Buried in amongst the excitement of yesterday’s arrival of the Skype for Business Server 2015 ISO on MSDN and the swarm currently descending upon Chicago is quite a worthy update to Lync Server 2013. This one takes Lync Server 2013 from 5.0.8308.871 (or 5.0.8308.872 depending upon where you look) to 5.0.8308.887.

What’s Fixed?

• kb3051962 Lync Server 2013 URL filter policy does not filter hyperlinks that do not contain the “http://” prefix in a Lync client
• kb3051963 Lync Mobile Client call is dropped immediately when you dial 0 for an operator
• kb3062801 Lost data when Lync Server 2013 directories move to Skype for Business
• kb3053028 Incorrect notification “You’ve left the call” appears in a meeting in Lync Web App in a Lync Server 2013 environment
• kb3051965 Audio modality icon status is not updated after you join a Lync audio meeting in Lync Server 2013-based Lync Web App
• kb3051968 Meeting fails when you escalate a peer-to-peer instant message conversation to it in a Lync Server 2013 environment
• kb3051969 Lync Server 2013 Web Conferencing service cannot input or output data in a Lync file share
• kb3057445 Event 41027 is logged when the Lync Server 2013 Web Conferencing service creates the “Meeting.Active” file
• kb3051964 You cannot see some Lync Server 2013 response groups that you are a member of on the agent sign-in page in Lync client

What’s New?

• Nothing apparent just yet.

Is this a pre-req for Skype for Business 2015 server?

Strictly, no, but in reality it’s looking more like a YES. If you’re planning on performing an in-place upgrade of your Lync 2013 server to Skype for Business the published minimum is 5.0.8308.738, which was the August 2014 update. I think this is overridden by one of the fixes above (kb3062801) that addresses a known issue with conferencing data loss when migrating users to a Skype for Business pool. So by my reading that makes this KB a pre-req!

Download

• Download the installer from here.
• Here’s the kb article.

Installation

My lab Front-End here’s not the most blessed with resources, and it took just on 6 minutes to install. The end of the process prompted for a reboot. Here’s the ‘before” view:

The September update last year listed as a pre-req that “You must make sure that all instances of the Event Viewer and Performance Monitor windows are closed before you install this cumulative update” so it’s best to follow that guidance here – especially if your servers AREN’T presently already at least at 5.0.8308.815.

Other than that requirement, the update process remains much the same as usual, although the installation process for the Windows Fabric update (NOT required this time if you’re already on 5.0.8308.815 or later, as per my image above) also requires all Lync services are stopped before you run the installer. If your server is running at version 5.0.8308.291 or later (which I think just about covers everything BUT an unpatched brand new server) you only need to run my steps 1-5 below:

1. Check you’re ready for this: run “Get-CsPoolUpgradeReadinessState”
2. Stop-CsWindowsService
3. Get-CsWindowsService – just to make sure
4. Run the update
5. Update “configured databases”, making sure you don’t overlook your Persistent Chat, Monitoring and Archiving Databases. NB: Take extra care – and read the kb guidance – if you’re Mirroring, or have co-located databases
6. Update the CMS (ONLY if it’s hosted on a Lync 2013 server & ONLY if you’re still on RTM, aka 5.0.8308.0)
7. Enable the Mobility service (with Enable-CsTopology)
8. Enable UCWA by running bootstrapper.exe on all Front-End and Director servers

A good test after applying the updates is to run Pat’s “Get-CsDatabaseUpdateStatus” script just to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

Don’t Overlook Exchange

There’s an update to the UCMA Runtime in this bundle, so if your Exchange 2013 server has the UM role installed it’ll want an update too! (If in doubt, just run the installer – it will tell you if UCMA is installed and needs the update. You can then back out and schedule it at a suitable time).

Revision History

3rd May: Updated “is this a pre-req” to say ‘not officially, but yeah’.

– G.

The long-awaited ISO has hit, and I’ve been looking forward to taking the in-place upgrade process for a spin.

The snag here is that you need to kick this process off from a server already running the SfB Admin Tools – so that meant another machine. Whilst this server could have been only a short-term investment – or my own x64 Windows 8.1 machine for that matter – I’ve decided it will be my new “application” server, for tools like SEFAUTIL, Espera & Cerebro.

That of course just leaves me with the obligatory step-through, with any useful tips and traps highlighted.

References

There are plenty of others referencing this same process, and I’ve been able to benefit from and consolidate some of their contributions here.

