So, to help out those who are planning to offer Lync as a hosting service or those who already are, I suggest planning DNS and certificates as following:

Meet URL configuration:

For every hosted domain you will need meet URLs. These URLs are used to schedule online meetings. I would recommend first reading this article: Planning for Simple URL. For a hosting company, Option 3 mentioned in this article is best choice. Format for meet URL as per Option is:

https://lync.contoso.com/contosoSIPdomain/Meet

https://lync.contoso.com/fabrikamSIPdomain/Meet

Where lync.contoso.com is Provider’s domain and contosoSIPdomain and fabrikamSIPdomain are hosted domains. Following this format will minimize DNS and certificate requirements.

DNS for Hosted Domain:

If you have followed Option 3 for meet URL, you now only need three DNS records for every hosted organization. Frist one for client auto configuration; an SRV record _sip._tls.<hosteddomain> pointing to sip.<providerdomain>. Second, for federation; an SRV record _sipfederationtls._tcp.<hosteddomain> pointing to sip.<providerdomain>. Third one is for Lync Mobile Clients: ‘A’ record lyncdiscover.<hosteddomain> pointing to MCX Server.

Using such planning, there will be no need to update and reapply certificates. However, clients will display a pop up window while logging in, informing that you are being redirected to another server:

At this point user should check the box ‘Always trust this server’ (after seeing the certificate details and making sure that this is indeed service provider’s server).

Apart from being cost effective and easy, another advantage is that, if you expand the Certificate Details, your hosted organizations will not be exposed!

The post External DNS and Certificates Planning for Lync 2010 as Hosting Service appeared first on MachSol Blog.

MachSol Inc. is proud to rollout comprehensive support for Microsoft Lync 2010 Hosting Pack allowing you to extend your service level by offering Unified Communication Solutions to your customers. Lync is predicted to be Microsoft’s next killer platform having potential to become $1 billion business application and motivation to be adopted by millions of users. MachSol envisages technological advances and is actively engaged in developing next generation business automation solutions and is a Microsoft Validated Solution Vendor.

• – Fully automated hosted organization creation
• – Automated hosted user creation
• – Customizable meeting URLs
• – Load balancing in case of multiple front end servers
• – Phone number assignment
• – Assigned phone numbers list for every hosted organization
• – Multi-tenancy and segregation on Microsoft’s guidelines
• – Organization management interface for providers and customers
• – SIP domain creation
• – Service Plan creation
• – Add-on Management
• – Integration with Exchange 2010 SP2
• – Integration with UM Role
• – Integration with other services like CRM, SharePoint, MachPanel billing module
• – Offline and online order forms

MachSol being a Microsoft validated solution vendor delivers MachPanel – the most advanced, fast and secure web host automation solution, fully supporting Lync 2010 Hosting Pack and turnkey deployment servicces, Exchange 2010 SP2, CRM 2011, SharePoint 2010, BlackBerry Enterprise/Express and classic mail and web hosting. Our pricing is based on a very competitive Pay-as-you-go model with top-notch 24×7 customer support. Our Microsoft Certified Engineers can help you migrate, upgrade, design and deploy your infrastructure.

The post Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Multitenant Pack – Now Supported! appeared first on MachSol Blog.

$urlEntry = New-CsSimpleUrlEntry -Url "https://lync.MyDomain/SipDomain/Meet"
$simpleUrl = New-CsSimpleUrl -Component "Meet" -Domain "SIPDomain" -SimpleUrl $urlEntry -ActiveUrl "https://lync.MyDomain/SipDomain/Meet"
Set-CsSimpleUrlConfiguration -Identity Global -SimpleUrl @{Add=$simpleUrl}
Enable-CSComputer

Above commands once executed will create simple URL but this easy task becomes quite difficult if you had to do it remotely (for any purpose like an automation solution for Lync management). Inside a vb.net code above shell cmdlets were called. But upon execution below error came: Assignment statements are not allowed in restricted language mode or a Data section.

Few solutions to bypass above error were tried like setting execution policy to unrestricted , using admin credentials for remote session etc. , but all in vain.

<

p style=”text-align: justify;”>However, another approach was used to get this task done by saving these cmdlets in a ps1 file and executing the file. Following is the code snippet that does this:

Try
Proc.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe"
Dim ScriptFile As String = “C:\Script.ps1”
Dim PSCommand As String = "Import-Module Lync" & vbCrLf
PSCommand &= Command
File.AppendAllText(ScriptFile, PSCommand)
Proc.StartInfo.Domain = DomainNETBIOS
Proc.StartInfo.UserName = ADUserName
Proc.StartInfo.LoadUserProfile = True
Dim Pass As New System.Security.SecureString
For Each character As Char In ADPassword
Pass.AppendChar(character)
Next
Proc.StartInfo.Password = Pass
Proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = False
Proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = True
Proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = True
Proc.StartInfo.Arguments = " -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command &'" & ScriptFile & "'"
Proc.Start()
Proc.WaitForExit()
If Not Proc.StandardError Is Nothing Then
Dim ErrorMsg As String = Proc.StandardError.ReadToEnd
If ErrorMsg <> "" Then
Throw New Exception(ErrorMsg)
End If
End If
Proc = Nothing
File.Delete(ScriptFile)
Catch ex As Exception
Throw New Exception("Error processing PS command: " & ex.Message)
End Try

Often you will find that new approach to a problem is better than focusing all efforts in one direction

The post Remotely Creating Lync Simple URL – Lync Automation Solution appeared first on MachSol Blog.

MachSol Inc. is proud to announce complete support for Microsoft Lync 2010 to empower you with Microsoft’s enterprise ready unified communication platform. MachSol being a Microsoft Gold Partner and official validated control panel vendor is actively engaged in supporting latest Microsoft technologies to help you stay competent and ahead of competition.

• Segregated hosted Lync users
• Organization, SIP Domain and user creation and management
• Phone number assignments
• Policy Assignments using Service Plan and Add on
• Customer self-service control panel
• Email templates for Lync operations

MachSol being a Microsoft validated solution vendor delivers MachPanel – the most advanced, fast and secure web host automation solution fully supporting LYNC 2010, Exchange 2010 SP2, CRM 2011, SharePoint 2010, BlackBerry Enterprise/Express and classic mail and web hosting. Our pricing is based on a very competitive Pay-as-you-go model with top-notch 24×7 customer support. Our Microsoft Certified Engineers can help you to migrate, upgrade, and design and deployment of your own infrastructure.

The post Go Unified with MachPanel Lync Module appeared first on MachSol Blog.