Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Persistent Chat Server SDK is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35458

Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Persistent Chat Server Ressource Kit: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36827

The Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Persistent Chat Resource Kit contains a number of handy tools for IT administrators who deploy and manage Lync Server 2013 Persistent Chat. The following tools are included in the msi:

• AffCheck – This tool confirms that Persistent Chat backend database user and group affiliation records match that in Active Directory
• ChatMonitoringSummary – This tool summarizes the Persistent Chat monitoring information from the monitoring database into a CSV file. Information such as Persistent Chat total sessions, successful sessions, failed sessions with expected and unexpected failures (and their MS diagnostic id, counts and description) from the monitoring database is output so the administrator can understand the service reliability.
• ChatStress Tool – This tool provides an easy way to simulate the usage of Persistent Chat to test your user model that represents your usage patterns.
• ChatUpgradeVerifier – This tool compares your source Group Chat database (OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat or Lync 2010 Group Chat) to your Lync Server 2013 Persistent Chat database. This tool can be used to verify if your migration was successful and give you insights into the discrepancies.
• ChatUsageReport – This tool generates an HTML report of Persistent Chat service usage and includes things such as Top Active Users, Top Active Rooms, Least Active Rooms, Inactive Rooms etc. The administrator can use this information to clean up rooms that are stale and get a better idea of the chat traffic they are seeing.
• ScheduleADSyncForPrincipal – This is a SQL script that can be run from within SQL Server Management Studio and allows you to force Persistent Chat to synchronize it’s records of a user with those in Active Directory rather than waiting for the scheduled synchronization time.

Additional updates is availabe, you can find now Lync Server 2013 Capacity Calculator.

Microsoft Lync Connectivity Analyzer attempts to connect to your Lync server using the same services and protocols that are used by Lync Windows Store app and Lync apps for mobile platforms. You can perform the connection tests over your internal network or an external network that connects to your Lync server. Lync Connectivity Analyzer provides a report with detailed information about each connection step to help you validate your configuration and troubleshoot connection problems.

Lync Connectivity Analyzer tests the following Lync server components:

• Autodiscover service
• Authentication Broker (Reach) service
• Mobility (MCX) service
• WebTicket service

Lync Connectivity Analyzer tests the configuration of the following other components:

• Publication of DNS records for Autodiscover URLs
• Certificates
• Proxy servers

Microsoft Lync Connectivity Analyzer (32 Bit): http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36536

Microsoft Lync Connectivity Analyzer (64 Bit): http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36535

The Lync Server 2013 Stress and Performance Tool (LSS) is capable of simulating user load of the following types:

• Instant messaging (IM) and presence
• Audio/Video/Multi-View conferencing
• Application sharing
• Voice over IP (VoIP), including public switched telephone network (PSTN) simulation
• Web Access Client conferencing
• Conferencing Attendant
• Response Groups
• Distribution list expansion
• Address book download and address book query
• E911 calls and Location Profile

The tool does not simulate the following clients:

• Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007
• Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Group Chat Console

As such, it will not provide support for testing the following components:

• Web conferencing
• Group Chat Console

The following are included in the package:

• UserProvisioningTool.exe. You use UserProvisioningTool.exe to create users and contacts. For details, see “Creating Users and Contacts” later in this guide. UserProvisioningTool.exe is installed .\ LyncStress path.
• UserProfileGenerator.exe. You use UserProfileGenerator.exe to configure the input parameters for the load tool as specified in the desired user profile. For details, see “Configure User Profile” later in this guide. UserProfileGenerator.exe can be found under .\ UserProfileGenerator path.
• LyncPerfTool.exe. LyncPerfTool.exe is the client simulation tool. For details, see “Running LyncPerfTool” later in this guide.
• Default.tmx. You need Default.tmx to use the Lync Server 2013 Stress and Performance Tool.
• Example provisioning scripts. You can use these examples to configure your topology for running load based on scenarios. These are installed under the .\Doc path.

Link here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36819

Microsoft has update his documentation too today.

This download contains a compiled help file (.chm) of all the available Lync Server 2013 IT professional documentation in the Technical Library.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35405

Hello,

Today Microsoft has released February 2013 Cumulative Updates for Lync 2013 products, SDK, whiteboard Archiving Viewer, ressource kit and the planning tool!

No mobility for the moment, i hope see this quickly.

All links here:

Office arrives in the cloud on Feb. 27th

Virtual Launch Event for the new Office 365 for business.

Date Wednesday, February 27^th 8 am PDT and 5 pm PDT

Why Attend?

• Learn how the new Office 365 can help people do
  their best work in a world of devices and services
• Hear customers talk about how Office 365
  is transforming the way they deliver productivity
  tools across their organization
• See how Office 365 delivers new experiences
  combining the power of social with collaboration,
  email and unified communications
• Join in a live Q&A with Microsoft executives
  and product experts

Register to attend: https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=12696&LangLocaleID=1033&AffiliateData

At Lync Conference, Microsoft announcing Lync Room Systems.

What is Lync room systems?

A Lync Room System is a comprehensive Partner offering consisting of a bundle of all required hardware and special Lync 2013 software (the Microsoft Lync Room System Edition software). The hardware includes at a minimum one or two large touch enabled displays, high definition video cameras, microphones and a console in the conference room that enables participation without a laptop or desktop from within the meeting room.

Who is Lync Room System partner?

After this announcement, we wait now about more technical informations for this type of integrations.

With the Lync Conference in San Diego, a lot of news coming around Lync technology.

Microsoft provided an updated roadmap for its Lync unified-communications platform about:

• Lync 2013 mobile apps for Windows Phone and iOS will be available in early March, with Android coming about a month later. The new versions of these apps all get VOIP and video over IP. iPad users also get the ability to view shared desktop and application content in a Lync meeting.
• The next version of Lync Server is coming in Q2 2014. That's about 18 months after the Lync Server 2013 product was released to manufacturing -- instead of two to three years later, as has been the cadence for   new Office Server deliveries.
• Lync Online, the Microsoft-hosted version of Lync Server, is on a quarterly update schedule.
• Enterprise voice support for Lync Online is on the list of features due some time in the next 18 months.
• Structured meeting support for Lync Online and Lync Server also are on the list of functionality coming some time in the next 18 months.
• Lync and Skype connectivity, Microsoft announce Lync-Skype connectivity for presence, IM and voice will be available to all Lync users by June 2013.
• Lync Room System, At today’s conference, Crestron, Lifesize, Polycom, and SMART announced their intent to bring Lync Room System products to market to meet the growing need for collaboration-enabled conference rooms

Lync User Management Tool can be an interesting tool to test:

Project Description
Lync User Management Tool (LUMT) enables administrators to manage contacts, ACEs and Privacy settings on behalf of Lync Server 2013 users.

With LUMT, it is possible to:
- Add contacts to default group or to a named group
- Remove contacts from the contact list
- Add ACEs to change the relationship level for the contacts in the contact list
- Remove ACEs for the contacts in the contact list
- Set privacy preference settings for the user to be either Private or Public (this corresponds to the settings in Options/Status in Lync client)
- Change alert notification settings for the user (this corresponds to the settings in Options/Alerts in Lync client)

download here: http://lumt.codeplex.com/

These updates for Lync 2013 include many basic quality improvements since the initial release of Lync 2013. These updates include the following improvements:

•     Enables users to hide offline contacts in the contact list.
•     Enables users to receive buddy invites from untrusted networks.
•     Improves the support for high dots per inch (DPI) displays, for Microsoft Narrator, and for other accessibility features.
•     Fixes bugs that are related to Location sharing and settings.
•     Fixes bugs that are related to Tabbed Conversations.
•     Enables participants to join online meetings by dialing out to their telephone number if online meetings are scheduled by a non-audio-enabled Lync 2013 user.
•     Improves the handling of devices that have both a front-facing and rear-facing camera.
•     Improves the user experience when you join a Lync meeting in a Lync Room System-enabled room.

Description and download here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2812461

Microsoft Lync Connectivity Analyzer helps Lync administrators find out if the deployment and configuration of their Lync Server environment meets the requirements to support connections from Lync Windows Store app for Windows 8 and Windows RT and from Lync mobile apps.

