Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Tool: OCS IM Archive Viewer

Customers sometimes ask how they can see archived instant messages after deploying the Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2, Archiving Server. In response, we’ve developed a new tool called OCS IM Archive Viewer. Although there are some tools (recommended by support engineers at Microsoft) that can help customers retrieve instant messages from an archiving database, these tools don’t retrieve instant messages sent during a conference from an archiving database. You can download the OCS IM Archive Viewer tool from the Download Center.

Authors: Okan Gurer, Faruk Celik

Publication date: June 2011

Product versions: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft Lync Server 2010

Introduction

The OCS IM Archive Viewer tool provides an easy way to retrieve peer-to-peer instant messages and instant messages that were sent during a conference from your archiving database. You can download the OCS IM Archive Viewer tool from the Download Center.

Description

OCS IM Archive Viewer extends the functionality that is provided in the Updated—Windows PowerShell Script for Retrieving IM from an Archiving Database article.

Output

Use the instructions in this section to set up and use OCS IM Archive Viewer.

Set Up OCS IM Archive Viewer

1. Download OCS IM Archive Viewer.

2. Type the instance name of the SQL database in the OCS Archiving SQL Server Name field.

3. Type the database name in the OCS Archiving Database field. (The default Archiving Server database name is LcsLog.)

4. Click Connect to connect to the database. Notice that the Connect button has been replaced by the Disconnect button as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. OCS IM Archive Viewer v 1.0 dialog box

 

View Peer-to-Peer Instant Messages

1. Select the 1:1 option as shown in Figure 2.

2. Type the SIP address of each user of interest—one per field—in the From/To User1 field and the From/To User2 field.

3. To view all the instant messages that have been sent to and from only one user, type the SIP address of the user in the From/To User1 field.

4. Select a time interval for the instant messages that you want to retrieve, if needed.

5. Click Retrieve Messages to display the instant messages in the data grid window.

Figure 2. Options for retrieving peer-to-peer instant messages

 

View Conference Instant Messages

1. Select the Conference option as shown in Figure 3.

2. Specify the SIP address of a user in the From/To User1 field.

3. Click Retrieve Messages to display all instant messages that were sent during an instant messaging conference that included this user.

Figure 3. Options for retrieving instant messages that were sent during a conference

 

Render Instant Messages as HTML

OCS IM Archive Viewer provides the option to view instant messages as HTML. Click the Render the output as HTML in IE button to display the output in your browser as shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5.

Figure 4. HTML output of retrieved peer-to-peer instant messages

 

Figure 5. HTML output of retrieved instant messages in a conference

 

Purpose

Use OCS IM Archive Viewer to easily retrieve peer-to-peer instant messages and instant messages that were sent during a conference from your archiving database.

Requirements

The Microsoft.NET Framework 2.x must be installed. The OCS IM Archive Viewer tool works with the archiving databases in both Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Office Communications Server 2007. Currently, this tool has not been tested with the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software Archiving database.

The following operating systems are supported:

  • Windows 7 operating system
  • Windows Vista operating system with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
  • Windows Vista operating system with Service Pack 2 (SP2)
  • Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system Service Pack 1 (SP1)
  • Windows Server 2003 operating system Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Summary

The OCS IM Archive Viewer tool can retrieve and display information from the Archiving back-end database. This tool enables customers to view archived peer-to-peer instant messages and instant messages sent during in a conference.

Additional Information

To learn more, check out the following articles and tools:

· Updated—PowerShell Script for Retrieving IM from Archiving Database

· ArchivingCDR Reporter (ArchivingCDRReporter.exe, ArchivingCDRReporter_Config.xml)

· Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit Tools

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