I’ve recently deployed Communicator Web Access into what was basically a greenfield environment (no previous versions of OCS or LCS) and came across some interesting stuff in the process.
Usually when you deploy CWA, you’ve already got an OCS 2007 R2 Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition pool deployed, and the CWA deployment goes in nice and easy. Throw Lync into the mix without any existing R2 infrastructure, and you get some interesting behaviour.

Environment Preparation

Prior to deploying our Lync environment or any CWA components, we need to update AD accordingly for OCS 2007 R2 first. I won’t go into the details here because Randy Wintle has already done a good job of it.

Once AD is good to go, we can start building the CWA server.

Want to use Web Enrolment? Think again

Because there is no existing OCS 2007 R2 infrastructure and no Admin Tools to run against it, we can’t use the Certificate Wizard. My next step was to try using the CA’s web enrolment tool to retrieve a certificate.

I attempted this, and could request and retrieve a certificate fine. However, when it came to assigning this certificate for CWA to use, the Deployment Wizard would throw back an error saying please use a valid certificate and wouldn’t let me proceed. There is however, an alternative method.

Using a Certificate Request Policy File

To get a certificate for CWA that it likes, we need to go deep on this one and create a Certificate Request Policy file. We will use this to create a Certificate Signing Request on the local computer which we can use to request a certificate from the CA. For the process below, you can download an example one here.

Instructions:

1. Copy the certificate request policy file to the server. Make note of where you copy this to (e.g. C:\).
2. Log onto the server corresponding to the filename. Open CMD and run the following command:
   Certreq –new C:\SERVERNAME.txt SERVERNAME_Out.txt
   (change the filename to whatever it is you’ve named the file and then give the _Out file any name you like).
3. It will generate a SERVERNAME_Out.txt for each one you run. These are our CSR (certificate signing request) files that we will submit to the Web Enrolment Tool.
4. Open up the CSR file in Notepad, copy the contents out and use it to request a certificate using the Web Enrolment tool. ADCS will spit out a certificate for you and it’ll work for CWA.

This can be a bit tricky, so let me know in the comments if you have any troubles or questions.

Server Activation

If you’re deploying CWA into a Greenfield environment with no previous versions of OCS, you must have at least one OCS 2007 R2 pool deployed. This is because during activation, the CWA Deployment Wizard looks for a valid pool in AD to list in the drop-down menu as the next hop. If there’s no pools present in AD, the Activation Wizard will fail.

So there’s a few things to think about and plan for when it comes to deploying CWA into your new Lync environment. Any questions or comments, drop them below.

I think what makes the UC Pro community so valuable is the strength of its members and contributors. From around the world we have a plethora of very capable people who live, breathe and love Unified Communications, and love helping others realise the value.

I thought it was time we brought these guys forward and found out more about them. To work out why they’re helping drive the adoption of Unified Communications and why they’re some of the most sort after, go-to guys in the industry.

Kicking off the first of what will be a continuing interview series, I’ve got Alex Lewis in the hot seat.
He’s a stalwart of the UC community and a long time twitter compadre of mine. Here’s what he had to say:

• What’s your technical background?
  I started out in aerospace (satellite design), so communications in general but a bit different than what I do now. I moved on to working for a CLEC on the east coast as a network architect and was responsible for building out the first VoIP network in the US and one of the first DSL rollouts.

• What organisation do you work for and what’s your position?
  I am the UC practice lead and principal consultant for Convergent Computing in Oakland, CA (USA).http://www.cco.com

• What first made you get into UC and specialising in Lync?
  I first got into Lync with Exchange 2000 IM server but didn’t take it on as my main focus until just before the launch of OCS 2007 and became an MVP for LCS/OCS. Since then, I’ve spent my time evangelizing UC and doing UC projects cradle to grave. I really enjoy doing a design for a customer then sticking around for the implementation and deployment. There’s something really special about that moment when you see the light go off and they “get it”.

• What’s your favourite thing about Lync?
  This may sound strange from a guy who spends all his time working on the back end servers but I love the client! One client for everything from IM to telephony to conferencing. My big pet peeve is vendors who claim a “unified” solution then band-aid everything together.

• If you could think of one feature you’d like included in the next version of Lync, what would it be?
  That’s an easy question!! Mobile clients for all major platforms with voice and video over the data channel. Now that tablets are prevalent, they become a great communication and collaboration endpoint.

• What do you feel is your area of expertise, where you’d consider yourself a bit of a rockstar?
  I think the biggest value I bring is the ability to mate technology to business goals. UC isn’t cool because it’s new and shiny, it’s cool because it solves a myriad of real business problems with positive results in lowered costs and increased business revenue.

• Tell me about your blog. When did you start it and what direction has it taken? After being a rather prolific blogger, running hyperconnectivity.com for Nortel and being on point for MS UC blogging for Network World, I’m on a bit of a hiatus. I would be open to returning to blogging if the right opportunity came up.

• Lastly on a bit more of a personal note, where are you from and what do you think makes your city great?
  I’m from the bay area in California, in the US. One of the few places you can surf and snow ski in the same day. I love all the outdoor activities and the fact we have gorgeous weather 300+ days a year. I’m an avid scuba diver, motorcycle enthusiast and re-learning rock climbing.

Many thanks for the contribution Alex! You can find Alex on twitter at @alexlewis.

Stay tuned to hear from another UC Pro from the blogosphere in the next few weeks.