• Thank you Y0av for the server pre-req’s
• Matt Landis’ own walkthrough
• TechNet, specifically:
  • The server requirements (including pre-req’s and some SQL gotchas)
  • The Upgrade process

The Build

The Admin Tools machine

We can’t update the running Topology to SfB using the Lync 2013 install media, and we can’t update the install media on what’s currently a running Lync machine to get to the Skype for Business topology builder. Thus, there’s a need to use a non-Lync machine for this step. As I outlined in the intro I’m building a new ‘Apps’ server, so that’s where I’m going to drive the initial changes.

1. Install a new Windows instance
2. Rename it, give it a static IP, attach it to the domain, & the usual things you do when building a new server. (Pat Richard’s legendary script will automate plenty of those, and you can run in on just about any machine!)
3. Map to or otherwise mount the Skype for Business ISO and run Setup.EXE therein
4. Niice! It’ll now look for updates as part of the install process:
   
5. As expected, none:
   
6. Straight away it’s reporting good news – we don’t need to “Prepare Active Directory” to take this deployment to Skype for Business:
   
7. Add the Admin Tools:
   
8. Done!
   

“Flip” our existing FE to Skype for Business

This stage is performed using Topology builder on the new Admin machine we built above.

1. Run Topology Builder
2. Download the latest Topology
3. Navigate to our Front-End (or pool). In this case I’m upgrading a Standard Edition Front-End.
4. Right-click and select “Upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2015…”:
   
5. OK the pop-up:
   
6. Publish! Remediate if required, otherwise you’re safe to proceed:
   
7. Wait for the changes to replicate through the topology before continuing.

Upgrade the Server

1. Make sure it’s replicating OK (“Get-csMana<Tab><Tab>”)
2. Stop all the services. (Stop-CsWindowsService)
3. Map to or otherwise mount the Skype for Business ISO and run Setup.EXE therein
4. Ooh, it’s the VC++ *2013* Redist now:
   
5. Check for updates:
   
6. None found, move on:
   
7. … and we hurtle headfirst into the upgrade. And it looks like I missed a pre-req: kb2982006 is required on my Server 2012 R2 machine.
   
8. Thankfully I was able to source the Hotfix and install it without having to abort the installer (or reboot the machine), so I only needed to click Retry and we were back underway.
   I didn’t notice it at the time, but at the bottom of the image you can see it’s adding another pre-req I’d overlooked.
   
9. It wants a restart:
   
10. … but it continues without needing *any* input from me whatsoever:
    
11. Done!! “Verifying installation completed successfully”
    
12. View Logs is a bit boring. (The detailed logs are all where you’ve come to expect them in the past, at C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Temp…)
    
13. Next steps:Execute “Start-CsPool” to bring ‘er up, or just start the services if it’s not a Front-End pool:
    
14. “Start-CsPool”:
    

… and from here I was able to move my test user across and start testing and tweaking that environment. More of that in due course I’m sure!

Inspired by how easy it was to flip this Front-End to Skype for Business, in my next post I’ll flip the Edge!

– Greig.

Footnote (5th May):

Ken Lasko (the Hoff) has posted that our old friend “Company_Phone_Number_Normalization_Rules.txt” is no longer, with that function having been ported to PowerShell. There are some default rules but you’re inevitably going to want to customise them. Check out Ken’s post for more details…

Now that looked at the planning for upgrading to Skype for Business, let’s do the actual upgrade of a Lync Server 2013 topology.

In this post we will make an offline upgrade, meaning that we will take the existing frontend pool offline, and do an in-place upgrade of the frontend server.

Before you start the upgrade process you need to update the Lync servers to the latest CU

And for Windows Server 2012 R2, you also need to install this hotfix.

First you need to mount the SfB Server ISO on a server that don’t have any Lync or Skype components install (ocscore)

Run setup.exe to install the deployment tools.

Click Install

Read the EULA and Accept it to continue

When the Deployment Wizard is installed and started – install the Administration Tools

Click Next

When it finish, close the Deployment Wizard and start the topology builder

Click OK to download the topology

Type a name for the topology file and click Save

Navigate to your frontend pool and right click and select “Upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2015″

Click Yes

The Frontend server is now moved to Skype For Business Server 2015.

Right Click and Publish the topology

Click Next

Click Finish and close the Topology builder.

