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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

You ever wishes to manage your VI3 enviroment with your mobile phone?? With VMware vCenter Mobile Access you can! There will be a technology preview version availible in April 2009. Check the following link for more info: http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/vcmobileaccess

Savision B.V., the leader in Microsoft® System Center Operations Manager visualization, today announced the availability of a free version of Live Maps for Microsoft Operations Manager 2007. Microsoft Operations Manager administrators everywhere can now benefit from the extraordinary visualization capabilities of Live Maps v3. The free version is fully functional and allows IT organizations to create three maps of any type. (continue at source)

The free version of Live Maps may be downloaded at www.savision.com/free.

To manage your SCCM 2007 environment you will mainly use the MMC snap-in. When you like to manage it remotely from your workstation, you have the ability to install the management console on your workstation by using the setup files. After you have installed you MMC snap-in you will need the appropriate permissions in the SCCM environment. When everything is in place you can start the MMC from your workstation. When started you can expect the following error message:

The ConfigMgr console could not connect to the ConfigMgr site database Verify that this computer has network connectivity to the SMS Provider computer and that your user account has Remote Activation permissions on both the ConfigMgr site server and SMS Provider computers. For more information, see “How to Configure DCOM Permissions for Configuration Manager Console”

Usually this message appears when your user account has no Remote Activation DCOM permissions. Your account should be a member of the local “SMS Admins” group on your SCCM site server. Giving the “SMS Admins” group Remote Activation permissions will solve the problem.

Use the following procedure on your SCCM Site Server and your SMS Provider server (if installed on a different server):

Grant Remote Activation permissions to the SMS Admins group

• 1. From the Start menu, click Run and type Dcomcnfg.exe.
• 2. In Component Services, click Console root, expand Component Services, expand Computers, and then click My Computer. On the Action menu, click Properties.
• 3. In the My Computer Properties dialog box, on the COM Security tab, in the Launch and Activation Permissions section, click Edit Limits.
• 4. In the Launch Permissions dialog box, click Add.
• 5. In the Select User, Computers, or Groups dialog box, in the Enter the object names to select (examples): box, type SMS Admins and click OK.
• 6. In the Permissions for SMS Admins section, select the check box to allow Remote Activation.
• 7. Click OK twice, and then close Computer Management.

Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb633148.aspx

Two weeks ago Dell announced that their deployment add-on for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 will be available very soon. See my blog post:
http://www.digitalfreakz.nl/index.php/2009/02/13/dell-deployment-pack-for-sccm-2007/

Well they did not made any false promises and have release their deployment pack yesterday. You can download the add-on and installation guides at the Dell Techcenter Website

I will try to post some hand-on experience with the DDP very soon. Stay tuned!

The March issue of Microsoft’s Technet Magazine is all about OCS 2007 R2. This issue contains some very interesting articles about Microsofts latest UC product. Some of the articles are:

• Office Communications Server: What’s New in Office Communications Server 2007 R2
• Office Communications Server: How Remote Call Control Powers OCS 2007 R2
• Office Communications Server: Securing OCS with ISA Server
• Office Communications Server: Managing OCS 2007 R2 from the Command Line
• Office Communications Server: A Powerful Tool for OCS Planning and Deployment

Link: Technet Magazine March 2009

I recently upgraded my OCS 2007 server to the latest R2 release. After the upgrade I did some test with the new Communicator R2 client. When I tried to call my voicemail or the voicemail of somebody else, I received the following error.

“Incompatible security setting.
 The call could not be completed because security levels do not match“

At the Communicator client side it’s also possible to configure 3 levels of security.
These levels can be configured with a group policy settings (use the communicator.adm file) or by manually editing the registry.

After some research I found out, there are 3 levels of security you can configure on your Exchange server UC dial plan. The following table shows the 3 security levels:

At the Communicator client side it’s also possible to configure 3 levels of security.
These levels can be configured using a group policy setting (import the communicator.adm file) or by manually editing the registry.

The following security settings are availible:

0 = Support encryption, but do not require it. Should only be used with the TLS network protocol. (default)
1 = Require encryption. Unencrypted calls are not accepted. Should only be used with the TLS network protocol.
2 = Do not support encryption. Encrypted calls are not accepted.

After all it seems there are two possible solutions to solve the security error:

• Change the Exchange UM dialplan VoIP security setting to Secured
• Change the Communicator encryption level to Support encryption

Dell will soon release a deployment pack for Configuration Manager 2007. This deployment pack will replace the Dell OpenManage Deployment Tool Kit (DTK). It will be fully integrated and extending the OSD function within SCCM 2007.

Dell Deployment Pack Features

Using the ConfigMgr Task Sequence Editor, you can do the following with the Dell Deployment Pack:

• Configure your system’s Baseboard Management Controller (BMC), Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC), Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), and BIOS. You can configure BIOS and RAID using .ini files. You can configure your system settings using the GUI or Command Line Interface (CLI) options. You can also configure RAID using the Array Builder wizard.
• Create a Dell specific boot image that will be used in the operating system deployment.
• Create and apply driver installation packages for specific Dell systems.

 For more information check the Dell Technology Center Web site