Call Recording for Lync 2013 with Verba - Part 1 Installation Experience

Hello Readers,

Heres my notes on my experience with Verba "Call Recording" Solution for Microsoft Lync. First thing first, the installation was done by Verba Technical Team and I must admit I was quite glad they did the install. There are a lot of perquisites that need to be installed on the dedicated server that I provisioned for the solution. If Im honest a lot the perquisites could have been completed before the install date if the information was given to me by their tech team.

The installation was done over *cough* webex and the given time for the installation was not met. I was told installation would happen at 12pm but didn't happen until 13:15pm after receiving an email asking if now was convenient.

During the install all the comms was done via IM.

The installation took about 1 hour and 30mins to complete.

Installation was done in the following order;

· All perquisites for Verba on Dedicated Server

· Install Verba Recording.msi on Dedicated Server

· Install Lync Filter.msi on Lync Front End Server

· Install Remote Capture.msi on Edge Server

Once the installation was completed, I managed to put through some test calls that was recorded successfully. Very happy experience so far.

Before I left on the evening, the host machine for the VMs needed Windows Updates installing and go old Microsoft forced me to shut down the VMs gracefully before the host just powered them off and restarted itself.

After leaving the installation overnight and investigating again this morning. My mailbox has been hammered with over 700 emails from Verba Error Reports. 700 plus emails about the same error

Dear Verba Administrator,

Verba System Monitor has detected a fault that required the restart of a service.

Computer name:      lyncfe-01
Service:            Verba Node Manager Agent Service (VerbaNMAgent)
Reason for restart: Service not running
Restart status:     SUCCEEDED
For more information
Log path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Verba\log\
Copyright (c) Verba Technologies. All rights reserved.

This was being caused by the SQL Instance Service being in a stopped state on the dedicated server. I had to restart the service but once I did that I started getting a flood of emails with the below error

Dear Verba Administrator,

Verba System Monitor has detected a fault that required the restart of a service.
Computer name:      lyncfe-01
Service:            VerbaNMAgent
Copyright (c) Verba Technologies. All rights reserved.

I tried restarting the service with no success and I also tried to bounce the Lync Server with the service that was getting flagged. Since I have had no success I have now submitted a fault ticket with Verba on this issue.

The Technical Team got in touch within about 30minutes and started to investigate the issue. The Technical team poked around the environment, checked the logs, checked services was running, restarted Verba Services then suddenly the alerts stopped flooding. I was told this was not an issue they have seen before and thought the Lync FE Services was not started which caused the issue. I know all the Lync Services was running prior to contacting the support team. They stopped the FE Service which then stopped Verba Lync Filter Service and Verba System Monitor during the time the services was down, I didn't receive any errors. As Verba System Monitoring pushes the alerts.

Confirmed by Tech Team the 1st error was caused by the SQL Server Instance not being started and my 2nd error has gone back to the Developers. (I do like to be awkward)

I have now had a response from Verba about the issue due to behaviour in their code why I kept getting email alerts every minute. They have now made a change to their code which will be available as of 23th May 2013. So in a good way I have help Verba with product development.

My thoughts on Installation Process

I would have preferred the perquisites to be installed prior to the initial installation as this would have saved a lot of my time. A lot the perquisites was Microsoft installs that could have been done by an IT Professional that was going to provision the dedicated Verba Server. Otherwise it has been an interest experience and I am glad that the issue I had will be resolved in Verba Release Update.

To Verba's credit they identified the issue, resolved it and getting a release update published within 24 hours.

Next Step Call Recording for Lync 2013 with Verba - Part 2 Dashboarding and Recording (Coming Soon)

 

Lync 2010 Error when running Install-CsDatabase - Script Failed (Code "1")

 

 Hello Readers,

Here is another error I experienced in my lab environment today when running Install-CsDatabase -Update -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn fe01.lynclab1.local -UseDefaultSqlPaths

 

This issue was being caused of an old enter for a Monitoring Server that no longer within my lab.



After deleting the Monitoring Server and republishing the topology. I re-run the PowerShell command on my lab and it completed successfully

Lync Client not removing Out of Office Flag

Hello Readers,

This has got to be one of the weirdest Lync issues Ive seen in my short time supporting Lync. One user was having an issue with where the Out Of Office Flag would not disappear from the Lync Client even tho there was no OOO set within Outlook/OWA.

I looked all over the internet looking people that have had the similar issue and post the question online but to no avail. I tried testing the issue against my Lync Client, add an OOO and removed the OOO once the flag appeared. The flag didn't disappear within ;) "mine own accepted time frame" so I started playing with my Lync Client and added a status message.

After I added the message the flag disappeared.

So I then went to the user's Lync Client and click on What happening field. It was blank but when I pressed the down arrow I could the lines from OOO.

After deleting the OOO and adding a custom message it cleared the flag but then clearing the custom message the OOO flag returned.

So I have re-added custom message rebooted client and it has now resolved the issue.

SEFAUtil Commands for Lync 2013

Hello Readers,

Following my blog post for setting up SEFAUtil here is another post on all the commands contains in SEFAUtil.

