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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 announced some imported changes in their Public Instant Messaging Connectivity (PIC) license model. PIC makes it possible to federate with public IM services like MS Live, Yahoo, AOL. 

The following changes will be effective at july 1, 2009:

• The Live Communications Sever Public IM Connectivity (LCS PIC) license will be renamed Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity (OCS PIC) license.
  
• Customers with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or Office Communications Server 2007/Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Standard CAL with Software Assurance will no longer require an additional license to federate with Windows Live.  (A license will still be required for federation with AOL & Yahoo!.)
• With Windows Live federation, customers are able to add Windows Live contacts to their Office Communicator contact list, view presence and send and receive instant messages.

We will continue to work with our partners to enable more options that allow you to communicate seamlessly with customers, partners, friends and family on different networks. For more information on public IM connectivity with Office Communications Server, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/public-im-connectivity.aspx

Source: http://communicationsserverteam.com

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