5178 - Implementing and Maintaining Audio and Visual Conferencing and Web Conferencing Using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007

This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to plan, deploy, and manage audio/visual and Web conferencing by using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Determine implementation requirements for an on-premise conferencing solution
• Deploy an on-premise conferencing solution by using Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition
• Deploy an on-premise conferencing solution by using Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition
• Deploy and configure participant clients for on-premise conferencing
• Schedule conferencing and configure user and meeting policies for on-premise Web conferencing and on-premise audio/visual conferencing

Module 1: Determining the Implementation Requirements for On-Premise Conferencing
The way people work has changed in the last few decades as technology has enabled greater mobility. While this mobility can offer tremendous benefits to both employees and the organizations for which they work, it does present some challenges.

The need to communicate effectively with work colleagues does not diminish with distance. If two or more employees need to meet in order to progress a project, collaborate on documents, or simply share ideas, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 can enable them to do so by providing support for on-premise conferencing. On-premise conferencing provides a number of benefits over hosted conferencing solutions. In order to implement Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, you must make some changes to Active Directory and deploy additional application servers, such as Internet Information Server, SQL Server 2005, and Exchange Server 2007.

Lessons
• Comparing On-Premise Conferencing Solutions with Hosted Conferencing Solutions
• Considerations for Choosing a Hosted Conferencing Solution
• Considerations for Choosing an On-Premise Conferencing Solution
• What Is Web Conferencing?
• What Is Audio/Video Conferencing?
• Preparing to Implement Office Communications Server 2007
• Network Infrastructure Requirements
• Active Directory Requirements
• DNS Requirements
• Security Requirements
• Demonstration: Preparing Active Directory for Office Communications Server 2007
• Overview of Application Servers Used in an On-Premise Conferencing Solution
• Active Directory
• SQL Server 2005
• Exchange Server 2007
• Internet Information Server 6.0
• Implementing a Secure On-Premise Conferencing Solution
• Group Policy Settings
• Securing On-Premise Conferencing Connections
• Implementing Certificate Authorities
• Demonstration: Configuring Server Security by Using Certificates
• Firewall Policies
• Archiving and Compliance
 
Lab: Preparing Active Directory to Support an On-Premise Conferencing Solution
• Exercise 1: Preparing the Active Directory Schema
• Exercise 2: Preparing the Active Directory Forest
• Exercise 3: Preparing the Active Directory Domain
• Exercise 4: Delegating Setup and Administrative Permissions

After completing this module, students will be able to:
• Describe the advantages of on-premise conferencing solutions compared to hosted conferencing solutions
• Prepare your network to support an on-premise conferencing solution
• Describe the role of application servers in an on-premise conferencing solution
• Secure an on-premise conferencing solution by configuring the network

Module 2: Implementing an On-Premise Conferencing Solution by Using Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition
This module explains how to implement an on-premise conferencing solution by using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition. The module also explains how to configure the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Address Book. The module provides an overview of the conferencing components provided by Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition.

Lessons
• Implementing Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition Servers
• What Is an Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition Server?
• How an Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition Routes Conference Data
• How an Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition Server Initiates Conferences
• How an Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition Server Manages Media
• Demonstration: Implementing an Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition Server
• Configuring the Office Communications Server 2007 Address Book
• What Is the Address Book Service?
• Address Book Sources
• Address Book Server Administration Settings
• Demonstration: Configuring the Office Communications Server 2007 Address Book
• Overview of On-Premise Conferencing Components
• Multimedia: What are the On-Premise Conferencing Components?
• What Is Focus?
• Conferencing Server Functions
• What Is the Conferencing Server Factory?

Lab: Implementing an On-Premise Conferencing Solution
• Exercise 1: Implementing a Standard Edition Server
• Exercise 2: Configuring Server Security by Using Certificates
• Exercise 3: Verifying Server Functionality
• Exercise 4: Configuring the Address Book Server

After completing this module, students will be able to:
• Implement an on-premise conferencing solution by using Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition
• Configure the functions of the Office Communications Server 2007 Address Book
• Describe the interoperability of on-premise conferencing components on an Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition server
 
Module 3: Implementing an On-Premise Conferencing Solution by Using Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition
The Enterprise Edition of Office Communications Server is better suited to larger organizations as it offers support for more users, and flexible server configuration options. For example, you can install all the Office Communications Server services on a single server or a group of servers; alternatively, you can deploy conferencing components to separate server computers in load-balanced pools.

Enterprise Edition provides the capability to more easily scale to support more users as your needs change. In addition, because you must install the SQL Server component on a separate physical computer, you can provide resilience at the back end by clustering this SQL Server.