/server: Lync Server FQDN, required if Auto Discovery not enabled

Enable Commands
/adddelegate: Add delegate on behalf of another
/simulringdelegates: Set users call handling rules to ring delegates endpoints simultaneously
/delayringdelegates: Set number of seconds before ring delegates endpoints simultaneously
/fwdtodelegates: Set users call handling rules to forward to delegates endpoints
/setfwddestination: Set the users forward immediate or forward-no-answer destination
/enablefwdimmediate: Set users call handling rules to immediate forward to forward destination
/enablefwdnoanswer: Set users call handling rules to no answer forward to forward destination
/callanswerwaittime: Set the number of seconds to wait for the user to pick up the call
/setsimulringdestination: Set the users Simultaneously ring destination
/enablesimulring: Enable simultaneously ring to simultaneously destination
/disablesimulring: Disable simultaneously ring
/enablegrouppickup: Enable group pickup
/addteammember: add team member on behalf of user
/simulringteam: Set users call handling rules to ring team member endpoints simultaneously
/delayringteam: Set number of seconds before ring team member endpoints simultaneously

Remove or Disable Commands
/removedelegate: Remove delegate on behalf of another
/disableteamcall: Disable team ring for user
/removeteammember: remove team member on behalf of user
/disablegrouppickup: Disable group pickup
/disablesimulring: Disable simultaneously ring
/disablefwdimmediate: Disable immediate forward
/disablefwdnoanswer: Disable no answer forward
/disabledelegates:  Disables delegate ring for the user

Remember you can check commands on a user by entering the following

sefautil /server:lyncserver.domain.local users.sip@domain.local

It will give you the output of their configuration.

Configuring -Type GroupPickup on Lync 2013 CU1

Hello Readers,

Here is a post about Group Pickup as I had to configure the solution today. Group Pickup allows a user to Pickup a call that was not directly sent to them, i.e. a user has walked away from their desk and their phone rings. This solution will allow you to pickup the call for the user.

First thing first.

Logon to your Lync Server and open the Lync Management Shell then enter the following command

New-CsCallParkOrbit -Identity "Give Name" -NumberRangStart "I have used #500" -NumberRangeEnd "#510" -CallParkService lyncpoolnumber.domain.local -Type GroupPickup

This will now create the 10 Group enabled for Pickup and to check it has worked you can enter;

Get-CsCallParkOrbit into Lync Management Shell

You will now need to use SEFAUtil if you have never used or configured SEFAUtil please visit this post as you will be unable to proceed. Click Here

You will now need to open a command prompt as an Administrator (Shift+Right Click) Run As Administrator.

Enter the below Switch to take you to the sefautil.exe

Cd /Program Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2013\ResKit>

Enter the following command;

sefautil /server:lyncserver.domain.local sip.user@domain.local /enablegrouppickup:"#500"

I have used "#500" as my example. You will need to apply this command to the required users and once complete, they will be able to pickup a call from another phone by dialling #500

Setting up SEFAUtil for Lync 2013

Hello Readers

I am back with another blog post for SEFAUtil, a tool I personally use quite regularly.

First of all you will need the following;

• Lync Server 2013 Reskit Installed
• UCWA 4.0 Installed

If you plan on running the SefaUtil Tool from another server, you will need to install Lync Components on the Server. Insert Media and install

• Microsoft Visual C++
• Click Install or Update Lync Server System then run through the steps

For this post I am collocating the SEFAUtil on my Lync Front End Server.

We now need to launch the Lync Management Shell and perform the following commands to build a Trusted Application Pool as sefautil is an external application to the Lync Environment.

New-CsTrustedApplicationPool -Identity FE01.legendarytechy.local -Registrar  FE01.legendarytechy.local

This command will go to the default Lync Site for Environment if you have multiple sites you can use the -site switch to specify the required site.

New-CsTrustedApplication -ApplicationId sefautil -TrustedApplicationPoolFqdn  FE01.legendarytechy.local  -Port 7488

The Port number can any number that you want but for this blog post I have used 7488. You will now need to Enable the Topology Changes by entering Enable-CsTopology into the Lync Management Shell.

To confirm the Application has been authorised you can use Get-CsTrustedApplication or go into the Lync Control Panel --> Topology --> Trusted Application

You will now need to open a command prompt as an Administrator (Shift+Right Click) Run As Administrator.

Enter the below Switch to take you to the sefautil.exe

Cd /Program Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2013\ResKit

If you enter sefautil and press enter it will output the commands sefautil can do or you can visit this post http://priceylync.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/sefautil-commands-for-lync-2013.html 

One thing to watch out for it is you enter;

sefautil /server:lyncserver.domain.local sip.user@domain.local and if it doesn't return any output. You account doesn't have the required permissions to use the SEFEUtil tool.

I have been looking at this issue for some time, added myself into the same groups as the domain admin but was still unable to get any output. In the end I just made copied the DA account and was able to apply commands against Lync Users.

I have saw blog post where people have added themselves in CsUserAdministrator or CsServerAdministrator but I am yet to see a true fix for the issue, I experienced.

Error Publishing Topology: The EXECUTE permission was denied on Object 'XdsPublishItems'

Hello Readers,

 

Here is another issue I come across today whereby I was unable to publish the Lync Topology. I had an Domain Admin account created for me to allow me as to the Lync Server but when trying to publish changes to the Lync Topology I received the below error

 

Error: The following SQL error occurred: "The EXECUTE permission was denied on Object 'XdsPublishItems', database 'xds', schema 'dbo'

 

You will receive this error when you don't have permissions to the 'Share' folder created in your Lync Topology. The resolution is to add the user account into the Group that has permission to this folder. If you have followed Matt Landis Lync 2013 Step by Step Guide, then you will need to add yourself to RTCUniversalServerAdmins