When I am busy I am busy and do not disturb me!

Lync handle the concept of busy differently than many traditional IP-PBX systems. Is it better or not? I do not personally know and I guess that it largely is a matter of taste and personal preference.

When busy in a call in Lync you could still get notifications popping up as a toast on your computer screen, not to intrusive and could easily be handled by most users. But if you also have parallel ringing configured to your cell phone it would also start to ring while you’re in a call, not to nice...

Another scenario where the Lync version of busy might fall short would be in a PBX integrated environment and where you have a serial call list, e.g. call first my PBX phone and then my Lync client and if I do not answer send the caller to my voice mail box. Now if Lync did not hand back a busy tone to the PBX you could end up in a scenario where you are busy on the phone in Lync, another important customer calls and he will not even reach your voicemail box. Hmm...

So we can see that in some environments there is a need for Lync to adapt to an old-fashioned way of handling busy.

Enter the Busy-on-busy software from the good people at Unify Square.

I have tested this little piece of software and it works like a charm! It is easy to install and it is easy to configure the system user-by-user as to if they are going to have busy-on-busy or not.

To install, you simply run a setup.msi on all the Lync front-ends, and the register the software:

C:\Program Files\Unify Square BusyOnBusy>BusyOnBusy.exe /register

Copyright © Unify Square 2011

Registering the BusyOnBusy Server Application.....

Successfully registered the BusyOnBusy server application

Then you simply use the .exe file with a sip address to configure which users that should get a busy tone.

C:\Program Files\Unify Square BusyOnBusy>BusyOnBusy.exe /multiplecalls:block /sipuri:mattias@kressmark.com

Copyright © Unify Square 2011

Certificate SerialNumber is: 62C85547000000000005

Configuring SipUri: mattias@kressmark.com, Multiplecalls: block

Configuration for mattias@kressmark.com was modified.

Looking at the illustration above we can discuss three scenarios which will be different if the user "Mattias Kressmark" have busy-on-busy turned on.

1. An external call to a PBX-homed DID number which is configured with a serial call list. In this case the incoming call would ring the PBX phone for x number of seconds, move on to the Lync "extension", then get a busy tone by the busy-on-busy tool, and then go to the voicemail system connected to the PBX.

2. An external call comes in and Mattias Kressmark is not answering anywhere, then the caller would end up in the voicemail box. (Yes, I do know about Exchange UM but just because we have two call managers we do not want two voicemail systems as well.)

3. An internal user - Isabella - calls Mattias who is in another call and she will then see the following message in the Lync client:

Localization bug in the Lync Client

Lync version 4.0.7577.314 thinks that it is Lync Attendee when switching from Swedish to any other language. This bug seems to only be in the Swedish localized version. I think most users should be able to live with this flaw, but it is always fun to find bugs

(I do have a past as a software tester...)

Won’t you call my private number?

...we can go away for the summer.
We can drive around with the top down.
Stereo turned up loud with a fat sound. :-)

With Lync it is possible to configure a private number - an additional telephone number which you can hand out to your closest friends. A call to a private number will bypass call forwarding (i.e. not be forwarded), and "Do not disturb" status. If the receiving user have configured simultaneous calling the secondary number will ring, probably because of Lync assuming that the secondary number belongs to the receiving user. It is not possible to set a status such as "Do not disturb" on the private line, it is always "open". It is possible to select a different ringtone for calls coming in on the private line, this is done in Tools / Options / Ringtones and Sounds in the client. A call to a private number will also generate an additional line in the call toast stating "Private Call" as seen in the picture. 

Some limitations of the private line is that it will work only for inbound calls, a user cannot use the private line to make an outbound call.  Voicemails recorded on the private line will be sent to the same Exchange UM mailbox as the users LineURI. Private telephone lines are available in Lync on-premise only, not in Lync with Office 365, also mixed environments with Lync and OCS 2007 will not work to a 100%.

Unfortunately there is no way of seeing a private number in the Lync Control Panel so Powershell must be used:

Get-CsUser mk@kressmark.com | Format-Table -Property DisplayName, LineURI, PrivateLine -AutoSize

DisplayName       LineURI          PrivateLine
-----------       -------          -----------
Mattias Kressmark tel:+46736405540 tel:+46736405541

This will show if a user has a private number configured or not.
To set a private number use the following command:

Set-CsUser mk@kressmark.com  –PrivateLine “tel:+46736405541”

From the Lync documentation:

Private Telephone Lines

Get-CsUser

Set-CsUser

Swedish Datasheet for Aastra 6725ip Lyncphone

Nu har det kommit svenska datablad till Aastra's Lync telefoner,
som jag skrev om tidigare.

Ladda ner ditt exemplar här.

Creating DNS SRV record for a Lync Installation

I always seem to forget how to do this, so I’ll put it here and I will never forget.

1. Open the DNS management console.

2. Make sure to right click the domain name (Fabrikam.com)

3. Select "Other New Records..."

4. Scroll down to, and select "Service Location (SRV)"

5. Click "Create Record..." and configure the SRV record like this.

Update:

Now the tool is updated, thanks Curtis Johnstone!
The OCS & Lync Sign-In Troubleshooting Tool V3.0

Even though not updated for Lync I still like this tool
The OCS 2007 Automatic Sign-In Troubleshooting Tool V2.0

From the Lync documentation:

Create and Verify DNS SRV Records



Lync operator solutions

Although Lync is more than a PBX, organisations will still have use of switchboard operators working at an attendant console.

