Unused Media Gateway stops Lync 2010 Response Group calls

Over the last weekend we removed our legacy Mitel PBX and replaced our Dialogic Media Gateway with a Sonus SBC 1000.

The Dialogic was left in place but does not appear in any call routing with the idea if we had a massive problem we at least had the infrastructure in place to start failing back.

Today I came back from a meeting and thought to myself “I’ll power off the Dialogic and the Mitel box now”

So I did.

All seemed to be fine – no user complained.

An hour later an external call came into our ServiceDesk Response Group. Which I was not able to pick up. Looking on the Monitoring server we had the following:

10001 - Gateway did not respond in a timely manner (timeout)

Powering the Dialogic on fixed the problem (We could all pick up Response Group calls again).

I have since removed the Dialogic from the Topology and powered it off and Response Groups are still working.

Connecting Untrusted or Workgroup Computer to System Center Data Protection Manager 2012

The documentation for this on the Microsoft website is slightly unloved. At the time of writing it was last updated January 15, 2013 and has the text:

[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

So here are my concise install steps.

1. Copy the protection agent files from the DPM server to the untrusted server. Ensure that you get the correct “bitness” and the latest agent:
:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012 DPM\DPM\ProtectionAgents\RA\\

So in my environment:

D:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\DPM\DPM\ProtectionAgents\RA\4.1.3313.0\i386
and I copied to: C:\DPM on the untrusted computer

2. Install the agent on the untrusted computer by running the .exe









3. After install is complete start an elevated command prompt and run the following:

CD c:\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\bin
SetDpmServer.exe –dpmServerName MYDPMSERVER.DOMAIN.local -isNonDomainServer -userName DPMAdmin -productionServerDnsSuffix DOMAIN.local

This syntax is as follows:

SetDpmServer.exe	The program you are running
–dpmServerName	he DPM server this untrusted machine will connect to
–isNonDomainServer	Tells the DPMAgent that this is not domain joined
–userName	The New user that will be created on the untrusted machine for running backups
–productionServerDnsSuffix	Uhhh – The DNS Suffix of the Production Server……

4. On pressing return you will be prompted twice for a password, make a note of this as you will need it when attaching the agent to the DPM server (step XXXXXX)
The screen should then resemble something like this:

5.  If you check in Users on the untrusted machine you should see the following:

The DPM user has the following group membership:

6. You are now ready to attach the untrusted machine in DPM.

7. As you can see in my environment the Agent version is older than all of the Trusted machines, in DPM2010 this update would be in the install folder and all would be good, for some reason its not there on the 2012 install.

8. The update in this case is Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2802159
Which can be applied by Windows Update on the untrusted machine.

Additional information 12/12/2013
I'm revisiting this post today as I got hit by a little issue on the server this was installed on. Once the user is created ensure you set the password to not expire and for the user not able to change the password (or whatever password policy you have):

Without this you will get the following error in the DPM management console:

Lync for Mac 2011 displays Chinese characters on USB phone

Hit an interesting problem when updating our Macs to Lync for Mac 14.0.4 or 14.0.5. The connected USB phone display changed to a Logographic character set (Chinese or Japanese?):

 

 

It appears that this is a problem if you are using the discontinued Plantronics Calisto P540 phone, simply switching the phone to a Polycom CX300 and the problem goes away (reusing the P540 for a Windows user is not a problem).

Skype and Lync Integration

Microsoft have today yesterday announced that some of the features that you had with Lync to MSN Messenger have now been made available in Skype.

I say some as video calling is not working but IM and P2P voice is…..

If I use my old Hotmail account which I merged with my old Skype account (and who is already on both my Lync and Skype contact lists) then I can IM and Voice call with either party initiating the conversation.

I signed up for a new Microsoft Account and signed into Skype, I then added my Lync contact to Skype but no notification request came up on Lync.

I then moved to Lync and added the new Skype Account and could immediately send IM and calls (maybe because the Skype user had already added the Lync user?).

Some testing:
For the below Tobie is a Lync user and Bob is a Skype user
Tobie has Bob in his contact list but Bob has not accepted:

 

 

Bob shows as offline to Tobie

Tobie can call bob and bob will get an incoming call

Tobie cannot IM Bob

Bob has Tobie in his contact list but Tobie has not accepted:

Bob can see Tobie’s status and call him

Bob can IM Tobie

I am disappointed that the Video feature that was in MSN has not made it across yet, but it seems we will see it in 2014 (sigh)

Lync 2010 - My pain finding a call quality issue.

On migrating one of the final teams (Finance) at %dayjob% to Lync Enterprise Voice I hit an interesting frustrating problem that I thought I would share.

TL:DR at the bottom but I would love you to read it all to feel my pain!

Background: User has brand new Windows 7 Dell Optiplex 7010 full patched. Lync Servers are 2010 CU6. Endpoint is Polycom CX300.
Our machines are all built from a deployment server so standard software, but this also had some additional software which is not pushed out by System Centre 2012.
The way a migration is done is user at a time, remove number from Mitel and migrate it to Lync and then sit with them for a 15 minute orientation session. Then after they have gone home for the evening rip out the old Mitel phone (the PC is networked into the Mitel 5212 which is plugged into the floor socket).

Issue: Call quality was crap on a single PC. Looking in the monitoring server the following was being logged:

Average difference between the OverallAvgNetworkMOS and the maximum possible OverallAvgNetworkMOS for the codec used. High values can be the cause of congestion or interference, or an overloaded media server or endpoint, and results in distorted or lost audio.

So this for me pointed to the network as the first thing. As I had migrated the users number from the old Mitel phone system we still had the PC having its network going into the Mitel 5212 phone and then into the floor box. I scheduled some downtime with the user over lunch so I could patch with brand new CAT6 and remove the Mitel.

