Archive for the 'Communication Server' Category

OCS – how to retrieve user information using SQL queries

There might be a situation where you would like an overview of the SIP URIs of the active users connected to one of the OCS servers in a pool, their last logon and what client version they are using.

All these kind of information can be retrieved using SQL queries in the SQL Management Tools, connect to the RTC database on the backend server and run the selected queries below.

Get a list of active users on the OCS Server (pool):

Select a.UserAtHost “Active-Users” from rtc.dbo.Resource

a,rtcdyn.dbo.DeliveryContext b where a.ResourceId=b.SubscriberId and b.FrontEndId=1

The FrontEndId is the ID of the OCS Frontend server where the users are connected to. In an environment with only one OCS, the value is 1.

The ID can be obtained from the FrontEnd table of the rtcdyn database.

Further more if you need the above information along with information about which Client App (communicator version) they use, the following query command will give you that result:

select count(*) as Occurrences, cast(e.ClientApp as varchar(128)) as 

ClientApp from rtcdyn.dbo.Endpoint as e group by cast(e.ClientApp as 

varchar(128)) order by cast(e.ClientApp as varchar(128)) select r.UserAtHost, 

cast(e.ClientApp as varchar(128)) as ClientApp from rtcdyn.dbo.Endpoint as e 

inner join rtc.dbo.Resource as r on r.ResourceId = e.OwnerId

Need to known when your enabled OCS users last logged in, run the following query below:

select res.UserAtHost as “SIP Address”, hud.LastNewRegisterTime as “Last Logon” from rtcdyn.dbo.HomedUserDynamic hud join
(Select ResourceId, UserAtHost from rtc.dbo.Resource
group by ResourceId, UserAtHost)
res
on hud.OwnerId=res.ResourceId
order by “Last Logon”

All SQL queries work for both OCS Standard and Enteprise Edition.

OCS – Communicator videos

Microsoft has put online some small, but very informative videos, about how to use the Communicator client. Great for new users to the Communicator.

Subjects are:

Next release of OCS

Microsoft has announced some news about the upcoming release of Office Communication Server (OCS), the next release will be 64-bit only, the same move with saw with Exchange 2007.

The new version “Office Communication Server 2007 R2” has gone into beta.

Some of the focus for the new version has been:

Consolidate deployments

Based on customer feedback, Microsoft’s goal with the next release of OCS is to simplify deployments by reducing the number of servers needed for deployment. Customers are also telling us they are pushing the limits of existing hardware with their “mission critical” communications solutions.

The x64 Advantage

By leveraging x64 hardware, we are able to use inexpensive memory to support more concurrent processing of real-time media streams (audio, video, conferences) on smaller number of servers. With the change to x64, we can simplify and consolidate OCS deployments while supporting additional capabilities in the 64-bit server hardware is broadly available in the market today and is offered by major hardware vendors. The benefits of adopting 64 bit hardware are not limited to high scale OCS customers.

Guidance for OCS 2007 customers

The majority of server hardware being sold today is x64-based and many businesses are already enjoying its advantages and will not need to purchase new hardware to deploy the next release of OCS. Customers who are using 32-bit hardware systems to run OCS 2007 will need to upgrade to x64 systems to install and run the next release of OCS.

More info from the Communication Server Team blog.

Updated version of OCS 2007 BPA

Microsoft has released an updated version of Office Communication Server 2007 (OCS) Best Practice Analyzer (BPA).