PowerShell Module and SnapIn Checks

One of the companies that I do a lot of work for uses Office 365 and everything they do is in bulk. Going through the portal to do anything is time consuming for everyone so I have been writing PowerShell scripts to automate as much as possible. The most common thing that I found is that I have to load the following modules and snapin's almost every time I run a script or a command. So rather than opening up several PowerShell windows to accomplish this task, I just load all the modules in the one window and proceed from there.

Here is the script that I put in place for loading all the modules for the following products:

- Exchange 2010

- Active Directory

- MS Online (Office 365)

- Quest AD Tools

The script does a check first to see if you have the module/snapin already loaded. If so, then it will skip to the next one. If not, then it will load the module/snapin. 

# Exchange Module Check
write-host "Checking to see if the Exchange Management PowerShell is installed"
if ((get-pssnapin -name Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010")
{
write-host Exchange Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
else
{
write-host Exchange Management PowerShell is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}
write-host
write-host


# AD Module Check
write-host "Checking to see if the Active Directory PowerShell module is installed"
if ((get-module -name ActiveDirectory -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "ActiveDirectory")
{
write-host ActiveDirectory Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
import-module activedirectory
}
else
{
write-host Active Directory PowerShell module is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}
write-host
write-host



# Microsoft Online Module Check
write-host "Checking to see if the Microsoft Online PowerShell module is installed"
if ((get-module -name MSOnline -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "MSOnline")
{
write-host Microsoft Online Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
import-module MSOnline
connect-msolservice -credential
}
else
{
write-host Microsoft Online PowerShell module is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}
write-host
write-host



# Quest AD Module Check
write-host "Checking to see if the Quest AD PowerShell module is installed"if ((get-pssnapin -name Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement")
{
write-host Quest AD Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
Add-PSSnapin Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
else
{
write-host Quest AD PowerShell module is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}

Making "Lync Call" default

I just finished installing Lync server 2010 at work and noticed that the "click to call" feature on the client was not making a "lync call" the default for everyone. This is controlled in the CsClientPolicy for users. Here is the Powershell command to change it:

    Set-CsClientPolicy -EnableVOIPCallDefault $True

More information on the full set of options and parameters can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398300.aspx

Powershell script to make a Lync 2010 "Hunt Group" from scratch

I am really trying to beef up on my Powershell so I decided to make a script that would make a Lync 2010 Hunt Group. There was a challenge that I had where I was required to make (10) Hunt Groups workflows, queues, and groups. They were to be the same settings, just different users and phone numbers. The thought of going through all the wizards for all the settings just made me want to cry, so I decided to put the big boy pants on and learn how to do this via Powershell. Here goes....

Let's start by identifying what systems we will need to touch.

- Exchange server for creating the users and voicemail Unified Messaging (UM)
- Domain Controller for setting the 'telephone' option in the users account attributes
- Lync server for creating the users, worflow, queues, and groups.

Now that we know the systems, let declare the order of operations.

1st - Exchange to create the user account ONLY. Voicemail will come later.
2nd - Domain Controller - telephone attribute
              -> This is necessary as Exchange uses this information to assign the SIP URI in the next step
3rd - Exchange - enable the voicemail (UM)
4th - Lync to finish the script

Since we know the order of operations, let's dive into the script. I found that Powershell is much like PHP in the fact that you are declare variables in the beginning to use later. One gotcha here is that you can't call variables that haven't been created yet (hard lesson learned here - more to come about that). Here are the variables that I used:

        $SetNumber = '1'
        $SetName = 'Johnny Smith'
        $SetAlias = 'jsmith'
        $SetUserPrincipalName = 'jsmith@domain.local'
        $SetSAMAccountName = 'jsmith'
        $SetFirstName = 'Johnny'
        $SetLastName = 'Smith'
        $SetPassword = 'Password'
        $SetDBStore = 'DatabaseStore01'
        $Telephone = '8005551212'
        $SIPResourceID = $SetAlias + '@domain.local'
        $SetInboxPermission = $SetAlias + ':\inbox'