Wait for replication to finish

Next on the frontend server, start powershell and run this command

Disable-CsComputer –Scorch

This will prevent the Lync services to start should the server be rebooted.

Run the same command on all Lync servers in the pool, that is going to be upgraded.

Next mount the SfB DVD on the frontend server and start setup.exe

Click Next

Read the EULA ones again and click OK.

After an hour or so the update to finish on the frontend server

Next go to powershell (remember to open the management shell) and start the pool with the below command

Start-CsPool –PoolFqdn fe01.exchangepro.dk

Type Y to start it

The upgrade of the frontend pool is now completed, and you can continue with the other Lync servers that you have in your pool, like the edge and mediation servers.

In the next post we will look at upgrading the Edge, Mediation and Director servers.

Other Posts in this Serie

Part 1: Planning

A new addition in Skype for Business Server is the ability for the installer to check to see if any updates have been released, then download and install them during the installation of Skype for Business Server.  This is very similar to what newer versions of SQL Server do during their installation process.  When you launch the setup for Skype for Business Server, you will see the following:

The installer will connect to the Internet and check for any updates for Skype for Business.  If there are updates, they will be downloaded.  If not, you can continue on with the installation:

This will be a welcome addition to anyone who will be doing a bunch of installs of Skype for Business Server.

I’ll be tracking my notes with installing and working with Skype for Business.

1. I did an in-place upgrade of my existing Lync 20reset-cspoolr13 pool and everything started up and appeared to be working fine. The upgraded pool is named “lyncpool.flinchbot.com” which is a bad name for a pool that actually contains Skype4B servers. So I decided to reduce that pool from 3 front ends to 1 which will give me enough space on my VM hosts to build some new, native Skype4B servers. So I removed 2 of the 3 front ends via Topology Builder. Now my pool won’t start. I get the following error when try to do a full reset of the pool:

Fabric version is unknown. No it’s not. It’s what came on the install image! It’s version 3.

Good ol’ Windows Fabric strikes again. I’ve tried rebooting and forcing the reset a few times. Finally I uninstalled Windows Fabric and installed it again from the Skyp4B .iso. Same problem. So this pool is hosed and since this is a lab I don’t want to spend any more time figuring this out.

Update: As I removed roles from Topology for this pool, like conferencing and enterprise voice, I tried to start the service again. It finally started. It is possible that re-running the deployment wizard straightened a few things out. I’m wondering if running Enable-CsComputer separately would have fixed it too.

My takeaway: Don’t do in-place upgrades of production machines. Now this error may not be related to the in-place upgrade process. However, doing a fresh install assures that you can test the pool before moving users. It also gives you the chance to do things like installing the latest OS, building it on newer hardware, installing the latest Windows patches if you’ve fallen behind, etc.

2. Control Panel still can’t sort. This is about unacceptable. Seriously Microsoft? You can get media to traverse NAT’s, firewalls, edge servers, etc but you can’t sort a list? You’d think by the 3rd release of the Lync line of software that they could get some intern to show them what he learned in his first programming class ever: How to sort a list. At work we have admins scattered all over the place, a few dozens pools, and more supported SIP domains than I want to count.. Trying to find the right entry in some of our lists is very difficult and frankly a waste of my time.

Sorting is hard. It’s like math but hardererer.

3. When adding your Skype4B server to Topology, be sure to put them in the Skype for Business folder. I know, this should be obvious but I guess habit got the better of me. I added my Skype4B Enterprise settings into the Lync 2013 foled in Topology. To no surprise, I got the following errors in the install logs:

So if you get this error, remove the Skype servers you put into the Lync 2013 folder and add them again to the Skype for Business folder. Removing them from Topology might give you an error that a conference directory already exists on the pool you are trying to delete. Delete that by running the Remove-CsConferenceDirectory  with the -force switch and then try the Topology removal again.

4. Not everything is a straight port from Lync 2013 with the “Skype Look”. The certificate wizard was actually simplified and I like it better.

They also updated the “Start Services” text to explain that you really shouldn’t start the services until your pool is ready. It’s a minor fix but I bet it will reduce some of their support calls.

What they should also add in there is when running Start-CsPool that it must be done form a shell opened to “Run as Administrator”

5. There is no way to in-place upgrade an SBS/SBA. While this would have been *really* useful and possibly the only use of in-place upgrades I would have used in production, Microsoft doesn’t support this. My guess is that this is because Microsoft foolishly still makes the SBA vendors provide custom (and wholly redundant) “Install code” which could fail to function in an upgrade scenario. This is yet another reason why the SBA/SBS model is excellent on the drawing board but is full of issues and miss-steps in production.

