Welcome to M Senthil Kumar's Blog

OCS VOIP TEST

M.Senthil Kumar — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:04:00 GMT

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 VoIP Test Set enables you to simulate a SIP endpoint to test connectivity.

Emulation options include the following:

Client emulation - To emulate a Microsoft Office Communicator client, you specify a SIP-enabled user account to register with Office Communications Server. This can be useful for troubleshooting problems with incoming or outgoing Enterprise Voice calls.

Server emulation - You can use VoIP Test Set to emulate a Mediation Server or a gateway. To emulate a server, you specify the IP address, port number, and other settings of the server to be emulated. This can be useful for emulating components during the setup of the Office Communications Server 2007 infrastructure to verify the functionality of components that have already been deployed.

Download here..Voip Test Tool

Backing up OCS 2007 Global Config

M.Senthil Kumar — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:01:00 GMT

Backing up your OCS server and pool configurations are only a portion of a good recovery or disaster recovery (DR) plan. In todays blog I will concentrate more on the side of backing up your pool settings. Backing up your pool configs can defintely help with the recovery of your OCS infrastructure in the case of a recovery, but by all means its not the end all be all for a good DR plan.

The LCSCmd.exe command-line tool can be used to back up global-level settings, pool-level settings, and computer-level settings.

The LCSCmd.exe tool is automatically installed when Office Communications Server 2007 is installed. This tool is also available on any computer
where Office Communications Server 2007 Admins tools is installed.

Backing up the settings needed to restore Office Communications Server 2007 requires backing up the following:

Global-level and pool-level settings. This requires the following:

For a Standard Edition server environment, back up these settings on only one Standard Edition server.

For an Enterprise pool, back up these settings on only one front-end server.

Computer-level (machine-level) settings. Back up these settings on each Office Communications Server 2007 server in your deployment.

(The below instructions are pretty much step by step)

1. Log on to a Standard Edition server or a front-end server in an Enterprise pool, or to a separate computer on which Office Communications Server 2007 administrative tools have been installee, with an account that has RTCUniversalReadOnlyAdmins (at least), as well as write permissions for the
folder to which settings are to be backed up.

2. Open a command prompt. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK. (maybe a little too detailed there)

3. At the command prompt, change to the directory containing the LCSCmd.exe tool (by default, <drive>:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007).

4. To export both levels of settings (global and pool), do one of the following:

To export global-level and pool-level settings in an Enterprise pool to a single configuration file (.xml file), type the following command:
lcscmd /config /action:export /level:global,pool /configfile: <drive>:\<path>\<filename>.xml /poolname:[name of pool for which settings are to be exported]

To export global-level and pool-level settings for a Standard Edition server to a single configuration file (.xml file), type the following command:
lcscmd /config /action:export /level:global,pool / configfile:<drive>:\<path>\<filename>.xml /poolname

Simple, Scalable Deployment with BDD 2007

M.Senthil Kumar — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:19:00 GMT

Most people involved in deploying Windows have heard of the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/11/ExtendingBDD/default.aspx

Active Directory Membership Provider and SharePoint

M.Senthil Kumar — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:29:00 GMT

ADAM Role Provider

If you are looking for the ADAM role provider for SharePoint, you can download the ADAM role provider here.

The Active Directory Membership Provider and SharePoint Introduction

It is relatively common with a corporate environment to use Active Directory as the method of network user management, for authentication to a variety of applications, one of which is typically SharePoint. With the new version of SharePoint, there is the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider, which provides all the features that are exploited through the use of custom as well as the standard SQL provider that is shipped with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS). While using the Active Directory membership provider, one can use either the full version of Active Directory or the lighter product Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM), and although the provider is quite similar to the default SQL provider that is shipped with MOSS, it clearly has some distinctions because of the way that it must interact with the directory server. It is important to keep in mind that although AD and ADAM appear to provide the same functionality, ADAM is a much lighter version of AD, and an architect must plan accordingly for the extra features that Active Directory will introduce into an environment. If you domain environment is rather complex, and a large forest with a large amount of trees, it is best to use a test environment when firstly setting up the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider, paying particular study and analysis to the domain that you plan on leveraging the provider in before implementing and binding it to your SharePoint environment.

LDAP and The Active Directory Membership Provider

The provider AD provider is also called the LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol provider because the AD/ADAM provider will in essence communicate with the directory using LDAP commands, this is how the provider is structured. It is quite different from the SQL membership provider in this because it will never return a tangible login token, the provider simply builds the structure by which SharePoint can make LDAP calls to the directory server and marshal back those returns back to SharePoint, there is never any security context that is bound to the actual thread.