Call quality still crap. Monitoring server – ditto.

Switched where the PC was patched in with known good PC. Problem followed suspect PC so we have ruled out the network.

Rebooting and logging on with other users and call quality was still terrible so that ruled out config issues.

A quick look through appwiz.cpl showed an additional USB driver for a device (smart card) which was no longer used so uninstalled and rebooted. Also uninstall and reinstall Lync client.

Call quality still crap.

As the endpoint being used is USB next had a look at the other devices on the PC. The end user had a anon-standard keyboard and mouse due to RSI so after logging in these where removed and replaced with known working input devices.

Call quality still crap

Move all USB devices around so they are in different ports:

Call quality still crap.

At this stage I had a colleague (@spongmokey) come and sanity check my work and together we decided to swap the hard drive into a machine from another users desk to rule out hardware. I go to another floor where I know a machine from the same batch is sitting unused due to holiday and bring it back to the desk, rip out the hard drive, plug all peripherals back in, boot up.

Call quality is still crap.

Replace CX300

Call quality is still crap.

Hurray – so that’s proved it’s a software problem, I pop back to IT to see if the guys who can install the custom software can schedule it in. Just for laughs he (@dzmuk) asks have we tried a known working hard drive in the faulty PC. I scoff at this – we’ve already proved its software but as I want to prove him wrong, rule this out I go back to the desk, slap the working hard drive into the original chassis, boot up.

Call quality is crap

HUH?

So both the hard drive and the chassis have the problem? Switch the hard drives back to their original chassis, plug in original PC:

Call quality is crap

Plug in known good PC:

Call quality is crap

DOUBLE HUH

So maybe the problem is not software, or is it the hardware of the original PC has a different software level and installs a newer/different driver which causes the problem.
Hunt through device manager but all drivers are the same version. Uninstall the USB, network and sound drivers, reboot:

Call quality is crap

Cue head scratching, maybe it’s something to do with the USB being overloaded. Boot machine with all USB device connected and then remove then after logged in leaving just the CX300 connected.

Call quality is still crap.

Okay – now very confused. Have been trying to track this down all afternoon with no joy, one of the other people in the department has shut down their PC to go home so we move the “faulty” machine to that desk…. And the problem stops……

So it must be something on the desk which is causing the problem. Only things can be the monitors (duel head graphics card) and power cables.

Power up machine with monitors attached and then remove them

Call quality is still crap.

Replace all power cables

Call quality is still crap.

Grab an extension lead and plug PC into another floor box.

Call quality is still crap.

We focus on the USB again, remove all device and power the machine up, plug everything back in:

Call quality is good

WHAT?

Reboot machine

Call quality is still crap.

So if the USB devices are plugged in at boot we have an issue. If we load Windows and then plug them in it’s fine.

Unplug all devices (other than CX300 and keyboard), reboot:

Call quality is still good.

Plug in mouse, reboot:

Call quality is still good.

Plug in webcam, reboot:

Call quality is still good.

Plug in the final device – the USB hub that is built into the screen of one of the monitors (unused but there if needed), reboot:

Call quality is crap.

HURRAY, found it.

Move to using USB hub in second monitor, reboot:

Call quality is still good.

A bloody USB hub – WHICH WASN’T EVEN BEING USED.

TL:DR – check all USB device first with reboots between as they react differently when plugged in on boot.

Lync ethernet phones not showing up in Monitoring Server: Device Report

It appears that CX500 and CX600 devices do not get put into the Device Report from the Lync Monitoring Server role:

 Our list for the last 7 days has the following devices:

• Handset (Catalina)
• Headset Microphone (GN 9330)
• Headset Microphone (Jabra PRO 930)
• Headset Microphone (Jabra PRO 9450)
• Headset Microphone (Jabra UC VOICE 250 MS)
• Headset Microphone (Plantronics Blackwire C210 M)
• Headset Microphone (Plantronics C310-M)
• Headset Microphone (Plantronics C610-M)
• Microphone (Plantronics Blackwire C220)
• Microphone (Plantronics C310)
• Telephone (Plantronics P540-M)
• Telephone (Polycom CX300)
• Telephone (USB Audio Device)
• UCPhone

so guess that the POE Ethernet phones all get wrapped up in the "UCPhone" category.

(As a side note I'm going to assume that the "Telephone (USB Audio Device)" are the CX300 devices which are on our Apple Mac's)

Will investigate more and update when/if I have more information.

Lync 2010 File Association on Windows 8

Have today found a retrograde step with Windows 8 File Associations which is affecting my use of Lync 2010.

On Windows 7 if you clicked a url in the format tel:447775560821 then (if Lync 2010 was installed) you would get the following:

and you would be able to click to call from the webpage/Outlook signature/et al.

In Windows 8 the Metro Modern UI gets in the way as such:

and doesn't let you choose Lync 2010 as an option for Tel (the full href list is on Tom Kisner's blog).

This only happens if you have another program which takes hold of the URL:tel protocol as a fresh install of Windows 8 and then only installing Lync 2010 (no Skype or Chrome installed) allows Lync to get the call.

More mystifying is that if you look in the registry then the URL:tel file association is:

and I have been unable to find where Chrome is taking over the association.

Strangely by clicking the "Look for an app in the Store" option that Lync Modern UI is not listed as an option:

As we are not moving to Office 2013/Lync 2013 at the moment I've not had a chance to test if the newer version fixes this.

Update 27/05/2013:
There is a fix for this which mentions Lync 2013:
http://www.expta.com/2013/04/fixing-tel-links-with-lync-2013-on.html
For Lync 2010 the Reg key is at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Communicator\Capabilities\UrlAssociations