Microsoft Teams Deep-Dive – Canberra follow-up

I presented a Teams Deep-Dive session at Microsoft’s office in Canberra this week.

At the end there were a few links I wanted to share with the participants, and a few homework questions I wanted to research and respond to. A blog post seemed the obvious way to provide them with that info.

The below will be of greatest relevance to the attendees, but even if you weren’t there I think you’ll find some bits of interest.

Connectivity.office.com

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SfB 2015 Server Update – August 2019

Hot on the heels of last month’s CU10 comes CU10 HF1 – the “whoops” fix-up release.

This is build 6.0.9319.562, and it updated three components on my Standard Edition Front-End.

What’s Fixed?

  • 4518680 Can’t transfer external calls by using Polycom VVX phones in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • 4518679 Skype meeting disconnection due to missing session refresh in Skype for Business Server 2015

Note The fix for the following issue is reverted and it is not included in this cumulative update.

  • KB 4507230 Support LBR and branch site voice resiliency conflicting requirements in Skype for Business Server 2015

What’s New?

Nothing noted. No cmdlets have been added to the SfB module in this update.

Continue reading ‘SfB 2015 Server Update – August 2019’ »

Cscp logs Event 35009 – “Authorization Failed”

My colleagues and I recently encountered an intermittent problem with the CSCP reporting “Authorization Failed” when you tried to sign in.

This was a Skype for Business 2015 Enterprise Edition pool, and so it didn’t take long to localise the issue to just one Front-End server.

Each failed attempt dropped an instance of event 35009 into the “Lync Server” log:

Remote PowerShell cannot create InitialSessionState for user S-1-5-20. Cause of failure: Cannot find user in Active Directory with the following SAM account name: "S-1-5-20"

That SID belongs to the NT Authority / Network Service – and when we succeed on another machine, we see the traces* correctly trying to sign in as the SID of my admin account.

(* The reference to PowerShell in the log gave us cause to review the Centralised Logging for the “PowershellWebService” scenario, but it didn’t seem to add a great deal of value.)

A successful sign-in also drops the more friendly 35008 into the log:

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Review: Poly EagleEye Mini USB camera

I’m a little late to get my mitts on an EagleEye Mini USB camera, but circumstances recently gave me cause to take a closer look.

If you’ve not encountered it before, the Mini is a compact 1920×1080 HD USB camera, initially designed to slot into the top USB port on your VVX501 or 601, but nowadays also supported on a Trio with Visual+, and even on a PC or Mac.

Features

Poly’s website reports its features thus:

  • High-definition 1080p60 capture with true color hue saturation and brightness for the most accurate color rendition and life-like images
  • 4x electronic zoom and a 74-degree field of view
  • Simulcast video stream
  • Installs in seconds – no drivers needed

It’s officially a supported peripheral for Skype for Business video calls on a computer or video conferencing device.
Continue reading ‘Review: Poly EagleEye Mini USB camera’ »

New-ObfuscatedFile.ps1

 

I have the occasional need to send log files to Microsoft and other vendors from customers who have strict IT security requirements. These customers usually require all files be de-identified before they leave the premises, removing all host names and IP addresses.

This can be quite a tedious process, so I’ve created a small script file that edits a provided text file and:

  • uses a “find/replace” CSV file to replace all instances of sensitive text with replacement values.
  • obfuscates any unchanged IP addresses, replacing them with dummy text in the format “aa.bb.cc.nn”, where the “nn” is the same number where-ever that IP address is encountered in the document. (e.g. the third IP address that’s found in the file will be renamed “aa.bb.cc.3”).

At a minimum, you only need to provide an -InputFile. With only this, the script will replace all IP addresses with dummy values, then save a copy of the file with a “-new” suffix.

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Azure – Resource Provider Not Registered

I’ve been following one of Tom Morgan’s excellent tutorials on creating Bots for Microsoft Teams, and I hit an unexpected hurdle very early on in the process – but as it turns out, the fix was a simple one.

Resource provider 'Microsoft.BotService' not registered for the subscription

Fair enough, I say. Let’s register.

I navigated to All Services then searched for and selected Subscriptions, then selected my Subscription and Resource Providers. There were a lot there, so I filtered for microsoft.bot, only to be greeted by the news that I *was* already registered:

Seeing as I was already here and there was an option to Unregister, I went down that path. Refresh, wait a bit, Register and BOOM, I was back on the air.

The moral of the story? Even in the cloud, turning something off and back on again remains a viable fix.

Revision History

9th August 2019: This is the initial publication.
 

– G.

SfB 2015 Server Update – July 2019

It says August 1 on my calendar, but this update is badged July 31st on the download site, so July it is.

