync Edge Interfaces recommended to be configured without Gateway or DNS and static route should be added to reach Lync servers and Lync front end pool and servers should be defined in the edge servers host file.

10-Lync UC solution is like no other system. ( AD and Microsoft server integration , No VPN for any external client connectivity , No License for each end point , same user interface on all end points, interoperability where Lync 2013 can integrate with most of all other vendors and also it can be work as a trunk for many IP PBX or gateways , you are linked and synced all the time , “Lync”.

11-Lync 2013 mobile client doesn’t need push notification configuration.

12-Hardware load balancer is required for load balancing web traffic on front end servers and for Lync edge servers you can’t mix the load balances between internal and external interface , both should be hardware load balancer or DNS load balancing.

13-Lync 2013 client around 750 mb so you have to plan for it on all client using distribution point or application like system center configuration manager to create a package using OCT (office customization tool) with customizing sub folder on source DVD not root installation directory.

Exchange 2010 SP3, Exchange 2013 and Lync 2013

| Consultant

Exchange and Lync team signed off on the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build. This milestone means that the coding and testing phase of these product are complete and they are now focused on releasing on the first quarter of 2013.

Exchange 2013

Lync 2013

Also The Exchange Team announced that in the first half of calendar year 2013, Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 (SP3) will be released.

With SP3, the following new features and capabilities will be included:

Coexistence with Exchange 2013: Introduce Exchange Server 2013 into existing Exchange 2010 infrastructure will need the coexistence changes shipping in SP3.

Support for Windows Server 2012: Ability to install and deploy Exchange Server 2010 on machines running Windows Server 2012.

Customer Requested Fixes: All fixes contained within update rollups released prior to Service Pack 3 will also be contained within SP3


Regards,

Ahmed


Lync 2013 Client New features

| Consultant

First you can Download Lync 2013 Preview as part of Office 365 ProPlus Preview or Office Professional Plus 2013 Preview

New Interface with new presence information and colours ; like Viedo Capable.

New menu appear when you move mouse cursor on a user .

If you double click on user you will start instant messaging .

Then you can move the mouse cursor to Call menu

Or move to video preview and click on Turn My Camera On to add video .

Or move to presentation menu.

Here you can see One Notes integration that will synchronize with your Notes in One Notes.

Also you can add attachment to the meeting.

And you can move to participants menu to invite more people.

New menu called NEW where you can add or invite external users (not in your Organization) Like Skype or any federated users.

New Conversation tab and notification area down (Unread)

New Contact List settings under tools >Option.

.

Regards,

Ahmed

How to Install and Configure Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Preview

| Consultant

The following will show you how to install Lync 2013 preview on Windows Server 2012:

  1. Install Lync Prerequisites
  2. Prepare Active Directory
  3. Create and Publish Lync Topology
  4. Install Lync Standard Server
  5. Configure DNS for Automatic Sign in and Simple URLS

Install Lync Prerequisites

Office Wep App Server

Office App Server is a new Office server product that delivers browser-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. A single Office Web Apps Server farm can support users who access Office files through SharePoint 2013 Preview, Lync Server 2013 Preview, Exchange Server 2013 Preview, shared folders, and websites.

Follow below steps to install Office Wep App Server:

Open Windows power shell as Administrator and write

Import-Module ServerManager

Then Copy the below and press Enter

Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Static-Content,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,InkandHandwritingServices

Download Office Wep App Server 2013 Preview and install it with default settings.

Install Certificate for Office Web Apps Server, by opening ISS Manager and click on Server name in the left bane , then click on Server Certificate , then from Action Menu , create certificate request.

Save the certificate request that you will use in the next step.

Open your CA server from the web and Click on Request a certificate

Then click on or, submit an advanced certificate request

Click on Submit a certificate request by using ……. .

Open the saved request file in notepad and copy all contents and past in next screen

Under Certificate Template, choose Web Server and click submit.

Select DER encode and Click Download certificate.

