TechContrarian

The Archiving Report* is meant to provide an easy way to pull information out of the archiving database.  It builds on the functionality provided by the Archiving PowerShell script that was written (http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2009/09/28/584.aspx) and adds a GUI interface, the ability to filter by date, and message formatting.  It has been tested against OCS 2007 R2 and SRS 2005.

 
Installation
1.       Open Report Manager – http(s)://<SRS Server>/Reports
2.       Click on New Folder
3.       Give the folder a name – i.e. OCSArchivingReport
4.       Click OK
5.       Click on the folder you just created
6.       Click on Upload File
7.       Browse to the location where you downloaded OCSArchivingReport.rdl and select the file
8.       Click OK to upload the report
9.       Click on New Data Source
10.   Enter LcsLog for the Data Source name
11.   Enter Data Source=<SQL Servername>;Initial Catalog=LcsLog for the Connection String
a.       Replace <SQL Servername> with your SQL server\instance
12.   Select the Windows integrated security radio button
13.   Click OK
14.   Click on OCSArchivingReport
a.       You will see [...]

Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) Program:  Recognizes, Develops, Certifies Technical Excellence
How do senior IT professionals differentiate themselves from the competition?  The MCM program, through intensive training by world class experts, plus extensive written and lab-based testing, certifies only the most qualified.  As an MCM you’ll join an elite community of Microsoft software and technology experts, and you’ll be recognized as one of the top Microsoft technology experts in the world. Learn more about the Microsoft Certified Master Program  

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
We hope to see your users at an upcoming session!

This information was originally posted by Terry Lyons on his blog.
Notification
In an effort to provide enhanced capacity and service reliance, Windows Live Messenger will soon be adding an additional IP address used for PIC/Federation traffic.  Some organizations have chosen to restrict this type of traffic to specific IP addresses, as referenced in Microsoft KB 897567 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897567).  With this in mind we want to give you advanced notice of our intended change if you have configured your enterprise network in this manner.
Please ensure your enterprise firewall configuration is updated with the full list of Windows Live Messenger addresses below on or before Friday, February 2, 2010.  Windows Live Messenger will NOT enable the additional IP addresses until on or after February 2, 2010 (Pacific Time) to ensure your services will not be disrupted by this change.
IP address for Windows Live Messenger PIC/Federation:
64.4.9.181 64.4.9.245 [...]

Have you ever installed an Office Communication Server and wanted to verify your remote access was setup and configured properly? Or what if you get a call or an escalation regarding a service or connection not working? How do you verify whether the issue is with an individual user or with everyone throughout the company? And if there is a problem, where do you start troubleshooting? Is it a DNS problem? Is it a certificate problem? Is a port not open on the firewall?
The Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer is a great tool for performing testing, troubleshooting, and diagnostics on OCS 2007 & OCS 2007 R2 deployments. The tool will assist you in finding answers to the before mentioned scenarios.  You should use the RCA as your initial stop when attempting to troubleshoot an OCS edge server connectivity issue.  

The Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer is a web [...]

Cisco and Microsoft are competitors in the unified communications space, with very different visions and product approaches – I don’t think that’s going to come as a surprise to anyone.   Nor should it be a surprise that many customers have Cisco networking and telephony gear along with desktop, messaging and collaboration software from Microsoft and want our products to interoperate together well in the customer’s environment. 
To Microsoft, that means we want to offer customers software that runs great on Cisco networks.  With Office Communications Server’s support for the Cisco ISR platform, great support for DSCP packet marking to deliver QoS, VLAN tagging, and many more technologies, we are delivering a lot of capabilities so customers can get the most out of their Cisco network investments. 
We also look to interoperate broadly using open standards with Cisco products in unified communications.   As part of both companies’ commitments to our customers [...]

1) Search; 2) Ask; 3) Contact Microsoft from the revised Office Communications Server and Client Troubleshooting and Support page.

You know it; we know it: Stuff happens. There are times when an unforeseen confluence of circumstances causes problems in your deployment (which only an hour ago was running perfectly): Interaction with some piece of new hardware or software, the need for some atypical set of system configurations, some update in settings that seems likes it should just work, or some set of recent network or other events–not to mention, some very "creative" end user behaviors.
When stuff happens, you want answers. We want to help. The revised Office Communications Server and Client Troubleshooting and Support page design is streamlined to make the process of finding an answer faster and easier:
1) Search to find out quickly whether your issue, event, or error message has been addressed in a KB article or other documentation.
2) [...]

We’ve just published a new Updates Resource Center for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Clients on the OCS TechCenter.
 
And we’ve gone one step further: Our Sustained Engineering and support teams* have created a Cumulative Server Update Installer tool to help simplify the application of the updates. The Cumulative Server Update Installer applies all updates for the appropriate server role in one click!
 
     *Kudos to our Sustained Engineering and support team members.
 
Each link text on the Updates Resource Center page contains the release date for the update so that you can easily recognize whether you have the most recent updates. Each link leads to a Knowledge Base article that lists the contents of the updater, describes the issues fixed, and provides other important installation information–in addition to pointing to the actual downloadable file.
 
Adam Dudsic
Site Manager

Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communications Server R2 have two multi forest topologies that have been tested by and are supported by Microsoft. One of these topologies is the Office Communications Server Resource forest \ User forest topology and the other is the Office Communications Server Central forest and User forest topology. The focus of this document will be to discuss the implementations of the Office Communications Server Resource forest \ User forest topology.
The Office Communications Server Resource forest \ User forest topology allows resources like Exchange 2007, Exchange 2003, Sharepoint services and Office Communications Server which will reside in the Resource forest to be accessed by the users that reside in the User forest. The configuration of the Resource forest \ User forest topology requires that the following prerequisites be completed prior to the configuration of the domain user account information that will be hosted in the local [...]

We’ve been working on the Downloads page on the Communications Server TechCenter! Check out the improvements:
·         Separate pages devoted to 2007 R2 Downloads and 2007 Downloads;
·         Clearer categorization of available 2007 R2 downloads;
·         And most importantly…more of the good stuff: More listings!
 
Find even more links than before to all the tools and resources that our team produces, including new links to Office Communications Server 2007 R2:
·         Best Practices Analyzer (for both 2007 and 2007 R2 versions)
·         Capacity Planning Tool
·         Edge Planning Tool
·         Planning Tool
·         Resource Kit Tools (64-bit)
·         Web Scheduler
 
…as well as links to:
·         Agent Communications Panel for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
·         Language packs for CWA, Response Group Service, and Speech
·         Communicator Multilingual User Interface
·         Management packs
·         Communicator Mobile (for Pocket PC, Smartphone, and Java)
 
The new 2007 R2 page now also includes links to all downloadable, technical product documentation for 2007 R2, including:
·         Collections of the full IT Pro library
·         Pointers to the [...]