Lync 2013 - Calls dropping with error “SIP/2.0 487" Request Terminated” after successful connection

Calls dropping with error “SIP/2.0 487" Request Terminated” after successful connections. In order to support fast failover, there is a setting in Lync called “enable outbound routing failover timer”. This trunk setting requires that the SIP trunk notifies Lync within 10 seconds that it is processing an outbound call.  This setting can and does cause problems on networks where latency delays the response time or the gateway takes longer than 10 seconds to respond. Some SIP trunks will either not provide this notification, or is not able to get it back to the Lync server within 10 seconds. In this case the call will drop in about 10 seconds and a “SIP/2.0 487 Request Terminated” will appear in the Lync server SIP transaction logs.

To resolve this issue uncheck the box “Enable outbound routing failover timer”. This setting is located at LSCP>Voice Routing>Trunk Configuration

 

SCOM 2012 exception error when trying to run Lync 2013 synthetic transactions

Error: An exception occurred during discovery script, Exception: Could not connect to SQL server. Discovery did not succeed. Monitoring may fail if discovery data's initial state was not available. Please check alert context for details.

To resolve ensure your synthetic transaction watcher node is a member of the RTCUniversalReadOnlyAdmins group. Then try fully restarting SCOM and the synthetic node. This typically will fix the issue.

Lync constantly prompts users for username and password

Lync constantly prompts users for username and password even though they check the box  to save password.

I typically see this issue when a customer’s SMTP address is different than their SIP address and there is no domain for the SMTP address. This can occur because Lync expects NTLM to be the provided authentication. You can force IIS to use NTLM, which should resolve the authentication prompts.

Access is Denied error 0x80070005 when publishing Lync Topology

This error may be encountered when the user account publishing the topology does not have required rights. In order to successfully publish, enable, or disable a topology you need to be logged in as a user who is a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins and Domain Admins groups. A common problem is the user does not belong to the Domain Admin Group. IT departments rarely grant this level of permission’s to a system integrations company or consultants. So the way around this is to request “Delegate Setup Permissions”, refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg412735.aspx

Note: The command is Grant-CsSetupPermission -ComputerOU -Domain. Pay special attention to the OU, since it can be multiple OU’s deep. So if your Lync servers and in Servers>Communications>Lync OU (Listed from top down in Directory) then the command would be Grant-CsSetupPermission -ComputerOU “OU=Lync,OU=Communications,OU=Servers -Domain

Error 5 when deploying Lync - external schema ldf fails

This error typically happens if your logged in an then added to schema admin group. To resolve log off and log back in. Proceed with install.

Lync 2013 crashes on startup

Error looks like this:
Faulting application name: lync.exe, version: 15.0.4454.xxxx
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\lync.exe
Faulting module path: unknown

To fix, try disabling hardware acceleration

Run regedit
Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15\Common
Create a New Key and name it "Graphics"
Select Graphics, right-click on the right panel and create a New DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it DisableHardwareAcceleration.
Enter Value data as 1
Restart the workstation
Launch Lync

Note: The example I use above “15” is Office 2013, “14” Office 2010, “12” Office 2007. If that does not do the trick, ABBYY-FineReader (Epson) has also been known to cause Office apps to crash. May be worth a try if you have ABBY-Finereader installed on the workstation.

Go to Control Panel
Click on Uninstall a program
Right click on ABBYY-FineReader and click uninstall.
Restart the workstation

Error code 0xC3F7580A when moving user OCS to Lync

Result Code: 0xC3F7580A
Cannot move user from pool. Error: 0xC3F7580A Cause: The server is not responding. Resolution: Verify the health of the pool. If a load balancer is used, please check to make sure port 135 is enabled. Check product documentation for more information about load balancer configuration.

If you experience this error look up user on the OCS FE server in AD Users and Computers and select Communications Tab. Uncheck box > "Enable user for Office Communications Server > Select apply > ok. Then go back in to Communication's Tab > check box "Enable user for Office Communications Server > Select apply > ok. Try moving user again.

Retrieving Lync Mobile device IM’s from Archiving Server

Due to limitations in Exchange and Lync integration, conversations and calls from a Lync Mobile device cannot be saved to the user’s Microsoft Exchange mailbox. Only calls and conversations from that particular device are displayed on the Conversations tab in the Lync Mobile client. Therefore, these conversations and calls don’t appear in the Outlook conversation history folder. No method currently exists to synchronize this data.