Since this has been my primary line of work before going into Unified Communications I am now happy to see that there are at least three software suites that will bring operator functionality to Lync.

• Competella - Multimedia Attendant
• Trio - Trio Enterprise 3.1
• Visionutveckling - Vision 80/20  

Aastra 6725ip Lync Telephones

I finally got my hands on some Aastra 6725ip telephones and could connect them to Lync.

Don't miss the YouTube video about them!


The phones had version 4.0.7400.0 installed when I received them, so they and my system needed a few things done before I could call home with these nice phones

Configuring DHCP

First I had to prepare my DHCP server for the phones.

I used a Windows 2008 DHCP server and configured Option 42 (NTP Server) in my scope.

Then I copied DHCPUtil.exe from the Lync server (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2010) to a folder on the DHCP Server. This little tool greatly simplified the configuration of the DHCP server.

This tool will set DHCP option 120 - UCSipServer and also add a new vendor class called MSUCClient to the DHCP server. The new vendor class will have five suboptions which the tool will populate.

• UC Identifier
• URL Scheme
• Web Server FQDN
• Port
• Relative Path for Cert Provider

It is possible to first run the tool to see what it would do

DHCPUtil -SipServer standard.kressmark.com -WebServer standard.kressmark.com

and if it looks ok, add the -RunConfigScript parameter at the end to actually apply your settings.

DHCPUtil -SipServer standard.kressmark.com -WebServer standard.kressmark.com -RunConfigScript

And after this it is possible to test the DHCP configuration with the tool using the -EmulateClient parameter. Only make sure you do this from another computer than the DHCP server itself where it will not work. A good detailed summary of what is needed DHCP-wise can be found here.

User Configuration

Here I would recommend changing the PIN Policy in Lync control panel / Conferencing / PIN Policy to allow a PIN of 4 digits at once. Maybe I am just old-fashioned or unsecure, but to me a PIN is a 4 digit number and nothing else.

Next step would be to get a PIN for a user enabled for Enterprise Voice. To do this use the dial-in conferencing webpage at

https://standard.kressmark.com/dialin/

This does not feel really right, Dial-in conferencing PIN same as telephone PIN but different than Exchange UM PIN. There are still room for improvement in the Lync product it seems... Anyhow, when done the number and PIN can be tested with the following power shell command:

Test-CsPhoneBootstrap

This command will generate a lot of text, but as long as you get "Success" somewhere at the end you are fine.

Configuring & Upgrading the Phones

Next I downloaded the "Microsoft Lync 2010 Phone Edition for Aastra 6721ip and Aastra 6725ip" (a.k.a. UCUpdates.exe) package and extracted it on my Lync server.

Then I needed to know the web server identity, which can be done with the Get-CsService command. (For me: "WebServer:standard.kressmark.com")

and to import the update files

Import-CsDeviceUpdate -Identity "WebServer:standard.kressmark.com" -FileName C:\Aastra\UCUpdates.cab

Now the update will be visible from the Lync Control Panel / Clients / Device Update, and here the update must be approved in order to be applied to any phone.

And I almost forgot to add the A record ucupdates-r2.kressmark.com to my DNS server.

The next thing to figure out was how to reset the phones so that they would forget the old settings they had stored and connect to my system instead. Here it turns out the manufacturing date of the phone is important. On the back of the phones there is a label where you can find the manufacturing date expressed as YYYYMMDD.

One of my phones was from 20100709 and the other one from 20100817 which is a pivotal date it seems.

When resetting the phones there are two different types of reset you can perform a hard reset or a factory reset, with the difference that the factory reset will also downgrade any firmware update that has been done on the phone.

Anyhow,

For phones built before 20100817 the sequence are (cycle power, press and hold while booting...)

Hard reset: “#” “4” “BACK KEY” 

Factory reset: “*” “2” “HOME KEY”

For phones built after  20100817 the sequence are (cycle power, press and hold while booting...)

Hard reset: “*” “#”

Factory reset: “4” “6”

After the reset, log in and just wait, don't touch the phone, just wait, and waaait, and waiiit. (I like what Mr.Schertz wrote: "In fact, go to lunch.")

and finally a firmware upgrade will happen automagically!

Good blogs that helped me with this: (Thanks guys!)

Jeff Schertz

http://blog.schertz.name/2011/01/updating-lync-phone-edition-devices/

http://blog.schertz.name/2010/12/configuring-lync-server-for-phone-edition-devices/

Drago

http://www.lynclog.com/2011/04/device-updates-firmware-upgrade-with.html

Tom Pacyk

http://www.confusedamused.com/notebook/using-dhcputil-for-lync-phone-edition-dhcp-server-configuration/

Some other "phone-related" documents from Microsoft I would like to link to:

Integrating Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and Avaya Communications Manager S8300

(Avaya Communications Manager S8300 is from the "original" Avaya, not Nortel, but when can we have something working for CS1000 ?)

Lync Phones and Peripherals Datasheets