Directory Containers

Operationally, the provider works with the directory containers. When examining the Active Directory provider, there is a separation yet common architectural consideration between AD and ADAM at this point since the two technologies are dissimilar, yet alike, in regards to extendibility and manageability. When using the provider against a full blown AD environment, it is important to realize that the provider will point to a singular domain, and within ADAM, the provider needs to be pointed at a single application partition, which is essentially a separate domain. It is however, possible to use the provider within an environment that has multiple domains, however the provider must be instantiated however many domains are going to be bound to the AD provider, i.e. if you have 4 domains you are going to have 4 provider instances.

Global Catalog and Connection Strings

Although the Active Directory provider may seem like a new way to interact with Active Directory at a variety of levels, there are some consideration in terms of what can be read and written when using the provider. Active Directory at its heart use the global catalog to manage all the queries that are done against it, particularly when there is a large domain forest with multiple domains that exist under it, it is the core portion that lets an administrator manage various types of user objects. There are however several assets that exist in the global catalog that are considered read only, and therefore are not good for the provider to interact with, such as modifying user information from the provider when prefixing the connection string with the global catalog conventions. Similar to how the SQL membership provider will work, so does the Active Directory membership provider, in that it also uses the concept of connection strings to know where it should point to. The provider connection strings are quite similar in structure as well:

< connectionStrings >

< add name=”adconnection” connectionString=”LDAP://SharePointDomain.dns.name”/ >

< /connectionStrings >

The exact connection string will vary however between Active Directory and ADAM, for example, you might find this connection string for a full AD environment:

LDAP://sharepointdc.mysharepoint.com/OU=SharePointOU,DC=mySharePoint,DC=com

Caveat Of Using ADAM

However when using ADAM, since it must be instead have the specific container information for it, it will looks slightly different. This differs from Active Directory because the provider when working with SharePoint can instead just be pointed to the at the domain, in which case the AD provider will use the user containers since it is the most common within an enterprise (this is the default option). This is however configurable, and the exact container that will be used can be set within the configuration in the connection string (similar to pointing the container for ADAM). If you require a more extendable option, one in which there are several containers, it is best that the containers are structured in the a hierarchal environment, in which there are parent containers with children ones. For most operations that the provider will use, this will prove to be an adequate architecture since it will search through the children containers when performing queries. This although may result in a complex container architecture, but is a powerful option to leverage if you must leverage several containers to use with the provider, and typically much easier to set up than a more complex multiple instance situation with the provider. It is however important to realize that certain actions within this type of environment are not legal, and will fail unless you do setup those separate instances. If the users aren’t pre-existing, and you require operations for deleting existing users, this is a poor architecture to use, since these operations will not be successful because these operations cannot transverse through several levels. All users that are created or deleted must exist at a specific location in order for user creation and deletion to be successful. Nesting containers, regardless of methods lost when integrating containers that exist outside the one specifically named, is still a powerful mechanism for the SharePoint architect to use. The methods that are being lost typically will fail because as these types of methods are executed against the directory server, it requires that the user object firstly be acquired, in which case a larger search scope cannot be applied in order to gain access to the user object. It is important to realize the child and parent relationship as well, the search query will allows being at the parent and then crawl down into the child OU’s, unless you explicitly name the child container in the connection string, however this would negate the idea of nested containers since there would be no down crawl into the children OU’s.

With regards to connection strings, they will also vary heavily with ADAM since we are pointing a specific container, as opposed to an entire domain that will be default use the User container, this looks like the below:

LDAP://sharepointadam.mysharepoint.com/OU=OU,O=organization,DC=mysharepoint,DC=com

Security Attributes When Using the Active Directory Membership Provider

There are as well some security attributes that are associated when connecting using the Active Directory provider to whatever SharePoint AD or ADAM instance you are leveraging. This is a very simple attribute, connectionProtection, and luckily, it isn’t very complicated to implement because it is a Boolean value, either you want it on or you don’t. This attribute just provides a method by which there can be a secure connection that exists between your directory server and the Active Directory membership provider, and by default it will take the attribute value of Secure, as opposed to None. It is a best practice to use Secure in all environment besides development environments where production level data wouldn’t risk being exposed. In a production environment it is poor practice to leave the connectionProtection attribute set to None since various operations require that a secure connection be established, however for ADAM sometimes it will use the None attribute because it requires setting up SSL certificates. The last attribute that deserves attention is it is also possible for one to add the username and password that they would like to use when connecting to the directory server, otherwise it will connect through the credentials that are bound to the worker process.

Create and Verify DNS SRV and A Records for Client Automatic Client Sign-in for OCS Server and Client

M.Senthil Kumar — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:53:00 GMT

Create and Verify DNS SRV and A Records for Client Automatic Client Sign-in

You must create DNS SRV records in your internal DNS for every SIP domain. The procedure assumes that your internal DNS has zones for your SIP user domains.

To create a DNS SRV record

· On the DNS server, click Start, click Control Panel, click Administrative Tools, and then click DNS.

· In the console tree for your SIP domain, expand Forward Lookup Zones, and then right-click the SIP domain in which your Office Communications Server will be installed.

