Lync Management and Operations: Monitoring and Troubleshooting Lync Calls

I’d like to call your attention to a very useful set of videos covering Monitoring and Troubleshooting in Lync Server 2010, posted by our friends over at NextHop.

Unified Communications, by definition, brings together a number of different communications tools and applications which can make nailing down issues a very daunting task indeed.

Lync Server 2010 includes intuitive and powerful monitoring and reporting capabilities to help make this easier, and Microsoft has released some very useful videos to guide you through it.

Background

First of all, you should know about the Monitoring Server role in Lync Server 2010.  From TechNet…

Monitoring Server collects data about the quality of your network media, in both Enterprise Voice calls and A/V conferences. This information can help you provide the best possible media experience for your users. It also collects call error records (CERs), which you can use to troubleshoot failed calls. Additionally, it collects usage information in the form of call detail records (CDRs) about various Lync Server features so that you can calculate return on investment of your deployment, and plan the future growth of your deployment.  For details, see Planning for Monitoring in the Planning documentation.

Lync Server 2010 also ships with ready-to-go SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) Reports that help make understanding the health of your Lync environment that much easier.

The videos go into great detail on each of System-wide Troubleshooting: Lync Call Connectivity, Help Desk Troubleshooting: Lync Call Issues, and Monitoring and Managing Jitter for VoIP, but for this post I wanted to call out a few things that I really like.

Drilldown

The base Lync Server 2010 Monitoring Server report is actually a list of available reports…

…and clicking into a particular report gets you to the goods…

Now, nice glossy reports that show me what I want are great, but invariably I’ll want to ask that next question … “OK, here’s the list of things I wanted, but I want more details on this one and that one!”

In this example, clicking on one of the columns in the chart on the right gets me to the underlying detail for that data.

You can continue to click-through and get more details as you continue your troubleshooting.  Very easy and very intuitive!

Tooltips

Reports that show lots of information are great, but sometimes they show too much information, or by their very nature can’t show everything.  In the interest of readability and consumption, headings and titles must be used to lay out the data.

But what if you don’t know what the headings mean exactly?  To have to leave the report and go consult a guide or website is counter-productive and time-consuming.  A lethal combination when users are complaining.

In Lync Server 2010, the headings are built with handy tool tips … just mouse over the heading and get a full description of what that data and/or value means!

Highlights

So we’ve got the ability to get to the data easily and we have handy descriptions of what certain data sets are capturing.  But, and this is a big BUT, how do we know what the values mean?  Is a big number good or bad?  Same thing with small numbers.

You will build your expertise over time, but until then, Lync Server 2010 reports actually bring your attention to important data automatically by highlighting the data in the report!

To really take it over the top, mouse over the value and get a full description of, in the case below, the Diagnostic ID value that came back from the voice gateway…

Below you see another example of a report with lots of valuable data and the handy highlighting to help you focus on the most pertinent values to help you in your troubleshooting.  In this case, Lync Server 2010 is telling us that a value of 4% for Avg. concealed samples ratio is something that should be looked at further.

Summary

Lync Server 2010 Monitoring Server Reports include handy out-of-the-box features such as Drill-down, Tool Tips, and Highlighting that help make troubleshooting your Lync environment easier and more fun!  (As if troubleshooting wasn’t already fun, right!?)

So please do take a look at these videos as they give great return for a very short amount of time investment.  Enjoy!

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2011/10/10/monitoring-and-troubleshooting-lync-call-videos.aspx

Review: Plantronics Blackwire C435-M

This is the first device review I have done for this blog, and my inspiration comes from the great posts over at VoIPNorm’s blog.  Thanks, Chris!

Also, please note, since my last post I have joined the wonderful team at Microsoft Canada.  Please take a quick peek at the Disclaimer in the side bar of this blog.

Get on with it, man!

OK, OK, so I recently acquired the new Plantronics Blackwire C435-M and it really is the headset I’ve been waiting for.

First off, this is a corded headset optimized for Microsoft Lync, which immediately makes it awesome.  But why do I like it so much?  First of all, it provides an over-the-ear wearing experience, either one ear or two, with a very light feel and an extended boom microphone for great pick-up.  Second, it comes with a sturdy and also light carrying case.

