While on Twitter yesterday, I saw a new Lync download making the rounds:

Microsoft Lync 2010 Training Download Package

From the overview:

“The Lync Training Download Package contains all of the available training and user education resources for Lync.”

All of these resources are sorted for you in an Excel workbook, & divided up by office role.  Information Worker, Early Adopters, New Hires, Admin-Receptionists, Executives, Help Desk and Lync Online.

Each list is broken up by a category, defined by Lync Server Role or communication method.  They are:

• IM and Presence
• Collaboration and Conferencing
• Voice and Video
• Devices
• Group Chat
• Attendee
• Lync Web App
• Lync for Mobile Clients
• Lync for Mac

The training material for each category is ranked, from “Optional” to “Strongly Recommended.”  Some of the material comes in the training package download.  The rest is available on Microsoft’s support websites.

Organizes Current Lync Training Material For You

Why use this new training package?  It makes Microsoft’s Lync education resources neat & easy to find.

Everything (to date!) is included:

–WorkSmart Guides
–Quick Reference Cards
–FAQs
–Training Videos
–Instructor-Led Training (registration needed)

However, it’s important to know:  This is NOT recommended as a resource for Lync certification.  There’s almost no server-side material.   The package is clearly intended to help you train to support Lync’s client-facing functions.

Training List 1:  New Hires

The “New Hires” category is a good starting point.  It lists out what I’ll call the “standard set” of training materials.  FAQs, Quick Reference Cards, introductory How-To  Videos, and Self-Paced Training.

You’ll find these in every other category, with additional resources and/or different recommendation levels depending on the role.  Pay attention to Recommendation levels…they’ll give you a path to follow.  Start with “Strongly Recommended” and work down from there.

For instance, under Collaboration & Conferencing for New Hires, a Quick Reference Card and Self-Paced Training are “Strongly Recommended.”  A How-To Video is “Recommended.”  And Instructor-Led Training is “Optional.”

Catch-All for Microsoft Lync Education

How effective will this training package be?  That depends on how you decide to use it.  The download includes a lot of information, some of it new.  (I’m putting the “Help Desk Troubleshooting” doc on our SharePoint right after this post.)

Microsoft has written the workbook as a catch-all and a starting point.  So you can build training into your office’s activities by grabbing certain elements and putting them in front of the people who need them most.

Next week I’ll go into more detail with comparisons between categories.  Until then – planning to use this download?  How?

Short post today, since everyone’s starting to think about turkey and traffic by now.

I received an email from Rob the other day, asking if he could create a link that would start up a Lync voice call. If so, he could then send this link via email, enabling whoever received it to make a auto-call just by clicking that link.

This IS possible to do with Lync Server. In fact, there’s a couple variations of it out there.

#1 – One-Click Dial with the Lync Internet Explorer Add-In

I mentioned this the other day – an add-in that Lync-enables every recognizable phone number on a website. You click the Lync icon next to it…and Lync auto-dials the number for you.

#2 – Auto-Contact URL for Voice Calls

As it turns out, it’s pretty easy to send a Lync-enabled phone number via email.

All you have to do is create an HTML link in this format – “tel:+12223334444“. 1 plus the area code plus the number. No spaces (and no quotation marks, of course). In HTML it’ll look like this: <a href=”tel:+12223334444″>Call 222-333-4444</a>

Outlook will even auto-create the link if you type it out in an email window.

Lync grabs onto any tel: links Outlook receives. So when the email arrives and the recipient clicks the link, it will automatically open a Lync call window.

(NOTE: Rob also asked about triggering a video call in the same way. I don’t know of a link format that will do this directly. But! Adding video to a call is just one more click in the call window. So, still within reach.)

#3 – Auto-Contact URL for Instant Messages

The same method as #2 can be used to send an IM link. Except in this case, you would use the person’s SIP address. For example:
IM:<sip:chris@PMTestEmail.com>

Thanks to Tom Kisner at TheLync.net for his blog post detailing the auto-contact URL syntax. Perfect fact-check for me on this one (our own tests matched up to his formatting lockstep). If you don’t use Outlook, or want to see the straight HTML used in these auto-contact links, check out his post.

Have you used a link like this? Within your company or outside it? I’m curious to hear what happened, & if you had any snags along the way. Please email me or comment below.

In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving! See you next week.

I almost didn’t have time to blog today. Ironically, that’s because two Lync clients are moving forward at the same time. Busy busy.

But, some links have found their way into my browser this past week that were too good not to share. I came across a stellar walkthrough, a new tool for visualizing Lync communication lines, and a complaint from a former Microsoft UC MVP.

I’ve provided the links below. Along with summaries, and my own impressions. And my first impression is, if you want to know anything about how Lync Server is installed, read the first one:

1. Install and Configure Lync Server 2010 Step by Step (with Screenshots for Every Step!)

Last week DoItFixIt.com posted a walkthrough on how to install Lync Server. Somebody spent a LOT of time making this. Their walkthrough is as thorough as a Microsoft TechNet page. With more screenshots.

Seriously, almost every step in this install has a full-sized screenshot included. (Click on any screenshot and it’ll enlarge.)