Ref: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2806019/EN-US


So, how can you retrieve these IM’s? Well the workaround is to use the Lync Server Management Shell cmdlet “Export-CsArchivingData”.


Command:
Export-CsArchivingData –DBInstance sqlservername\sql instance name –StartDate "m/d/year" –EndDate "m/d/year " –OutputFolder "C:\Logs"

Example:
Export-CsArchivingData –DBInstance Lync-SQL-01\LyncArchiving –StartDate "3/1/2012" –EndDate "5/31/2012" OutputFolder "C:\Logs"


Note: The exported files in your c:\Logs folder will be listed with an .eml extension. You can open these files with an e-mail client. You can also rename the files with an .mht extension and view them with Internet Explorer.

-or-

You can run this from the SQL server backend Database


Click on "new query"


In the SQLquery1.sql window type the following:

Type: USE LcsLog <enter>
Type: GO <enter>
Type: SELECT * FROM Messages <enter>
Then click Execute (on menu)

From results, scroll over to the body column to view the results.
You can then export to XML for viewing.


Additional inks:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh328432.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/csps/archive/2011/04/14/haiku089.aspx

Lync 2013 in a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Environment

Microsoft Lync VDI 2013 plug-in enables you to experience local like audio and video in peer-to-peer calls and conference calls when using Microsoft Lync 2013 in a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Environment.

Microsoft Lync VDI 2013 plugin (64 bit)
Microsoft Lync VDI 2013 plugin (32 bit)

Delivering Lync over Wi-Fi

Microsoft Lync 2013 communications software on multiple platforms and device types is now validated with voice and video (real-time media) workloads over wireless local area networks (Wi-Fi networks).

Download the documentation here: Lync over Wi-Fi

Bulk IM Alerts

Looking for a way to do bulk IM alerts in Lync? Blue Quality Studios has a Powershell cmdlet that allows you to do just that http://www.bluequalitystudios.com.au/s01/products/psimalerts

Lync Web App and Client Devices

With the enhancements to Lync Web App, there is no Lync Attendee for 2013. In order to connect Android, iPhone/iPad devices you will need to install Lync mobile client on Lync mobile device.

Lync 2013 for Android  go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.office.lync15

Lync 2013 for Iphone/Ipad go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-lync-2013-for-iphone/id605841731?mt=8

Client Version Policy Numbers

Use client version policies to specify the versions of clients that are supported in your environment. You create or modify client version policies from Lync Server 2013 Control Panel or Lync Server 2013 Management Shell.

3.5.6907.xxx 
Communicator 2007R2

4.0.7577.xxxx
Lync 2010

15.0.xxxx      
Lync 2013

List of Dial Plan Regular Expressions

^	match the start	$	match the end
\d	match any digit	\d*	0 or more digits
\d{5}	any 5 digits	[135]	1, 3, or 5
(13)|(17)	13 or 17	[1..5]	1 through 5
(…)	“captures” the enclosed characters for referring to them in the result as $1, $2, $3, etc.

Examples

National dialing:

                 ^([2-9]\d\d[2-9]\d{6})$ → +1$1 (NANP)

                 ^0(\d{10}) → +44$1 (UK)

Include national and international dialing prefixes:

                ^011(\d*) → +$1

Extension range (e.g. 15xx-35xx):

                 ^((1[5-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-5])\d{2})$ → +1206555$1

Avoid expressions that make the first digit optional:

                ^9?([2-9]\d\d[2-9]\d{6})$

Error: "The parameter is incorrect - starttime" error when you run Search-CsClsLogging in Lync Server 2013

When you run the "Search-CsClsLogging cmdlet" from Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Management Shell on a computer, you receive the following error message:

Starting search against 1 computers
Failed on 1 agents
Agent - lync.domain.com, Reason - Error code - 87, Message - The parameter is incorrect -    starttime.

Note: This issue occurs because the date and time format setting on the computer is not set to English (United States).

The work around for this issue is to set the date and time format setting to English (United States):

1. Open Control Panel, and then open Region and Language.
2. In the Formats tab, change the format to English (United States).
3. Restart Lync Server Management Shell, and then run the get-date –format g cmdlet to verify that the change has taken effect.

