I'm a UC Blog

Once a year I give my “blessing” to the wife to go away on a long weekend with the girls and usually I try to call in a few child minding favours from my parents/in-laws and this weekend, thank goodness, is no exception to the rule!

Last time I was given these days of peace I wrote a Trixbox/Exchange 2010 integration guide, the emphasis was on this becoming the first in a series of how-to’s – however this never really came to fruition, the reason? Asterisk + friendly UI = Bad bad bad…so from here on in I have chosen to move to AsteriskNOW.

Trixbox is a great distribution of Asterisk, however it does break certain Asterisk standards and you can’t beat a good ol’ command line – yes in Asterisk’s case the command line is easier than a web interface.

So why not plain old Asterisk? AsteriskNOW makes light work of the install and I’m by no means a Linux guru! You can still opt for the FreePBX front end – but we will choose to not go down this dark path – trust me on this!

So let’s talk objectives…

1. Setup AsteriskNOW, configuring a SIP extension and corresponding dial-plan
2. Install and configure Skype for Asterisk (SFA), ensuring the SIP extension above can route in/out (SkypeOut)
3. Take the Lync 2010 Server install performed here and integrate it with AsteriskNOW
   • Make calls to and from the Asterisk SIP extension (Lync & SFA)
   • Make calls to and from the Lync client (SIP & SFA)

So here is an idea of how this will all piece together:

Sounds like a tall order right? Wrong. With AsteriskNOW and Lync Server 2010, it is reasonably straight forward and I will endeavour to document the end-to-end setup process.

Before I begin let me talk about SFA…

Skype as you may or may not be aware offers two SME level VoIP integrations:-

1. Skype for SIP (now re-branded as Skype Connect) – essentially a way of integrating Skype’s cloud of PSTN in/out connectivity including the capability to call Skype users (22.5k online as I type) to an SIP enabled IP PBX – for supported vendors see here.
2. Skype for Asterisk (SFA) – an add-on Asterisk channel driver which allows for Skype-to-Skype calls and access to Skype’s uber cheap calling rates via your Asterisk end-point.

If you are already running an Asterisk based PBX you will probably want to know the difference. From a high level it comes down to the following:-

1. Cost – Skype Connect is subscription-based, you pay $6.95 per channel plus calling costs – not cheap for those who want to use this for a lab sized implementation.
2. Functionality – SFA is not channel-based, it is user-based, for a one off charge of $66 you get a single user license – sounds a bit more digestible, right? A single license would give you one channel. In this guide we will enable a single license be configured to route out from either SIP or Lync end points. From an inbound perspective you could create a Lync response group or Asterisk call group to broadcast inbound calls to multiple users.

One (or should i say three?) last caveat before we get on with the good stuff:-

1. Lync is currently in release candidate, it is unlikely to change on a grand scale, but be aware it is not supported by Microsoft
2. Lync (or OCS) + Asterisk integrations are not supported by Microsoft
3. This is a “just for fun” guide or lab setup only

Okay, with that over with let’s look at requirements

1. I’ll be using Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V to run Lync Server 2010 RC & AsteriskNOW
2. I have assigned 2gb of memory to Lync Server 2010 RC and 512mb to AsteriskNOW (I know this seems minimal but it is enough for this small test setup)
3. You’ll need to setup a Skype business account as SFA will not work with regular consumer accounts (you can route Skype-to-Skype calls between business and consumer accounts)
4. Once you have setup a free Skype business account you’ll need credit as without credit it won’t route out to PSTN. I suggest you test the account by adding it to a Skype software client first (if you hit any roadblocks further down the line you’ll be pleased to have ruled this potential issue out)
5. Buy an SFA single channel license which can be purchased directly from Digium, the makers of Asterisk, via their online store (currently at $66) – you’ll get a licence key that we will activate later…

Let’s begin…

Download a copy of AsteriskNOW, I have opted for the 64-bit version here, whilst this is downloading (it is approximately 600mb), let’s setup our VM.