· Click Other New Records.

· In Select a resource record type, click Service Location (SRV), and then click Create Record.

· Click Service, and then type _sipinternaltls.

· Click Protocol, and then type _tcp.

· Click Port Number, and then type 5061.

· Click Host offering this service, and then type the FQDN of the pool.

· Click OK.

· Click Done.

After you have created the DNS SRV record, create a DNS A for each pool FQDN and URL FQDN that is not the same as the server FQDN.

To create a DNS A record

· Click Start, click Control Panel, click Administrative Tools, and then click DNS.

· In the console tree for your domain, expand Forward Lookup Zones, and then right-click the domain in which your Office Communications Server will be installed.

· Click New Host (A).

· Click Name (uses parent domain name if blank), and then type the name of the pool.

· Click IP Address, and then enter the VIP of the load balancer. If you will deploy only one Enterprise Edition Server that is connected to the back-end without a load balancer, type the IP address of the Enterprise Edition server. (A load balancer is required if you deploy more than one Enterprise Edition server in a pool). Click Add Host, and then click OK.

· To create an additional A record, repeat steps 4 and 5.

· When you are finished creating all the A records that you need as described earlier in click Done.To verify that the required records have been created successfully, wait for DNS replication (if you have just added the records), and then verify that the records were created as described in the next procedure.

To verify the creation of a DNS SRV record

Log on to a client computer in the domain with an account that is a member of the Administrators group or has equivalent permissions.

· Click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.

· At the command prompt, type nslookup, and then press ENTER.

· Type set type=srv, and then press ENTER.

· Type _sipinternaltls._tcp.example.com, and then press ENTER. The output displayed for the TLS record is as follows:

Server: <dns server>.corp.example.com

Address: <IP address of DNS server>

Non-authoritative answer:

_sipinternaltls._tcp.example.com SRV service location:

priority = 0

weight = 0

port = 5061

svr hostname = poolname.example.com

poolname.example.com internet address = <virtual IP Address of the load balancer> or <IP address of a single Enterprise Edition Server for pools with only one Enterprise Edition Server>

5. When you are finished, at the command prompt, type exit.

After you configure the DNS records, verify that the FQDN of the Enterprise pool can be resolved by DNS.

To verify that the FQDN of the Enterprise pool can be resolved

1) Log on to a client computer in the domain.

2) Click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.

3) At the command prompt, type ping <FQDN of the pool>, and then press ENTER.

4) Verify that you receive a response similar to the following, where the IP address returned is the IP address of the load balancer for your Enterprise pool or, in the case of an Enterprise pool with a single Enterprise Edition Server, the IP address of the Enterprise Edition Server.

Reply from 172.27.176.117: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=127

How Client DNS Queries Work

During DNS lookup, SRV records are queried in parallel and returned in the following order to the client.

_sipinternaltls._tcp.<domain> - for internal TLS connections

_sipinternal._tcp. <domain> - for internal TCP connections (performed only if TCP is allowed)

_sip._tls. <domain> - for external TLS connections

_sip._tcp.<domain> - for external TCP connections

where <domain> is the SIP domain used by your internal clients

The client uses the SRV record that is returned and is successful and does not try any other SRV records.

After the SRV record is returned, a query is performed for the DNS A record for the host name that is returned by the SRV record. If no records are found during the DNS SRV query, the client performs an explicit lookup of sip.<domain>. If the explicit lookup does not produce results, the client performs a lookup for sipinternal.<domain>. If the client does not find sipinternal.<domain>, it performs a lookup for sipexternal.<domain>.

If your DNS infrastructure prohibits configuration of these DNS records, you can manually edit the client registry to point to the appropriate home server.

Planning Office Communications Server

M.Senthil Kumar — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:34:00 GMT

■ version and the deployment of OCS

OCS version of the Standard Edition and the deployment of OCS, Enterprise Edition yireoge two versions. Therefore, the number of users it off let's look at what constituted deployment.

□ Standard Edition: supports up to 5,000 users

□ Enterprise Edition: How to deploy two offers.

** Back-end database must be installed on a separate physical machine. Any machine that is installed in the same role and OCS will not support it. Add a small server applications and OCS are not shared with other instances of SQL is required.

-- Enterprise Edition (Consolidated):

Up to 25,000 user support, all of the features you insert one server deployment. So, one of the largest, distributing simple

- Enterprise Edition(Extended) : -- Enterprise Edition (Extended):

■ OCS functional server role

Back in the previous LCS-end, front-end, Access Proxy, Director, Proxy, the same functional category, which was present at the logical server roles we remember. Here counterparts, the role of OCS, the new name of the server line. Conferencing capabilities because of the addition of multiple servers has been added to this role, especially in the sectors that are to be distributed DMZ Access Proxy server roles are now multiple granular xxxEdge name changed. That is what is what Edge server distributed to all sectors DMZ server role as a support for external users of the things that exist.

