Something I’ve been working on lately was a Microsoft case involving inconsistent formatting of numbers. It turns out that MOC actually displays numbers for users in your contact list differently the first time you sign in (i.e. No GalContacts.db exists yet) compared to subsequent sign-ins. This isn’t a normalization problem because the underlying Tel URI is always correct, but actually just a display issue in how the number is presented within MOC.

Apparently the first time you sign in because there is a slight delay in the ABS download (even if you force it immediately) MOC has nothing to go on for contact card information other than the presence XML. If you view the presence XML you’ll see at first it doesn’t actually carry the display format, just the Tel URI, tel:+12345678901 so MOC has to use its own logic to figure out how to display that number. The format it chooses is +1 (234) 567-8901 and there is no way to change that. Not by disabling normalization, using only built-in rules, or by using only company-specific rules – the result is always the same and that display format is hard coded into MOC.

After a lot of back and forth support gave me the ol’ “It’s by design” answer and ended it there. I was a little disappointed because I think MOC should be able to apply the rules immediately after receiving them, but it seems to take another sign-in to take effect. Let me show you what I mean:

Active Directory Fields:

Company Phone Number Normalization file:

Address Book File Dump:

First sign-in uses MOC hard-coded logic:

Subsequent sign-ins display the number as formatted in Active Directory:

Odd, right? Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but the reason this popped up in the first place was because CUCIMOC was in use and it caches numbers you’ve called previously. So if a user signed in for the first time and dialed another user, CUCIMOC would show you calling with a +1. Even after signing out and back in, CUCIMOC would keep showing the +1 next time you dialed that user because it cached the original number you called, which had the +1. And now any new users you call would not have a +1, creating an ugly inconsistency. We were able to take care of the actual dialing with rules in Call Manager, but it’s just undesirable for end users to see this inconsistency.

Another gotcha I’ll point out is that MOC also tries to respect the access levels here. What I mean by tries is that as we know if a number is in AD it’s visible to everyone in the organization regardless of access level. Say you have a user’s work and mobile numbers in AD and try to view them from another user who’s assigned the company level in MOC, you’ll see MOC apply its own formatting to the work number only. Assign them to the team level and you’ll see MOC also format the mobile number. Bizarre.

Company Access Level on 1st Sign-In:

Team Access Level on 1st Sign-In:

There are two workarounds here since Microsoft refuses to acknowledge this behavior as a bug:

• Format all numbers in AD to the format MOC is going to use on the 1st sign-in. That is, +1 (xxx) xxx-xxxx. Then create a normalization rule in your company file to make sure this gets processed to E.164 by the ABS.
• When a user is signing in to a new PC for the first time (or you had them delete GalContacts.db), have them sign-in once, sign-out after the address book downloads, and finally sign-in again. MOC will now display the numbers from AD instead of formatting them itself. If a user goes to a new PC they need to repeat this process.

Neither of these are great solutions. The first is probably the best, but aren’t we defeating the entire purpose of normalization here? I should be able to put the numbers in any format I want in AD and normalize them with the ABS . Side note before anyone suggests it: This behavior still happens even if you put the AD fields in E.164 (+12345678901) format. For some organizations changing the formatting of the phone field isn’t an option especially if they have some kind of HR software responsible for syncing phone fields, or other applications dependent on the existing formats.

If you want to duplicate the issue yourself, there is a specific use case to make this happen. Most importantly, the user needs to actually be in your contact list.

1. Enter your numbers in AD for User A and B.
2. Ensure the numbers normalize by the ABS.
3. Sign-in as User A.
4. Add User B to your contact list.
5. Sign-in as User B.
6. Add User A to your contact list.
7. Sign-out of both accounts.
8. Delete GalContacts.db and GalContacts.db.idx from both accounts.
9. Sign-in to User A.
10. Sign-in to User B.
11. View User A’s phone numbers from User B’s MOC. You’ll see the MOC internal formatting applied.
12. Sign-out of User B. (Leave User A signed in)
13. Sign-in to User B.
14. View User A’s phone numbers from User B’s MOC. You’ll see the exact format you entered in AD, and for all sign-ins going forward.
15. You can sign-out of User A, delete GalContacts.db again and sign-in to see the MOC formatting again.

Personally, I think the behavior is wrong and needs to be fixed, but Microsoft says otherwise.

I know it’s still not 100% perfect and needs quite a bit of code cleanup, but I think I finally got the site to a point where I felt good pulling out this re-design I’ve been working on for a months. In between periods of zero free time, a move to San Francisco, and countless attempts at starting over I managed to put the content in a (hopefully) more usable format and took a stab at using HTML5.

The site looks more appealing in anything except IE (of course) with thanks to TypeKit for giving me a great way to use real fonts on the web. I’ve also added some Twitter, Flickr and Last.FM content here to give this a little more of a personal feel. Maybe one day I’ll even get a more recent photo of myself on here. I’d love to know your thoughts on the change.

I believe in my last post about damaged Communicator address book files I pointed out that it was a good idea to keep your OCS clients and servers on the same hotfix levels. I would still argue that’s a good thing to do in general, but in my case this wasn’t the actual resolution. While it worked for awhile after a few weeks the damaged address book files error popped up again:

Communicator cannot synchronize with the corporate address book because the corporate address book file appears to be damaged. Contact your system administrator with this information.

All the MOC clients and OCS servers were at the same revision level this time so that wasn’t the problem. Deleting the GalContacts.db and forcing a full download would succeed and the client goes along perfectly happy. Interestingly enough, deleting the GalContacts.db.idx file on a problematic machine would allow the delta file to download successfully so it appears the issue may be with the index file. Anti-virus logs also showed they weren’t trying to clean or repair the file in any way.

I couldn’t find any errors server-side and everything seemed to be functioning properly so I looked at the IIS logs on the Front-End again. Low and behold – the log was huge compared to previous days – about 10x as big. It was filled with many, many requests for downloads of files in the C-xxxx-xxxx.lsabs format which threw me off because the ABS documentation points out that F-xxxx files are fulls, and D-xxxx-xxxx files are delta changes, but has zero mention of the C-xxxx-xxxx files. These IIS requests were also successful downloads, not failures so I wouldn’t have expected clients to have an error, but every user was also repeatedly downloading the same sets of files and then trying to download previous C-xxxx-xxxx files as well.

I took one of the matching C-xxxx-xxxx and D-xxxx-xxxx files (they’ll have the same hex names) and dumped both to text files using abserver.exe –dumpfile to try and compare. Viewing them side-by-side they seemed to have the same content, but in a slightly different order. So it appears they were both delta files, but the C file was about 50% of the D’s size. Odd, but I still had no clue when they would be used over a D because there was zero documentation about the change.

Thanks to a few kind folks on Twitter (@aumblumberg and @MacRS4 ) who went down this same road with Microsoft via a support case previously, I found out the new C files stand for “Compact” and the change was implemented in the July server-side hotfixes. These are also delta files, but compressed in a way supposedly to make them more efficient. In our case (and theirs), it broke the address book downloads completely.

Fortunately, there is a registry key available to prevent clients from trying to use these compact files. This key only applies if you’re using the October Communicator client-side hotfix:

HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator
Key name: GalUseCompactDeltaFile
Type: DWORD

Possible Values:

• 0: Do not use compact delta file
• 1: Use compact delta file (default)
• 2: Use compact delta file, but do not issue an LDAP query to retrieve the “Title” and “Office” attribute values from Active Directory

You can read more about this registry setting from KB 976985 even though the actual KB is aimed at a different issue with LDAP queries and account lockouts.

I’ll find out today whether this actually fixes the downloads without having to clear out the GalContacts.db file on each client.

It looks like these constant address book changes like this and adding the 0-60 minute download delay are aimed at the larger organizations with a significant address book size, but. I almost feel like these updates are on par with the Resource Kit book providing examples for companies with 100,000+ users in various locations. Great info, but what about the real world? Not everyone using OCS is that big and it would be swell to have guidance around small and medium-sized deployments instead of trying to take those numbers and make them fit. I’d be happy to just let the ABS download the way it used to and leave it alone.

The most frustrating part here has been that this service has been something that traditionally just worked without intervention and instead I’ve been spending hours and hours troubleshooting to figure out what happened because there was nothing mentioned about the change in behavior server or client-side. Maybe there should be some threshold for these ABS disasters optimization changes where they only occur if the full address books are over some value like 10, 20, 50 or 100 MB? Until that happens I’ll be disabling the compact delta files at future OCS deployments to make sure we avoid this problem.

I realized this morning I broke the comment feature sometime awhile back. Oops. I think I’ve fixed the error so if you’ve been dying to post something you actually can do so now.

The past few days I spent wrestling an address book server issue in OCS and I wanted to share the solution. The quick version: make sure you have your server side and client side hotfix revisions match up.

If you want the whole story…the specific details of this case involved a Front-End server which had the OCS 2007 R2 April hotfixes, but the MOC clients had the July hotfixes applied. The issue first manifested itself with clients reporting ABS damaged:

Communicator cannot synchronize with the corporate address book because the corporate address book file appears to be damaged. Contact your system administrator with this information.

We resolved this by deleting the entire contents of the address book file share and forcing a resync of the address book. We also deleted GalContacts.db from a few user workstations, but later found the client error actually disappeared on its own without removing the file.

Things hummed along nicely for a week or so until a large amount of users (600+) were enabled for OCS one Friday evening. The following Monday previously enabled pilot users were reporting they still didn’t have a SIP URI in their address books for the mass-enabled users. The GalContacts.db file was also still showing a timestamp from the day the mass change occurred, indicating they had not downloaded an update yet.

We took a peek at the Front-End logs and it appeared to be generating address book files correctly. The odd thing was in looking at the IIS logs we actually saw quite a few 404 errors of MOC clients trying to request delta files that did not exist. Other users showed successful downloads of the latest delta files which should have included the changes, but they weren’t being applied to their local GalContacts.db for some reason. I also saw those same clients registering a success end up using the fallback logic and downloading older address book files even though they had the newer versions. Very, very strange. Any client we deleted GalContacts.db on would pull down the latest full address book with no issues. The clients looking for deltas that didn’t exist we probably caused by deleting the address book files previously.

Side tip when looking at the IIS logs: Full files start with F-xxxx and delta files follow a D-xxxx-xxxx naming convention. Also, .lsabs files are used by MOC while .dabs files are used by Tanjay devices.

At that point I noticed the mismatch in server (April hotfixes) vs. client (July hotfixes) versions and suggested we get the latest fixes installed on all sides. While that suggestion made its way through change control procedures we opened a PSS case with Microsoft to hit the problem from another angle. The engineer we spoke with immediately blurted out that we needed to match the hotfix versions as soon as we described the behavior. It sounded to me like this was one he had heard before or was familiar with so while we didn’t have a second approach this definitely helped accelerate the change control ticket to an authorized state. After we fully patched the Front-End using the new ServerUpdateInstaller (a lifesaver), applied the back-end database hotfix, and installed the client October hotfix the address book went back to functioning properly. There were a couple of users that needed to delete the GalContacts.db before everything went back to normal, but most of them picked it up without intervention.

As for root cause, the KB 972403 article actually does reference applying both the MOC and server fix together, but the July server hotfix document doesn’t describe this behavior or even mention it. Personally, I think the underlying issue was having the 3.5.6907.37 hotfix on clients while the abserver.exe file was still at 3.5.6907.0. In any case, I learned a lot more about the ABS than I ever cared to, but it was great information that will surely help in the future.

I wanted to point out a quick note about KB 969834 aka the OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi file – The KB article suggests running the package from your Back-End database server, but if you’re running SQL 2005 x86 you’ll be greeted with the following error:

This installation package is not supported by this processor type.

Basically, the MSI needs to be run from an x64 machine so your only option now is to run the update directly from your Front-End server. If you try to launch from there you might receive this error:

You must install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Client Tools before you install Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 (KB969834).

You could try install the SQL Tools and Service Pack updates from installation, but OCS is looking for very specific versions of the SQL tools. The quickest and easiest way is to just use a couple of downloads from the Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – February 2007.

You’ll want to download and install the following on your R2 Front-End before running the update:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components (x64 package)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Management Objects Collection (x64 package)

After running those installers you should be able to run the DB upgrade successfully. Don’t forget – you need to run that MSI from a command line with the poolname (Non-FQDN version) parameter. And if you’re using Server 2008 be sure open the command prompt as Administrator so it runs with elevated rights. Example:

OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi POOLNAME=MyFirstPool

Disclaimer: Plantronics did me a sample device to test out, but this post is not a paid review in any way.

Prior to my poor experience with the Jabra GO 6430 and Communicator I had picked up a Plantronics Voyager PRO for use with my iPhone in the car because of California’s hands-free driving laws. I had been extremely happy with the quality of that device and was surprised to see Plantronics had also released a UC certified version for Communicator. My favorite headset up until then had been the Plantronics Savi Go, but I needed something a lot more portable on a day-to-day basis and the Savi Go charging stand was a bit bulky. I definitely needed to replace that Jabra so I picked up a PRO UC to try with Communicator with high hopes based on my experience with the Savi Go.

Unboxing photos:

I was very happy to see that the Voyager PRO UC worked well with MOC right out of the box – no installation or drivers needed, just the way it should be. The multi-function button worked great and the headset was extremely comfortable to wear for long periods of time with the felt ear bud cover. The sound quality is definitely on par with the Savi Go which was already the best device out there so you can’t go wrong with this headset. As an added bonus it also pairs with a mobile phone so I can get by with a single headset now for my work calls when I have Communicator open and when I’m on the road driving with my mobile.

There really isn’t much to say. The device works as advertised, it looks good and the sound quality is outstanding. For someone who is constantly mobile this is the headset I’d recommend using, but if you’re at a desk more often the Savi Go is still a great choice.

A few weeks ago I started a new job and had to turn in all my UC certified devices to the old employer, which left me needing to pick up some sort of headset for use with Communicator on the road. I took a peek at the Phones and Devices Optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator page and noticed Jabra had a few newly certified devices listed. The Jabra GO 6430 caught my eye mostly because of the  small form factor and sturdy looking design so I decided to give it a shot and placed an order for one.

You can see from the photos below that the device is actually a really nice size.  I’ve had trouble in the past with really small headsets, but I also don’t care for the ones that extend all the way to your mouth. The charging case also doubles nicely as a carrying case, especially for someone who needs to throw a headset in a bag constantly. Unfortunately, the aesthetics are about the only thing Jabra got right. Here are a few photos of the package:

When it arrived I pulled it out, plugged the USB dongle in and tried doing some test calls with Communicator. I placed a call from my mobile to my work number and tried to answer by pressing the multi-function button. It did nothing. Ok, how about outbound? Press the button, and no dial tone. It was as if the button was worthless. Digging a little deeper into the package I found a CD and some documentation (who reads that?) so I popped it in and installed the Jabra Software Suite. After that, I was able to use the multi-function to partially control calls in MOC. For an outbound call I could now get a dial tone by pressing the button, but I still didn’t have much luck with inbound calls. I had some mixed results with the headset either not picking up or it would send the call directly to voicemail, but both were undesirable to say the least.

It only gets worse. Every time I made a settings change within the Jabra suite it seemed take down my entire wireless stack of 802.11 and Bluetooth for a few seconds. At this point I threw in the towel and gave up. Maybe it was my PC, or Windows 7, or some other combination but the bottom line is I shouldn’t have to mess with anything to make these certified devices work flawlessly. I’ve never had issues in the past with any other product, Jabra made or not, but this was unusable. Integrators and especially end-users aren’t going to spend time trying to make these things work – they just expect it to work easily. Giving someone a softphone is already a sensitive subject at times and having a device that flakes out completely ruins any hope of a good user experience. Bottom line: don’t waste your money.

Now would normally be the time where everyone is running around like their head has been cut off because your Front-End server is totally hosed, but because you followed the backup procedures in Part 1 (you did run the backup, right?) restoring service to your OCS server is fairly simple.

Restore the Database

1. Open up the DPM console.
2. Click the Recovery tab at the top.
3. We need to restore the SQL database and files separately, but let’s start with the database. Expand the tree to <Forest Name>\<OCS Server>\All Protected SQL Instances\<OCS Server>\RTC\rtc
   
4. Highlight a suitable recovery date in the calendar and select the RTC database below.
   
5. Right-click and select Recover…
   
6. Press Next.
   
7. We’ve successfully screwed up the server to where we might as well recover to the original SQL server. Select that option and press Next.
   
8. Select Leave database operational and press Next.
   
9. No options needed. Just press Next.
   
10. Yup, those are the files we need. Press Recover.
    
11. Press Close while the recovery operation occurs.
    
12. If you click the Monitoring tab you can view the jobs in process.
    

Restore the Files

1. Now we need to restore files separately. Expand the tree to <Domain Name>\<OCS Server>\All Protected Protected Volumes\<OCS Installation Volume>
2. Highlight a suitable recovery date in the calendar and select the Program Files folder below.
   
3. Right-click Program Files and select Recover…
   
4. Press Next.
   
5. Select Recover to the original location and press Next.
    
6. Select to Overwrite the existing versions (if any), and then select to Apply the security settings of the recovery point version. Press Next.
   
7. Now press Recover.
   
8. Press Close while the recovery operation occurs.
   
9. If you click the Monitoring tab you can view the jobs in process.
   

Fix SQL Database Chaining

One thing DPM won’t restore is an option within SQL. If you miss this step your Front-End services will fail to start.

1. Open SQL Management Studio (Express).
2. Press the New Query button.
3. Enter the following text:

   sp_dboption 'rtc','db chaining',TRUE

4. Press Execute.
   

   <br /><a href="http://www.confusedamused.com/wp-content/pictures/2009/10/image1.png"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://www.confusedamused.com/wp-content/pictures/2009/10/image-thumb1.png" width="500" height="258" /></a> </li>
   

Bounce the Server

If you check your OCS Front-End you’ll find all the files you deleted previously have now returned. You could probably get away with restarting services as this point, but since the machine was completed hosed I’m just going to restart the server and cross my fingers.

Check Functionality

After the restart all of my OCS services started successfully and my errors have gone away. You can see now my Communicator list still has my contacts and access levels defined. Likewise, Device Updates and client auto updates should function normally now.

Now that we’ve verified the DPM backups are running successfully on a regular schedule we can get to really destroying the environment. First up: the RTC database. So shut down your OCS Front-End and SQL services. Then go and delete the RTC.mdf and RTC.ldf files. I know that doesn’t sound like a good idea, but really, delete them.

Open Explorer, jump in to the following volumes and delete the content there:

• <OCS Installation Volume>\<OCS Installation Folder>\Application Host\Application Data
• <OCS Installation Volume>\<OCS Installation Folder>\Web Components\AutoUpdate
• <OCS Installation Volume>\<OCS Installation Folder>\Web Components\Data MCU Web\Web
• <OCS Installation Volume>\<OCS Installation Folder>\Web Components\Data MCU Web\Non-Web
• <OCS Installation Volume>\<OCS Installation Folder>\Web Components\DeviceUpdateFiles

Now go and start your SQL services and try starting the OCS services up again. You’ll find a few errors and warnings in your OCS application log because it can’t read the RTC database. Communicator and Live Meeting clients won’t be able to connect to the server as this point either. Oops!

Congratulations, you’ve successfully messed up your Front-End server to the point where it is non-functional. The device update files have been lost, the MOC Auto-Update files have been lost and all your meeting content is gone. In the next section I’ll demonstrate how to get the server back to an operational state with DPM.