This is a good time to go ahead and run the commands. They are a little confusing and overwhelming at first look, but I think if you read the command, you will really see the variables in there and it will make sense:

From the Exchange server:

Command:  
New-Mailbox -Name $SetName -Alias $SetAlias -OrganizationalUnit 'domain.local/OU/CHILD_OU' -UserPrincipalName $SetUserPrincipalName -SamAccountName $SetSAMAccountName -FirstName $SetFirstName -Initials '' -LastName $SetLastName -ResetPasswordOnNextLogon $false -Database $SetDBStore

From the Domain Controller (NOTE: We have to declare the "$SetAlias" again as we jumped to a new server):

Variable:   $SetAlias = 'jsmith'
Command: Set-ADuser -id $SetAlias -officephone $Telephone 



From the Exchange Server (don't have to declare the variables as we already have them):

Command:
Enable-UMMailbox -Identity $SetName -UMMailboxPolicy "UMDefault Default Policy" -SIPResourceIdentifier $SIPResourceID

***EXTRA BONUS COMMAND***


I like to set the permissions on the user to allow for everyone to be able to view their mailbox. IMO, this just saves headaches in the future of you allowing users specifically. Here are the commands:

        set-MailboxFolderPermission -id $SetAlias -user default -AccessRights reviewer

        set-MailboxFolderPermission -id $SetInboxPermission -user default -AccessRights reviewer

***END - EXTRA BONUS COMMAND***

From the Lync Server:
(Quick NOTE before we get too far. We have to declare more variables here as we have created the user and now we have to get more information that we could only get AFTER we the previous steps have been created)

Variables:

        $ServiceId = "service:ApplicationServer:server.domain.local"
        $GroupName = "Group 1"
        $QueueName = "Queue 1"
        $WorkFlowName = "Hunt Group 1"
        $PrimaryURI = "sip:8005551212@domain.com"
        $LineURI = "tel:+18005551212"
        $DisplayNumber = "+1 (800) 555-1212"
        $DistoList = "distrolist@domain.local"
        $VoiceMail = "sip:jsmith@domain.local;opaque=app:voicemail"
 
 
Commands:

1. Create the group:

Command: New-CsRgsAgentGroup -Parent $ServiceId -Name $GroupName -AgentAlertTime 20 -ParticipationPolicy Informal -RoutingMethod Parallel -DistributionGroupAddress $DistoList

2. Create the queue:

Additional Variables:  $Group = get-csrgsagentgroup -Name $GroupName
Command: New-CsRgsQueue  -Parent $ServiceId  -Name $QueueName -TimeoutThreshold 30 -TimeoutAction $ActionTO -AgentGroupIDList($Group.Identity)

3. Create the workflow:

Additional Variables:

        $Queue = Get-CsRgsQueue -Name $QueueName
        $ActionTO = New-CsRgsCallAction -Action TransferToVoiceMailUri -uri $VoiceMail
        $ActionWM = New-CsRgsCallAction -Action TransferToQueue -QueueID $Queue.Identity
        $NBACTION = New-CsRgsCallAction -Action TransferToVoicemailUri -uri $VoiceMail

Command:

        New-CsRgsWorkflow -Parent $ServiceId -Name $WorkFlowName -Description "Hunt Group 1" -PrimaryUri $PrimaryURI -LineUri $LineURI -DisplayNumber $DisplayNumber -Active $true -Anonymous $true -DefaultAction $ActionWM -NonBusinessHoursAction $NBACTION

Create the user in Lync for the voicemail

Attributes: $Username = "jsmith@domain.local"
Commands:  

enable-csuser -identity $UserName -registrarpool lyncserver.domain.local -sipaddresstype Emailaddress -sipdomain domain.local
        
set-csuser -identity $UserName  -enterprisevoiceenabled $true
        
Grant-CsVoicePolicy -policyname "Voice Policy Name" -Identity $UserName
The script is finished!!!! Now you can go into the Lync control panel and see the changes that you have made. Now the reason for this script, rinse and repeat. Just change the "VARIABLES" to meet your needs. Since this was 1 of 10 users accounts, I just changed it from #1 to #10.

