Live Communication Server 2005

The Microsoft Live Communication Server 2005 provides both instant messaging

(IM) and presence awareness, enabling different users to interact, communicate,

collaborate and share information. Recently, SP1 was released for it, which

provies improved administrative tools, and users can connect and communicate

with other users even through public IM services like MSN, AOL, and Yahoo!.

In this article, we'll look at the Live Communication server 2005 Standard

Edition. It consists of a single, standalone IM and presence server along with a

Microsoft data Engine database for storing user data. It supports 1500

concurrent connections and each user is assigned to only one home server. User

data are stored in an SQL MSDE database on the same serve.

Live Communication Server appears identical to Windows Messenger, as it uses

Windows Messenger software as its client. Now, a new client has also been

released for it called Office Communicator. With this, it is possible to extend

the abilities of Live Communication Server to include integration with many

corporate telephone systems and Microsoft Office suite.

Live Communication Server uses Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to

communicate. On the server side, it can encrypt IM traffic, and log and archive

all transactions between users using a single client and communicating with any

other user of MSN messenger, AOL or Yahoo!. Another key security feature is

protection against spam over IMs (SPIM). This can be configured to reduce

unauthorized or unsolicited messages that can reduce employee productivity and

increase network load. There's also a URL filters application that provides a

way to block messages containing URLs, hyperlinks, or



attempts to initiate a file transfer. It prevents promulgation of viruses or
worms throughout the organization. It allows people to communicate across

firewalls with same ease as was enjoyed in the previous versions. Users can log

on from remote locations using an Internet connection and any Live Communication

compatible IM client.

The presence information from the server can be integrated into other

productivity applications and enterprise LOB applications. For instance, if

users are working on some documents and have a query, they can initiate an IM

session with a team member to share files and make the desired changes.

The new manageability tools help IT managers get more info about their server

at a glance and they can have control over the number of incoming and outgoing

connections created on an individual Access Proxy. Live Communication Server

works seamlessly with Windows Active Directory and Windows Server 2003, hence

providing IT managers more security and control over the network.

From the main console of the Live Communication Server, you can see how many users are connected and the authentication scheme used to connect

The server also simplifies the federation model thereby allowing for dynamic

access of proxies, so you no longer require static configuration. This allows

Network Administrators to limit federation to explicitly designated external

domain or extend it to any or all external domains.

Deploying it



For deploying the Live Communication Server, you need a server running Microsoft
Windows Server 2003 configured as the domain controller and a DNS server. You

can also install it on a non-domain controller server as well. You will also

need a client machine that will host remote users, who will connect to the Live

Communications Server from outside your enterprise network.

Before deploying Live Communications Server, an Active Directory must be

prepared. If you are installing the Live Communication Server on a



domain controller, then log on to to it as Administrator or a user with domain
Administrator rights and start the setup.

If you don't have Live Communication Server, then you can download the trail

version from Microsoft's website. Now launch the setup tool, which then launches

the Deployment Tool. In the requirements window, click Prep Schema. It will

launch a wizard and configure the schema automatically. Once the wizard has

finished, launch Prep Forest, which will again launch a wizard. When the wizard

completes, you can view the logs from the actions column.

Similarly, perform Prep Domain installation. This prepares your Active, after

which you can install and activate the Live Communications Server. To do this,

simply click Install Files for Live Communications Server and follow the wizard.

Once installed, the wizard will ask you whether you want to activate the server,

just click on Yes. It will launch Activate Live Communications Server Wizard,

click Next. It will then ask you to configure a service account for LCService.

Just provide a password and the wizard will configure it automatically.

Live Communications Server lets you configure the control you want to have over your users. You can allow/block them, and even archive their conversations

In the next step, uncheck the Enable IM Archiving page option (we will

configure this later) and then click Next. Now on the Start Service Option box,

check Start Service after activation option. Once the wizard completes, you can

verify by looking at logs whether the live communication is installed properly.

After installing Live communication Server 2005, we need to configure users

and clients. To configure users, launch Active Directory Users and Computers.

Here, right-click the new user who you want to enable for Live Communications

Server, and then click Properties. Select the Live Communications tab, and check

the option 'Enable this user for Live Communications'.

After that, in the Primary SIP URL field, type ' sip:username@< name of your

domain>. Next in Server or Pool, select the Live Communications Server that we

just created and click on Apply/OK.

Now we need to configure clients and ensure connectivity. To install clients

you can either use Communicator 2005 or Windows Messenger 5.1. Both can be

downloaded from Microsoft's website. Once you have installed Communicator 2005,

open it, go to Actions menu and click on  Options. Select the Accounts tab

and click Advanced tab. In the configure settings window under server name or IP

address option, type the FQDN (fully qualified domain name) of the server on

which you have installed Live Communication Server. Note that you do not enter

an IP address here. If you do, it won't work. Now under Connect, select TCP as

the protocol that you want to use to connect. Try logging in with the

communicator to Live Communication Server. If you have configured everything

properly, it should work.

If you are using Windows messenger 5.1, go to Accounts from Options menu and

check the option My Contacts. There you include users of a SIP Communications

Service and provide your full login name in sip:@. Next,

click on Advanced and in the SIP Communications Service Connection Configuration

dialog box, choose TCP and provide FQDN. Click OK and sign in with your account.

You will need to do this for all your clients.

This implements your Live Communication Server 2005. To perform

administration tasks, open Live Communication Server console, where you can see

which all users are connected, etc. You can also authorize Public IM

Connectivity, message archiving, etc on a per-user basis. Next we will be

implementing Message Archiving.

You can get live status of message archiving on the server, which is color coded to quickly catch errors

Message archiving



With Message Archiving, you can archive all instant messaging conversations for
specific individuals or all users and also record usage data. To enable Message

Archiving, you need to have Windows MSMQ (Microsoft Message Queuing) installed

on the server where you want to run the Archiving service and on all Live

Communications Servers that you want to archive. You also need to have at least

SQL Server 2000 SP3a instance installed on the server running the Archiving

service or on a dedicated database server. Once all that is in place, you need

to install Messaging Archiving service.



For that you again have to launch the Live Communication 2005 setup and click on
Archiving Service. Follow the wizard to install the service.



When the installation is complete, from the Install Archiving Service menu Click
on Activate the Archiving Service and Backend to activate the messaging service.

A wizard will appear, where on the Select Service Account page, provide password

for the service account. By default this account name is LCArchivingService.

Next, in the Select SQL Server Instance window, enter the SQL Server Name and

the Instance name. Enter a database name or accept the default name.

Once the service has been activated, from Administrative Tools open Live

Communications Server console. Here, Expand the Forest node, expand the Domain

node, and go to Pools and Servers. Next right-click the pool on which you want

to enable archiving and then click Properties and select the Archiving Tab.

Click on Activate Content Archiving check box. Now a warning message will appear

to inform that one or more servers do not have an archiving queue associated

with them. Click OK to continue. Now, restart your Live Communication Services

and you have Messaging

Archiving in place.



To enable Message Archiving for all users in Live Communication Server,
right-click the Forest node and then click Properties. In the Global Properties,

click the Archiving tab. Check 'Archive All Communications with internal users'

option to archive all communications between your internal users. Click OK and

restart Live Communication Services. Also, there are third party applications

available to effectively view and deploy message archiving in Live

Communication Server, which we will be discussing in future.

Saurangshu Kanunjna and Swapnil Arora