Below is a feature to provide additional information about the distribution server role. Of course, back-end, front-end, the base should be deployed.

Provide capabilities	Add to the server role.	Client
Provides status information for internal users and IM	No additional server roles required. No additional server roles required.	Communicator 2005 or 2007 Communicator 2007 is required for enhanced presence
On-premise Web Conferencing On-premise Web Conferencing	Standard Edition: No additional server roles required. Enterprise Edition: Web Conferencing Server and Web Server Components	Live Meeting 2007 Communicator 2007 client add-in for Outlook conferences scheduled
On-premise Web Conferencing On-premise Web Conferencing	Standard Edition: No additional server roles required. Enterprise Edition: Web Conferencing Server and Web Server Components	Live Meeting 2007 Communicator 2007 client add-in for Outlook conferences scheduled
Address Book Server Address Book Server	No additional server roles required. No additional server roles required. Enterprise Edition: Web Server Components	No requirement No requirement
Archiving and Call Detail Records Archiving and Call Detail Records	Archiving and CDR Service Archiving and CDR Service	No requirement No requirement
Access to external users	Access Edge Server * Edge Access Server * HTTP reverse proxy* HTTP reverse proxy *	Communicator 2005 or 2007 Communicator 2005 or 2007
(Federation) Union (Federation)
Public IM Connectivity(PIC) Public IM Connectivity (PIC)
Web conferencing External users with Web conferencing	Web Conferencing Edge Server* Edge Server * Web Conferencing HTTP reverse proxy* HTTP reverse proxy *	Live Meeting 2007 Communicator 2007 client
Audio/Video Conferencing External users with the Audio / Video Conferencing	A/V Conferencing Edge Server* A / V * Conferencing Server Edge	Live Meeting 2007 Communicator 2007 client
Web browser-based client that provides information about the status and IM	Communicator Web Access Server Communicator Web Access Server	Communicator Web Access Communicator Web Access
Enterprise Voice Enterprise Voice	Mediation Server and basic media gateway OR Basic-hybrid media gateway (Mediation Server is collocated with basic media gateway) OR Advanced media gateway (Mediation server logic incorporated in gateway design; Available soon) A / V Edge Server (on which the A / V Authentication Service is collocated)	Office Communicator 2007 OR 2007 Communicator Phone Experience

Director: Director server roles are still present in the user authentication process can be adapted Pool in front. . Specifically, the role of the external server, user support and deployment scenarios, which are recommended. This old host users, but it is not, as a domain member server to access the AD user authentication process to carry them outside, but also within the Pool appropriate front-end server, which acts as a traffic routing.

Server Server	Required to Support Required to Support	Corresponding Internal Server Required Corresponding Internal Server Required	Protocol Protocol
Access Edge Server Edge Access Server	Public IM, Federation,Conference, Voice Public IM, Federation, support for internal users remote access, externally or internally by the Conference, features Voice Link for support	Office Communications Server 2007 server or pool and, optionally, a Director	Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
Web Conferencing Edge Server Edge Web Conferencing Server	External Web conferencing External Web conferencing	Web Conferencing Server Web Conferencing Server	Persistent Shared Object Model (PSOM) Persistent Shared Object Model (PSOM)
A/V Edge Server A / V Server Edge	A / V Point-to-point conferences users with external A / V calls with external users	A/V Conferencing Server A / V Conferencing Server	RTP / RTCP, Simple Traversal of UDP through NAT (STUN) /
Reverse Proxy Reverse Proxy	Group Expansion(. Expansion Group (extended deployment group) and the address book file downloads required.(ppt) Web conferencing for meeting the need for access to materials (ppt)	Web server (IIS) Web server (IIS)	HTTP(s) HTTP (s)

