“Error:Error constructing or Publishing certificate” while requesting a certificate for Lync server

Recently, I was working on installing Lync Server 2010 for testing purposes , all was going smoothly till I reached the certificate request and assignment step . When I ran the certificate request wizard I was able to complete the request but with a warning as shown below :

Lync client credential popup due to missing of Kerberos Account Assignment

One of the common issues with Lync client is the credentials popup that appears for multiple reasons , one of the causes is due to faulty Kerberos configuration for Lync Web Services that keeps asking users to enter his / her credentials repeatedly even if the correct data was given . In this post I will show how to identify existence of the issue and how to fix it .

Identifying Lync Kerberos issue

In order to validate Lync Web Services Kerberos functionality we will utilize the following PowerShell cmdlet  :

Test-CsKerberosAccountAssignment –Identity “Site:IT Guy Corp.” –Verbose

If the account are not in place, you will get an error message like below :

* If you need to identify your site name , simply execute Get-CsSite at Lync Management Shell ( LMS )

Error while installing Lync 2013 Preview “Prerequisites not satisfied: Windows Identity Foundation is required”

Today , I was testing installation of Lync Server 2013 preview , for this test I used Windows Server 2012 RC as OS for Lync 2013 preview frontend server .

When I came to “Prepare Single Standard Edition Server” step I got a failure , as below :

Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 7.0

As Windows Server 2012 / Windows 8 are coming soon ( RTM by August 2012 ) , I received an email from Microsoft announcing that Microsoft has released the new version ( 7.0 ) of  Microsoft Assessment and Planning toolkit , which provides organizations with tools to assess readiness for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) 7.0 provides you with the capabilities that allows you to :

“Microsoft Lync 2010 MAPI COM Server” Credential popup appears repeatedly

I ran into a situation where “Microsoft Lync 2010 MAPI COM Server” pop up appears repeatedly  , even though I entered my correct credentials it persists and keep popping up. 

I remembered that I had the same situation earlier with Outlook 2007 and after a bit of search I found this post with Allen Song reply and his valuable suggestion to save the password using the following method :

Enable IM from Exchange 2010 SP2 OWA on mailbox basis

In a previous post I showed how to integrate Lync server with Exchange 2010 SP2 OWA . For now I’ll show how to selectively enable users for OWA instant messaging

For this I will use one of Exchange 2010 newly introduced capability , namely , Outlook Web App Mailbox Policies which allows admins to specify the desired to-be-available at OWA features such as instant messaging on a mailbox basis.

As you can see below , a default policy exists with all features enabled by default [Including “Instant Messaging” ]

Integrating Lync with Exchange 2010 SP2 OWA

One of the nicest features of Microsoft products is integration . In this post I’ll show how Lync 2010 can be integrated with Exchange 2010 SP2 OWA , so that corporate users can get benefit from messaging / IM via single interface.

Integration process will be divided to two parts each will be performed from one side of integration components [ Exchange Clients Access Server & Lync frontend server ] 

• Exchange Clients Access Server side

First of all we need to download the following packages :

• Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Web Service Provider : Here
• OCS 2007 R2 Web Service Provider Hotfix KB 981256 : Here
• Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Redist (64 Bit) Hotfix KB 2400399 : Here
• Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Hotfix KB 968802 : Here [ Required only if your CAS server is deployed on Windows server 2008 R2 ]

Note :

While downloading “Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Redist (64 Bit) Hotfix KB 2400399” you will notice that it has the same name “UcmaRedist.msp” as that for “Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Redist (64 Bit) Hotfix KB 2400399” so to differentiate rename the file to something else , for example “UcmaRedist-4WinR2.msp”

Start by extracting “Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Web Service Provider” – by default C:\Web Service Provider Installer Package – which will result in having the following packages :

After downloading the remaining packages proceed with installation in the following sequence :

1. vcredist_x64.exe

2. UcmaRedist.msi

3. UcmaRedist.msp

4. UcmaRedist-4WinR2.msp,  [ CAS is installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 ]

5. CWAOWASSP.msi

6. CWAOWASSP.msp

7. Dotnetfx35setup.exe

After finishing installation of all package , open Exchange Management Shell and execute the following commands :

• The first command creates a variable that will store your corporate Exchange certificate used for IIS.