So much like the upgrades from 2010 to 2013, you have to do full re-installs to get to up to Skype4B. The SBA code hasn’t been released yet because of the reliance on 3rd party vendors to provide their no-value-add install wizards. An SBS does not rely on this pointless vendor integration so you can upgrade those on your own – full uninstall of Lync followed by the Skype4B install off the .iso.

6. That annoying 29820006 patch. You can’t install it. Oh you keep trying. Then you realize it’s the x86 patch. So you download the x64 patch and it still won’t install. So I’m not sure exactly what the magic is, just make sure everything in Windows Update that is mandatory or recommended is installed. I think there is an update to Windows Update that has to be installed before you can install this patch.

In my last post (Upgrading to Skype for Business Server 2015) I showed how easy it was to take a Standard Edition Lync 2013 Front-End and upgrade it in-place to Skype for Business Server 2015.

Inspired by how simple it turned out to be I thought I’d flip my Edge as well – only to be hit by a puzzling bug…

The process is essentially the same, and captured here in picture form for you.

Don’t Skimp on the Pre-Req’s

As with the Front-End, the Edge upgrade process was able to download and install missing pre-requisites, so that will cover you if you’re not been all that thorough in your attention to the pre-req’s. Indeed, if you’re running Server 2012 “R1” you can probably get by without actually adding any by hand.

Having said that, a lot of customers don’t give their Edge servers access to the Internet, so for those of you in this category, skimping on the pre-req’s isn’t going to get you far.

• Y0av’s pre-req’s
• Pre-req’s on TechNet

The Build

By now I already had my new “Apps” server with Topology Builder installed on it, as well as the updated Front-End server to which I also added the Admin Tools.

“Flip” the Edge in the Topology

1. Run the Skype for Business Topology Builder
2. Download the latest Topology
3. Navigate to our Edge pool
4. Right-click and select “Upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2015…”:
   
5. OK the pop-up:
   
6. Publish! Remediate if required, otherwise you’re safe to proceed:
   
7. The “to-do” list is looking a bit generic. I’m guessing this will be tweaked in future updates to remove the irrelevant references to normalisation rules – irrelevant in this case as that doesn’t have anything to do with the Edge server:
   
8. Wait for the changes to replicate through the topology before continuing.

Upgrade the Server

1. From another server in the deployment, check that the changes have replicated to the Edge (“Get-csMana<Tab><Tab>”)
2. Stop the services on the Edge:
   
3. Map to or otherwise mount the Skype for Business ISO and run Setup.EXE therein
4. VC++ 2013:
   
5. Check for Updates:
   
6. No Updates found, move on:
   
7. Reboot prompt:
   
8. Installing Core Components:
   
9. Completed successfully:
   
10. Bring ‘er up:
    
11. Start-CsWindowsService:
    
12. Test Connectivity (https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/):
    
13. Done! Kinda…

What’s With the STOPPED FabricHostSvc?

It concerned me a little to find that in the image for Step 11 the new “FabricHostSvc” wasn’t running. The Connectivity Test wasn’t calling out any problems and there’s nothing in the Event Logs, but here I am with a new service (that’s set to Manual BTW) that’s not running. (In contrast, it exists and is running on my Front-End, and also set to Manual).

Strangely if you “Start-CsWindowsService”, it appears that this one isn’t in the list of services that it starts, as evidenced by the log of the command. You see the seven other services, but not this one:

“Start-CsWindowsService FabricHostSvc” reports no error, but no apparent sign in the log that it tried to do anything anyway:

With nothing to find on the Internet about it I thought i would waste any more time stuffing about – but alas, a reboot didn’t bring it up. ;-)

Neither did re-running the Deployment Wizard after re-enabling the Windows Firewall (one of the known gotchas on the UC & Stuff Blog).

With a few SCHANNEL errors in the logs and some known issues with Edge replication I thought I’d try the Registry key fix, but that didn’t do it either and was reverted.

In the end, manually starting it from services.msc brings it up, but it’s not sticky (being Manual) and won’t come up after your next reboot.

I’m wondering if it’s reliant on some other pre-req that I’ve not yet met – like that my CMS is still on Lync 2013. Or just a bug. Or a deployment step I’ve missed? Time will tell, but if you’ve found yourself here pondering this same question, at least for the moment take some comfort that you’re not alone.

