Lync M:N Routing Breaks AnalogDevices

OK, so that’s not entirely the truth – but the great Scott Hanselman says you need to have a catchy title to get ’em in.

*IF* however, you implement M:N Routing in Lync 2013 and change the trunk name so that it’s no longer the same as the gateway’s FQDN, you’ll no longer be able to call a Cs-AnalogDevice that uses that PSTN/trunk gateway:

FailMessage

“Call was not completed or has ended. When contacting your support team, reference error ID 503 (source ID 241).”
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Lync Phone Edition Update – July 2014

Hello to my Egyptian and Moroccan visitors! Good news: this LPE firmware update (from April’s 4.0.7577.4444 to 4.0.7577.4450) is exclusively for your benefit!

2973943 Update for Lync Phone Edition to accommodate daylight saving time (DST) in Egypt and Morocco

For the rest of us there appears to be nothing new – which I guess is even better news, because if it ain’t broke…, no?

Download the relevant CAB files from here:

And HERE’s Pat’s great “New-CsFirmware.ps1″ script to upload the new CABs for you.

 

Polycom UCS (VVX) firmware 5.1.1b

Polycom has today released the “v5.1.1b” firmware update for UCS/VVX phones, and this version is now officially Qualified for Microsoft Lync 2013. It contains a handful of new config options, adds support for the expansion module &  fixes the recent “SIP 480 bug”. Early-adopters beware: depending upon the link you click on the Polycom website you might end up with an accidental release of an earlier version of the Lync CAB file: 5.1.1.2320. The file you DON’T want is called “Polycom_UC_Software_5_1_1_release_sig_lync.zip”. The correct file is linked below. (Polycom is aware of this – the download link should be corrected soon).

Download

You can find the whole shebang here, but you wouldn’t be the first person to be blinded by the collation of links. Here are the key ones:

Firmware / Software

Documentation

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Lync 2013 Client Security Update – June 2014

I see Microsoft has just released a security update for the Lync 2013 Client (kb2881013) which appears to be the Lync-specific fix under the MS14-036 security bulletin umbrella (and which is why clicking the kb’s link takes you to the bulletin’s page).

This update takes the Lync 2013 Client to 15.0.4623.1000.

"This security update resolves a resolves a vulnerability in Microsoft Lync that could allow information disclosure if a user opens a specially crafted Lync meeting request."

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Polycom VVX gives SIP480 – Can’t be Called

A recent update to the Polycom VVX firmware for Lync has introduced a strange bug.

If a phone running the affected version of firmware is used to log into a BRAND NEW new Lync account (i.e. a normal user account or a Common Area Phone), the phone appears to stamp some invalid call forwarding data into the user database and render the account permanently unable to be called. Whilst you’ll be able to call out FROM the affected phone and others will be able to see its presence, you won’t be able to make a call to it:

Yes, it’s available… … until you try and call it.
VVX-Available VVX-Unavailable-crop

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Lync 2013 Client Update – May 2014

The Lync 2013 Client updates are flowing thick and fast of late. Here’s the May update.

This update takes your client to 15.0.4615.1000.

I’ve pasted the following warning onto the recent Client updates, as I don’t believe it’s fixed yet:

If you install this update, users of Outlook 2007 and and Outlook 2010 will no longer be able to see (or call) the numbers of their Outlook Contacts. Microsoft is aware of this and offers two work-arounds: edit the Contact to remove their e-mail address, or change the user’s CsClientPolicy to set “DisplayPhoto” to “NoPhoto”. Bounce the clients, wait for a contact re-fresh/re-synch and all will be well – just a bit clunky without the photos.
This has been fixed in the August 2014 update – at least for Outlook 2010.

 

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Enabling logging on the Sonus Tenor gateway

If you’re ever trying to debug a Sonus / NET / Quintum Tenor gateway, you’ll not get far by relying on Config Manager’s “Call Log” view.  When you’re ready to get serious, Telnet to the gateway and issue these commands:

ev l3 sproto Enables Level 3 logging of all the SIP messaging
ev l3 ch Enables Level 3 logging of Call Handling. It’s described as a “master process” and is considered vital when tracing
ev l3 pri_dec Enables ISDN logging
ev l3 cas Enables CAS logging
ev c Clear the buffer
ev qu Display to screen

 

The gateway will then log all relevant messages to the screen. (You need to hit “Q” to get back to command mode).

(BTW it’s OK with you asking it to log modules that aren’t installed, so you don’t need to worry about that).

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Test-CallRouting.ps1

Lync’s Roles-Based Access Control (RBAC) is great fun. It lets you fairly precisely define the rights of a user: you can easily grant or restrict access to specific commandlets, or apply scoping so that a commandlet can be run, but only against a subset of objects (like say a specific site).

I’m quite used to playing God in my deployments & never having to worry about such restrictions – until now.

I’ve recently found however that deploying a country into a global pool where my own access is subject to RBAC isn’t anywhere near as much fun. I’ve been running into all sorts of invisible walls as my usual open-slather access simply isn’t there. I understand and appreciate why this is necessary, and I don’t want you to think that I’m having a whinge – it’s presented as a bit of a backgrounder for you, and an intro for what’s to come.

One feature I *NORMALLY* enjoy access to is the ability to bung a user’s name and a phone number into the Lync Control Panel and have it tell me where the call’s going to be spat out – assuming it’s not barred of course. Alas, it transpires that when the Control Panel does this it creates a whole stack of new voice routing objects “-inmemory”, and here I run into one of those RBAC walls, as I’m not allowed to do that!

Not to be perturbed, I took to PowerShell and coded my way around it! Here we have “Test-CallRouting.ps1”.

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Lync Phone Edition Update – April 2014

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for updates. Here’s the April 2014 update to the Lync Phone Edition firmware.

“This cumulative update improves the reliability, stability, and performance of Lync Phone Edition for … yadda yadda.”

This update takes Phone Edition to 4.0.7577.4444. Download the relevant CAB files from here:

And HERE’s PAT’s great “New-CsFirmware.ps1″ script to upload the new CABs for you.

 
BTW, in case you missed it last week, here’s Jamie Stark’s post confirming the ongoing support life-cycle of the LPE family and aligning it with Lync 2013.

– G.

[Correction: this page initially incorrectly named the new version as 4.0.7577.4414.]