AndersonPatricio.ca

The new and improved Contact List

Hi folks,

For those who tried Lync Server 2010 the changes in the client you may have notice the huge differences between the new version and the old one. The Lync Server team blogged about the new contact list.

The contact list is one of the most important components of the Lync experience. In the latest version of Lync, we have made a bunch of enhancements to the contact list to help you stay connected your contacts. One of the first things you'll notice after installing Microsoft Lync is the photos in the contact list! Photo is one of the many things we added to the contact list to improve the contacts experience. In this blog article, I'm going to touch on a few things including tips on how to customize the contact list to help you get the most out of your Lync experience.

Read more at source: http://communicatorteam.com/archive/2010/11/19/2031.aspx

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio
http://msmvps.org/Blog/AndersonPatricio
http://www.andersonpatricio.org
Twitter: @apatricio

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Protocol Workloads Poster

Hi folks,

Lync Team published a visio diagram with the protocol workloads. Good stuff.

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio
http://msmvps.org/Blog/AndersonPatricio
http://www.andersonpatricio.org
Twitter: @apatricio

Lync Server 2010 and User Photos

Hi folks,

We as IT guys love all the High Availability, server roles and cool IT core stuff however end-users are more concerned about things that are closer to them. The picture display in Lync 2010 is a good example.

However as IT guys we can have some fun configuring the Photos settings to our users. Using Lync we can set client policies from the server instead of Group Policies which makes our lives way easier. If you want to manage Display Photos for example, you just need to use New-CSClientPolicy and work on these two items:

• DisplayPhoto which has the self-explanatory values: NoPhoto, PhotosFromADOnly and AllPhotos (Standard configuration).
• MaxPhotoSizeKB the default value is 30KB

More information about Client Policies? Here we go : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425949.aspx

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio
http://msmvps.org/Blog/AndersonPatricio
http://www.andersonpatricio.org
Twitter: @apatricio

Lync Server 2010 RTM is here

Here is the link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=145a4aaa-1f0d-403a-ad10-a1166ec44c75&displaylang=en&hash=Vsy3XQ7WwrlFBnFa1Ww8TOuDieZvlVZ2SHleAyXYwIKGqUHtx%2b6uGW8xoterWsLmTpjYQeVnbieTMUIQW8MYdQ%3d%3d

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio
http://msmvps.org/Blog/AndersonPatricio
http://www.andersonpatricio.org
Twitter: @apatricio

Preparing your System for a Lync Web App Meeting

Hi folks,

Lync Server RTM is right around the corner and one of the nicest feature of the product is the Lync Web App Meeting. In this post the Lync Server Team explains what is necessary to be configured on your system to start collaborating using this new feature.

To successfully attend this meeting and have an optimal experience, ensure the following on the system from which you plan to join the meeting using Lync Web App:

1. You need to be on a supported browser and platform combination
2. You need to have Microsoft Silverlight 4.0 (or later) installed
3. Disable pop-up blockers in your browser

Read more at source: http://communicatorteam.com/archive/2010/11/12/2000.aspx

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio
http://msmvps.org/Blog/AndersonPatricio
http://www.andersonpatricio.org
Twitter: @apatricio

Managing Internet Calendar Sharing in Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1

Hi folks,

I started a new article series (just 2 articles) about Internet Calendar Sharing in Exchange Server 2010 SP1. You can check it out at http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2010/management-administration/managing-internet-calendar-sharing-exchange-server-2010-service-pack-1-part1.html

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio
http://msmvps.org/Blog/AndersonPatricio
http://www.andersonpatricio.org
Twitter: @apatricio

Changing IP Address Network on a Exchange Server 2007 CCR Cluster/Windows Server 2003

Hi folks,

Today in Canada is remembrance Day and a good day to write a long post (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day#Canada). Last night, I had to do a IP migration of an Exchange Server 2007 CCR cluster installed on a Windows Server 2003 and I thought that writing down my notes about the process could help someone else on the same situation. If you have any questions, please drop me a line on the comment section :)

My scenario was pretty straight forward where I had two servers ServerA and ServerB and their original network information can be summarized using the information below:

ServerA

• LAN: 192.168.1.15
• HeartBeat Interface: 10.10.10.1/255.255.255.252

Server B

• LAN Interface: 192.168.1.16
• Heartbeat interface: 10.10.10.2/255.255.255.252

Before going any further a best practice is to document the IP resource names and here it goes:

TOCluster - 192.168.1.17
REsource Name and IP used by Cluster REsource Group.

