Lync Server Control Panel
A fairly drastic shift with Lync Server 2010 has been the initiative to completely remove the emphasis on managing servers using the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). With Lync Server 2010, the MMC console is replaced with the Lync Server Control Panel (LSCP), which is a web-based management interface that uses the Microsoft Silverlight runtime for management tasks. Figure 15.1 shows the layout of the new interface.
Figure 15.1 Lync Server Control Panel Interface
This change has several benefits that are immediately visible to administrators familiar with installing the old management tools on a separate workstation. Installation of the administrative tools took manually going through four to five different installation package prerequisites before the OCS administrative tools could be installed. Instead, the requirement now is that the end user have the latest Silverlight plug-in for the web browser.
From within the Lync Server Control Panel, administrators have a centralized dashboard for all management activities. This includes managing user accounts and policies that control what features are available to users.
Note
Opening the Lync Server Control Panel is similar to opening a web browser to the administrative web page. By default Internet Explorer does not pass credentials to a site unless specifically allowed, so administrators are prompted for credentials each time. To prevent the prompt for credentials, add the Lync administrative URL to the Local Intranet Zone in Internet Explorer. By default, this is https://<Pool FQDN or admin simple URL>.
The Lync Server Control Panel is divided into several sections, and each section has subsections for specific actions or policies. An overview of the options available within each section is described in the following:
• Users—Enable or disable users for Lync services, assign policies to users, and move users between pools.
• Topology—Provides a health overview of the deployment and reports on the status of all services. The different server applications and trusted applications are displayed in this section.
• IM and presence—Provides the file transfer, and intelligent IM filter settings.
• Voice routing—Contains settings for dial plans, voice policies, routes, trunk configuration, and PSTN usages. This section also contains test cases for assessing whether dial plans and routing are working as expected.
• Voice features—Contains settings for the new voice applications such as call park and unassigned number routing.
• Response groups—Links to the management interface for Response Group configuration. Queues and groups can be added or modified in this section as well.
• Conferencing—Configure conferencing policies, meeting configuration, dial-in access numbers, and PIN policies.
• Clients—Control Lync client versioning and updates. Firmware updates for Lync Phone Edition phones are also managed in this section.
• External user access—Contains external access policies controlling federation and public IM connectivity. Federated domains and allowed public IM networks are configured within this section.
• Monitoring and archiving—Configures settings for Call Detail Records, Quality of Experience monitoring, and instant message archiving.
• Security—Control authentication methods for clients and PIN policies for Lync Phone Edition devices.
• Network configuration—Configures the topology used for Call Admission Control, Media Bypass, and E-911.
Caution
Although the Lync Server Control Panel has its advantages over MMC management tasks, there are also some downsides, such as the fact that there is no right-click functionality available. This might be an adjustment that helps drive more administrators to learn the Lync Server Management Shell instead.