– Greig.

I’ve decided to go ahead and compare between the existing PowerShell cmdlets index exist for Lync Server 2013 and the new index published for Skype for Business Server 2015.

This revealed a few new cmdlets which are pretty cool, especially around the AddressBookNormalization, Call-Via-Work, VIS and Failover/Failback scenarios as you can see below.

Source:

• Skype for Business Server cmdlets index
• Lync Server 2013 cmdlets index

Cmdlets:

• Debug-CsDataConference – Returns diagnostic information for the data conferencing capabilities included in Skype for Business Server 2015
• Debug-CsUnifiedContactStore – Verifies whether the contacts for a user (or group of users) are stored in the unified contacts store.
• Get-CsAddressBookNormalizationConfiguration – Returns the Address Book normalization configuration settings currently in use in the organization.
• Get-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule – Returns information about the Address Book normalization rules in use in the organization
• Get-CsCallViaWorkPolicy – this cmdlet to return call via work policies. Call via work policies enable and manage the characteristics of outbound calls placed through the Skype for Business client.
• Get-CsClsAgentStatus – return information about the ClsAgent service on the local machine
• Get-CsConversationHistoryConfiguration – Returns the conversation history configuration settings for the organization. These settings manage conversation histories for mobile device users.
• Get-CsPresenceManagementState – return the notification settings of a computer or pool. The management state settings determine the batching and timing of Skype for Business Server 2015 notifications.
• Get-CsThirdPartyVideoSystem – Returns information about Directory contact objects that represent a third-party video system. A third-party video system is a video teleconferencing (VTC) device that provides users with telepresence: the ability to participate in online meetings and conferences with full audio and video capabilities.
• Get-CsThirdPartyVideoSystemPolicy – Returns information about the third-party video system policies configured for use in the organization. These policies determine whether or not a VTC (video teleconferencing) device is allowed to send low-resolution video.
• Get-CsVideoInteropServerConfiguration – return information about Video Interop Server (VIS) configuration settings. VIS configuration settings are scoped to appropriate VIS instances, and will govern the behavior of those instance
• Get-CsVideoInteropServerSyntheticTransactionConfiguration – retrieve Video Interop Server (VIS) synthetic transaction configurations
• Get-CsVideoTrunk – list properties about the video trunks in your organization. Video trunks are Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunks between the Video Interop Server and a Video Gateway that are used to setup video calls between 3rd party video teleconferencing systems (VTCs) connected to the Video Gateway and Skype conferences or Skype endpoints.
• Get-CsVideoTrunkConfiguration – retrieve Video Trunk configuration settings. Video trunk settings define the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk between the Video Interoperability Server (VIS) and a Video Gateway.
• Import-CsCompanyPhoneNormalizationRules – import custom phone normalization rules defined in Company_Phone_Number_Normalization_Rules.txt used in previous server versions into Skype for Business Server 2015 environments.
• Invoke-CsComputerFailBack – flag a server as available for load balancing in a Skype for Business Server 2015 pool. To successfully run this cmdlet you need to run it using an account that has administrator privileges on each server in the source and target pools.
• Invoke-CsComputerFailOver – force a computer in a Skype for Business Server 2015 pool to failover to other servers within the pool. To successfully run this cmdlet you need to run it using an account that has administrator privileges on each server in the source and target pools.
• New-CsStorageServiceConfiguration – Creates new instances of the Skype for Business Server 2015 Storage Service. The storage service provides a common infrastructure that enables Skype for Business Server 2015 components to use Exchange as a backend data store.
• Reset-CsRoutingGroup – Enables administrators to reset a Windows fabric routing group that is not working correctly
• Set-CsVideoGateway – modify the property values of one or more Video Gateways. Video Gateways route traffic between internal and 3rd party video devices such as an internal Skype endpoint exchanging video with a 3rd party PBX supporting 3rd party video teleconferencing systems (VTCs).
• Set-CsVideoInteropServer – modify the property values of one or more Video Interop Servers (VIS). The Video Interop Server is a Skype service that is used to communicate with a Video Gateway via a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk.
• Start-CsPool – start a Skype for Business Server pool. A pool is a set of servers, configured identically, that work together to provide services for a common group of users.
• Test-CsManagementServer – Verifies that the Central Management service is working correctly. The Central Management service is responsible for replicating data between the Central Management store and computers running Skype for Business Server.
• Test-CsP2PVideoInteropServerSipTrunkAV – test the ability of a video gateway to conduct a peer-to-peer audio/video (A/V) call to a Skype for Business user via a Video Interop Server (VIS) pool.