Known Issue: “call hold,” “transfer,” and “resume” options for the Polycom VVX series may fail. (See below for more details.)
Fixed: See SfB 2015 CU10 HF1

Our last CU (May’s CU9 / 6.0.9319.548) has now been rendered obsolete by CU10 – 6.0.9319.559. It updated 7 components on my Standard Edition Front-End server.

What’s Fixed?

This cumulative update includes a defense in depth fix and enables Location-Based Routing to support the Skype for Business mobile clients. It also fixes the following issues:

  • Kb 4510852 UCWA client is disconnected because w3wp.exe crashes when using clarity connect in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510851 SCOM SQL alerts are created every hour on SQL Secondary Replica server if “Always On” for Monitoring Server is set in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510850 Skype for Business on Mac user’s latest photo can’t be seen until signing in to a Windows client in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4511313 “Too many outstanding requests for a single user” error occurs on Front-End servers in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510847 Rate My Call on UCWA clients still shows after installing the January 2019 Cumulative Update for Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510846  “InstallDatabaseInternalFailure: An internal error has occurred…” error when installing new databases in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4507230 Support LBR and branch site voice resiliency conflicting requirements in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4459114 The installed local XDS database version isn’t matched with the expected version in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4507232 Resuming a PSTN call that was put on hold results in one-way audio in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510845 UCWA Event ID 20002, 20003, and 20033 occurs after you install the July 2018 cumulative update for Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510844 Can’t find the response group agent that’s synced from an existing distribution list in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510843 Forwarding a missed call from Shared Line Appearance fails in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4507228 No notifications from UCMA conference subscriptions after a network disconnection in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510842 Form-based authentication still works after you disable external basic authentication in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510841 Skype for Business 2015 Mediation Server doesn’t respect the codec prioritization for outgoing PSTN calls
  • Kb 4510840 Error ID 28042 and UCMA sign-in fails in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510839Skype for Business still rings if a PSTN call is ended before it’s answered by an online user in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510855 Can’t edit interactive RGS workflows via the web interface in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4507233 Enterprise users can’t request control of an anonymous user’s shared screen in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510856 User can’t create Skype meeting for a delegator via Skype for Business on Mac if they’re homed in different pools in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4512879 UCWA client can’t make a P2P call or join a conference when EnableExternalAccessCheck is True and EnableOutsideAccess is False in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4503584 “The Audio/Video Conferencing Server has failed to create a conference” error (ID 32005) occurs on Audio/Video Conferencing Server in Skype for Business Server 2015

What’s New?

Nothing noted.

Continue reading ‘SfB 2015 Server Update – July 2019’ »

Yes, I’m gay. Why even mention it?

Occasionally someone will be brave enough to ask why I give my sexuality top billing in my Twitter profile and bios:
 

It probably seems a little out of place given that if you search the word “gay” on my blog you’ll find the only hit – singular – is on my “about” page (until now that is).

That I’m gay isn’t relevant to what I do for a crust – no questions about that.

It’s purely a visibility thing.

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DHMG2019 – the Disco Death Star – Pt.2

This is part 2 of a 2-part series covering how we built the “Disco Death Star”:

Part 1 – The Build – construction and assembly
Part 2 – Control, programming & examples – (this post)

The controller

Here’s the final version of the control PCB. It’s a bit of a dog’s breakfast, but it’s what you get when your proof of concept morphs through prototype stage to become the finished product.

At the left is the Teensy 3.6 that’s running the show, and on the right is the “Octo Level Shifter FeatherWing“. The level shifter is there purely to convert the Teensy’s 3.3V IO pins to the 5V required by the LED strips. I SHOULD have used a “Teensy 3.2 OctoWS2811 Adaptor“, but I didn’t know at the time it existed – and of course that explains why there wasn’t a Teensy version in the store and was forced to compromise on this Feather version. (D’oh!)

To the right of the Level Shifter are 8 header pins – those are the data feeds to the ball.

As it was initially built, that’s all there was. When you applied power the ball ran the chases in a random order, each for a semi-random period of time (in between two bounds I’d hard-coded).

Let’s add some DMX

Continue reading ‘DHMG2019 – the Disco Death Star – Pt.2’ »

DHMG2019 – the Disco Death Star – Pt.1

If you’re new to the “DHMG” – our annual housewarming party – and its attendant excuse for some crazy home-brew tech, there’s some back-story and an index of the things we’ve done here.


 
This is part 1 of a 2-part series covering 2019’s “Disco Death Star”:

Part 1 – The Build – construction and assembly – this post
Part 2 – Control, programming & examples
Continue reading ‘DHMG2019 – the Disco Death Star – Pt.1’ »