Configuring Delegation for Lync Users that are not enterprise voice enabled

Problem Overview

Companies that deploy Lync Enterprise Voice (EV) have the ability to easily leverage the "delegate" scheduling feature. However, customers that don't deploy EV do not get to take advantage of the delegate functionality.

A delegate scheduler should be able to schedule a Lync meeting on behalf of their boss/manage even if both users are not enabled for Enterprise Voice.

Detailed Description of the Problem

We will walk through an example of delegation without EV and show how it works without administrative interaction.

In this example we have two users named Player2 (Manager) and Player3 (Delegate). As you can see in Figure 1 below, Player2 has shared his Outlook calendar with Player3.

Figure 1 - Player2 Delegation Configuration

 

Player3 is now eligible to create meetings on behalf of Player2.

Figure 2 - Player3 schedules a meeting for Player2

So far everything is working as expected.

The issue arises when Player3 attempts to schedule a Lync meeting on behalf of Player2.

Figure 3 - Error message when Player3 tries to schedule a Lync meeting

As you can see in Figure 3 above, Player3 receives an error that they do not have delegate permissions for Player2. These particular delegate permissions are in addition to the mailbox delegate permissions that are needed.

The issue here is that Player2 is not enabled for Enterprise voice and therefore has no ability to alter his delegates list.

 

Solution Overview

The solution that we will describe in this blog post involves the Lync administrator using the SEFAUtil administrative tool to configure Player 3 as a delegate for Player2. This solution will enable Player3 to be configured as a delegate for Player2 while neither user is enabled for Enterprise Voice. This solution requires some administrative input but it is scalable and allows the configuration to be easily changed after the fact.

 

Detailed Description of the Solution

This configuration requires that you are running a minimum build of 8308.577 of the SEFAUTIL that is available via the following URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=36821.

This document will only cover the delegation configuration using SEFAUtil and it will not cover the actual Lync server configuration required to make the SEFAUtil work. For detailed steps on how to enable SEFAUtil please see this blog post (https://blogs.technet.com/b/jenstr/archive/2010/12/07/how-to-get-sefautil-running.aspx).

In this sample configuration we will start with two users named Player2 and Player3 that are not EV users and do not have delegation in Lync configured. At this point we assume that the Exchange delegation has already been completed (https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/allow-someone-else-to-manage-your-mail-and-calendar-HA102749417.aspx) and that the EnableExchagneDelegateSync parameter has not been set on any client policies. The reason that we choose not to use this option is that Exchange Delegate sync is a one way sync only in that when someone is removed as an Exchange delegate they are not automatically removed as a Lync delegate.

 

Figure 4 - Player2 signed in to Lync

 

Figure 5 - Player3 signed in to Lync

 

As you can see in Figure 4 and Figure 5 above, both users are not enabled for Enterprise voice and as a result do not have the ability to manage their call forwarding settings and the delegate access feature.

The following steps assume that you have configured the Lync infrastructure (see note earlier in this document) to support the SEFAUtil and are now ready to configure the delegate relationship between these two users.

Open a command prompt and type the following command syntax (in this example pool01.p52.local has already been configured as a trusted application pool to run the SEFAUtil application)

SEFAUtil.exe /server:pool01.p52.local player2@p52.ca /adddelegate:player3@p52.ca

 

Once the command completes you should see output such as what is shown below.

User Aor: sip:player2@p52.ca

Display Name: Player2

UM Enabled: True

Simulring enabled: False

Simultaneously Ringing Delegates: sip:player3@p52.ca

 

You should now see a change in the Lync client for both Player2 and Player3.

Figure 6 - Player2 showing Player3 as a delegate

Figure 7 - Player3 showing as a delegate for Player2

As you can see in Figure 6 above Player2 now has Player3 listed under the "Delegates" group which gets created automatically when you have delegates configured.

In Figure 7 above you can see that Player3 has Player2 listed under the "People I Manage Calls For".

As you can see in Figure 8 below Player3 is now able to schedule a Lync conference on behalf of Player2.

Figure 8 - Player3 schedules a meeting for Player2

If you decide that you want to reverse the changes made earlier you can do that with the SEFAUtil as well.

Open a command prompt and type the following command syntax (in this example pool01.p52.local has already been configured as a trusted application pool to run the SEFAutil application)

SEFAUtil.exe /server:pool01.p52.local player2@p52.ca /removedelegate:player3@p52.ca

 

Once the command completes you should see output such as what is shown below.

User Aor: sip:player2@p52.ca

Display Name: Player2

UM Enabled: True

Simulring enabled: False

User Ring time: 00:00:20

Call Forward No Answer to: voicemail

 

Summary

This blog post described how a company that has not deploy Lync Enterprise Voice (EV) can use the SEFAUtil tool to configure delegate access and allow their users to leverage the "delegate" scheduling feature.