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Microsoft Experts

Memoirs of a goldfish

Cameron McFie

Smile! It is guaranteed to make your day come alive!

February 2009 - Posts

  • Post HMC 4.5 UR2 instructions

    After installing update rollup 2 for HMC 4.5 I noted a few issues with adding mailboxes and retrieving domains owned by a customer.

    Thanks to Kip Ng's blog post (https://blogs.technet.com/provtest/archive/2009/02/14/hmc-4-5-rollup-2-has-been-released.aspx) his suggestion of executing the following procedures in the MPS deployment tool after installing UR2;

    • Hosted Active Directory
      • Initialize Hosted Active Directory
    • Hosted Exchange - Exchange Provisioning Configuration
      • Initialize Exchange 2007 OAB Resource Manager
      • Initialize Hosted Email 2007
      • Initialize Hosted Unified Messaging 2007
      • Initialize Managed EMail 2007

    Good advice Kip. Thanks.

    Posted Feb 25 2009, 12:13 AM by Cam with no comments
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  • MPS Queries using Powershell

    Lately I have been getting right into Powershell scripting and I have been trying to build an auditing utility which HMC 4.5 Cross Data Store (CrossDS) was supposed to provide. In building this auditing tool, I have built some basic Powershell scripts on the way that may help others understand how to develop for MPS.

    A basic script I have uploaded is called GetUserPlan.ps1. I have placed it in the downloads section (http://www.msexperts.org/files/folders/powershell/entry88.aspx ). Note : I have renamed it to .txt extension just in case your proxy server filters .ps1 extensions.

    This script should give you an idea on how to make MPS calls from within Powershell.

    I will upload a few more scripts in the next few weeks.

  • Understanding Exchange Resource Management in HMC

    After preparing to write up a guide on how Resource Management works in HMC I found a detailed article written by Arthur Fang and Shanming Xuan on Claudio Vacalebre's blog (http://www.mshosting.org/Tech-Bulletins/HMC/4%20-%20Exchange%202007%20Resource%20Manager.pdf).

    Quite a detailed read, but a good one.

    Posted Feb 08 2009, 11:36 PM by Cam with no comments
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  • Working out what role a user has within HMC

    HMC has several roles in its delegated administration model, including the following below;

    • Domain Admin (A member of Domain Admins / Administrators in the Active Directory Domain)
    • Hosting Admin (An admin user of the whole HMC environment)
    • Hosting CSR Admin
    • Reseller Admin (An admin user of a Reseller)
    • Reseller CSR Admin
    • Customer Admin (An admin of a Customer)
    • Customer CSR Admin
    • Customer User (A normal user with no administrative rights)

    I have highlighted the ones that are important in Red.

    HMC has a procedure within the "Hosted Active Directory" namespace called "GetCallerUiRoles". The response from the procedure contains a value called "highestUiRole". This value tells you the highest role the user has. It is returned in a 4-digit numeric form. The numbers are as follows;

    • 6000 – Domain Admin
    • 5000 – Hosting Admin
    • 2000 – Hosting CSR Admin
    • 1500 – Reseller Admin
    • 1000 – Reseller CSR Admin
    • 0500 – Customer Admin
    • 0100 – Customer CSR Admin
    • 0000 – Customer User

    This procedure (GetCallerUiRoles) works is as follows;

    • Perform an LDAP search on Active Directory impersonated as the user
      • LDAP Base DN : CN=WatUiPermissions,CN=_Private,OU=Hosting,DC=fabrikam,DC=com
      • LDAP Filter : (objectClass=group)
      • LDAP Search Scope : One Level
      • LDAP Property List : distinguishedName,cn
    • For each of the returned objects it tests if the impersonated user has read permissions.
    • If it has got read permissions it adds it to a list, if not, it doesn't add it to the list

    It then gets the largest number in that list and returns it in the value called "highestUiRole".

    So put simply, if you are a member of Admins@CustomerName you will have read permissions to the "0500" group, if you are a member of Admins@ResellerName you will have read permissions to the "1500" group, etc.

    All of these groups are setup when initially deploying HMC for the first time.

    Posted Feb 08 2009, 11:28 PM by Cam with no comments
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  • OCS 2007 R2 has been launched!

    While staying up to upgrade our customer's HMC to v4.5 I watched the Virtual Launch of OCS 2007 R2.

    Some good information little tidbits I have got from it so far;

    Link to the technical guides of OCS 2007 R2 (Deployment, Planning, etc.)

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd440729(office.13).aspx

    Link to the end user manuals for OCS 2007 R2 (Reference card for Conferencing, etc)

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd440728(office.13).aspx

    Bandwidth Considerations for the new RTAudio Codec

    Including security and packet overheads etc. worst case – RTAudio 8kHz (Narrowband – equivalent to standard public switched telephony (G.711)) uses 32.6Kbps or RTAudio 16kHz (Wideband audio – much higher quality) uses 49.9Kbps.

    Voice quality monitoring and reporting

    In this new version it is storing performance metric data in a SQL DB so that you can report on the quality of calls made within your environment

    Desktop Sharing and Voice Conferencing using just a web browser

    Using any of the popular web browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, etc.) you can do application sharing and control someone else's desktop. No additional software included. Just connect to the Communicator Web Access URL for your company, and you have access to be involved in just an instant messaging chat or a full application sharing scenario. You can also make a call using Communicator Web Access where OCS dials the third party and also dials the phone number you specify (e.g. your mobile phone or desk phone etc.)

    x64 Only

    The new version only support x64 Windows server.

    Migration options

    Side-by-side, or new install. No In-place upgrade.

     

    Time to go to bed!

    Posted Feb 04 2009, 05:21 AM by Cam with no comments
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  • HMC4.5 Upgrade doesn’t update namespaces if MSIShare has been moved

    Another little furfy I found tonight on a client's installation of HMC4.0. They had moved the folder "MSIShare" from C:\MSIShare to E:\MSIShare and shared the folder from there. It all worked until the HMC 4.0 to HMC 4.5 upgrade.

    As it seems when upgrading to HMC4.5, the installation of the new Deployment tool doesn't update all of the namespaces unless the MSIShare folder is in the location C:\MSIShare, and no, it doesn't tell you!

    So moral of the story, as with everything else on HMC, make sure you keep the configuration exactly as per the original guide.

    Posted Feb 04 2009, 03:58 AM by Cam with no comments
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