Problems making IIS 7.0 changes for Lync Mobility (MCX)

 

I hit a problem when installing the mobility service on Lync running on Windows 2008 (not R2). By default you will be running IIS 7.0 this gives problems with making the changes for the Mobility and Autodiscover services.

The Guide says:

If you use Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0, you need to perform extra steps to change some ASP.NET settings.

It then goes on to define those steps:

1. Log on to the server as a local administrator.

2. Use a text editor such as Notepad to open the applicationHost.config file, located at C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config.

3. Search for the following:

<Add name=”CSExtMcxAppPool”

4. At the end of the line, before the ending angle bracket (>), type the following:

CLRConfigFile=”C:\Program Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\Web Components\Mcx\Ext\Aspnet_mcx.config”

5. Search for the following:

<Add name=”CSIntMcxAppPool”

6. At the end of the line, before the ending angle bracket (>), type the following:

CLRConfigFile=”C:\Program Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2010\Web Components\Mcx\Int\Aspnet_mcx.config”

 

However should you try and do step 3 you cannot find <Add name=”CSExtMcxAppPool” this  is because the changes adding these lines are not made until after the you have run the Mobility and Autodiscover services.

Once you run these you can locate the lines and make the changes.

On my system after making the changes and trying to restart IIS to activate the changes IIS would not restart.  Looking in the System Event log there were eight Event ID 2297 errors for different applications pools for example:

The worker process for application pool ‘CSIntConfAppPool’ encountered an error ‘Configuration file is not well-formed XML
‘ trying to read global module configuration data from file ‘\\?\C:\inetpub\temp\apppools\CSIntConfAppPool.config’, line number ‘3’.  Worker process startup aborted.

Further searching showed that the CLRConfigFile parameter that was added when you edited the file was introduced in IIS7.5.

Removing the changes allowed IIS to restart.

After a bit of searching I found a hotfix that addressed adding support for the CLRConfigFile parameter for IIS 7.0. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2290617

I applied the hotfix then made the changes to the applicationHost.config file and restarted IIS accepted the changes and restarted without a problem.

Having then gone back to the documentation I thought I’d search for the hotfix in case I’d missed it…… I got a hit 3 pages  from the end saying you should apply the hotfix before making the some changes for high performance. The documentation should have shown this earlier with the original change. I have sent a comment about this documentation problem.

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OCS Training Resources

Microsoft has produced some tremendous end user training materials for OCS. When implementing systems for customers you can give them this material knowing their users will then have access to the resources they need to be productive with Communicator etc from the start.

Microsoft haven’t stopped there and they now have a training course for the help desk. The course is designed to help you in supporting Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2. You will learn some of the most common Office Communicator 2007 R2 support scenarios that might be encountered, as well as how to troubleshoot the issues and how to resolve them.

The prerequisite for the Help Desk training includes the UC Tutorial which is also a good resource for users.

The main material I recommend for an end users reference is the UC How To. This is a Silverlight application that provides step-by-step instructions for common UC tasks. You can customize the How-To application to your company’s needs based on the UC features you’ve installed. For example, if you have installed all UC features except Communicator Mobile and Communicator Group Chat, you can modify the XML file so that those features and topics do not appear in the interface.

For material you can put together before, during and after rollout the UC Adoption and Training Kit provides guidance and resources for IT Pros, HelpDesk, and Trainers to speed adoption and usage of Unified Communications technologies in the enterprise. The kit includes Planning Checklists, Awareness materials, including Poster, Door Hangers, and E-mail samples, and User Education Materials such as Quick Reference Cards, Flash Cards, and links to Web-based Training.

On the Office online website there is a selection of links that provide a variety of Communicator 2007 R2 resources that can be used for end-user training and adoption, including online demos, Quick Reference Cards, Getting Started and Troubleshooting Guides, help articles, product tours, and online tutorials.

OCS 2007 R2 Workload Poster Update

Back on the 25th January 2010 I blogged about the OCS Architecture poster being available for download. Last month there was an update to correct some of the minor errors on it. So make sure you update your copy from the same location.

Although it isn’t 100% comprehensive is does give a great overview which you can share with customers.