OCS reporting GUI interface!

Saw this on the OCS team blog.

"The report allows you to enter the SIP URI of any 2 users that you want to view archived messages from. If you enter �Any User� (case sensitive) for either of the user input boxes, you are able to view any message from any user to a specific user as well as any user to any other user. You can use the Start Date and End Date to narrow down the search to a specific date range. Once you have entered all of the inputs, click on View Report."

OCS Voice Ignite Training - Registered!

Yay!

We have been trying for most of the year to get me a seat at one of these, and instead, I think we got two seats so I will get to tag along with one of our Cisco Voice guys as well (this should be helpful in backfilling voice knowledge for me!)

Pretty stoked to get there. Irving, TX in February!

Customer front end to OCS 2007 R2

A recent OCS deployment of mine deployed OCS as a replacement to the livemeeting service. They missed the web front end, and with enhanced presence, they were able to present customers with a list of available CSR's who could then give them a "meet now" request by support email to begin their online support experience. My customer contact, Gary D. at Professional Datasolutions, Inc researched the OCS SDK and SQL databases enough to get his web developers to make this code work. I thought this was a really excellent use of customizing OCS to fit their needs.

All users are a SQL database user stored in a table, not an AD account, manageable via web by CSR's as well.

Once logged in, you can see what CSR's are available from presence and request a meeting key then join.

Once you enter a valid key and click join meeting, you get the LM launcher.

Absolutely awesome. I haven't been able to dive in this deep and I'm psyched to see a customer using OCS to this extent!

Best Practices for Active Directory Schema changes

Part of my job is to extend AD Schemas to support new versions for products like Exchange and OCS, and this is part of what I do prior to Schema changes for customers as well as internally.

First off, a quick review of AD schema, and what it is and the function it performs. The Schema is essentially the "database" that AD resides in, so when we say things like "extending the schema" we mean the same thing any SQL DBA would mean - we are adding additional objects attributes to AD. These new additions allow for features in products that were not previously there to store their settings in Active Directory.

Some of the recent Schema extensions you will see:

• Exchange 2007 SP2 requires schema extension.
  
• Exchange 2010 requires schema extension.
  
• OCS 2007 R1 or R2 require schema extension.
  

Additionally, while not an extension, these best practices also apply before raising your forest or domain functional levels.

Step One - Determine your Schema Master FSMO role holder

1. On any domain controller, click Start, click Run, type Ntdsutil in the Open box, and then click OK.
   
2. Type roles, and then press ENTER.
   
3. Type connections, and then press ENTER.
   
4. Type connect to server <servername>, where <servername> is the name of the server you want to use, and then press ENTER.
5. Type q to return to the fsmo maintenance prompt.
   
6. At the FSMO maintenance: prompt, type Select operation target, and then press ENTER again.
   
7. At the select operation target: prompt, type List roles for connected server, and then press ENTER again.
   
8. This will display all 5 FSMO roles. The one that has Schema is the one we need to back up.
   
9. Type q 3 times to exit the Ntdsutil prompt.
   

Step Two - Ensure you have your DSRM password

1. Most of the time, even if this is known, it has not been changed in a long time and is likely due.
   
2. Follow instructions to reset DSRM password from KB322672
   
3. This allows your backup to be authoritatively restored in the case you need to. Without this password being correct, your backup may not be usable.
   

Step Three - Take a system state backup (or two)

1. I recommend taking an ntbackup.exe (Windows 2003) or Windows Server Backup (Windows 2008) if you are more comfortable with Microsoft restore procedures.
   
2. I recommend taking another backup using whatever third party vendor product you typically use, if you are more comfortable with their restore procedures.
   
3. I usually recommend taking BOTH of the above for the Schema Master FSMO role holder.
   

While I have YET to run into any issues or problems with Schema extensions, if I ever did, I know I want a really good backup or two!

Microsoft Learning looking for feedback on MCITP for OCS

Microsoft Learning released this survey �to identify the different job roles that work with OCS in order to understand how to develop test content better. This is a good way to help the tests be good practical exams that are true to real life situations.

�
�

�
�

Forefront for OCS released!

http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2009/03/16/383.aspx

This appears it would fit only in an environment where OCS is federated. At least until someone writes malware for communicator.

OCS Master program - here's what their labs look like

WOW.

Impressive. If it didn't almost require an EDU loan, I would love to take this.

http://blogs.technet.com/themasterblog/archive/2009/01/31/holy-hol-s-batman.aspx

70-638 - Passed!

The OCS exam. The only one, too! Passed with flying colors.

So I am now an MCITP: Messaging, and MCP in OCS, and MCSE in 2003.

If only I passed the pesky 279, I would also have MCSE+Messaging.