$cert= (Get-ExchangeCertificate | Where {$_.Services -ilike "*IIS*"}).Thumbprint

• The second enable your OWA for instant messaging integration , create link to the certificate retrieved from the previous command and finally assign the Lync server/pool to which integration will take place. [ Replace values in grey with your corporate values ] 

Get-ExchangeServer “Client Access Server Name” | Get-OWAVirtualDirectory | Set-OWAVirtualDirectory -InstantMessagingType OCS -InstantMessagingEnabled:$true -InstantMessagingCertificateThumbprint $cert –InstantMessagingServerName “FQDN of Lync frontend server”

• Lync frontend server side

On your Lync server , open Lync topology builder and choose “Download Topology from existing deployment” and save it.

Expand your site , then go to “Trusted application servers” right click and choose “New Trusted Application Pool” . At “Define the Trusted Application pool FQDN” window choose “Single Computer Pool” and add the FQDN of the Client Access Server ( Single server infrastructure ) or the FQDN of the CAS array / NLB ( Multiple servers infrastructure ).

For the new trusted application server , right click and choose Edit properties. Uncheck Enable replication of configuration data to this pool checkbox and click ok.

Then , publish the topology

Finally , create a new CsTrustedApplication using Lync server management shell as follow :

New-CsTrustedApplication -ApplicationID ExchangeOutlookWebApp –TrustedApplicationPoolFqdn “Client Access Server FQDN or Client Access Server array FQDN” –Port “Unused port [ 5555 for example ]”

You can use the following command on the Lync Server to search for any current usage of the desired TCP port

netstat -a | findstr 5555

Then enables the published Lync Server topology. so that the the changes will take effect , for that execute :

Enable-CsTopology

Now , go to your OWA and check , it worked for me

Hope that to be the same for you !

Lync server certificate is not viewable for assignment !!

I was just installing Lync server and when it comes to the certificate part although I was able to issue the required certificate using Lync server installation wizard , see below :

The strange part was that I was not able to see any certificate when trying to assign the certificate !!

After a little bit of investigation I figured that my CA certificate is missed from Lync’s local certificate store

I just simply imported my root CA certificate to Lync’s server local certificate store

Just at this stage my Lync’s server certificate was there and able to be assigned.

I just assigned it and proceeded with my Lync server installation

Lync server 2010 installation error “ Prerequisite installation failed: Wmf2008R2”

One of the common errors during Lync server installation is the failure during “Setup or Remove Lync Server Components” step that indicate failure of prerequisites installation as below : 

Examining the log file indicates that Lync server was failed to install Microsoft Windows Media Format [ Lync server deployment prerequisite ]

A little search leads to Microsoft 2522454 support article that this error is due to that  “The Lync Server 2010 Setup or Remove Component installation prerequisite check cannot locate Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 version of Microsoft Windows Media Format”

To solve this issue simply install “Desktop Experience” feature , restart your server and re-run Lync server installation and all will go smoothly.

Alternatively , you can install the correct version of Windows Media format – Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 – by running the following command from an elevated command prompt:

%systemroot%\system32\dism.exe /online /add-package /packagepath:%windir%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-Media-Format-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.7601.17514.mum /ignorecheck

 

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Lync Server 2010, Stress and Performance Tool

The Lync Server 2010 Stress and Performance Tools (LSS) can be used to prepare, define and validate performance targets of user scenarios offered by on-premise Lync Server 2010 deployment. LSS includes multiple modules and can simulate simultaneous users on one or more Lync Servers

Overview

The Lync Server 2010 Stress and Performance Tool (LSS) is capable of simulating user load of the following types:

• Instant messaging (IM) and presence
• Audio conferencing
• Application sharing
• Voice over IP (VoIP), including public switched telephone network (PSTN) simulation
• Web Access Client conferencing
• Conferencing Attendant
• Response Groups
• Distribution list expansion
• Address book download and address book query
• E911 calls and Location Profile