OCS Management on Steroids

If you have Office Communications Server 2007 there’s a new must have tool for you: OCS powerpack for PowerGUI just posted by Curtis Johnstone: it is free, totally based on PowerShell (you can see the PowerShell code behind each and every node, link, or action), and has a lot of functionality not present in the native OCS MMC. Just see the console tree screenshot to the left!

Here’s a quick walkthough of the key features of the pack:

View and Provision OCS settings on users:

• View all AD details for OCS users
• Use canned filters to quickly view which users are enabled /disabled for key OCS functionality.
• Enable/Disable key OCS functionality (e.g. Public IM)
• Email OCS Assigned and Unassigned Users

Remotely View key Edge settings (from an OCS Administrative Tool or Front-End computer), including:

• Internal and External Edge server settings
• Federated Partners and Federated Public IM Network Settings
• Can use Alternate Credentials to access Edge role

Easily access and view all OCS Global Settings in one location, including:

• Pools,
• Enterprise Voice and Meeting Settings and Policies,
• Location Profiles,
• Normalization Rules,
• Archive,
• CDR,
• Federation.

On any local OCS machine:

• View and Control OCS Services
• View OCS specific Event Log Errors and Warnings
• Provision Address Book settings that not available in the OCS Administrative console

And a few more screenshots to keep you excited:

Global Settings

• Allows the administrator to see key UC and Enterprise Voice Global Settings in customizable views.
• Can easily generate reports through PowerGUI

Users

• Allows quick customizable views and reporting of OCS enabled users and all pertinent OCS properties.
• Default Filters to quickly see which users are provisioning for certain OCS features (e.g. Federation, Public IM, etc…)
• Additional links to get Voice, Meeting and AD details for any user(s).
• Actions are available to provision basic OCS features (e.g. Remote Access, Public IM, …)

Edge and Federation

• Easily see all important edge and federation configuration settings in one tree.
• All internal and external IP addresses and ports are shown.
• All federation settings including partners and remote edge server peers.
• Avoids having to remote into the Edge server and start the Edge server Administrative console to see this information.
• Certificate information to be added in the future.

Servers

• See which servers and their corresponding roles are installed in your OCS deployment.
• For the local OCS Server (soon to be any OCS server), see OCS specific Service information and Event Log information and take actions.
• View Address Book settings and take actions that are not available through the native OCS Administration console.

Installed OCS Server Roles:

OCS Specific Services and Event Log Entries and Actions:

Address Book Information and Actions:

This is the most amazing example of the community work I have ever seen. Curtis took the PowerShell scripts which James O’Neill and others created for the Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit companion CD, enhanced them, plugged them into PowerGUI and made them available for everyone else to use (and enhance further ;))

You can download the OCS PowerPack here. By the way, please do leave your comments for Curtis at the powerpack page – I know he is anxious to hear some feedback!

Tags: OCS, PowerGUI, PowerShell, PowerPack
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |