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On october 15th Microsoft released a security update KB974571 ((MS09-056). After applying this update it will cause the LCS or OCS servers to show running with the evaluation version and then noting it as expired. Microsoft is investigating the cause of the problem. The MS09-56: Vulnerabilities in CryptoAPI could allow spoofing article has been updated with a Known Issues section for the LCS and OCS product.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: OCS Server
Event Category: (1000)
Event ID: 12290
Date: 10/15/2009
Time: 3:52:31 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SRV-OCS01
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.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

If you allready applied the update you can fix the problem by simply uninstall the KB974571 update on your LCS / OCS servers.

Microsoft has release a Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 update  for Windows Mobile 6.0 Pocket PC and Smartphone. The new release includes the following fixes:

• Homescreen support for new homescreens in Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.
• Integration within the phone dialer for Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.
• Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 now recognizes when the phone is roaming, and by default does not sign in to roaming networks.
• Additional support for joining conference calls from a Windows Mobile appointment. To do this, press Menu, and then press Join Conference.
• Enables users to log on with a username of the format user@example.com, in addition to domain\user.
• When placing Call via Work calls, callbacks are now automatically accepted.
• Microsoft Installer (MSI) installation on Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) fails. In this situation, users should install Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 by using a .Cab installation.
• AT&T FUZE devices set for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) connection cannot handle voice and data at the same time. This causes Call via Work calls to fail unless the device is reverted to 3rd Generation (3G) by disabling HSDPA.

 Download here:

Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 for Pocket PC

Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 for Smart Phone

If you are an OCS administrator you probably already know there are a lot of server roles. Depending on your company you will implement some or all the server roles. To find out which roles can and can’t be combined, I’ve posted a simple overview table. This speed up your search in the various OCS 2007 R2 whitepapers.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of MS Press, Microsoft will give away free e-books every month. This month they give away two OCS 2007 R2 e-books.

Get the OCS 2007 e-book here: Free e-books: All OCS all the time!
All 2009 free MS Press e-books

We are living in a time where virtualization is a hot topic. Many organizations have some or maybe all there servers running in a virtualized environment. So it not strange I receive a lot of questions about running OCS on a hypervisor (ESX/Hyper-V/Xen). Microsoft has finally published a whitepaper which will answer the most common questions about running OCS 2007 R2 in a virtualized environment. As expected, all the server roles that deal with real-time data (audio/video) are not supported in a virtualized environment. It will work perfectly for demo or test purposes but will absolutely not be supported in a production environment. Virtualize audio/video server roles can cause jitters, echo’s and delays.

Download the whitepaper here

Microsoft Press has anounched a new Unified Communications title: “Programming for Unified Communications. This book provides hands-on guidance when planning to integrate OCS 2007 with your enterpirse applications.

Click here for more information.

Rick Varvel has posted a very detailed and helpfull OCS Remote Access configuration guide. This guide will help you to configure your firewall ports, dns records and certificates.

Download the guide

For more information see Rick’s blog

To provide remote access to an OCS infrastructure you will need to implement an OCS Edge server in your DMZ network. Implementing an OCS Edge server can become a very complicated task. Microsoft released a new OCS Edge planning tool, to help you implementing an OCS 2007 R2 edge server.

Downland: Edge Planning Tool for Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Troubleshooting connection problems with Office Communicator can be a hard thing to do.
Debugging tracelogs, eventlogs or using the snooper tool from the resourcekit are possible ways the detect connection problems.

The Office Communicator 2007 R2 version has a very useful new function to help you find possible problems. When you holding the CTRL key and right click the Communicator icon you will notice a extra option “Configuration Information”. When selecting this option a dialog box opens with connection information.
 

Source: http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2009/04/08/400.aspx

Microsoft released a OCS 2007 R2 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007.

The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Management Pack monitors Standard and Enterprise Edition of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. This release also incorporates the Quality of Experience (QoE) MP which was previously a separate Management Pack. Monitored types are event log entries, performance counters, as well as stateful monitoring of QoE. Note that this version of the Management Pack only monitors Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and cannot be used to monitor Office Communications Server 2007.

Download: Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1