OCS Deploy Series: Phase 1 - Standard Edition

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Remember in the opening post about this project I mentioned running since Beta 2, well it has been since Beta 1, wow it has been a LONG time running an unreleased product. I have not played with LCS 2005 in probably 6-8 months. Truth be told I began this project while on vacation at the house so I spend the 2 hours my kids napped a few days playing with the software.

Initial plan eventually aborted -

  • I started with the VMs I have been using since Beta2 so the first thing I hit with the Standard Edition install - older version of Office Communications Server database. I had to run cscript.exe dbsetup.wsf /drop (noted in the dialog). Keep in mind that for me, I have a test deployment and this box didn't actually have users homed on it, or so I hope!
  • WinISO - I use this to convert data to an ISO image to easily install software, sure enough I lost my registration code. After an hour or 2 I gave up and spent another $30 for my second copy.
  • After doing this I left my computer and returned the next day to continue, apparently there was a power outage where my remote host was. Lots of playing around with images and settings, it seems the defined Internal Network definition became corrupt. I just created a new network called Internal 2 for Guests (None). As I working on this process I also began using another set of virtual machines, enter plan 2.

Second plan - an older set of virtual machines (1 week later)

When I started these vms I realized that I had been using OCS since it was beta1 and beta2 so I had a lot of uninstalling to do. This took probably 2 hours or so to get about 7-8 vms ready just to install. After I get 2 new SQL 2000 SP4 database instances ready and the Domain prepped, I will shut them all down, committing changes and then saving to avoid the problem in the future. I also notice that this set of VMs also has 2 SE installs, a director and 2 FE machines, so I might end up closer to my bonus items earlier than planned.

I will likely keep this domain set around for a good fallback or for testing federation scenarios.

Third plan - brand new VMs created by the beta team. (another week later)

Advantage with this setup is a child domain, SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 and Exchange 2007 already installed. I also took the opportunity to install LCS 2003 first and then LCS 2005 SP1, did you know that if you don't install LCS 2003 first you can't update the schema after LCS 2005? I used the prep=schema, prep=enterprise and prep=domain command line approach for LCS 2003 and I installed LCS 2005 SP1 on a machine labeled for the purpose of a Director. I am also going to install MSMQ in anticipation for some archiving testing (was that a bonus item?). LCS 2005 SP1 SE server installed, LCS2005 User (lcs2005@wingtiptoys.com) created but I can't sign in. When you know too much you miss the easy stuff, but thankfully not for long - wingtiptoys.local is the AD domain which of course means that LCS is not configured to support wingtiptoys.com yet. Grr, did I mention that these new VMs were built with Windows 2003 R2? Guess what OS version has a bug with the LCS MMC, yeah I have to build my own using start run mmc and add/remove snap-in for LCS. I then did a Save As and overwrote the other msc file. Annoying.  Ok LCS 2005 SP1 up and running and a client sign-in. Good precursory start to the OCS setup (going on in parallel in other VM).

I chose my root domain for the creation of the Universal Groups, there does not appear to be any good guidance on where to create them based on some informal discussions. Let me know if you are aware any info. I also chose to install OCS 2007 in the child domain first so I then had to add my domain admins group from the child to the Universal groups (RTCUniversalServerAdmins and RTCUniversalUserAdmins) in the root domain, don't forget to log off and log back on to get your new ticket.

Server installed and activated. OCS 2007 defaults to TCP disabled so you have to manually enable it or use the new certificate wizard to configure TLS. Alas the certificate wizard is not successful and it lacks any error messages. In fairness this is the first time I have had the wizard fail and this is the first time I have used it in a child domain I am betting there is a relationship here. Well I tried modifying the security for the CA but it never allowed the wizard or mmc to request a certificate. I was able to request it from the web interface (https://dc01/certsrv). Time to move on and progress towards a completed install. Ok I have not moved on from this, it bugs me. The certificate wizard was supposed to make this all easier and the lack of good error details is annoying. I have begun the process to get assistance and when resolved I will bug this appropriately.

I have my certificate via the web interface assigned, oh did I mention that I deactivated and uninstalled this box? Another power failure corrupted WMI. So my ceritificate is assigned and services are starting and I am now going to rehome the OCS Child user on the SE box and try to sign in -

Did you notice that in the MMC there are some user statistics about the number of users on the pool, how many are active , etc.? I suspect that it isn't everything you might want (the actual SIP-URI of users) but it is a good start. <by the way I am installing the Enterprise Edition at the same time, it will be the first of 2 consolidated Front Ends>.

And there you go - an installed Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition Server.