Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server

1. Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server Yoav Land VP Technologies – Unitech Microsoft Regional Director

2. State of Conferencing Today • User-to-user solutions are limited • Difficult to schedule conferences and locate other users • Meeting scheduler can’t leave meeting • Only 2 video clients at a time • No bandwidth management • Server solutions fall short • Users have to know network topology • No bandwidth management, load balancing, or failover • H.323 video software doesn’t scale well

3. Components CMS– Conference Management Service coordinates and manages conferencing technologies and resources, and tracks and controls access to conferences. Conference Technology Provider Data Conferencing Provider- Data Conferencing Provider is a conferencing technology based on the T.120 protocol stack that provides collaboration tools such as those found in Microsoft NetMeeting®. Data Conferencing Provider provides a T.120 multipoint control unit for data conferencing clients.

4. Video Conferencing Provider– Video Conferencing Provider is a conferencing technology that provides video and audio conferences over multicast-enabled IP networks. Video Conferencing Provider also provides an H.323 bridge that allows H.323 conferencing clients to participate in audio and video conferences. T.120 multipoint control unit (MCU) – The T.120 MCU service runs as a component of Data Conferencing Provider and provides network connections between participants in a data conference. Multicast Address Dynamic Client Allocation Protocol (MADCAP) – Configure the DHCP server to provide Multicast addresses.

5. Conference calendar mailbox – A conference calendar mailbox is an Exchange 2000 mailbox that stores the definitions and structure of all conferences Conference resources – Conference resources are Exchange 2000 mailboxes that conferencing clients invite when scheduling an online meeting. The conference properties, including the resource used, are stored in the conference calendar mailbox.

6. H.323 bridge – The H.323 bridge permits NetMeeting clients that are unable to connect directly to multicast conferences to connect through a H.323 unicast session. Codec – A codec (coder/decoder) is any technology for encoding and decoding data.

7. Voice, Data, Video Conferencing • Outlook 2000 integration for easy scheduling • Data conferencing server (T.120 protocol) • Application sharing, whiteboarding, chat • Support for any T.120 client • IP-Multicast audio-video conferencing • Support for H.323 clients • Conference Management Service • Coordinates conferencing resources • Efficient network utilization  Make virtual meetings easy & reduce travel

8. Conferencing Server • Conference Management Service • End users can easily schedule meetings from Outlook and join with a single click • Administrators can manage network with tools for load balancing, failover, and network bandwidth restriction • Data Conferencing • Managed T.120-based server for “NetMeetings” with multiple T.120 clients • Audio/Video Conferencing • Multiple simultaneous video users via IP-Multicast (using TAPI 3.0 in Windows 2000) • Windows 2000 SP1 adds support for Exchange Conferencing bridge to H.323 clients

9. Data Conference Service (DCS) T.120 MCUH.323 MCUBridge T.120 MCUH.323 MCUBridge T.120 MCUH.323 MCUBridge Conference Calendar Mailbox ECS Components Exchange 2000 Conference Sever Conference Resource Conference Resource Conference Resource Conference Management Service (CMS) Video Conference Service Conference Client Outlook 2000 Web Browser Active X T.120

10. Conference Mgmnt Service • Unified conferencing client experience • Platform for conference management • Control meeting lifetime • Support Conference Technology Providers (data, telephone, audio/video) • Integrated reservation and calendaring • Management of Meeting Resources • Scheduling - Publish free/busy • Refer client to conferences

11. Data Conferencing • Integrated into Conference Management Service • T.120 multi-point control unit (MCU) • Application sharing, whiteboarding, chat • Server broadcast data to clients • Conference persistence • Additional services • Topology creation, bridging firewalls • Automatic MCU load-balance/fail-over • Access control, security, encryption

12. Audio/Video Conferencing • Integrated with Conference Management Service • Multi-party audio-video conferencing • Participants choose to broadcast their audio and video • Participants receive, mix and render all other participants • Meeting size limited by client

13. Conference Management Service Central, Per Site, or Hybrid CMS CMS CMS CMS ECS Scalability • Multiple MCUs / Site (Multipoint Control Units) Site 2 Site 1 MCUs MCUs Site 3 1,000 1,500 1 MCU = 500 data users (approx) MCUs DCS uses dynamic intelligent topology creation for every data conference. Based on complex algorithm. 2,000

14. More ECS Scalability • Uses Multicast IP Technology • What is multicast? • Many hosts sharing single IP to act as one host • Unicast data is sent based on number of participants • Multicast data is sent ONCE • Greatly enhances Video/Audio performance while reducing bandwidth usage MADCAP - Multicast Address Dynamic Client Allocation Protocol

15. User0 NetMeeting & Exchange Server 5.5 User1 User2 Identical Data User3 User4 User5

16. ECS 2000 Data Conferencing Server User0

17. Router 5 IP Multicast Conferencing User1 Router 2 Router 1 User2 Router 4 Router 3 User3 User4 User5 User6

18. Backup CMS CMS ECS Resiliency • Multiple MCUs • Exchange 2000 Integration • Place conferencing objects in separate storage group • Active/Active clustering • Automatic MCU Fail-Over • Backup Inactive CMS MCUs