Lync Common Area Phones (Conference Rooms)

I am deploying a Lync Server 2010 at my office and ran into the conference room phones. I started to configure a user account for each phone but quickly realized that it wasn't going to work like I thought. I had to research a way for multiple users to use this phone. Here were my goals to make this happen:

1. Provide great audio sound and not choppy for calls 2. Work for multiple users with different laptops 3. Had to be user friendly and easy to use (or the users would either always call me to set it up or just wouldn't use it)
I started by choosing the better hardware for the phone. A Polycom CX3000 is a perfect solution for conference room phones. PoE phone but will connect via USB as well. Perfect mix for my conference rooms.

Next I need to make it work for all my users. I got a little lucky in the fact that all of my users have Dell laptops and they all take the same docking station. So I dropped a docking station in each conference room and plugged up a keyboard, mouse, HDMI cable to the TV, Ethernet cable and the Polycom CX3000 via USB. That way users can come in, drop their laptop on the docking station, and they have all the tools already plugged in ready to go.

Now the challenging part; making it user friendly. To start this part let me say that when I deployed the Lync phone system to the users, I spent a lot of extra time on the training slides and presentations to make sure everyone knew EVERYTHING about how to use the client. Also, I have a very tech savvy group of users (that helps!!!). Now, since we already have everything plugged in to the docking station, when the users turn on there laptop (and after a quick, really quick, driver install from Lync on the Polycom phone) the Polycom CX3000 was available as a drop down option for them to use as their "speaker phone" on Lync calls, Go-to-meeting calls, and all other calls. The TV was also ready to go so they can share their screen for everyone in the room and, since we are on Lync, they can share that same screen with the external callers via Lync conferencing.

This was a WIN-WIN for our department. Conference rooms have always been a pain for us, but this has really reduced the calls to the helpdesk as well as made our users a lot happier. They are actually using the solution which is the WIN.

Here is a link to the Polycom phone.

Conference Bridge in Lync Server 2010

How to create a conference bridge in Lync server 2010.

<Sorry for the quick and dirty version. I just wanted to get this out there. Will clean later>

My company wanted to go out and buy several different conference bridges this week. I decided to make a couple on our Lync server.

Requirements:
- Create separate conference bridge ID's per department
- Make them available for the whole department
- Have to be accessible from the outside

We have DID's (direct inward dial) phone numbers for each of our users. I know that I can create a new user for each of these departments, but I want them to share the same DID. So in Lync server I was able to assign the same DID to each user and give them an extension. This made them unique in Lync based off their extension number. Here is how I did it:

Step 1. Choose a DID to use
Step 2. Create your users in Active Directory
Step 3. Enable the users in Lync Server
Step 4. Give the users the same phone number with unique extensions
   Example: tel:+18885551212;ext=100
Step 5. Login to your conferencing options webpage to set the PIN
Step 6. Copy the information in the conferencing options webpage for following:
   PIN
   Conference URL
   Conference ID
Step 7. Give this information out the users/departments.

Changing color of output in Powershell script

I found a neat little command today that will change the output color of the text:

Write-Host -foregroundcolor green "Operation succeeded!"

This will change the color of the text "Operation succeeded" to bright green on the screen. So that got me thinking on how I could use this and I came up with a couple solutions.

One situation where this would be handy is a UP/Down script. Say you wrote a script that would check to see if a server was up or down and wrote the output of UP in bright green letters on the screen. Also you could post DOWN in bright red letters. This is a visual cue that would help your sysadmins or helpdesk quickly identify if a server is up or down.

This also solves another issue that I am facing - hiding the output in a powershell script. I have been looking for ways to hide the output of my commands in powershell script. I found that you can pipe the output to a NULL statement but then you lose the output. I wanted to keep the output however just didn't want the user to see it on the screen. That is now possible with the "-foregroundcolor black" option. It will put the output from the command as black on the screen which will effectively hide it, but at the same time allowing me to highlight it and see what the output is if there is a problem.