Save the certificate as .cer file

Open IIS Manager and click on Create Certificate Request

Then Specify certificate Authority Response and Enter Friendly name OfficeWebApp Certificate and select to save in Personal and click OK.

Now follow below steps to install Office Web App Server:

Open Windows power shell as Administrator and type

Import-Module OfficeWebApps

Then configure the Internal URL ( Server FQDN name) and external URL ( FQDN name accessible on the internet);here we use same URL for both.

New-OfficeWebAppsFarm -InternalUrl “https://webapp.ucbox.lab” -ExternalUrl “https://owas.ucbox.lab” –CertificateName “OfficeWebApp Certificate” –EditingEnabled

Verify that the Office Web Apps Server farm was created successfully by opening Internet Explorer an type https://wac.ucbox.lab/hosting/discovery and you should see the page below :

After we prepare Office WebApps Server , now we will install Lync Server software preqrequisites :

Installing Windows Roles and Features

Open Server Manager and Click Add roles and features then click next .

Under Servers Roles check Web Server and select the components below:

Under Features select the components below:


Note: If you face error during .Net Framework 3.5 installation, run the wizard again and specify the Source\sxs folder of the Original Windows 2012 DVD as below :


Prepare Active Directory

Download Lync 2013 Preview and click Setup then Yes to install Visual C++

Click install to accept default location

Click I accept the terms …. .and click Ok

Now deployment Wizard will open to start Lync Active Directory preparation and Server installation

Click on Prepare Active Directory.And go for each step of Prepare Schema, Prepare Current Forest and finally Prepare current domain with leaving all default settings the click back until you finish all.

Now you completed Active Directory Preparation

Now OpenActive Directory Users and Computers and add the Admin account you us as member of the Groups CSAdministrator and RTCuniversalServerAdmins

Click Prepare single Standard Edition Server

Click Finish.

Now Click on Install Administrative Tools to install Lync administration tools.

Create and Publish Lync Topology

Now click on the Lync Server Topology builder

Select New Topology and click OK .

Save the New Topology

Enter the ucbox.lab as SIP domain.

Leave additional sip domain blank and click next

Enter Site Name and description

Enter Site details

Click finish to open New Front End wizard

Click Next to define new Front End Pool

Select Standard Edition Server and Enter Server FQDN Name w2012-ls2013.ucbox.lab .

Select Conferencing as we here will deploy conferencing additional to main core feature of Lync (Presence & Instant messaging)that automatically will be installed.

leave Collocate Mediation Server blank and click next (No need to select this role in our lab because we will not deploy Enterprise Voice)

leave Edge pool selection blank and click next (no need to select this role in our lab because we will not deploy External access)

Click next for SQL express edition installation .

Click next to accept the default share location,

Enter lsweb.ucbox.lab as an External URL. (Note: This URL can be changed later)

Click new to add the Office Web Apps Server we installed above (wac.ucbox.lab)

Now, we will add the Simple URL Administrator access

Add Administrative access URL: https://admin.ucbox.lab

Now, we will Add our Exchange 2013 preview server as a trusted application pool for outlook web application integration with Lync sever.

Then right click on the created trusted application pool and uncheck the Enable replication of configuration data to this pool and click OK.

Now publish the new topology by click Action, Topology then Publish

Click next to start publishing

When it successfully completed, click Finish

After we create and publish the topology , now we will start Lync standard edition server installation

Install Lync 2013 preview Standard Server.

Step1 : Open Lync deployment Wizard, if it’s not opened, start Click Run in Install Local Configuration Store

Select Retrive directly from the Centeral Management store or… . and click next. (Note, if you deploy lync Edge role for External Access , you need to select second option to import exported topology and this because Edge server is always a workgoup server and has no access to the Centeral Management store )

Click Finish

Step2: In the Lync deployment Wizard, Click Run under setup or remove Lync Server component to Lync server installation.

Click Finish after task completed .

Step3:Now we will install the Certificate for Lync Server by click Request, Install or Assign Certificates

Select Default Certificate , mark the three boxes and click Request (Note: In production environment , you have to request the certificate for Server Default & Web services internal from internal CA server and Web services External you have to generate request file and get certificate from pubic vendor like Digicert).

