OCS R2 Administrative Tools – Quick Facts

As many OCS R1 deployments move to OCS R2, mixed deployments with both OCS R1 and OCS R2 pools are becoming more common.

Here are some notable reminders about the OCS  R2 Administrative Tools in a mixed deployment that you should know about:

1. The R1 and R2 Admin Tools cannot be installed side-by-side together on the same machine.
2. The R1 and R2 Admin Tools can only administer their respective OCS server versions). For example, the R2 Administrative Tools cannot be used against an R1 pool.
3. The R2 Admin Tools are not supported on a Windows XP O/S.  Windows 2003 SP2, Windows 2008, and Windows Vista SP1 are supported.  For Vista and Windows 2008 there are some pre-requisites you must install first (follow the links).
4. Although OCS 2007 R2 is only supported on a 64-bit platform, the 32-bit Administrative Tools are available in the Support\i386 directory of the R2 installation media.
5. Active Directory Users & Computers is not automatically extended for R2 management like the R1 Admin tools did.

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OCS R2 – Summary of the Changes to Server Roles

In light of the new OCS R2 server roles and capabilities, here is a summary of the significant changes on the server side and topology (from OCS 2007).

 

Changes to Existing OCS 2007 Server Roles

 

OCS 2007 Role	Change(s)	Notes
Front-End	Several key changes: ·         Application Sharing Server Added (1) ·         Device Update Service Added ·         Telephony Conferencing includes PSTN dial-in audio bridge capability	The Application Sharing Server ships with 4 new voice and conferencing applications (see below). The Device Update Service can be used to keep your R2 Communicator Phone Edition and Microsoft RoundTable devices up to date.
Archiving & CDR	CDR is removed and the Archiving capability is a dedicated R2 role.
QoE	Becomes the R2 Monitoring role (which includes the CDR functionality).
Communicator Web Access (CWA)	CWA R2 now enables desktop sharing and conferencing calling.

 

(1)    The Application Sharing Server ships with 4 new UC Applications (implemented as services on the OCS R2 Front-End in addition to the Application Sharing service)

a.       Conferencing Attendant.  Provides the ability for PSTN users to dial into a conference.

b.      Conferencing Announcement Service.   Enables audio notification when users join or leave a conference.

c.       Response Group Service.  Enables the creation of automated response groups by users to route or queue incoming phone calls to designated agents.

d.      Outside Voice Control.  Enables call control functionality for mobile phones that are not enabled for enterprise voice.

 

 

New OCS R2 Server Roles

 

New Server Role	Notes
Monitoring	Includes QoE and Call Detail Record (CDR) functionality. The QoE functionality consists of the OCS 2007 QoE functionality plus many new metrics and redesigned reports.
Group Chat Server	Enables users to create and participate in persistent chat rooms. Archival of chat room content can be achieved by deploying an optional Group Chat Compliance Server.

 

A complete list of the capabilities enabled by the OCS R2 server roles is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/capabilities.aspx

 

Key Topology Changes

 

Topology	Change
Expanded Edition Server Roles	Enterprise Edition Expanded Topology is no longer a preferred deployment scenario.  Consolidated pools are the recommended deployment option.  The Expanded pool options is not available in the R2 Pool Setup wizard.
Edge	A consolidated edge role is the only supported R2 edge topology. Multiple servers behind a load balancer is recommended and supported for redundancy and high availability.

 

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OCS R2 Office Communicator Client Interopability

With the introduction of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, many are asking which Office Communicator clients are supported in an R2 environment. The following table should help answer the most common questions about client interoperability.

 

Client	Server	Supported	Notes
Office Communicator 2005	OCS R2	Yes (*)	* Requires an update to Office 2005 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949280). * Important: Audio/Video Interoperability Between Office Communicator 2005 and Office Communicator 2007 R2 Is Not Supported
Office Communicator 2007	OCS R2	Yes	New R2 features such as desktop sharing will not available (obviously)
Office Communicator R2	OCS 2007	Yes (*)	Functionally IM, audio/video and Web Conferencing works. The Communicator R2 release notes contain an entry for incorrect behavior during incoming calls, and the resolution is to “…not use Office Communicator 2007 R2 with Office Communications Server 2007”

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OCS R2 Quick Facts

People currently deploying, or planning to deploy, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 maybe wondering about the next release of OCS (‘R2’), when making deployment decisions today. Here are some quick facts that can help.

New Features
This recent Microsoft press release provides a nice summary of the new features. Noteworthy is the ability to host an audio conference (i.e. setup an audio bridge), desktop sharing, and support for persistent chat groups.

When will it be ready?
The product is in Beta now, and the official worldwide launch is slated for Feb. 3, 2009.  It will likely RTM around mid-to-late December this year.

64-bit Support
The R2 release will only run on a 64-bit version of Windows 2003, Windows 2003 R2, or Windows 2008.

Upgrade Options (from OCS 2007)
Currently there is no in-place upgrade available, which leaves 2 options available:
1) Migrate. R2 can be installed side-by-side with OCS 2007 and then users can be re-homed
2) Uninstall and Re-Install. Backup your configuration data, uninstall OCS 2007, re-install with R2, and restore your data.

Support for Virtualization
There is no publicly stated support for the supported virtualization of any OCS R2 server roles yet.  In the past Microsoft has added virtualization capabilities 90 days after RTM in other enterprise products.

Enhanced Deployment Planning Tool
R2 will have an enhanced version of the “Planning Tool for Office Communications Server 2007” that should help simplify deployment.

Enhanced Development Environment
New API’s and Visual Studio Integration is expected to make it notably easier to build OCS aware applications and embed OCS functionality into existing applications.

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