Certificate requirements by server role

Ports and Protocols Used by Office Communications Server and Clients

Topology Topology	Server Role Server Role	Recommended CA Recommended CA	Subject Name/ Subject Name / Common Name Common Name	SAN SAN	Comments Comments
Standard Edition server Standard Edition server	All server roles (which are collocated) All server roles (which are collocated)	Enterprise CA.	FQDN of the Standard Edition Server FQDN of the Standard Edition Server	If you have multiple SIP domains and have enabled automatic client configuration, the certificate wizard detects and adds each supported SIP domain FQDNs. (The wizard detects any SIP domains you specified during setup and automatically adds them to the SAN)	Additionally, you must use the IIS administrative snap-in to assign the certificate used by the Web Component Server
Enterprise pool: consolidated Enterprise pool: consultants	All server roles. All server roles. Certificate configured on each Enterprise Edition Server	Enterprise Enterprise CA.	FQDN of the pool FQDN of the pool For the Web Components Server role, the certificate must have the URL of the internal Web farm in the SN or SAN.	If you have multiple domains and SIP have enabled automatic client configuration, the wizard detects the SIP domains, adds them to the SAN, and then adds the SIP supported each domain FQDN. (The wizard detects any SIP domains you specified during setup and automatically adds them to the SAN) For the Web Server Components role, the certificate must have the URL of the Web farm in the internal SAN (FQDN if the pool is different from the FQDN).	Certificate must be installed on each server in the pool. Additionally, you must use the IIS administrative snap-in to assign the certificate used by the Web Component Server.
Enterprise pool: expanded Enterprise pool: expanded	Front End Front End	Enterprise CA	FQDN of the pool FQDN of the pool	If you have multiple SIP domains and have enabled automatic client configuration, add each supported SIP domain FQDN. (The wizard detects any SIP domains you specified during setup and automatically adds them to the SAN)	Certificate must be installed on each server in the pool
	Web Conferencing Web Conferencing	Enterprise CA	FQDN of the pool FQDN of the pool		Certificate must be installed on each server in the pool
	A/V Conferencing A / V Conferencing	Enterprise CA	FQDN of the pool FQDN of the pool		Certificate must be installed on each server in the pool
	Web Components Web Components	Enterprise CA	FQDN of the VIP (virtual IP) of the load balancer used by the Web Components Server	SAN must contain the URL of the internal Web farm in the SAN (if the FQDN is different from the pool FQDN)	A certificate has to be configured in IIS on the all servers that are running the Web Component Services
Director, Director, Standard Edition Standard Edition	Director	Enterprise CA	FQDN of Standard Edition Server FQDN of Standard Edition Server	If you have multiple SIP domains and have enabled automatic client configuration and all clients use this Director for logon, add each supported SIP domain FQDN. (The wizard detects any SIP domains you specified during setup and automatically adds them to the SAN)
Director, Director, Enterprise pool Pool Enterprise	Director	Enterprise CA	FQDN of the pool FQDN of the pool	If you have multiple SIP domains and have enabled automatic client configuration and all clients use this Director for logon, add each supported SIP domain FQDN.	.
Array of Standard Edition Directors Array Standard Edition of Directors	Director	Enterprise CA.	FQDN of the Director Server Director of the FQDN Server	FQDN Director of Server and the FQDN of the virtual IP ( VIP) used by the array VIP) used by the array. If you have multiple SIP domains and have enabled automatic client configuration and all clients use this Director for logon, add each supported SIP domain FQDNs.	FQDN of the server is in the SUBJECT field FQDN of the Director Director of the FQDN VIP and the FQDN of the server must be in the SUBJECT_ ALT_NAME as DNS values ALT_NAME as DNS values