They run through installing a Lync Standard Edition Server, with Windows Server 2008 preparation, Active Directory configuration, certificate verification and a user setup at the end.

I have to wonder how many hours it took to put this together! It’s one of the best walkthroughs I’ve seen for Lync, hands down. The Lync community owes you guys one!

2. Lync Not Enterprise-Ready, Claims MS Rival – NetworkWorld

Joe Schurman, a former Microsoft MVP who now works for Avaya, has declared Lync Server as a poor choice for enterprises. He’s lobbed 3 complaints against Lync: a) bad support for mobile, b) it’s sold as a software-only platform despite requiring lots of hardware, and c) It’s full of “licensing gotchas”.

Frankly, I think Lync is a fine choice for ALL business types, including enterprises. It does require some preparation and appropriate hardware on the backend. Guess what? So does just about every other server platform out there.

I do agree that mobile support is still lagging. But, as I blogged about last week, the marketplace itself is fixing that.

Something to remember about Lync: It may be a successor to OCS 2007. But with the radical changes made to its architecture, I think of it as an entirely new system. And every new system, no matter who makes it, will have bugs.

The complaint’s well thought out, no question. I don’t fully agree, but it’s good information for the rest of us to chew on. Maybe it will spark further improvements to Lync Server. That’d be the best way to approach this, in my slightly-Lync-biased opinion.

3. Lync Protocols and Ports App for Windows 7 Phones

Via NextHop
I can’t say I’m a big fan of this Windows Phone app store. The design is chunky and cluttered. But the app, as very nicely explained on the NextHop blog, makes for a good Lync reference tool.

The app visualizes all the communication points in Lync. If Client X can’t connect out, this app shows you which links to check. Great for troubleshooting, or as a visual aid for Lync support training.

“Lync Protocols and Ports” is free, but only available on Windows 7 Phones right now. I didn’t find it in the Android Market.

Which of these was most interesting? Should I look for more Lync apps, or walkthroughs, or discussions? You decide. Please email or comment what you think.

Right now there are two Lync Server certifications:
70-664 Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring, and
70-665 Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Administrator.

However, they’re both very new certs. So new in fact, that we don’t have a lot of ways to prepare for them!

Oh, Microsoft has a 5-day class and an e-learning module. But no MS Press books. And no practice tests (yikes!). What do we do?

It’s up to the bloggers, I guess. And we’ve already taken up the challenge. In fact, the heavy lifting has already been done.

Lync Study Guides, Courtesy of GeeksWithBlogs

Enrique Lima at GeeksWithBlogs.Net has meticulously gone through both certs’ “Skills Measured” lists and paired each objective with a TechNet article.

Add these posts to your study aids:
Unofficial Prep guide for TS: Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring (70-664)

Unofficial Prep guide for PRO: Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Administrator (70-665) Part 1 of 2

Unofficial Prep guide for PRO: Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Administrator (70-665) Part 2 of 2

A Book and a Practice Exam

If you want a practice exame, about the only thing I came across was ExamWorx. They list dozens of practice exams and demos for certs. They have one each for 70-664 and 70-665. 664 seems a little out of date (it calls Lync “The Next Release of Office Communications Server 2007″), but it’s better than nothing.

Each has a 10-question demo available for free download. I tried them both out – fairly basic, but it could help you get into the testing mindset.

A much bigger help, I think, comes from this book: Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Unleashed, published by Sams.

It’s an extremely detailed guide to Lync Server 2010. Sams once again has a winner.

The only snag is, the Skills Measured lists don’t correspond to the book. You can find them IN the book, but you’ll have to search.

In the interests of saving us all time, I put together this list of callouts between Skills Measured listed on 70-665′s page and Lync Unleashed pages. (The ones I’ve found so far. There are more.)

• Design Mediation Topology: Pages 444-452, Chapter 18
• Design Edge Topology: Pages 140-149, Chapter 6.
• Design Call Admission Control (CAC): Page 470, Chapter 18.
• Design for Voice Routing: Pages 455-461, Chapter 18/Pages 739-741, Chapter 28
• Define Conference Policies: Pages 124, Chapter 5 AND Pages 503-517, Chapter 19
• Design for Response Group Services (RGS): Pages 483-496, Chapter 18
• Plan for Migration: Pages 407-421, Chapter 16

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some studying to do.

Are you taking the Lync Server certification exams? What helped you prepare the most? Please share it with the rest of us!

It’s a cold reality for IT: One short-circuit and all that work is down the tubes. Unless of course, you have a backup.

Server backups are nothing new for admins. So we’d better make sure Lync Server is included too.

NextHop offers an excellent white paper on this very topic: Backing Up and Restoring Lync Server 2010 – NextHop

Or, go straight to Microsoft Downloads for the white paper.

They’ve done a better job than I could hope to here. So I’ll post some things to remember from it (and our own observations) for today’s “20 Tasks” entry.