Read more…

As many of you may well know the long awaited public release candidate RTM of Microsoft Lync 2010 (previously Communications Server ‘14’) is now available for download. This major new release offers a radical difference to the previous architecture and unlike its predecessors (Communications Server 2007 R1/2 and to a certain degree Live Communications Server 2005) offers a streamlined and consolidated deployment, great for smaller scale implementations which are not overly abundant to date.

This guide (update: video version now available here) will run through a consolidated standard edition install (without voice gateway integration, I’ll try and come back to this later), whereby all roles will be deployed on a single virtual machine except monitoring, archiving and edge roles – yes this is a supported scenario!

So first off I’ll run you through some high-level preparation steps/assumptions:

• I’ve already installed a fresh copy of Windows 2008 R2 Standard on a Hyper-V 2008 R2 host, as this is a lab install I have only allocated 2gb of VM RAM (not supported in production) and a 72gb VM fixed disk (single partition) – strangely during the install should you choose to install on a secondary partition i.e. D: rather than C: most of the program files and database(s) end up on C:
• Apply all Windows Updates, probably goes without saying, right?
• Add to your domain (the installation will fail when attempting to deploy on a DC – see comments below) and login as domain admin or equivalent
• Within this guide I have Active Directory Certificate Services deployed for certificate generation
• Now the prerequisites (based upon a Windows 2008 R2 install, 2008 x64 is supported, but unless your organisation has licensing constraints I would strongly recommend you go down the R2 route)
• Add RSAT (only AD DS and AD LDS Tools are required) from within features in Server Manager (used for performing remote schema updates etc.) this will also prompt you to add the .NET Framework 3.5 feature, you must accept this
• Add IIS, this is made easier by running this command line:

ServerManagerCmd.exe -Install Web-Server Web-Http-Redirect Web-Scripting-Tools Web-Windows-Auth Web-Client-Auth Web-Asp-Net Web-Log-Libraries Web-Http-Tracing Web-Basic-Auth

• Finally, install Silverlight from here (required to execute the Lync Server UI or Lync Server Control Panel)

Once this is done you should be good to follow the installer from here on in!

Read more…

Today is a big day for the Communications Server (or now Lync Server) product group, firstly the release of a final name, Microsoft Lync Server 2010 – there were rumours doing the rounds and the strange appearance of a blog here seamed to be the catalyst for this, even though the majority of the screenshots were based around OCS 2007?!? Secondly (and most noteworthy) the availability of a public release candidate, here!!!

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 is a revolutionary step forwards for Microsoft’s software powered communications platforms and along with Exchange 2010 SP1 takes Unified Communications as we know it to the next level, see my previous post for a more detailed look at MLS2010 functionality.

Head here, for a full announcement from the Unified Communications Blog.

For those that have not seen this already, this is a fabulous video made back in the 1960’s, I’d previously seen a short version (great for embedding in a deck of slides at a UC presentation as an ice breaker).

Just remember, this is not Carry on Telecoms!

It’s not always straight forward quantifying the savings of UC, the benefits are far easier to get your head around. But when we deployed Communications Server 2007 R2 within our organisation we knew it would slash the extortionate conferencing charges we had been paying – our estimate was in excess of £50,000 per annum!

During the roll-out we identified an issue with a certain telephony user profile – our road warriors. These are the folks that have IM and presence, but don’t need voice, aka an Enterprise OCS CAL, as their lives revolve around their mobile phones.

The issue was allowing these so called “warriors” to setup and establish Live Meeting conference calls, as a “leader”. As a leader they are required to authenticate, in their case from a foreign PSTN end-point (their mobiles) using their telephone number, which given they were not voice users caused us a problem.

One of our legendary IT engineers found a workaround…

First of all find your mobile user within Active Directory User and Computers, then select the “Communications” tab. Next click the “Telephony settings” button (see below).

Once you are presented with the chosen users telephony settings complete the “Line URI” field and add the mobile number for your user.

With this complete you can now act as a leader from any PSTN phone using the number above (when the conferencing attendant prompts you for your number you should enter it without the + i.e. 447917555666), you could have course add a zero instead of a plus, but that wouldn’t be very e.164 of you)

Credit: Andy Norman