Ports and Protocols Used by Office Communications Server and Clients

Component (Server role or client) Component (Server role or client)	Port Port	Protocol Protocol	Notes Notes
Front End Servers Front End Servers	5060/5061	TCP MTLS	Used by Standard Edition Servers and Used by Standard Edition and Servers Enterprise pools for all internal SIP communications between servers and between servers and Office Communicator
Front End Servers Front End Servers	443	HTTPS	Communication from front-end servers to the Web farm FQDNs (the URLs used by Web Components)
Front End Servers Front End Servers	444	HTTPS	Communication between the focus (Office Communications Server component that manages conference state) and the conferencing servers
Front End Servers Front End Servers	135	DCOM and RPC DCOM and RPC	Used when a load balancer is deployed, port 135 is used by the Front End Servers for WMI operations and moving users (a remote DCOM-based database operation)
Web Components Web Components	443	TCP	HTTPS traffic to the pool URLs HTTPS traffic to the pool URLs
Web Conferencing Server Web Conferencing Server	443	TLS	Components HTTPS communications to Web Servers
Web Conferencing Server Web Conferencing Server	444	TLS	HTTPS between the Web Conferencing Server and the Front End Server
Web Conferencing Server Web Conferencing Server	8057	TLS	Used to listen to PSOM direct connections from client Live Meeting
A/V Conferencing Server A / V Conferencing Server	5063	TCP	Used for incoming SIP listening requests
A/V Conferencing Server A / V Conferencing Server	49152 – 65535 media port range 49152 - 65535 media port range	UDP	Port range used for media requests sent.
Reverse Proxy Reverse Proxy	443	TCP	Used for SIP / TLS communications from external users on both the internal and external firewalls for external user access
Access Edge Server Edge Access Server	5061	TCP	Used for SIP / MTLS communication for remote user access or federation.
Access Edge Server Edge Access Server	443	TCP	Used for SIP / TLS communication for remote user access
Web Conferencing Edge Server Edge Web Conferencing Server	8057	TCP	Used to listen for PSOM / MTLS communications from the Web Conferencing Server on the internal interface of the Web Conferencing Edge Server
Web Conferencing Edge Server Edge Web Conferencing Server	443	TCP	Used for inbound communications for access of remote, anonymous and federated users to access internal Web conferences
A/V Edge Server A / V Server Edge	443	TCP	Used for STUN / TCP inbound and outbound media communications to allow external users to access media and A / V sessions
A/V Edge Server A / V Server Edge	5062	TCP	Used for SIP / MTLS authentication of A / V users. Communications flow outbound through the internal firewall.
A/V Edge Server A / V Server Edge	3478	UDP	Used for STUN / UDP inbound and outbound media communications
A/V Edge Server A / V Server Edge	50,000-59,999 50000-59999	RTP/TCP RTP / TCP	Used for inbound and outbound media transfer through the external firewall.
Office Communicator Office Communicator	5060	TCP (SIP) TCP (SIP)	Used by the Office Communicator for SIP communications internally
Office Communicator Office Communicator	5061	TCP (SIP) TCP (SIP)	Used by the Office Communicator for SIP communications internally and for SIP / MTLS authentication of A / V users. Communications flow outbound through the internal firewall
Office Communicator Office Communicator	443	TCP (HTTP) TCP (HTTP)	Used by Communicator clients connecting from outside the intranet for SIP communications
Office Communicator Office Communicator	1024-65535	UDP/TCP UDP / TCP	Port range used for inbound and outbound media transfer through the external firewall.
Office Communicator Office Communicator	6891-6901	TCP	Port ranged used by Office Communicator for file transfer.
Live Meeting 2007 client Live Meeting 2007 client	443	TCP	Used by Live Meeting 2007 clients connecting from outside the intranet for: SIP traffic sent to the Access Edge Server PSOM traffic sent to the Web Conferencing Edge Server
Live Meeting 2007 client Live Meeting 2007 client	8057	TCP	Used for outgoing PSOM traffic sent to the Web Conferencing Server
Live Meeting 2007 client Live Meeting 2007 client	5061	TCP	Used for SIP / TLS communication between Live Meeting and the Front End Servers or the Access Edge Server and for SIP / MTLS authentication of A / V users. Communications flow outbound through the internal firewall
Live Meeting 2007 client Live Meeting 2007 client	1024-65535	UDP/TCP UDP / TCP	Port range used for inbound and outbound media transfer through the external firewall
Live Meeting 2007 client Live Meeting 2007 client	6891-6901	TCP	Port ranged used by Live Meeting for file transfer

Maximum Supported Users for each Topology

Topology Topology	Servers Required Required Servers	Maximum Users Supported Maximum Users Supported
Standard Edition Server Standard Edition Server	1 Standard Edition server A Standard Edition server (Optional) Archiving Server collocated (Optional) Archiving Server collocated	5,000
Enterprise pool: Consolidated Configuration	4 Enterprise Edition Front-End servers running all server roles 1 Backend 1 Backend SQL Server SQL Server (Optional) 1 Archiving Server Archiving Server (Optional) 1	30,000
Enterprise pool: Expanded configuration Enterprise pool: Expanded configuration With Mid-Range Performance SQL Backend With Mid-Range Performance SQL Backend	4 Front-End Servers 4 Front-End Servers 2 Web Conferencing Servers 2 Web Conferencing Servers 2 A/V Conferencing Servers 2 A / V Conferencing Servers 2 IIS Servers 2 IIS Servers 1 Backend SQL Server A SQL Server Backend (Optional) 1 Archiving Server Archiving Server (Optional) 1	50,000
Enterprise pool: Expanded configuration Enterprise pool: Expanded configuration With High Performance SQL Backend With High Performance SQL Backend	8 Front-End Servers 8 Front-End Servers 4 Web Conferencing Servers 4 Web Conferencing Servers 4 A/V Conferencing Servers 4 A / V Conferencing Servers 2 IIS Servers 2 IIS Servers 1 Backend SQL Server A SQL Server Backend (Optional)2 Archiving Servers (Optional) 2 Archiving Servers	125,000

Edge server topologies assume 10% of the total user base will be connected from outside the intranet

Topology Topology	Supported Performance Supported Performance
Stand-alone Access Edge Server Stand-alone Edge Access Server	15,000 client connections 15,000 client connections
Stand-alone Web Conferencing Server Edge	3,000 client connections 3,000 client connections
Stand-alone A/V Edge Server Stand-alone A / V Server Edge	1,500 concurrent audio/video sessions 1,500 concurrent audio / video sessions
Edge Access Server & Web Conferencing Collocated Edge	Edge Access Server: 5,000 client connections Web Conferencing Server Edge: 1,500 client connections
Collocated Access Edge, Edge Web Conferencing & A / V Edge Servers (Consolidated Edge Topology)	Edge Access Server: 5,000 client connections Web Conferencing Server Edge: 1,000 client connections A / V Edge Server 500 concurrent audio / video sessions Note A / V experience may be degraded if sessions approach the maximum limit. We recommend that you deploy a separate A / V Edge Server for the optimal A / V experience