Overview

Microsoft Lync Connectivity Analyzer attempts to connect to your Lync server using the same services and protocols that are used by Lync Windows Store app and Lync apps for mobile platforms. You can perform the connection tests over your internal network or an external network that connects to your Lync server. Lync Connectivity Analyzer provides a report with detailed information about each connection step to help you validate your configuration and troubleshoot connection problems.

Lync Connectivity Analyzer tests the following Lync server components:

    Autodiscover service
    Authentication Broker (Reach) service
    Mobility (MCX) service
    WebTicket service


Lync Connectivity Analyzer tests the configuration of the following other components:

    Publication of DNS records for Autodiscover URLs
    Certificates
    Proxy servers

Top of pageTop of page
System requirements

Supported operating systems: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista Service Pack 2

    Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 required

Download here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36535

You can find on this blog a script will assist in getting servers ready for the installation of Microsoft Lync Server 2013 on Windows Server 2012:

http://www.ehloworld.com/1697#comment-42601

The download link is here: http://www.ehloworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Set-CsLync2013Prerequisites.v1.0.zip

Syntax

Examples

This will launch the script with the default options for Enterprise edition servers

This will launch the script for Standard edition servers

This will launch the script using the e: drive for the source of the Windows Server 2012 installation files

Thanks to the author!

Ferrari Electronics Gateways is officially certified for Lync 2010/2013: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/gg131938

Ferrari Electronics offer two interesting solution with Microsoft Lync:

- Video Door Phones solution:

OfficeMaster Entry Control permit:

              Video Door Phone configured in AD

             Each station is defined as a Lync Analog Device

             Separate video window appears parallel to call

Architecture:

Video here: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=FB75B89C952F035B&id=FB75B89C952F035B!124#cid=FB75B89C952F035B&id=FB75B89C952F035B%21667

- Sip phone support:

SIP2Lync fully integrates any device into Lync like dect cordless phones, legacy phones via SIP ATA.

Architecture:

Video: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=FB75B89C952F035B&id=FB75B89C952F035B!124#cid=FB75B89C952F035B&id=FB75B89C952F035B%21664

BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 SP4 MR2 now supports configuring the BlackBerry Collaboration Service to properly communicate with a Microsoft Lync 2013 front end pool. This Maintenance Release Package is a slightly different type of release as compared to previous releases. This setup does alter the database.

In summary:

- The certificate requirements also have not changed from Microsoft Lync 2010 to Lync 2013

- No new Enterprise Instant Messenger client required.

- The hardware and software pre-requisites to support Microsoft Lync 2013 has not changed from the existing pre-requisites for supporting Microsoft Lync 2010 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2

More informations here: http://btsc.webapps.blackberry.com/btsc/viewdocument.do;jsessionid=A2EB94CCC14E67740F39FB0914C28D13?externalId=KB33629&sliceId=2&cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&noCount=true&ViewedDocsListHelper=com.kanisa.apps.common.BaseViewedDocsListHelperImpl

Lync 2013 session presented during Nordic Infrastructure Conference (NIC) in Oslo are online.

The sessions cover the following points:

- Lync Server 2013: Mobility, Clients and VDI by Martin Lidholm: http://vimeo.com/58109325

- Lync Server 2013: Architecture Overview by Martin Lidholm: http://vimeo.com/58110115

- Lync Server 2013: Best Practice Administration With System Center Operations Manager 2012 by Ståle Hansen: http://vimeo.com/58166528

- Lync Server 2013: Design for High Availability & Disaster Recovery by Justin Morris: http://vimeo.com/58110874

- Lync Server 2013: Migration Strategies & and Coexistence Strategies by Justin Morris: http://vimeo.com/58165673

- Lync Server 2013: Network Quality considerations in LAN, WAN and WLANS by Ståle Hansen:  http://vimeo.com/58166048

Some ppt are available here:

- Lync Server 2013: Network Quality considerations in LAN, WAN and WLANS: http://www.slideshare.net/stalehansen/nic-lync-networkv03-16368137

- Lync Server 2013: Best Practice Administration With System Center Operations Manager 2012: http://www.slideshare.net/stalehansen/nic-lync-bpactivemonitoringv03