Lessons
• Overview of an Enterprise On-Premise Conferencing Solution
• How Office Communication Server 2007 Supports Remote Connectivity
• What Is Federation?
• Requirements for High Availability
• Implementing Enterprise Servers Roles
• Multimedia: The Role of Enterprise Servers
• What Is a Front End Server?
• What Are Conferencing Pool Servers?
• What Is a Director?
• What Are Perimeter Servers?
• Demonstration: Implementing an Access Edge Server
• Establishing Federation Between Enterprises
• Multimedia: Establishing Federation Between Enterprises
• Process of Configuring Edge Servers to Support Federation
• Process of Configuring the HTTP Reverse Proxy Server
• Process of Configuring DNS to Support Federation
• Process of Implementing Certificates to Support Federation
• Configuring Use-Related Settings
• Demonstration: Establishing Federation

Lab: Implementing an On-Premise Conferencing Solution by using Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition
• Exercise 1: Configure Internal DNS Records
• Exercise 2: Configuring Edge Servers
• Exercise 3: Downloading and Validating Certificates
• Exercise 4: Configuring DNS to Support Federation
• Exercise 5: Configuring Federation

After completing this module, students will be able to:
• Describe the features of an on-premise conferencing solution that is based on Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition
• Implement enterprise servers in an enterprise on-premise conferencing solution and implement an Access Edge server
• Establish federation between enterprises in an enterprise on-premise conferencing solution
 
Module 4: Deploying and Configuring Participant Clients for On-Premise Conferencing
To participate in an on-premise conference, you must typically install some software onto your users’ workstation computers. Microsoft provides three client programs for use with Office Communication Server 2007: Office Communicator 2007, Office Live Meeting 2007, and Office Live Meeting Add-In for Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007.

Lessons
• Overview of On-Premise Conferencing Clients
• Features of Office Communicator 2007
• Features of Office Live Meeting 2007
• Features of Office Live Meeting Add-In for Outlook
• Deploying an On-Premise Conferencing Client
• Deployment Methods
• Deployment Considerations
• Demonstration: Deploying Office Communicator 2007
• Configuring User-Related Settings for an On-Premise Conference
• Process of Enabling and Configuring Users
• Demonstration: Configuring Users
• What Are the On-Premise Conferencing Roles?
• What Are the Conference Entry Control Methods?

Lab: Configuring On-Premise Conferencing
• Exercise 1: Deploying Conferencing Clients
• Exercise 2: Configuring User Accounts

After completing this module, students will be able to:
• Identify the features of the on-premise conferencing clients
• Deploy clients in an on-premise conferencing solution
• Configure user accounts to support conferencing

Module 5: Working with On-Premise Web and Audio/Video Conferencing
Office Communications Server 2007 supports the creation of both scheduled and unscheduled Web conferences by using Microsoft Office Live Meeting Add-In for Office Outlook 2007. Users participating in an on-premise Web conference can collaborate and share their data by using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.

You can use Group Policies to control how users share their data and to specify additional settings for an on-premise conference. Office Communications Server 2007 also supports audio/video conferencing. Users can create audio/video conferences by using a variety of hardware components, including Microsoft Office RoundTable.

Lessons
• Scheduling and Collaborating by Using an On-Premise Web Conference
• Multimedia: Scheduling an On Premise Web Conference
• Demonstration: Creating an Unscheduled Web Conference by Using Office Communicator 2007
• Demonstration: Creating an Unscheduled Web Conference by Using Office Live Meeting and Office Outlook 2007
• What Is Data Collaboration?
• Multimedia: Collaborating by Using an On-Premise Web Conference
• Overview of On-Premise Audio/Video Conferencing
• Multimedia: Audio/Video Capabilities Provided by Microsoft Office Live Meeting
• Components Required to Support an Audio/Video Conference
• Multimedia: Interoperability of Audio/Video Conferencing Components
• Overview of Microsoft Office Live Meeting Audio/Video Capabilities
• Audio and Video Hardware Components
• Multimedia: Configuring Audio and Video Settings
• Multimedia: Creating an Unscheduled Audio/Video Conference
• Using Group Policies to Configure an On-Premise Conference
• Configuring User and Meeting-Related Conference Settings
• Demonstration: Configuring Conference-Related Group Policy Settings

Lab: Establishing a Web Conference
• Exercise 1: Scheduling a Web Conference
• Exercise 2: Establish an Unscheduled Web Conference
• Exercise 3: Using Group Policies to Configure User and Meeting Policies

After completing this module, students will be able to:
• Schedule and collaborate with participants in an on-premise Web conference
• Identify the required components to support an on-premise audio/video conferencing solution
• Configure and create an unscheduled Web and audio/video conference
• Identify the group policies that can be set for an on-premise conference

This course is intended for IT Professional infrastructure specialists. This includes real-time communications Technology Specialists and professional real-time communications engineers. In addition, IT Professionals in any job role that interacts with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft SharePoint Server, and Exchange Server will benefit from the course.

Before attending this course, students must have:

• Familiarity with Active Directory knowledge and concepts
• Familiarity with Exchange Server Messaging knowledge and concepts
• Familiarity with SharePoint knowledge and concepts
• Fundamental knowledge of using Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Office 2003
• Fundamental Microsoft Windows Server 2003 knowledge and experience
• Fundamental networking knowledge and experience

In addition, it is recommended, but not required, that students have completed:
• Course 5177: Implementing and Maintaining Instant Messaging Using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007