MOSS 2007 VS MCMS 2002

M.Senthil Kumar — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:44:00 GMT

As you may already knew that Microsoft discarded its Content Management product line and make its new SharePoint product as the content management platform. Almost all MCMS elements and terms that current MCMS developers familiar with are changed. To make me learn the new things easier, I did a comparison in following list:

	MCMS 2002	Sharepoint 2007
Development Tools	Visual Studio 2003, Visual Studio 2005	Visual Studio 2005, Sharepoint Designer
Framework	.NET 1.1, .NET 2.0	.Net 2.0
Master file	Supported in SP2 and developed by VS 2005. The master file stays in the virtual directory of web server.	Master file can be created by Sharepoint Designer and VS 2005. But the master file is a ghost page need to be uploaded via Sharepoint admin page.
Template	CMS Template. It’s stored in template gallery. It contains list of placeholders, list of custom properties and links to a template page (aspx file)	Content Type. Content Type contains a list of columns.
Template page	An aspx page stays on file system.	Page Layout. Created based on the Content Type. Aspx file but stays on Sharepoint server, it’s editable by Sharepoint Designer and VS 2005.
Content place holder	Placeholder. CMS has some build-in placeholders such as html placeholder, xml placeholder, image placeholder and attachment placeholder	Column / Filed. Sharepoint 2007 has more types like single line text, numeric, date, time, currency, html, picture, attachment file… I couldn’t find the xml type which is very useful in current MCMS 2002. But there are a lot other useful column types like lookup, business data …
Place holder control	The build-in placeholder web control used in template aspx page for content editing in authoring mode and content rendering in publishing mode is in Microsoft.ContentManagement. Publishing.Extension.Placholders You are also be able to create your own custom web controls.	Sharepoint 2007 also has many web controls for content editing and rendering. They are in Microsoft. Sharepoint.Publishing. Those controls are automatically added to the page layout aspx when drag the fields in Sharepoint Designer. I believed you are able to create the custom controls and add to your own page as well.
Page	Posting. Posting will be able to be created and managed in web interface. The posting is stored in CMS database.	Page. Page can be created in Sharepoint admin web UI based on the selected page layout. You are able to use Sharpoint designer to unghost (customize) the page.
Folder	Channel. It’s just a simple container contains a set of postings.	Site. It should be an WSS site including a set of lists, doc libraries and other contents.
Resource	Resource gallery. No versioning support	Document library, picture library … support versioning
Publishing workflow	Build-in workflow. No alert, hard to customize	Based on Windows workflow framework, very flexible.
Security	Windows AD account only. Only control to channel level	Can control to page level, support AD account, LDAP, and database.
Versions	Simple	Very good

Sharepoint 2007 also includes other benefits which you couldn’t find in MCMS 2002 out-of-box. For example: the out-of-box navigation bar support, search functions, personalization and user profiles…

Exchange 2007 Resources

M.Senthil Kumar — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:59:00 GMT

Exchange 2007 Resources

There are not many books available out there for Exchange 2007 yet. The good part is Microsoft has everything out there waiting for you to download. I am listing all these free download below. These Microsoft white papers are great and they have tons of good information in them. I recommend you all to download these and start reading them. (TechNet).These download also available on Microsoft site.

Exchange 2007 downloads links

TechNet

Release notes for Exchange Server 2007

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Release Notes contain late breaking information for Exchange Server 2007.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Help

Exchange Server 2007 Help can help you in the day-to-day administration of Exchange. Use this information to guide you through Exchange Server 2007 features, tasks, and administration procedures.

Deploying a Standard Exchange Server 2007 Organization

Of the four defined organizational models for Exchange 2007 (simple, standard, large, and complex), the standard Exchange organization represents the most common topology into which Exchange 2007 is deployed. This document provides descriptions and overviews of features, guidelines for planning, and steps for deploying a standard Exchange 2007 organization.

Deploying a Simple Exchange Server 2007 Organization

The simple Exchange organization represents the most basic topology into which Exchange 2007 can be deployed. This document provides descriptions and overviews of features, guidelines for planning, and steps for deploying a simple Exchange 2007 organization.

Deploying a Large Exchange Server 2007 Organization

The large Exchange organization is the largest organization model that can be deployed in a single Active Directory and directory service forest environment. This document provides descriptions and overviews of features, guidelines for planning, and steps for deploying a large Exchange 2007 organization

Deploying a Complex Exchange Server 2007 Organization

As its name implies, a complex Exchange organization represents the most intricate topology into which Exchange 2007 is deployed. The complex Exchange organization is the only model that includes multiple Active Directory and directory service forests or the use of synchronization technology. This document provides descriptions and overviews of features, guidelines for planning, and steps for deploying a complex Exchange Server 2007 organization.