Windows Store Lync App

Microsoft recently released a version of the Lync client for Windows 8 and Windows tablets such as the new Microsoft Surface.  The new client version is officially called “Windows Store Lync App” (a.k.a. Lync MX, Lync RT, Win 8 Lync App, and Lync Metro). This version is optimized for touchscreen and runs on any flavor of Windows 8.  It does not run on Windows 7. The Windows Store Lync App can connect to Lync Sever 2010, Lync Server 2013, and Lync Online in Office 365

http://blog.insidelync.com/2012/11/basic-tips-for-the-windows-store-lync-app

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2012/11/09/understanding-lync-server-autodiscover-to-support-the-lync-windows-store-app.aspx

Lync 2013 Quality of Service (QoS)

Lync Server has been designed to work without any Quality of Service (QoS) framework. It can be deployed with QoS implemented by using Differentiated Services (DiffServ). In Lync Server, DSCP marking can be enabled by using Windows policy-based QoS to specify port ranges for each communication type. By default, policy-based QoS and DSCP marking are disabled.The marked packets can then be recognized by network entities (end systems and routers if enabled to do so) to manage the media traffic according to the QoS priorities. The QoS marking is applied to all media ports and regardless of whether the audio/video/Application Sharing / File Transfer traffic is delivered over Real-Time Protocol (RTP; see IETF RFC 3350) or Secure Real-Time Protocol (SRTP; see IETF RFC 3711). To support the QoS environment, endpoints are configured to mark the IP traffic, thereby conveying the priority of the real-time audio and video IP traffic according to well-established classes of services that are designed to protect the real-time communication traffic from other asynchronous traffic in the IP network, including instant messaging (IM), application sharing data, and file downloads. These markings can be changed to map to different classes of services as an enterprise wants.

Also note that for clients that run on operating systems other than Windows 7 and Windows Vista, policy-based QoS is not supported.

“Failed while updating destination pool”

Error : “Failed while updating destination pool”, when attempting to migrate a user from a Lync Server 2010 pool to Lync Server 2013 pool .

This all too common error has been around since OCS 2007.  The reason why you are unable to move the user is because of the inheritable permissions on the user’s account object.  Open up adsiedit.msc, navigate to the user’s account, open up the properties and review the Advanced Security Settings of the object. Uncheck “Include inheritable permissions from this object” s parent setting for the user account.

Lync 2013 Certificate type: "OAuthTokenIssuer"

When requesting certificates in a Lync 2013 you will notice a new certificate type called “OAuthTokenIssuer”. OAuth stands for “Open Authentication” and is a protocol for server-to-server authentication and authorization. OAuthTokenIssuer certificate is a global certificate. Exchange 2013, SharePoint Server, and Lync Server 2013 support server-to-server authentication.  If you are not running one of these servers then you will not be able to fully implement OAuth authentication. Authentication and authorization is based on the exchange of security tokens; these tokens grant access to a specific set of resources for a specific amount of time. Lync Server 2013 must be able to securely communicate with other applications and server products. You can configure Lync Server 2013 so that contact data is stored in Exchange Server 2013; however, this can only be done if Lync Server and Exchange are able to securely communicate with one another. Although it's possible to use one authentication mechanism for Lync-to-Exchange communication and a separate mechanism for Lync-to-SharePoint communication, a better and more efficient approach is to use a standardized method for all server-to-server authentication and authorization. When you assign this OAuth certificate, it is replicated via the CMS and is assigned to all of the Lync Server 2013 servers that require OAuth. So when requesting the OAuthTokenIssuer certificate in Lync Server 2013, you will only request it once and CMS will replicate it to the other servers

To determine whether or not a server-to-server authentication certificate has already been assigned to Microsoft Lync Server 2013, run the following command from the Lync Server 2013 Management Shell: Get-CsCertificate -Type OAuthTokenIssuer

If no certificate information is returned you must assign a token issuer certificate before you can use server-to-server authentication. Any Lync Server 2013 certificate can be used as your OAuthTokenIssuer certificate: For example, your Lync Server 2013 default certificate can also be used as the OAuthTokenIssuer certificate. The OAUthTokenIssuer certificate can also be any Web server certificate that includes the name of your SIP domain in the Subject field. The primary two requirements for the certificate used for server-to-server authentication are these: 

1. The same certificate must be configured as the OAuthTokenIssuer certificate on all of your Front End Servers
2. The certificate must be at least 2048 bits.

If you do not have a certificate that can be used for server-to-server authentication you can obtain a new certificate, import the new certificate, and then use that certificate for server-to-server authentication.

Ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj205253
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj204817%28v=ocs.15%29