19. Scheduling Conferences • Scheduling a meeting (Outlook 2000) • Open Outlook 2000 and select “this is an online meeting using”…drop down to Exchange Conferencing Server • Check free/busy for the virtual meeting room (“conference resource”) • If available, Exchange adds conference resource to invitation • When user sends invitation, resource is reserved and URL for conference is included in invitations • Joining a meeting • When meeting reminder pops up, click on “join meeting” button • Browser pulls up Web page with conf info, embedded NM control, and multi-party video

20. Recap client experience

21. What if no Outlook 2000? • Scheduling a meeting • Applications such as Outlook Web Access, previous versions of Outlook, Exchange 5.0 client, send meeting request to conference resource • If conference resource is available, Exchange sends email acknowledgement accepting reservation and providing conference URL • Joining a meeting • When meeting reminder pops up, click on “join meeting” button • Browser pulls up best possible client interface (depends on browser, OS, and version of NM) • If no meeting reminder, click on URL from email and browser will pull up best possible client

22. MMC Snap-ins Resources & Configuration Data Video Data Video MAD-CAP Cert. Server Conf. Calendar Conf. Rooms T.120 MCUs Conf. Calendar Client Access Pages Conf. Rooms Client PCs Other clients Client Access Pages T.120 client NetMeeting Schedule Conference “Join” Conference Conferencing Components Exchange Conference Manager Active Directory Other Other Services Free Busy Exchange IIS Client Components

23. Deployment Considerations • Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server requires one Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000 Server • Customers can run a mixed NT4/Exchange 5.5 and Win2K/Exchange 2K environment • CMS server can support thousands of users and should be centralized • Data MCUs and H.323 bridges should be deployed based on conferencing demand

24. CMS Placing • Only 1 active CMS per Windows 2000 site • May or may not have CMS on each site • How many users conferencing on each site? • What is the purpose of the site? • Do you have multicast connectivity between sites? • Should setup separate site for Internet conferencing • Place CMS on separate box than Exchange and DHCP server Tip: The Video Conferencing Service will not function properly if installed on same box as your active DHCP server. Therefore, place CMS on separate box if you plan on video conferencing.

25. MCU Placement • Wherever you have lots of users • Users usually connect to closest MCU • On subnets • How much traffic is acceptable? • On sites • At both ends of a slow link • Setup Internet focused MCU

26. Public focused T.120 MCU ‘External’ client connection NET-A or NET-B focused T.120 MCUs Internet NET-C focused T.120 MCU NET-B NET-A NET-C Clients connections are load-balanced across MCU farm Data MCU DeploymentSample Conference Manager Backbone

27. MCU MCU MCU MCU Clients Router Router Router CMS& IIS CMS & IIS Subnet B Subnet C LAN Router Router Clients Clients Subnet A Single Site – Backbone Topology

28. MCUs Clients Subnet 3 Subnet 2 MCUs Clients MCUs Clients Subnet 1 Single Site – Hub & Spoke Clients Router Router CMS & IIS LAN Router Router Clients Clients

29. MCU MCU CMS & IIS MCU MCU CMS & IIS MCU MCU CMS & IIS Multi Site Topology Site 1 Site 2 Router Router WAN/Internet Router Site 3

30. Fully Functional Conferencing: • Windows 2000 on all ECS Servers (CMS and MCUs) • Network multicast capable • Windows 2000 on clients • Multicast enabled routers • Exchange 2000 in domain • Certificate Server • Clients must have: • Windows 2000 • Outlook 2000 • ActiveX® and Java™ capable browsers • NetMeeting® 3.1 • Audio/Video equipped

31. Or, Configure Down • For non-Outlook 2000 users • Scheduling conf. takes a few more steps • For non-Windows 2000 clients • Multicast not available • Must enable H.323 bridge = reduced video • For Exchange 5.5 users • 2-way AD connector to replicate to 5.5 • To check your routers • Use multicast diagnostics tool in Windows 2000 ResKit

32. CMS Service • Have a backup CMS server in the site • Create your Calendar Mailbox and resources in a separate MDB for fast backup/restore • Make sure your Calendar Mailbox server has fast connection with CMS • Create a separate conferencing site accessible from the Internet

33. T.120 MCU Servers • Always have MCUs on both sides of a slow link • Putting MCUs in specific subnets and assigning visibility restrictions is a tradeoff between performance and reliability

34. MADCAP Servers • Have backup MADCAP servers • Split scopes between two or more servers • Configure video resources to request addresses from all the MADCAPs with the same class of scope

35. Conference Resources • Naming: • Distinguish from physical rooms, e.g. “Virtual Meeting Room (10)” • Indicate site, e.g. “Redmond Virtual Videoconference (5)” • Create several resources of each type with different sizes • You may name resources according to scenarios, e.g. “Corporate broadcast resource” • Create audio-only resource if video is not important and bandwidth is limited

36. Priorities for “next” ECS • Conference recording • Unified client for ad-hoc and scheduled conferences • Integration of Presence/Instant Messaging (groups of IM users) • Broader B-to-B conferencing capabilities • Better integration with Windows Media Technology

37. Resource Slide • http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/productinfo/conferencing.htm • ConceptsPlanning.chm on the ECS CD • Exchange 2000 SDK • http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2365.html

38. ECS Summary • Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server (ECS) is a vast improvement overtoday’s point-to-point conferencingand competitive server solutions • ECS is optimized both for knowledge workers and IT managers: • Knowledge workers can easily set up scheduled or ad-hoc meetings across their teams and enterprises • IT managers can easily manage conferencing resources and enable reliable, scalable conferencing for their whole company