Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Edge : Edge Server Administration (part 2)

Managing Public IM Providers

Similar to managing federation, the Public IM providers can be allowed or blocked when configuring an Edge Server. By default, all three of the included providers are disabled and must be enabled before users can communicate with contacts in these domains.

The following additional options are available when dealing with the Public IM providers:

• Allow communications only with users verified by this provider— This is the default setting and means the Edge Server trusts the Public IM provider’s determination of valid or invalid users trying to send messages to the Lync Server users.

• Allow communications only with users on recipients’ contact lists— This setting limits communication only to users explicitly added to the contact list of a Lync Server user. If a contact is not added and tries to initiate a conversation with an internal user, the message will be rejected by the Edge Server.

• Allow all communications with this provider— This setting enables all incoming communication from the provider regardless of whether the provider indicates the message should be trusted.

To manage access to the public networks, use the following steps:

Figure 4 displays the default Public IM configuration for a Lync Server deployment.

Figure 4. Configuring Public IM Providers

To perform these steps in the Lync Server Management Shell, use the following command:

Set-CSPublicProvider <Provider Name> -Enabled $true

To enable all three public IM providers in one step, use the following command:

Get-CSPublicProvider | Set-CSPublicProvider –Enabled $true

The status of the public IM providers can be viewed by running the Get-CSPublicProvider cmdlet.

  Identity:              MSN
  Name:                  MSN
  ProxyFQDN:             federation.messenger.msn.com
  VerificationLevel:     UseSourceVerification
  Enabled:               True

  Identity:'             Yahoo!
  Name:                  Yahoo!
  ProxyFQDN:             lcsap.msg.yahoo.com
  VerificationLevel:     UseSourceVerification
  Enabled:               True

  Identity:              AOL
  Name:                  AOL
  ProxyFQDN:             sip.oscar.aol.com
  VerificationLevel:     UseSourceVerification
  Enabled:               True

Managing External Web Conferencing Features

Enable remote access to the web conferencing features of Lync Server is actually performed with the remote access policies. As long as a user is associated with a policy that enables remote access, the user has web conferencing capabilities through the Edge Server from the Global conferencing policy.

After deploying Edge services, the option exists to enable anonymous users to join web conferences hosted by the Lync Server infrastructure. Anonymous users are considered people who are not federated partners or users without a Lync Server enabled account. These users cannot authenticate with credentials, so they are considered anonymous to the pool users. Anonymous access to conferences can be enabled to allow authenticated, federated users, and anonymous users to all collaborate together.

To configure the external access rules and anonymous access, the conferencing policy must be edited.

1.	Open the Lync Server Control Panel.
2.	Select Conferencing in the navigation pane.
3.	Highlight the Global policy, click Edit, and click Modify.
4.	Ensure Enable data collaboration is enabled, which is key to conducting web conferences with a PowerPoint or whiteboard session.
5.	Verify that the Allow users to invite anonymous participants check box is selected. Note The Allow users to dial out check box refers to PSTN Dial-In Conferencing and enables anonymous users to provide a phone number for the conferencing service to call them for audio collaboration.
6.	If external users should be allowed to control shared applications or desktops, ensure that the Allow external users to control shared applications check box is checked. A sample configuration is displayed in Figure 5. Figure 5. Editing Web Conferencing Policies
7.	Click Commit.

To enable anonymous access and external sharing control for the Global policy through the Lync Server Management Shell, use the following command:

Set-CSConferencingPolicy Global –AllowAnonymousParticipantsInMeetings $true
–AllowExternalUserControl $true

If enabling anonymous access and external user control features must be limited to specific locations or user groups, an additional conferencing policy should be created. Like the External Access Policy, a site policy will automatically apply to an entire location, and user policies can be assigned to individual users.

Managing A/V Edge Features

After deploying an A/V Edge Server, users will be able to do peer-to-peer audio and video through the Edge Server without additional configuration. To support A/V conferencing features, the user must be associated with a conferencing policy that enables audio, video, and application sharing. The global policy can be edited to allow this or, as in the following example, a site policy can be created specifically for A/V conferencing and application-sharing features.

Because a site policy was created, it should be automatically applied to users. To create a new policy, which can be assigned directly to users, the following Lync Server Management Shell command can be used.

New-CSConferencingPolicy "Allow AV and Desktop Sharing" –AllowExternalUserControl $true
–AllowIPAudio $true –AllowIPVideo $true –MaxVideoConferenceResolution VGA
–AllowParticipantControl $true –AllowUserToScheduleMeetingsWithAppSharing $true
–EnableAppDesktopSharing Desktop –MaxMeetingSize 20


					  

Assigning Conferencing Policies

After creating the new conferencing policy for users, it must be assigned. A site policy automatically applies to users and does not require this step.

The Lync Server Management Shell can also be used to assign a conferencing policy to user.

Grant-CSConferencingPolicy <User's SIP Address> -PolicyName "Allow AV and Desktop
Sharing"