TOMailCluster - 192.168.18
Resource Name and IP used by Exchange Server (the CMS).

The second step during the planning is to document and test the new IP address that we are going to use. In my case we are going to a different network 10.20.1.x.

My customer had no issue in bringing down the cluster for a little bit during the maintenance window, so my steps to achieve the migration were:

1. Please, use this subliminar message to your environment BACKUP, PLAN, LAB, TEST :)
2. Make sure that all resources are on ServerB (it doesn't matter which server just make sure that all of them are on the same)
3. Stop cluster services on ServerA and change the service to Manual mode (using services.msc)
4. Logged on ServerB, dismount all databases using Exchange Management Console
5. Logged on ServerB, dismount all Cluster resources using Cluster Administrator (cluadmin)
   Note: If you are using a MNS Quorum you wouldn't be able to bring it down. Not a problem, keep reading..
6. Double click on IP Resource for the Cluster and change to the new Address
7. Double click on IP REsource for the CMS (Exchange Resource Group) and change to the new address
8. Close Cluster Administrator
9. Modify the Cluster Service to Manual (using services.msc)
10. Change the LAN Adatper to the new IP Address
11. Restart the machine
12. Test the Active Directory site information (nltest dsgetsite, nslookup, file:///C|/%3CDC-Name, \\<domain-FQDN>)
13. Test the network access in general
14. If it's all good, Start the cluster service and change the service to Automatic
15. Open Cluster Administrator and bring up just the Cluster Resource Group and check from your workstation if you can ping the name of tha resource (here in our example is tocluster and its new IP address)
16. Awesome! At this point you have one node (ServerB) using the new IP address information and at least one resource
17. Logged on ServerA, change the LAN adapter to the new IP Address and restart that server
18. Logged on ServerA, test AD, network access like we did on steps 12 and 13
19. Start the cluster service and configure it back to Automatic (using services.msc)
20. Move the Cluster Resource Group between nodes, is it all good? CAn you access all services in both nodes?
21. Great we have new IP address on all nodes, at least one resource is working properly
22. Now, it's time to bring it up Exchange Clustered Mailbox Server on ServerB

So these are the main steps to change the IP network of you current Exchange Server 2007 CCR. A few notes that you need to be aware before, during and after the process:

• I stopped the cluster services to provide you ways to roll back the process any time. If you feel confortable you don't need to stop them. In my humble opinion is easier to control and avoid any mistake during the process
• When you cluster administrator and you can't connect, don't panic, there is always the "." (period) that allow you to connect locally without specifying any IP address
• If you are changing you network you need to plan CAS, HUB and Domain Controllers. If you can keep both networks routing during the transition it's better
• After the first restart of one of the nodes, check your eventviewer and please make sure that there is no problem accessing the MNS Quorum, you can always try to file:///C|/MNS-Server to validate the communication.
• Make sure that your AD Sites and Services are configured to the new IP address, that's why I added the nltest to make sure that you are in the same site that you were after changing the IP information
• There always several ways to accomplish the same task, you may find a better way to do that. Your test phase will show you which approach best fits your company/scenario
• Microsoft KB 241828 and 230356 have information about this process
• Ipconfig /flush is your friend. You may want to do that on your Hub Transport Server to flush the MAPI queues after changing the Cluster nodes IPs.

I hope that it helps!

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio
http://msmvps.org/Blog/AndersonPatricio
http://www.andersonpatricio.org
Twitter: @apatricio

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