So I don’t have to worry about a headband messing up my stylish (!) hair and I get a great always-on experience (as opposed to potential dead time if a wireless headset isn’t charged when you need it).

The Details

Let me take you for a tour around this great headset.

First of all, it’s optimized for Microsoft Lync so it’s plug and play via USB.  You’ll notice a handy Velcro wrap to keep the cord tidy.  Further along the cord you’ll find the call control buttons including answer/hang-up, volume up and down, and mute microphone.  I tend to use the desktop controls on my PC, but it’s handy to have these nonetheless.

You’ll see the two ear buds, but as you look along the cord you first come to a very nice feature – a clip.  I have found this to be very useful to take the (albeit minimal) load off my ears and onto my shirt, again increasing the comfort of long-term wear.

Finally, you see the two ear buds, one with the extended microphone and one with just the earpiece.  These can be worn on either ear and there are multiple ear bud styles and sizes included to fit your ear.

Finally, below is a picture of the very handy, sturdy and lightweight carrying case which is really important in my opinion.  This is where shortcuts are often made but Plantronics has thankfully not succumbed to the temptation.

Summary

So great job, Plantronics, and I think you will find a good market for this particular device at it’s price point of around $99.  Microsoft Lync allows for partners to create unique solutions for many use cases, and here is another great example IMHO.  Comments are most welcome.

From Plantronics

Meet the first corded headset designed for Unified Communications that’s as discreet as it is professionally sound. The headset’s modular over-the-ear design can be worn with two ear buds for stereo, or converted to one ear bud for mono use depending on the user’s preference. The ultra-discreet design and superior audio quality you’ve come to expect from Plantronics make this headset ideal for video conferencing, PC telephony and multi-media applications. Even more, it comes with a rugged protective carrying case so you can easily take it with you. With the Blackwire 435, you don’t have to compromise between style and sound quality.

http://www.plantronics.com/us/product/blackwire-435?skuId=sku5810016

Quit staring at that conference phone and change the dynamic of your meetings

Have you ever been involved in a conference call where one or more participants are in a meeting room and one or more participants are not?  Those of you in the room were likely sitting around a conference phone that looks something like this…

Those of you who were not in the meeting, dialled into an audio conference bridge.  Perhaps you called from the car.  More likely you called while sitting next to a PC (more on that later).

Whether you were in the room or not, chances are you experienced some challenges.

Challenges while in the room

When you’re in the room, you tend to forget there is someone “on the line”.  You remember when one of them finally tries to get a word in edgewise.

When someone does speak who is not in the room, you struggle to first identify who is speaking and then to fully comprehend what they are saying.  This becomes more of a challenge if the person speaks softly or with an accent with which you are not familiar.
You try to overcome these challenges by looking really hard at the conference phone on the table.  A quick glance reveals that everybody else in the room is doing the same.

Oddly, this does not seem to help.

Challenges while not in the room

If you are not in the room, and have dialed in using a phone, you face a similar challenge identifying the speaker, but the problem is often much worse because there are usually more people in the room.  You have no idea to whom comments are directed – it may be that the speaker is targeting someone directly with what he/she is saying, but you have no way of knowing this.

You have a lot to offer...you’ve got something brilliant to say...you put up your hand! 

Nobody notices.

You wait patiently to jump in, but in the end, you can’t help it.  You go against everything your parents ever taught you about manners – you cut in.  It’s the only way, sorry, Mom.

The Problem

The fundamental problem in this scenario is not being able to see who is speaking.  Right now you don’t have much of a choice, though, do you?  People can’t always be in the same room at the same time.  There are geographic boundaries to consider and management has cut business travel spending to combat the economic downturn and to reduce your company’s carbon footprint.  Talk to me, you say, when that phone magically allows me to see everyone on the call as well as hear them.

OK, let’s talk.

The Solution

I’d like to introduce you to the Polycom CX5000, powered by Microsoft Lync Server 2010.