Managing Transport in Exchange Server 2007

This guide documents the message transport components of a computer that runs Exchange 2007 and has the Hub Transport server role or the Edge Transport server role installed. It provides overviews of the transport components and the tasks you must perform to manage and configure them.

Configuring Permissions in Exchange Server 2007

This document helps you to plan, implement, and manage the permissions model in your Exchange 2007 organization

Operations Management and Monitoring of an Exchange Server 2007 Organization

This document provides information, including checklists for daily, weekly, and monthly tasks, related to operations management of an Exchange Server 2007 organization. In addition, guidance is provided for using Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Service Pack 1 to monitor an Exchange organization.

Managing Mailbox Features in Exchange Server 2007

The purpose of this document is to help you manage and configure Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox servers. The information and procedures in this document focus specifically on the mailbox features of an Exchange 2007 computer that has the Mailbox server role installed.

Technical Architecture of Exchange Server 2007

This document discusses the technical architecture of Exchange Server 2007, including descriptions of server roles, topologies, and the transport architecture.

Exchange Server 2007 Planning

This document provides guidance on planning for the supported Exchange 2007 organization models. Information is also provided to help plan for the use of Active Directory and directory service and Exchange 2007 server roles. A planning checklist is included

You receive an authentication prompt and error when trying to Write an Article in the Knowledge Base application template for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 over an SSL HTTPS:// connection

M.Senthil Kumar — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:50:00 GMT

Problem: You use an SSL/HTTPS secure connection with your SharePoint site and have created a site using the Knowledge Base application template. When you click on the link to "Write an Article" you receive an authentication prompt or Access Denied error.

Background: The Knowledge Base application template was not QA'd against an SSL or secure HTTPS sessions – there are absolute paths to HTTP content referenced therefore Internet Explorer senses a domain change and throws a warning or authentication prompt depending on your configuration.

Solution: The best solution is to use the Knowledge Base application template with an HTTP connection. This eliminates the authentication prompt and allows you to save the new knowledge base article that you are trying to create

SharePoint-Tutorials

M.Senthil Kumar — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:39:00 GMT

SharePoint-Tutorials

http://blog.sharepointhosting.com/Downloads/SharePoint-Tutorials.aspx

SharePoint 2007 Developers Resources

M.Senthil Kumar — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 20:28:00 GMT

Technical Articles

Best Practices: Writing SQL Syntax Queries for Relevant Results in Enterprise Search
Customizing and Branding Web Content Management-Enabled SharePoint Sites (Part 1 of 3)
Customizing and Branding Web Content Management-Enabled SharePoint Sites (Part 2 of 3)
Customizing and Branding Web Content Management-Enabled SharePoint Sites (Part 3 of 3)
Data-Type Handling with Excel Services User-Defined Functions
Deploying and Optimizing a SharePoint Web Part That Calls Excel Web Services
Developer Introduction to Workflows for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007
Developing User-Defined Functions for Excel 2007 and Excel Services
Evaluating and Customizing Search Relevance in SharePoint Server 2007
Excel Services Technical Overview
Extending the Excel Services Programmability Framework
Item-Level Auditing with SharePoint Server 2007
SharePoint Server 2007 for MCMS 2002 Developers
Team-Based Development in SharePoint Server 2007
Upgrading an MCMS 2002 Application to SharePoint Server 2007 (Part 1 of 2)
Upgrading an MCMS 2002 Application to SharePoint Server 2007 (Part 2 of 2)
Using Excel Web Services in a SharePoint Web Part

7 My Site Templates

M.Senthil Kumar — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:56:00 GMT

This paper discusses the strategy for building the role-based My Site templates and takes an in-depth look at the common features and Web Parts that make up each of the templates. The paper also provides guidelines for branding, extending, and deploying the My Site Templates and covers a comprehensive set of scenarios that include collaboration, business process management, reporting, document lifecycle management, and project management.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8248ab85-3ef7-4dd2-a5a6-2615683f6f6d&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System

M.Senthil Kumar — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:36:00 GMT

Best Practice Analyzer for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 Released

Just in case you missed it. The BPA for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 has been released

The Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System creates detailed reports to help administrators achieve greater performance, scalability, and uptime. Download it here

SharePoint Products and Technologies 2007 Customization Policy white paper

M.Senthil Kumar — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 21:02:00 GMT

The SharePoint Products and Technologies 2007 Customization Policy white paper is a starting point for companies to develop their own policies for implementing and managing customizations in a SharePoint based environment. A version of this document is currently being used as a key component of the hosting policy for SharePoint customizations within Microsoft’s internal SharePoint hosting team, which manages what may be the world's largest SharePoint environment. This document was designed to act as a bridge between system administrators and developers so that both sides could evaluate SharePoint customizations with an emphasis on administration concerns such as supportability, performance, and deployment issues. This document will be added to over time as new information and best practices become available.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=92311&clcid=0x409