Introduction Following on from my blog post about monitoring SfB and CCE in Azure OMS and Power BI, then recently deploying a Skype Room System (SRS) for the first time, I came across monitoring SRS devices via Azure OMS.
This seems a good idea, much like it did for CCEs, as these are unmanaged devices spread across the network where you might not always have someone on hand to keep an eye on them.
Introduction Skype Room System (SRS) v2 has been around a little while now, but until recently I’ve come in to contact with one.
SRS can be deployed in the following ways:
100% On-Premises - The Exchange and Skype for Business user will both be hosted premises installations. More info
100% Online - The Exchange and Skype for Business user will both be hosted in Office 365. More info
Hybrid - This can break down two ways:
Edit 09/07/18 - There is now an easier, supported method to achieve this here.
Introduction For a while, I’ve been running SBCs and other virtual machines for my lab on physical servers, which consume a fair bit of power and most of the time sit there unused. I’ve managed to move other machines to Azure but wanted to also move an AudioCodes SBC too. One thought when Direct Route arrives, I could have a whole PSTN calling lab in Azure to play with.
Introduction I thought I would write a post to remind people that Microsoft will be switching off TLS 1.0 and 1.1 for their Office 365 services. It was originally meant happen in March 2018, then October 2018, but has now been pushed back to a later date.
If you don’t have Office 365 services you won’t be affected by this, but I would still advise migrating away from the older specifications of TLS where possible.
Introduction As of CCE 2.1.0 there was mention of support for Azure Operations Management Suite (OMS). Being that the CCE is generally left alone once installed, this piqued my interest. Whilst on the whole CCE has been OK to leave to it’s devices, it would be nice to know exactly what it’s doing sometimes. Using OMS we are able to get an insight in to running CCE (and SfB server) installed in multiple configurations and locations in a single place - for someone who manages exactly that, awesome!
Just a quick one here, at some point you may need to replace your CCE Edge certificate. It’s a pretty straight forward process, but thought I would document it.
Ensure that the CCE is currently running OK before you start:`
Get-CCApplianceStatus If the certificate has already expired it might throw some errors with stopped services, which we will fix!
As Greig Sheridan mentioned in his blog post on a similar subject matter, ensure your CCE has .
Not a massively technical post, but something I do myself regularly. When logging in to Skype for Business Admin Center in Office 365, you are able to manage voice users. I do find it quite limited in the following ways:
Sorting - you cannot sort by first name, last name, number (LineURI) etc. Search by number - to see if the number is in use already etc. Now, if its a handful of users, not a big deal, but if you are talking multiple pages of users, its a nightmare.
Introduction I thought I would note down some considerations when looking to migrate from an on-premise deployment of Skype for Business (SfB) to a Cloud Connector Edition (CCE). At one point there was mention that CCE and hybrid could co-exist (which would make this path much easier), but with MS Teams looking to become the primary tool in Office 365, this hasn’t come to fruition. Even if you aren’t in a hybrid configuration but you sync your on-premise AD to Azure AD, you will still have the same considerations to make.
What does this mean? With the release of Polycom UCS 5.7.0 for VVX phones, you are now able to hotdesk on Polycom VVX phones in Skype for Business (On-Premise or SfBO). Previously, to simulate hotdesking, it involved the “normal” user of the phone signing out of the phone fully, the “Guest” user then signing in. To then return the original state the “Guest” user would have to sign out and the “normal” user having to sign back in by re-entering their details again (if they are known).
Introduction Over the past few years browsers such as Chrome or Firefox have started deprecating known vulnerabilities in SSL/TLS encryption - vulnerabilities that can break the encryption. Where this post’s issue lies is that IETF have prohibited the use of RC4.
The Issue Now, what happens if you need to access something via HTTPS, say an AudioCodes that uses the RC4 cipher? You will probably be presented with an error such as in Chrome: “ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH”.