This wonderfully futuristic device takes the audio conference to the next level by adding immersive video to the experience.  The bottom circular platform is similar to your existing conference phone with an integrated dial pad and directional microphones and speakers.

The stem holds on its top 5 cameras arranged in a circle.  These cameras collect a real-time 360 degree panoramic view of the room.  It looks like this…

This view allows participants to see everybody in the room, and the dynamics between them.  Now we can see if someone is directing his/her comments to someone in particular!

The CX5000 also takes care of automatically displaying the current speaker.  So while you always see the full panoramic view, you also get to see the person currently speaking.

No more trying to figure it out based on what you hear, and with the visual you have a much better chance of understanding what is being said.  One study at UCLA indicated that up to 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues. (More)

I mentioned earlier that most of the time, those who are joining from outside the room are sitting at their PC, be it a desktop in an office or more likely a notebook computer while on the road at a customer site or in a hotel room.  This is where the game really changes, because again most of the time you are gathering on this call to review something tangible such as a budget spreadsheet or design layout.  You need to look at a document or screen during the session.

Add Microsoft Lync to the equation and we have finally reached utopia!

Turn a basic conference call into an Online Meeting

Microsoft Lync Online Meetings provide the rich collaborative experience you’ve been looking for, including a real-time view of the active speaker whether they are in the room or not, a full view of the people in the meetings rooms involved, and an integrated document and screen sharing environment . When you pull it all together it looks like this…

This is all accomplished with a single client on the desktop (Microsoft Lync) and a combination of standard webcams and Polycom CX5000 devices.  And you can join from anywhere in the world with a standard internet connection – no Virtual Private Network (VPN) required!

Summary

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and the Polycom CX5000 combine to provide an immersive and empowered collaboration experience.  Gone are the days of struggling to understand what someone is saying on a call and emailing around documents, or worse, printing multiple copies for participants to review in a meeting.

Warning!  There is no turning back from this experience.  Once you’ve lived the good life, you will find yourself asking “where’s the video” and “show me your screen”.
Please feel free to add your own stories and comments, and if you’re interested in learning more, drop me a line!

Tip: View your Lync Contacts in a 1-line View

Lync 2010 introduces a more informative view of each contact in your buddy list, including Name, Availability Status, Personal Note, and Contact Photo.  It looks like this…

But what if you want to streamline your view a bit, and see only your contacts’ Name and Availability Status, similar to what you may have had using Office Communicator 2007 R2?

The trick is to change the display to Name View…

Your buddy list will no longer show Contact Photos, and instead switches to a 1-line view.

You can toggle between these views by clicking the Display Options icon, or click on the down-arrow at the right-hand side of the icon to see more Layout Options.

Enjoy! 

Find Me with Exchange UM Call Answering Rules

For the longest time I have been using the Simultaneous Ringing (Sim Ring) feature of Lync Server 2010, previously Office Communications Server 2007 R2.  This feature ensured that all my Unified Communications (UC) endpoints and my mobile phone would ring for all inbound calls, allowing me to take the call wherever it was most convenient.  It also ensured I did not have to publish my cell number which is a huge benefit – people only needed to call one number to reach me.

Well, I no longer use Sim Ring, and instead am enjoying life with Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging’s (UM) Call Answering Rules.  Why, you ask?  Read on!

One Voicemail

First of all, my cell phone does not have voicemail associated with it.  This saves my company $5 per month, but more importantly, it means I only have one voicemail inbox to manage.  Of course, with Exchange UM my voicemails are available to me right in my regular Email Inbox as well.  Bliss!

So, I have a Lync DID and a cell number, but only one voicemail (Exchange).  What if people call my cell number directly?  How can people reach me on my cell, if they don’t know the number?  Sim Ring was one way to accomplish this, but I found I always had to manage the timing of the rings, and many times I wouldn’t pick up that inbound call on my cell anyway as I was otherwise occupied.  I needed a way to selectively allow people to ring my cell – I found most of the time calls weren’t important enough for me to be interrupted.

