OCS 2007

Free Instructor-Led Training for end-users: Introduction to Office Communicator

Tonino — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:59:00 GMT

Free Instructor-Led Training for end-users: Introduction to Office Communicator
http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2010/01/25/726.aspx

Do you have end users that need Office Communicator training? Are your users maximizing the basic features of OC? Microsoft now offers a free instructor-led session that introduces key Office Communicator usage scenarios through live demonstrations and hands-on activities.

This live course is held in a virtual classroom via Office Live Meeting. It will allow hands-on experience to build knowledge, skills, and confidence to use Office Communicator more effectively.

These features will be covered in this high-level overview:

Instant Messaging
Presence
Contact Management
Audio and Video
Desktop Sharing
Office Application Integration
Add a Live Meeting
Communicator Web Access

Click here to register: https://events.livemeeting.com/967/15027/reg.aspx?pc=05

Protecting the Edge Server Against DoS and Password Brute Force Attacks in Office Communications Server

Tonino — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:51:00 GMT

I come across this question from customers a lot and am happy to see there is a nice solution for it using a security filter on the OCS Edge Server.

The principle is quite simple:

Every time the Edge Server receives a sign-in request, the request is passed to the security filter. The security filter checks whether the sign-in request has exceeded the maximum allowed number for the particular user account. If the request has not exceeded the maximum lockout count permitted, the security filter allows the request to continue its course to the Director or internal pool. If the request exceeds the maximum lockout count permitted, the security filter blocks the request and returns a 403 response rejecting the request. Any further sign-in attempts are rejected for the duration of the lockout period. After the lockout period expires, it is reset to allow new sign-in requests to be authenticated.

Protecting the Edge Server Against DoS and Password Brute Force Attacks in Office Communications Server
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ff706687.aspx

You can download the application here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=195423

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Support for Acme Packet Session Border Controllers

Tonino — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:42:00 GMT

Hi,

Passing on this article on support for ACME Session Border Controllers (SBC) for OCS 2007 R2.

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Support for Acme Packet Session Border Controllers
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ff799212.aspx

There are three supported deployment models for using Acme Packet SBCs in conjunction with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 SIP trunk. The first two models involve connecting the Mediation Server directly to an Acme Packet SBC. These deployment models are shown in Figure 1 and 2. Figure 3 illustrates a third option. These deployment models are supported only when used for SIP trunk services that have been qualified through the UCOIP.

Mediation Server connecting directly to the SBC in the service provider’s SIP trunk network infrastructure
SBC deployed in customer’s network perimeter
SBC connected to the IP-PBX

Unfortunately it's not supported to put the SBC in front of the OCS 2007 R2 EDGE Server as outlined here:

Configuring an SBC for any scenarios other than SIP trunk topologies is not supported. For example, configuring an SBC to interconnect to an Edge Server is not supported (Figure 4) because Communications Server clients must connect directly to the Edge Server to maintain the integrity of the end-to-end communication between clients and Edge Server.

Office Communicator 2007 update package:May 2010

Johan Delimon — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:36:29 GMT

Be Aware that this is an update for Communicator 2007 not for Communicator 2007 R2!

Issues that this hotfix package fixes

978164 A conversation window opens unexpectedly when you press ENTER in the Search box in Office Communicator 2007
979145 The Office Communicator 2007 user interface pops up for all users who log on to a terminal server that is running Windows Server 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1ad57f8f-78f7-45f6-a8c0-805936f46645

Update on Patch MS09-056 which caused OCS to revert to an expired eval version

Tonino — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:55:00 GMT

Microsoft has updated their KB974571 with instructions on how to resolve this problem when you apply the security update:

--> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974571

A fix that resolves this issue is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. To obtain the fix, visit the following Microsoft Web page:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=168248 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=168248)

This fix works for both clients and servers, and it is applicable to the following roles for all versions of Office Communications Server and Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 and for evaluation versions of Office Communicator:

Standard Edition Server
Director server role
Enterprise Edition Consolidated
Enterprise Edition Distributed – Front End
Edge Server
Proxy server role
Office Communicator 2007 Evaluation version only
Office Communicator 2007 R2 Evaluation version only
Office Communicator 2005 Evaluation version only

To run the fix, type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
ocsasnfix.exe

This fix can be applied either before or after you install security update 974571. If you apply the fix after you install security update 974571, we recommend that you apply the fix before you restart the computer. If you already restarted the computer after you installed security update 974571, this fix can still be applied. However, the Office Communication Services must be started manually.

If all services start without any issues, this indicates that this fix has been applied and is working correctly.

This fix sets the OCSASNFIX DWORD value to 1 for the following registry subkey on the OCS 2007/R2 and LCS 2005-SP1 Server:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RtcSrv\InstallInfo\OCSASNFIX

Additional known issues with this security update

When you deploy the Standard Edition role on a new installation of any version of Office Communications Server, activation fails if security update 974571 is installed. To resolve this problem, apply this fix, and then run the activation again.

Sincerely,
Tonino Bruno | ICT Consultant | Pro-Exchange Community

Do not install Hotfix KB974571 on your LCS/OCS Servers!!

Tonino — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:18:00 GMT

Be carefully with updating your LCS/OCS Servers with the following patch

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974571 --> MS09-056: Vulnerabilities in CryptoAPI could allow spoofing

you might get these events saying that this eval version of LCS has expired or that the protocol stack cannot be initialized etc..

For more Information read these blog postings:

Do not deploy this patch and wait until Microsoft comes up with a solution..

Update

Ruben and I submitted this post at the exact same time, what are the odds ;-)

Anyway he noticed this problem this morning on his OCS 2007 R2 Front-End server...

He got this event in his eventlogs

Event Type:        Error
Event Source:    OCS Server
Event Category:                (1000)
Event ID:              12290
Date:                     14/10/2009
Time:                     13:43:41 PM
User:                     N/A
Computer:
Description:
The evaluation period for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 has expired. Please upgrade from the evaluation version to the full released version of the product.

Sincerely,

Tonino Bruno | ICT Consultant | PRO-Exchange Community

Moving Global Settings OCS from Domain System Container to Configuration Partition: useful links

Ilse Van Criekinge — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:46:00 GMT

When deploying your first OCS server, you will be prompted where you'ld like to store its Global Settings, you have the choice between Domain Partitiion and Configuration Partition.

Initially, the decision tree to select between those two partittions was the following one, as posted by Microsoft:

But, in April this year, the OCS team published updated guidance, as can be seen reading their blog here, and this is now the decision tree, as taken from their blog post:

If you want to go ahead and move the information from the Systems Container to the Configuration Partition, I stronly urge you to have a look at the following blog post done by Elan Shudnow, and Aaron Tiensivu, showing you all steps in details on how to accomplish this mission successfully!

In the trenches - OCS 2007 R1 migration of global settings container in prep for OCS 2007 R2 upgrade - gotchas and workarounds with OCSMigrate.vbs

-Ilse