Click Next to start certificate request, and follow below steps to generate and assign certificate from online internal CA server

Since there is no additional SIP domain we will leave it blank and click next.(In production environment , you may add here other SAN names that certificate should include especially if you deploy Unified communication certificate (UCC) certificate for more than one product, like for Lync and Exchange).

Now, we will do the same for OAuthTokenissuer

But What is OAuthTokenissuer??

Microsoft Lync 2013 preview, Exchange 2013 preview and SharePoint 2013 preview support new (Open Authorization) protocol for server-to-server authentication and authorization.

It based on tokens grant access to a specific set of resources for a specific amount of time, without passing user credential or password from computer to another.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj204817(v=ocs.15).aspx

Select OAuthTokenIssuer and click Request the follow steps to request and assign the certificate for OAuthTokenIssuer .

Step 4: Now Click Run to start all Lync services

Configure DNS for Automatic Sign in and Simple URLS

Open DNS Console on the Internal DNS Server and create Three (A) records for Lync Simple URLS with IP address of Lync standard server.

dialin.ucbox.lab

meet.ucbox.lab

admin.ucbox.lab

Create One (SRV) record for (Automatic Sign) with the following details:

Service = _sipinternaltls

Protocol = _tcp

Port number = 5061

Host Offering the service = w2012-ls2013.ucbox.lab

Open Control Panel and Enable user for Lync PC-to-PC

Now Open Lync 2013 preview Control panel by entering https://admin.ucbox.lab in the internet explorer and click to Install Serverlight

I tried to login with my Lync 2010 client but it gave me version error as below .

When I checked the version , I found that Lync server Client version policy block this version as below :

OC with version 4.07577.314 , you will see the operation is Olderthan and action Block
; and that ‘s why our lync version is blocked .

In this case ,we need to upgrade lync client to allowed version or modify this policy to have operation Older than or same as, with Action Allow
as below :

Now we can login with Lync 2012 Client.

Thanks and I hope this article will help you to start playing with Lync 2013 Preview till the lync 2013 RTM released .

Regards,

Ahmed

How to Install Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 preview

| Consultant

The article will show you how to install Exchange 2013 preview on Windows Server 2012 with fast look at some changes in this new exchange version.

Installing Exchange 2013 Prerequisites:

Note: in below steps, I installed Exchange 2013 preview on Windows Server 2012.

  1. Open management shell and copy and Paste below

    Install-WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI, Windows-Identity-Foundation

  2. Then download below software and install them :

    Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit

    Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack 64 bit

    Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack SP1 64 bit

Note: Before start Exchange 2013 Preview setup, you must also uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) – 11.0.50531 from Programs in Control Panel.

Now Download
Exchange 2013 preview
and Extract the file and double click on setup

Now I will list some of new features of Exchange 2013:

Architecture Changes:

  1. In Exchange 2013 preview come with two Server Roles , The Mailbox server contains all Exchange Server Roles found in Exchange 2010 like Mailbox, Client Access, Hub transport and Unified messaging & The Client Access server provides authentication, redirection, and proxy services only.
  2. There is no RPC Client Access Services on Client Access Server; all users only will connect to Exchange through RPC over HTTPS, only outlook 2007 or later is supported.
  3. Server Upgrade very easy and is independent between servers roles, not like Exchange 2010 that you have to update CAS before MBX roles and so on.
  4. For multiple site deployment and resilience, you can deploy central Client Access to serve multiple sites with multiple mailbox servers divided between sites.

Exchange Admin Center (EAC)

Managing Exchange through Exchange Management Console (EMC) no longer exists and now all managing through Web with Exchange Control Panel (ECP) as in Exchange 2010 with all administration tasks added to Exchange 2013.

Compliance and Management:

Data Loss prevention: Prevent users from sending sensitive information to unauthorized people, In-Place discovery : Allow you to search across Exchange 2013 preview, SharePoint 2013 Preview, and Lync 2013 Preview.