Call Answering Rules to the Rescue

Exchange UM Call Answering Rules allow me to configure a personal message and choice of options for callers who reach my voicemail.  Instead of just leaving a message, those who call me are provided with an option to try me on my cell phone if the call is important enough.  It goes like this…

1. Someone calls me at my Lync DID.
2. If I don’t pick up, the user is transferred to my voicemail, which is where my Call Answering Rule kicks in.
3. The user hears this:  “You have reached the voicemail for Mark Hickson.  To try me on my cell phone, please press 1.  To leave me a voicemail, please press #.”
4. If the user chooses 1, one of two things happens:
1. If the caller is outside of my organization, the caller is asked to speak their name.  Exchange records it as “Name”.
2. If the caller is within my organization, their GAL name is used and they just go to the next step directly.
5. The caller is asked to hold while I am tried on my cell phone.
6. My cell phone rings and I pick it up.
7. Exchange tells me that “Name” is trying to reach me.  I have the option of accepting the call or rejecting it.
8. If I accept the call, I am connected to my caller without them ever having to know my cell number.
9. If I reject the call, the user is told that I was not able to be reached (they don’t know if I just didn’t pick up or if I picked up and chose not to connect the call) and the user is given the chance to leave a voicemail.

So far this has accomplished two things:  Users are able to reach me on my cell phone without knowing the number, and urgent calls are selectively filtered from regular calls because callers have the option of trying my cell phone or not.

What about direct calls to my cell phone?

If I make an outbound call from my cell phone, the caller ID will show my cell phone number.  Only by running a client on my phone, such as Communicator Mobile,  and using the Call Via Work feature would I be able to make a call appear to people as coming from my office number.  So if someone has my cell number, won’t they just dial that?  Maybe, and I can’t stop this.

So what about voicemail?  I said earlier that my cell phone does not have voicemail service associated with it.  I simply set Call Forwarding on my cell phone to transfer unanswered calls to my Lync DID!

In this way, voicemail for all calls to me, regardless of where they target, will end up in my Exchange Inbox and, of course, on my cell phone as an item in my Inbox!  Utopia!

Sounds great!  How could it get any better!?

All of the above is accomplished with a single Call Answering Rule, but Exchange UM allows me to create many rules and with many different options!  I can have different rules applied based on the calling number, the contact’s name, the time of day, and more.

Creating a Call Answering Rule

To create a Call Answering Rule, go to Outlook Web App (this cannot be done from the Outlook rich client), click on Options, and then Phone, and then Voicemail.

This is what my rule looks like:

As you can see, you have options to set both Conditions for the rule and Actions offered to your callers..

Conditions

• If the caller is…
• If it is during the period…
• It my schedule shows that my status is..
• If automatic replies are turned on… (i.e. Out of Office)

Actions

• Find me at the following numbers…
• Transfer the caller to…

So multiple scenarios can be handled with many different conditions.  For example, during business hours callers are provided with options to transfer to my Assistant, the Operator, or my cell.  But at all times of day, my wife is given the option to try my cell phone.  The possibilities are endless!

So give it a try if you have Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging, and if you don’t, go get it!  Note that you do not need Lync Server 2010 for this – Lync just happens to be my PBX.  Lucky me!

Tip

Be sure to set the Dialing Rule Groups and Dialing Restrictions on your UM Dial Plan and UM Mailbox Policy such that your cell, or other numbers, can be dialed.  These are the same rules required to enable the Play on Phone feature for voicemails.

More details on Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging Call Answering Rules can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979788.aspx.

Lync Server 2010 Audio Test Service

An exciting new feature in Microsoft Lync Server 2010 is the Audio Test Service.  This built-in tool allows you to place a test call prior to making a real call, to ensure there aren’t any severe network or other issues that might affect the quality of your call.

Easy to Use

There are tools available for OCS 2007 R2, such as the Deployment Validation Tool and the VoIP Test Set, that can also help to monitor and evaluate call quality.  But these tools are unfortunately hard to deploy and manage, and so their usefulness has been diminished.

But now you can place a test call directly from the Phone tab in Lync 2010, simply by clicking on Check…

This places a call into the Audio Test Service in Lync Server 2010…

You are prompted to speak a few words, and then what you said is played back to you as it was heard by the Audio Test Service.