Overview

The Call Quality Dashboard (CQD) is a new feature that allows you to have a new view of your CDR/QoE information.  Unlike the existing Monitoring Server, this feature doesn’t require or rely on SQL Reporting Servers (SRS) but rather used the SQL SAAS Cube, Archive Database and a web portal.

EXPERT NOTE: Do not confuse the Skype for Business Archive database that is used as part of CQD offering.  The archive database is a copy of your existing archiving data into another database.  This database is used as the back end database used by the SAAS Cube.

The software ships as a separate download then the main SfB Server and is available on the Microsoft Download Page here.

It is important to know that you should deploy a separate server for the purposes of CQD and not attempt to re-provision another server as the performance hit of SAAS can be significant.

Setup/Install

The setup and configuration of the server is well established here.

It boils down to a few main steps:

1) Install IIS Pre-Reqs

add-windowsfeature Web-Server, Web-Static-Content, Web-Default-Doc, Web-Asp-Net, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Net-Ext, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Url-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Mgmt-Console

2) Install SQL Server

3) Product Install

This really boils down to three main areas within the configuration.

Here we indicate the the location that stores our existing Lync QoE Data.  Second we specify the instance name of the QoE Archive server.  Again, this is the server you just installed SQL Server and Analysis Server onto.  You also must pick a location where to store the files.  These should NOT be on your C (system) drive.  The partition (single vs multiple) is based on if you installed Standard vs Enterprise.  If you have a large amount of data you will see a significant performance increase by selecting multiple partitions/Enterprise SQL.  Lastly, you must specify a username and password that has the correct permissions.  In this instance it is read to Lync QoEMetric database and account that can login to the QoE Archive server (the one we are creating now).

On the Cube Configuration page you will specify the instance name of where the QoE Archive database is (NOT YOUR QoEMetrics Database).  You also need to specify which server will run the cube analysis.  In a larger deployment you might split the Archive DB and Cube to different servers.  Lastly, you need to enter a user with the correct permissions.  In this instance it is a user that will run permissions, read/write on the QoE Archive database.

On the Portal Configuration page you must specify the QoE Archive SQL Server (AGAIN, NOT THE QoEMetrics Server), Cube Analysis and Repository Server.  This can be the same server in all three instances if you are doing a single server deployment.  Additionally you must specify an account that will run as the portal user.  Setup will create a login security principal to QoE Archive database (with read privilege), a login security principal to Repository database (with read and write privilege) , and a member in QoERole (with full control privilege) for the Cube.

EXPORT NOTE: The installation recommends that you use three different accounts for access.  Clearly it is possible to use a single account.  Outside of a strict security concern there isn’t a technical reason one account won’t work.

Using the Portal

At this point in time your portal is configured and should work.  There are steps for configuring debug mode on TechNet (which you should do) and limiting access on the server.  To access the server, simply browse to the URL (http://server.domain.com/CDQ/).  You should see something very similar to this.

Troubleshooting

For the most part I have not run into many problems.  You can check the health of your system by viewing the health page at http://server.domain.com/CQD/#/Health .

The largest issue I’ve seen is when I’ve needed to re-install the product because of corruption or upgrade.  When attempting to re-install the product you can select to reuse the same QoE Archive database but on the Cube Configuration page you will be prompted that a QoECube already exists and you cannot continue.

To solve this problem:

1) Launch SQL Management Studio

2) Select Analysis Server and connect to your database.

Don’t pick Database Engine.  You won’t find the object and the installer will continue to fail.

3) Select the QoECube object and delete.

In the coming days I’ll be posting some neat tricks and how-to articles on using the Cube.  It’s a powerful application that allows you to create your own reports.  It doesn’t have nearly the feature set of paid products like EventZero or IRPrognosis but it certainly can insight then the standard reports.

Since upgrading the Front End to Skype for Business Server last week it’s become apparent (thanks Ken!) that our old friend “Company_Phone_Number_Normalization_Rules.txt” has been retired. It’s been replaced by PowerShell and with some generic rules to hopefully get you started.

