Stop Lync Performing Reverse Number Look Up (ms-skip-rnl)

While investigating why we were being charged by our SIP trunk provider for calls made by Lync synthetic transactions, I discovered ms-skip-rnl. By adding this to the SIP or Line URI Lync will not try and match the number to an internal assigned number (by way of reverse number look up).

This explained why the synthetic transactions where dialing out the SIP trunk only to come back in again. This makes total sense as it is truly testing that an external calling can dial in. Only trouble for us is it was racking up a $100 worth of calls every month!!! So be aware Lync synthetic transactions may incur call costs depending on your SIP trunk provider.

This discovery of mine could also be applied to a LineURI if you wanted to push all calls out to a gateway or phone system. Bare in mind though that the call will never ring on the Lync end point so the gateway or other phone system will need to take care of that.

Matt Ellis has got a pretty good article its use with a Cisco Call Manager - http://mattellis.me/lync-2013-cucm-ms-skip-rnl-sip-uri-dialling/

Create Exchange UM Holiday Schedules for Auto Attendants

I have built a script to create UM holidays schedules for Exchange Unified Messaging. Its a pretty manual process gathering all the holidays for a particular year and entering those details in to the script. If your deployment happens to be in New Zealand then I have already done the hard work for you for 2014 :)

I have split the script in to 2 sections - The first section creates the holidays and the second applies the holidays to the specified Auto Attendant.

I have split national holidays and regional holidays so you will need to specify which regional holiday you want to apply in addition to the national holidays:

Its pretty crude and I do hope to make it a little more automated in the future.

Exchange UM Holiday Schedule.ps1

Any questions let me know.

Create Lync Response Group Holiday Sets

I have built a script to create holiday sets for Lync Response Groups and apply them. Its a pretty manual process gathering all the holidays for a particular year and entering those details in to the script. If your Lync deployment happens to be in New Zealand then I have already done the hard work for you for 2014 :)

Set your Lync pool:

I have split the script in to 2 sections - The first section creates the holidays and the second applies the holidays to a specified response group:

I have split national holidays and regional holidays so you will need to specify which regional holiday you want to apply to a response group in addition to the national holidays:

Its pretty crude and I do hope to make it a little more automated in the future.

Lync Holiday Schedule.ps1

Any questions let me know.

Lync Sorted: Configure SNOM PA1 for Lync 2010

Lync Sorted: Configure SNOM PA1 for Lync 2010: SNOM PA1 is a really easy to configure device that works out of the box with Lync as a PA system. What you will need:- The UC Edition of ...

Configuring Snom UC Edition for Lync

I have had a lot of success with the snom UC Edition software for snom phones. Currently the snom 300, snom 370, snom 710, snom 720, snom 760 and snom 821 are officially qualified for Lync 2013. The snom UC600 is a traditional IP desk phone especially designed for use with Microsoft Lync.

It is still possible to install the UC edition software on phones that are not officially qualified, the most recent for me being a snom PA1. Obviously there are no guarantees that all functionality will work, but so far I haven't had any issues. The snom PA1 is a PA switch which picks up incoming calls automatically and outputs the audio to the built in 4 Watt amplifier, or to a line out connector if you want to connect it to a building PA system. In my case I have configured it as a Lync endpoint and connected to the speaker system throughout the building. Calling the configured Lync user enables staff make announcements.

The following guide has been generalised to assist with configuring any snom UC device. If you have not already installed UC edition then you will need to visit the Snom website and register, then copy the URL to the download file:

Once you have logged in to the phones web interface discussed below, navigate to "Software Update" - "Manual Software Update", then paste the URL in and select "Load". The phone will reboot and install the UC firmware.

Once you have plugged in and powered up the device, browse to the web management portal.

Finding the phones IP:

• Snom PA1 - The default address is 192.168.0.2/16, otherwise if you have DHCP the device will get an address this way. On the PA1 you can get its IP address by pushing the IP/Reset button and it will read it out. 
• Snom 710  - Press and hold the "X" at the welcome screen, then find it under "System Info" - "IP Adr". 

e.g. https://192.168.0.2

Snom has a user mode and admin mode. When logged in in user mode you won’t see any of the advanced options. To access the advance options select “Setup”-“Advanced”, enter the default admin password “0000” then “Apply”:

There is no username and password out of the box. To set the admin password and the HTTP web interface password navigate to “Setup”-“Advanced”-“QoS/Security”:

Select “Apply” then log back on using the HTTP server credentials you just set. Note that in some cases you may need to select "Save" at the top of the settings page.

