What's in a name? That which we call the Edge...

I recently deployed CAC on Lync for a customer. There was a large number of sites, but they had kept AD up to date and the information was in a format we could use to define all the sites in Lync. So I exported it to a CSV, dusted off my Excel skills, and had half the info I needed to complete my task. I then worked with the Network Gods to determine how much bandwidth they could spare for Lync traffic. A quick design document and a slide deck or two to explain what we were doing and we were ready to go.
So our change request was approved, I had all the info I needed and soon the change window rolled around. I created the polices we needed, created the sites, imported the subnets it was a text book implementation. The only problem was that no one was around to test, but never mind how could anything have gone wrong?
The next morning I eagerly checked the Lync CAC report but it wasn't reporting anything, maybe no calls had been blocked yet I thought. I then opened up the Bandwidth Policy Monitoring Tool and there was nothing going on. I then made some test calls and still couldn't see anything. It was time to get into the Logging Tool to see what was going on.
It turns out that when the Edge Server was defined in the topology and installed the FQDN was not used. For some reason, Federation, PIC and Remote Access were all working without and issue but CAC was unhappy.
To resolve this, I just had to include the Primary DNS Suffix on the Computer Name settings of the Edge server and reconfigure the Edge server in the Lync Topology. I then needed to rerun the install on the Edge which actually uninstalled the Lync software (because the server name was no longer in the topology) and then reexport the topology and reinstall the Edge.
After all this CAC was working perfectly and the only problem that was experienced was some unhappy campers in sites that had insufficient bandwidth and consequently were unable to make calls.

So for Matt's 5 cents:
Always use the FQDN when defining your Edge Servers in the Topology. The Edge server (if you have one) plays a critical role in CAC working correctly thanks to ICE. If you're having trouble sleeping and would like to know more, you can read this article which explains how this is all hanging together http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff595756.aspx.

Can Lync improve your life?

I don't need to reiterate how the technology that Lync brings to the table can have an impact on our work lives. Never have I appreciated this more than when I found out how through Lync I had been a small part in helping two hearing impaired users that work with one of my customers.

The first of these experiences was finding out that a lady was now able to lip read using video on Lync. We had just given webcams and headsets to an entire business unit that this lady was part of as a pilot and this was part of the feedback that we recieved. Needless to say I was pretty happy to be part of that.
The second was a little more challening to get sorted but equally rewarding. I learnt that in Australia we have a National Relay Service (http://www.relayservice.com.au/). These guys are worth their weight in gold. Basically they have a feature where someone can use MSN Messenger or Yahoo to communitate à la TTY, without needing any specialised hardware. Only problem was that MSN Messenger is frowned upon by this corporate, so we were asked how we could get this to work with Lync.
We were able to enable PIC and then have the user add the contact nrsiprelay(iprelay.com.au)@msn.com. After some help from the National Relay Service Helpdesk our user was in business and able to make calls.

So for Matt's 5 cents:
When discussing Lync with your customers, don't forget to mention that it is possible enable services such as these. You never know how much impact it could have.