Call with Confidence

Laptop chugging away?  Unclear how good your wireless connection really is at the hotel?  This tool can help you ensure the best possible call quality before you make that all-important customer, or otherwise, call!

Top 5 New Features in Microsoft Lync 2010

There are so many new features in Lync 2010 it seems almost cruel to list just 5, but alas, here are the five I am most excited about.

1.  No more Live Meeting client

I have nothing against the Live Meeting client – I think it’s intuitive and powerful, and being able to use the single client for both on-premise OCS conferences and Live Meeting hosted conferences is fantastic.

Having to switch between two applications that were obviously not built with the other in mind is troublesome, however.  Users have to remember and understand which application should be used for what purpose.  And managing the different ports and protocols is non-trivial.

Alas with Lync we have one unified client – Microsoft Lync 2010.  Escalating from an Instant Message conversation, to a Video Call, and to Desktop Sharing is not new, but being able to also upload and share PowerPoint presentations, whiteboards, and polling pages with annotation tools is and very easy to use and understand.

Scheduling a conference?  Easier than ever, and no need to decide between a Conference Call or a Live Meeting – everything is an Online Meeting with various modalities available to participants.

I can’t keep the smile off my face!  :-)

2.  New cost-effective IP phones

One of the biggest barriers to adoption of OCS for telephony has been people’s hesitation in linking their phone availability to that of the PC.  “My phone must be available, even when I’m not signed in to my PC,” is often heard. Also, “my phone is unavailable if my PC crashes.”

While I can argue that you’d be hard-pressed to find any information worker who sits at a desk without being signed in to a PC, and also count on 1 hand the number of times my PC has crashed in the past 3 years, the solution to this dilemma is a dedicated IP phone.  Unfortunately with OCS there is only one supported device, codenamed Tanjay.  This device is $600+ and thus the uptake has been minimal.

Enter new IP phones from Aastra and Polycom at the $200-300 price point, including servicing new scenarios such as conference phones and common-area phones.

The Information Worker models (Aastra 6725ip and Polycom CX600, pictured here) are always-on phones that also include the ability to connect to your PC via a USB cable to enable features such as click-to-call.  It really is the best possible UC phone experience, and at a price that organizations can more than justify.

3.  Branch survivability

Another barrier to adoption of OCS for telephony has been the lack of branch survivability – branch offices are reliant on the core OCS pool in the head office or datacenter; if the WAN link goes down the branch office loses phone service.

With Lync 2010 comes the introduction of the Survivable Branch  Appliance which enables phone service to continue in branch offices in cases where the WAN link is unavailable.  Calls between users in the branch still stay on the local LAN; calls to other company locations and external parties use the PSTN.

This simplifies multi-site architectures and provides a more robust telephony solution with Lync 2010.

4.  Virtualization and Fewer Servers

“Too many servers!”  This is a very common complaint with OCS.  There is not enough support for collocation and adding resilience to your deployment is a very costly endeavor.  Similarly, minimal support for virtualization in OCS (only IM and Presence is supported, effectively rendering this support useless) has gone against the grain for organizations implementing virtualization strategies.

Now with Lync 2010 all workloads are supported for virtualization  including voice and video.  There are many topology choices for what is physical and what is virtual, which should give organizations the flexibility they have been looking for.

And more server roles are supported for collocation, including the Mediation Server being collocated on the Front End server.

5.  Enhanced Office and SharePoint integration

Integration of presence and related features within the Office suite of products and SharePoint has been a big reason why OCS has gained the market share it has thus far.  No other UC applications can claim as tight an integration with the business applications used by most organizations – namely, Office.

Lync 2010 adds Quick Contacts to Outlook 2010 (pictured here), Office Backstage integration, shared contacts, and SharePoint skills search.

A redesigned and more powerful Contact Card, coupled with contact photos which come from SharePoint My Sites, all add to the experience and enable users to find the right person at the right time.

I have been a strong advocate for OCS since the beginning, and there are many amazing stories to tell where organizations have reduced costs and improved productivity.  Microsoft has caused a massive shift in the UC market, and Lync will surely help keep them planted firmly in the leader position!