Account Setup

Click on any identity from the left navigation panel of the snom web interface:

Important settings

Identity active: ON
Display Name: Name to display on phone where applicable
Account: SIP sign-in address NOT including @sipdomain.com e.g. peter.pan
Password: your lync password
Registrar: SIP domain e.g. neverland.co.nz
Authentication Name: Username e.g. peter.pan@neverland.co.nz or NEVERLAND\Peter.Pan

Note: If no Authentication Name is provided, the Account setting is used in place of the Authentication Name

Optional Settings

Outbound Proxy: SIP server e.g. front end pool or access edge (lyncpool.domain.com/sip.domain.com)

Note: It is also possible to specify the port and transport layer:
sip.domain.com:5060;transport=tcp  (Use TCP/Port 5060)
sip.domain.com:5061;transport=tls (Use TLS/Port 5061)

Note: Leaving out the Outbound Proxy will result in automatic DNS lookup for Lync (Auto Device Sign-in)

Ensure that “Server Type Support” is set to OCS/UC:

RTP Encryption should be set on “ON”:

Check that the user account has logged in successfully: 

If you have any issues check out the SIP Trace and Log, unlike a lot of products these logs are very useful in finding the problem.

Lync Phone Edition Device Updates

This is my understanding of the device update process and how to troubleshoot. This whole process could be a lot smoother in my opinion, I find it a right pain!

Devices use Domain Name System (DNS) to determine the address of the server that is running the Device Update Web service, which is hosted on Web Services. For internal communications, the Web Services IP address must be available in DNS, as must the SRV record for SIP

The device uses DNS to find the SIP domain portion, by querying the SRV record. The SIP domain is extracted from the resulting fully qualified domain name (FQDN), and ucupdate S-R2 is prepended. If the device is internal, :443/requesthandlerInt/ucdevice.upx is appended. If the device is external, the hardware load balancer should replace the port 443 with port 4443.

While it is not a critical problem if the Device Update Web service cannot be found by using DNS, the device will log on and then use the in-band value to locate the service. If the update itself is something critical to successful logon, this can result in device connectivity failures.

External Devices

If the device is outside the organization’s firewall, and the user is signed in, the Device Update Web service returns a response indicating that anonymous access is not supported. The device then sends an HTTPS update request over port 443 to the Device Update Web service. The Device Update Web service returns one of the responses listed previously in the internal case.

In the Configure a Reverse Proxy step, configure the reverse HTTP proxy to use the Device Update Web service virtual directory https://<web services external Server FQDN>:443 for the external URL for Web Services and the Device Update Web service.

DNS Records for External Devices

SRV

Edge Server: _sip._tls.<sip domain> (External TLS)

Allows external devices to connect by using SIP over TLS to the Registrar internally.

A

Reverse proxy FQDN:<server name>.<SIP domain>

Allows external devices to connect by using TLS over HTTP to the Device Update Web service.

URL to Updates

Lync 2010
https://lyncexternal.domain.com/RequestHandlerExt/Files/UCPhone/

Lync 2013
https://lyncexternal.domain.com/RequestHandlerExt/Files/UCPhone/

/RequestHandlerExt/Files/UCPhone/ is the IIS web path to the following file share:

Lync 2010
\\Lync2010FileShare\1-WebServices-1\DeviceUpdateStore\UCPhone

Lync 2013
\\Lync2013FileShare\1-WebServices-1\DeviceUpdateStore\UCPhone

To test that update files are available via the web services URL navigate to the file share and find the update that you want to test. Then browse to the URL and append the file path on the end.

e.g.

https://lyncexternal.domain.com/RequestHandlerExt/Files/UCPhone/AASTRA/6725ip/Rev-2/ENU/4.0.7577.4397/CPE/CPE.cat

https://ucupdates-r2.domain.com/RequestHandlerExt/Files/UCPhone/AASTRA/6725ip/Rev-2/ENU/4.0.7577.4397/CPE/CPE.cat

By browsing to such a URL you can confirm that the updates are available for download. You will be prompted for authentication which requires a Lync user account.

References:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg412864(v=ocs.14).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398745(v=ocs.14).aspx

Finally a dedicated Lync client for meeting rooms!!

Just back from a demo at Microsoft of the new Crestron Lync meeting room system. I was seriously impressed!! Until now there was no seamless way to deliver Lync conferencing to a meeting room so this is great news.

The software was actually developed by Microsoft with hardware partners Crestron, SMART and Polycom (LifeSize dropped out of the program). I am sure there will be more to come as time goes by.

Check it out here - http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/2013/02/19/the-lync-room-system-lrs.aspx

Also SMART has a really good video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbNSlhsDOdY