Lately I received several inquiries about enabling Lync 2013 features as Enterprise Voice for new domain users in the Lync Control Panel and the difference between enabling a user and searching for a user. Power Shell is my default location for any action as adding new user however i started checking this issue and discussing it with several admins as well as Microsoft Support team.

The User Search Option as shown in the below image with its two option (Search or LDAP) is limited to searching for users that are already enabled for Lync not new users who are not enabled yet for Lync


To Search for Existing enabled users, you can use the Search button and enter the user name for the user you are looking for. If you would like to use the LDAP search then you need to search using LDAP Expression. If you tried to enter normal username in the LDAP search you will get an error "Active Directory Operation Failed. The Search filer is invalid"


So to use the LDAP search for existing users you need to enter LDAP expression. To get the LDAP expression for the user you can get it from AD ADSIEDIT by navigating to the user location or by running the below PowerShell command in Lync Server

"Get-Aduser -identity -username"

The Value of the distinguished name is the one that you need to enter in LDAP Search



So back to the first question, How to enable new users that joined the domain and are not yet enabled for Lync. To add/Enable new user you need to click on Enable Users in the User Search Menu (Lync Control Panel) then Click Add






Now you will get a new Search Window where you can search here for New users either using normal username (Search Check box) or using LDAP expression as explained earlier.


Now you can enable this new user and assign him to the correct pool



Hopefully this can clarify the difference between Searching for Existing users and adding new users using the Lync Control Panel.

Several users started receiving certificate expiration warning messages on their computers regarding specific user certificates. Upon checking this certificate it turned out to be Lync Communication certificate as per the below screen shot.

Mobile or Tablet users using the Latest Microsoft Lync 2013 Client on their phone OS (IOS, Android or Windows 8 Phone) may lose server connection during the Lync call and get this message displayed in the Lync program.

"Cannot connect to server, Retrying............."

I encountered this message myself on several occasions during a Lync call using my mobile device. The Lync 2013 mobile version will establish connection to the Lync Reverse Proxy (It can be Microsoft TMG 2010 or IIS ARR). In my case I am using the IIS ARR which is highly recommended now by Microsoft (Actually Microsoft is pushing for this method) since Microsoft discontinued any future release for TMG 2010.

To solve this issue, i increased the Time-out setting in the IIS Server Farm Proxy as follows:

• Open IIS on the Reverse Proxy server and Navigate to the Server Farm.

• Open the Proxy and increase the time-out settings (Default is 200)

This should be done to both the Lync Discover and External Web Services URL/Farm.


For more information about the recommended/Qualified Infrastructure for Lync 2013, check the following URL  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/gg131938

Microsoft Releases frequent Cumulative updates for Lync 2013 servers and Most of these updates requires updating the Lync 2013 SQL Backend database. In this article I will discuss how to update the SQL Express backend database after installing a new Lync 2013 Cumulative update or specific Rollup that requires DB version update.


First to check the status of the Database after installing the cumulative update and whether you need an update, you need to run the below two commands from elevated Lync Power Shell.

1. PS C:\> Test-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn servername.domain.com | FT DatabaseName, ExpectedVersion, Installedversion        
2. PS C:\> Test-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase | FT DatabaseName, ExpectedVersion, InstalledVersion

The Output will be something similar to that (This is the output of the second command on one of my deployments)

DatabaseName        ExpectedVersion      InstalledVersion
         xds                             10.13.2                    10.13.1
          lis                                 3.1.1                      3.1.1

1. Install-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn FEBE.FQDN -Verbose
2. Install-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SqlServerFqdn CMS.FQDN -SqlInstanceName DBInstanceName -Verbose

1. Enable-CsTopology
2. Bootstrapper.exe
3. Reboot the server.

I am a big fan of Microsoft DirectAccess technology, for those who are not aware of DirectAccess, Its Microsoft new Remote connectivity solution where users on the Internet get Intranet connectivity to their corporate network without installing any client or initiating any software like old traditional VPN.

Microsoft DirectAccess is purely based on IPV6 and Lync 2013 is fully supporting IPV6 and Lync 2013 clients using DirectAccess should work without any problem.

If any one encountered problems making Lync calls or connecting to Lync on a DirectAccess Computer then you need to ensure that IPV6 is enabled on the Lync 2013 Server as per the below image.




This can be achieved as follows:

1. Open the Lync 2013 Topology Builder from an old file or download the topology
2. Edit the properties of the Lync server and in the General Properties ensure that IPV6 is enabled.
3. These settings need to be published from the Action Menu - Topology - Publish

After a successful implementation of the Microsoft Lync 2013 we faced a problem with our legacy Windows XP machines that are still existing on the network and need to access the Lync 2013 server. This was not possible because Lync 2013 client is only supported on Windows 7 or Windows 8. The Lync Web client doesn't support all features especially the Audio/Video conference features on XP machines (Greyed out).

As a solution we tried using Lync 2010 full client on Windows XP machines. When we try to login from Lync 2010 Client in the Windows XP or even Windows 7 we received the below error.



 
In Order to allow backward compatibility for Lync 2010 clients on Lync 2013 server, you need to do the following:
 

1. Open Lync 2013 Control Panel
2. Click on Clients – Client Version Policy
3. Click the “Global Policy” – Edit – Show details
4. Double Click “UCCP”
5. At the bottom under Action: select “allow”  - Ok
6. Back to the Global Policy Settings Select OC Version 4.0.7.7577.4103 and allow it as previous policy (Default was block)

 The below screen shot is provided for more elaboration.

 

 



Hopefully this should be helpful for anyone facing the same problem.