Thankfully as before, Event 20134 will tell us if we have numbers in our AD that weren’t able to be normalised:

… and point us to where we can find them on the Share in the traditional “Invalid_AD_Phone_Numbers.txt” file:

Two ways around it

There are two ways to deal with this: either import your old rule-set, or start afresh!

Import your old rules

Microsoft has kindly provided a means to import the contents of the old file. First off we’ll flush the defaults:

Get-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule | Remove-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule

Now import your old ones:

Import-CsCompanyPhoneNormalizationRules -FileName .\Company_Phone_Number_Normalization_Rules.txt -Verbose

And here they are:

(Get-CsAddressBookNormalizationConfiguration).AddressBookNormalizationRules | ft pattern,translation -auto

Create new rules

I thought now’s as good a time as any to discard my old ones and see if I can do any better, so I’m going with this collection. A benefit of taking this approach over the import is that it’s easy to add some descriptive text to explain the intent of each rule. Clearly these are tuned for AU, but you should be easily able to modify them for your environment:

Get-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule | Remove-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule

New-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule -Parent Global -Name 'E.164 AU' -Description 'Correct E.164 format. Strip common incorrect 0 if present' -Pattern '(\+?)61(0?)(\d{9})' -Translation '+61$3' -Priority 0
New-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule -Parent Global -Name 'E.164 Passthrough' -Description 'Passthrough other foreign E.164 format numbers' -Pattern '\+(\d*)' -Translation '+$1' -Priority 1
New-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule -Parent Global -Name 'E.164 IDD Prefix' -Description 'Strip overseas calling prefix (e.g. 0011, 0018, etc)' -Pattern '001(\d)(\d*)' -Translation '+$2' -Priority 2
New-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule -Parent Global -Name 'E.164 10-digit AU' -Description '10-digit AU number, starts with 0' -Pattern '0(\d{9})' -Translation '+61$1' -Priority 3
New-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule -Parent Global -Name 'E.164 4-10-digit AU' -Description '4-10-digit AU number, starts with 1' -Pattern '1(\d{4,10})' -Translation '+611$1' -Priority 4

(Get-CsAddressBookNormalizationConfiguration).AddressBookNormalizationRules | ft description,pattern,translation -auto

Testing?

Alas there doesn’t appear to be a “Test-CsAddressBookNormalizationRule” commandlet (yet?), and whilst “Abserver.exe” still resides in \server\core, it no longer has the “-testPhoneNorm” switch of its predecessor:

As such, testing your new rules is likely to be a bit hit-and-miss, requiring a loop through “Update-CsAddressBook” and “Invalid_AD_Phone_Numbers.txt” with each attempt.

The “Test-CsVoiceNormalizationRule” cmdlet has some potential but I’ve not been able to put it to use here – not without writing a script to pull apart the AddressBook rule-set and then run the whole shebang rule-by-rule until you find the first one that matches.

If I find a way of testing the rules I’ll post it here. If you beat me to it, please post it in the comments below!

BTW don’t forget there are plenty of awesome apps and websites out there to help you craft clever RegEx. I like the .NET Regular Expression Designer.

All credit goes to Ken Lasko for bringing this to my attention.

– G.

Source:

• May 2015 Cumulative Update for Lync Phone Edition for Polycom CX500, Polycom CX600, and Polycom CX3000 (KB3050588)

Issues Fixed:

• KB 3062287 Moscow time on a telephone plus one hour after you apply an October 2014 update for Lync Phone Edition
• KB 3061582 Lync Phone Edition for Aries telephones does not connect to Exchange Web Service through an HTTP proxy server
• KB 3061581 Users cannot sign in to Lync Phone Edition by using Aries or Tanjay telephones after they are migrated to Office 365
• KB 3050594 Lync Phone Edition crashes and then prompts you for PIN credentials or phone numbers in a Lync conference room
• KB 3050592 Lync Phone Edition signs out and then signs back in when it is in idle state
• KB 3027682 Lync Phone Edition restarts when all replica servers are shut down
• KB 3014922 Date format and ring tone are reset to the default value after you apply an update for Lync Phone Edition
• KB 3014921 Lync Phone Edition cannot automatically sign in when the primary front-end server that you register is shut down

Download:

• Microsoft Lync Phone Edition for Polycom CX500, Polycom CX600 and Polycom CX3000
• Version: 7577.4463
• File Name: UCUpdates.exe
• Date Published: 5/6/2015
• File Size: 27.0 MB