Outlook Web Applications

  1. Enhance messages with office Applications like Bing Maps that offer you a tap to view your find friend work address when he includes the street name in his email. Also there many applications available on Microsoft for download.
  2. Support many browser in different Operating system on Desktop, tablets and smartphones with supporting touch screens.
  3. Link and unlink contacts in single contact card from different places.
  4. Outlook Automatic add Linked In accounts to your connected contacts

Built-in Malware protection

Exchange 2013 has a built-in Malware protection as below:

Mail flow

The transport services changed in Exchange 2013 and consist of three services ; The Front End Transport service on Client Access servers, The Hub Transport service and the Mailbox Transport service on Mailbox servers .And the below table describe each services.

Services Server owner Function Communicate with
Front End Transport Client Access Server Proxy for all inbound and external SMTP traffics. Hub Transport services on Mailbox server
Hub Transport Mailbox Server Route messages between all Transport services. As Hub Role in Exchange 2007,2010 Front End, Hub Transport and Mailbox Transport services
Mailbox Transport Mailbox Server Mailbox Transport Delivery service,
  1. Receives SMTP messages from the Hub Transport service then
  2. Connect to Mailbox database through (RPC) to deliver the message.

Hub Transport services.Mailbox Transport Submission service,

  1. Connect to Mailbox database through (RPC) then
  2. Submits the messages over SMTP to the Hub Transport service.

The Mailbox Transport service doesn’t queue any messages locally

Voice Architecture Changes

The routing logic and SIP redirect exist on a Client Access server. It handles SIP requests and redirects between SIP peers and Mailbox Server and doesn’t receive and media traffics, The Mailbox server establish media channel between IP-PBX gateways after receive SIP traffic from Client Access Server.

Associate UM dial plans to UM server objects isn’t required because Mailbox and Client Acess Server both are expected to receive incoming call, when we deploy Lync or OCS , we should add Mailbox and Client Access Server in SIP dial plan.

For sure there is many New features in Exchange 2013 preview, you can see at Microsoft Web site.

Really it’s very nice and interesting version of Exchange, I like it very much.

Regards,

Configure Lync client (Phone) for dialing international numbers with a code

| Consultant

Some of Administrators or VIP users are always asking for a code when they dialing an international number from their Lync phone edition because they afraid of anyone that can access their phone and do an international calls or sometimes they feel safe when they do pre dialing code as their old phone.

I believe this is not required at all because who can access your phone can access your office and your data, don’t worry because you can lock your data on your Lync phone data (not dialing), and you know who access your room and you have your logs.

However I had to find work around or solution for that, so what I did is configuring Lync server to send the international number with a code that users should dial before international number then media Gateway (UX 2000) as our example here or any IP PBX will be configured with translation rule to remove this code and send the normal international number.

Lync user should dial international numbers in format:

Code     00     Country Code     National number dial

1935    00     974          12345678

The total outgoing number will be translated to (+19350097412345678)

To do that, you need to make:

  1. (Lync Configuration)

    Create Normalization Rule in your dial plan, PSTN Usage, Routes and Voice Policy and assign international voice policy to user.

  2. (UX 2000 GW configuration)

    Modify the GW rule to remove the UX rule to remove code and do the outgoing call.

Note: This document assumed that Lync server enterprise voice deployed with .Net UX 2000 Gateway, we will only add the part related to make international call with a code.

Lync Configuration

Also make sure that you have a proper

PSTN Usage with associated Routes to accept International call with the code 1935 as below:

Create Voice Policy as below:

Note here the Voice Policy “International” has PSTN Usage International associated with International & National Routes, so users assigned to this policy able to make National call without any code and International calls
with code 1935.

User should be enabled for Enterprise Voice and assigned to International Voice Policy.

UX 2000 GW configuration

Add Translation table entry as below:

At the End, This above steps enable your enterprise Voice users with allowed International Voice Policy to make international call if they only dial 19350097412345678 .

Regards,