Backing Up/Restoring Lync Server: Things to Remember

1. Have a strategy in place. Consider how often you want to backup, where backups should be stored, what situations merit a restoration, where you’ll get replacement hardware if needed, when/how to test backups, and so on.
2. Make sure you’re backing up data AND settings.
3. Group Chat is NOT backed up with standard cmdlets.  See Backing Up the Group Chat Database, Compliance Database, and File Repository for that.
4. First backup priority is the Central Management Store database (Xds.mdf). It contains the Lync Server topology. Essential.
5. Include Active Directory Domain Services in this backup. AD DS has the user SIP URIs, contact objects for Response Group and Conferencing Attendant, authentication accounts, etc. Very important stuff.
6. The cmdlets for backing up Lync Server components:
   • Topology Data :: Export-CsConfiguration
   • Location information service/E-911 :: Export-CsLisConfiguration
   • Response Group configuration data :: Export-CsRgsConfiguration
   • Persistent user & Conference ID data :: Dbimpexp.exe (It’s in the Lync installation media)
7. Use SQL Server Management Studio to backup the Archiving and Monitoring databases.
8. A standard backup system (the white paper lists RoboCopy) will work for backing up the Lync Server file store.
9. The cmdlets for restoring Lync Server components:
   • Restore the Active Directory pointer to the Central Management store :: Set-CsConfigurationStoreLocation
   • Import topology, policies, and configuration into the Central Management Store :: Import-CsConfiguration
   • Republish the topology :: Publish-CsTopology
   • Enable the republished topology :: Enable-CsTopology
   • Restore location information/E-911 :: Import-CsLisConfiguration
   • Restore persistent users :: Dbimpexp.exe
   • Restore Response Group :: Get-CsApplicationContact (available on the Lync PowerShell blog) AND Import-CsRgsConfiguration
10. Don’t change any of the following between a backup and a restoration:
    • DNS configuration
    • DHCP configuration
    • Domain names
    • FQDNs
    • File store paths

    Restoration won’t work properly if you do.

11. Include Lync’s SQL databases in the nightly backups.

The white paper’s based on recovering from a failure in the Lync Server topology. Personally, I like the comfort that comes from having a good backup routine in place. But if “avoiding the panic of a horrible crash with no backups” is better motivation for you, then stick with that!

We’ve only got a few more posts left in this “20 Tasks” series. Anything I haven’t covered yet you’d like to know?

Lync Server had its virtual launch today! If you missed it, a recording should be available very soon at www.microsoft.com/lync/launch.

Microsoft launched with a thorough demonstration of the Lync interface & its capabilities. They also had a “wall of fame” with lots of new hardware, and a short Customer Panel with three enterprise Lync customers.

Lync: IM and Presence, Conferencing, Enterprise Voice in One

I really liked how they framed Lync as “three tools in one.” It's a great way to characterize the communication functions as they're used in business today. And since Lync lets you choose which of those tools you'll use (and which you won't), showing them as distinct parts should help display the value in each one.

New Lync Capabilities Highlighted

The presenters called out several new Lync capabilities in the launch. The way they framed these, I think, worked really well. So I'll relist a few of them here for quick viewing.

• Automatic Presence Updates. “People forget to update their Presence. So Lync does it for you.” THANK YOU! I've been saying this for a while now!
• Contact Card. Yes, we knew about the new Contact Card for Lync users. But the presenters also demonstrated that the Contact Card shows up in Office, Exchange, and even SharePoint.
• Conversation View. An archive of conversations IN the Lync client! CVP Gurdeep Singh Pall phrased it as “the ultimate redial.” Beats having to go to Outlook to scroll through IMs.
• Switch Devices and Call Forwarding Options from Lync Toolbar. I didn't even know these were there. Apparently you can switch communication devices (e.g. speakerphone to headset) right in the the bottom toolbar. AND change forwarding options there too!
• Multiple-Format Meetings. The new Lync conferencing app lets you combine video, whiteboards,PowerPoint presentations and voice. If you want to. Whatever you need to collaborate effectively.

The new Lync Server 2010 website is at www.lync.com. You can download product sheets,partner resources or a Lync 2010 Evaluation Version. There's also lots of information on Lync technologies, pricing and licensing.

A great launch event for (what I think is) a great product. I'm very much looking forward to the 1st. We're planning a Lync Server installation–and I'll blog about it here. Stick around!

Here's what's happening to lead us up the Lync Server release.

One week from today, the Lync Server 2010 Launch Event kicks off.

According to Microsoft's Unified Communications Group Blog on Technet, Lync went RTM on the 27th of October. General Availability (GA) is set for a launch event on November 17th. A week from now.

Microsoft's Lync page has a virtual launch event, and an introductory video series on it already. The videos give some good high-level overviews – worth watching.

Now, this does not mean Lync Server will be officially released on the 17th!

I know, it's a bit misleading. Microsoft is only celebrating Lync's release on the 17th. An Evaluation Edition will become available that day too. But full-version, official Lync Server 2010 is slated for a December 1st arrival.

Here's another UC Group Technet blog post clarifying the release dates.

Just wanted to make sure that was clear to everyone. I initially thought it would be out the 17th. Already emailed the news around the office, in fact!

So mark your calendars everybody. The virtual launch event is November 17th. The official Lync 2010 release is December 1st.

Just a little more patience, and the next version of OCS will be ours.