July 2011 update

July updates for Lync released

               

Product	KB	Download
Product	Link	Link
Lync 2010 (64bit)	2571543	MS download
Lync 2010 (32bit)	2571543	MS download
Lync Server 2010	2493736	MS download
Lync 2010 Group Chat Server	2571550	MS download

Product	KB	Download
Product	Link	External
Lync 2010 Phone Edition (Tanjay)	2577593	MS download
Lync 2010 Phone Edition (Aries-Aastra)	2577595	MS download
Lync 2010 Phone Edition (Aries-Polycom)	2577594	MS download

LyncAddContacts - add standard company contacts to Lync

Jeff Guillet over at EXPTA blog has written a script called LyncAddContacts.

It provides similar functionality as the OCS Resource Kit tools, LCSAddContacts.

To quote Jeff - "The purpose of LyncAddContacts is to add the same contact groups and contacts to multiple users programmatically.  For example, you may want to import a contact group called "Company Contacts"  that contains contacts for everyone in the company."

Essentially you need to manually create a template user with the required contacts, use LyncAddContacts to export this configuration and then use LyncAddContacts to import the contacts into each user or OU.

Lync 2010 SPLA Licencing

Lync can be licenced on a SPLA basis from a Service provider, as an alternative to the normal CAL model.

The Lync SPLA is licenced on a per month/per user basis. The are 4 SAL types, Standard, Plus, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus (similar to the CALs - Enterprise Plus is equivalent to Enterprise and Plus together). Unlike the CAL model where CALs are additive to give the user extra functionality, only one SAL is required per user.

Update: Basic IM/Presence is enabled by the Standard SAL. The Enterprise SAL gives the basic functionality of the Standard SAL plus the features of the Enterprise CAL. The Plus SAL gives the basic functionality of the Standard SAL and also the features of the Plus CAL, but it does not include the features of the Enterprise CAL. For complete Lync functionality, the user requires the Enterprise Plus SAL.

Lync Server is additional software, so the Service Provider doesn't have to pay or charge for it. The SQL and the Windows OS are chargeable.

Under a SPLA the service provider would normally deploy the solution in their hosting Data Centre, however it can be deployed at the customer premises, so long as the hardware is owned by the Service Provider.

Jan 2011 Updates for Lync Server, Lync Client, Lync Attendee and Lync Group Chat

Micrsoft have released a series of updates for Lync

Updates for Lync Server 2010

• Update for Administrative Tools 2467771
• Update for Core Components 2467775 
• Update for Conferencing Server 2467776
• Update for Web Components Server 2449497  

The updates can be download from here

Update for Lync Client, the update is available for 32bit and 64bit

Update for Lync Attendee, the update is available for Admin level install or User level install

Update for Group Chat Administration and Client, the Administration update is available here and the client update here

Lync Documentation

The Lync Server 2010 documentation is available online or as a series of Word docs and best of all the whole documentation set has been compiled into a downloadable Windows help file, which has the great advantage of being searchable and always available.

Windows Security update causes issues with Lync (KB2419640)

BEWARE of Windows Security update that causes issues with Lync (KB2419640) - "Cannot read topology. Verify that the topology data is accessible" from Management Shell

Security Update for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition (KB2419640) causes error when trying to access the Lync system through the management shell (I didn't try the control panel). Error was "Cannot read topology. Verify that the topology data is accessible"

Everything was ok after the update was removed (which required a server restart)