So if you have visited the Lync Client page on TechNet you will see some new options and I think it’s a good to look at some of these options.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398996.aspx
Of course there are the normal clients that we all know about. Lync 2013, Lync Web App and of course the new Lync Windows Store App. These are fantastic options however there is one that need to be called out because they give you a great new option.
Lync Web Scheduler. You might be asking yourself, didn’t we have a Web Scheduler in Lync 2010, and we did but it wasn’t that great. Now we (kinda) have a new Web Scheduler. This tool will allow you to do quite a bit. Let’s take a look at it.
Login Page
So this should look pretty darn familiar. Go ahead and login with your corporate credentials.
Create New Meeting
Here you can create a new meeting, set access and presenters and even participants
New Meeting
Here you can see my new meeting URL. I should note here that I’m using option B for my simple URL’s (mine are meet.thegaragelab.info/ID and meet.thegaragelab.info/Dialin – why, because I’m trying to keep my cert count low).
Review Existing Meetings
As you can see, we can review our existing meetings, join directly from here and do a lot more.
This is a great tool for those who don’t have access to Outlook (or 2013 OWA Integration), maybe aren’t using Exchange/Outlook or just on the road at a different computer.
Now, at the start of the start of this post, I said we “kinda” have a new feature. Why did I say that, because Microsoft didn’t make it easy to get to this feature. Maybe this will change in an update but as right now we the default URL is:
https://lws.domain.com/scheduler
Now in a lot of companies, this URL might be an absolute mess and something that users might not be able to remember really easily. Well, thankfully for you we have PowerShell and can define new Simple URL’s. So what if we wanted to use https://scheduler.domain.com/.
First off, lets look and see what we have for Simple URL’s already defined in our environment:
$a=Get-CsSimpleUrlConfiguration
$a.SimpleUrl
This should output something like this:
PS C:Usersrbrynteson> $A=Get-CsSimpleUrlConfiguration
PS C:Usersrbrynteson> $a.SimpleUrl
SimpleUrlEntry : {Url=https://meet.thegaragelab.info/dialin}
Component : Dialin
Domain : *
ActiveUrl : https://meet.thelab.info/dialin
SimpleUrlEntry : {Url=https://lyncadmin.thegaragelab.info}
Component : Cscp
Domain : *
ActiveUrl : https://lyncadmin.thelab.info
SimpleUrlEntry : {Url=https://meet.thegaragelab.info/ID}
Component : Meet
Domain : thegaragelab.info
ActiveUrl : https://meet.thegaragelab.info/ID
(Remember – using option B and you can see that here)
So let’s add a new Simple URL. We have three simple commands:
$urlEntry = New-CsSimpleUrlEntry -Url “https://scheduler.thegaragelab.info”
$simpleUrl = New-CsSimpleUrl -Component “WebScheduler” -Domain “*” -SimpleUrlEntry $urlEntry -ActiveUrl “https://scheduler.thegaragelab.info”
Set-CsSimpleUrlConfiguration -SimpleUrl @{Add=$simpleUrl} -Verbose
Here we identify a new Simple URL entry and the Simple URL itself. Then we use the Set-CsSimpleUrlConfiguration to add that new URL to our topology. If you make a mistake, change the Add=$simpleUrl to Remove=$simpleUrl and try it again.
There is one more step that needs to be completed. You need to go back to your front-end servers and re-run the bootstrapper process. This will update your URL Rewrite of IIS on that server.
Lastly – you might be asking. Can the web scheduler send out meeting notices for us? I haven’t found a config file yet that allows me to define that information like the old 2010 version but I’ll continue to look for it.
NOTE: If you had the public preview installed and upgraded from it to RTM – you may have gotten the Simple URL’s already defined. Make sure to check that out.
UPDATE: Two good items of notes that came along as part of the comments.
First – re-running bootstrapper. When you make changes to your simple URL’s you need to go back and rerun the bootstrapper process. This can be done either through the deployment wizard (Step #2) or you can running bootstrapper.exe from the program fileslyncdeployment folder.
Second – As pointed out, if you are going to add scheduler.domain.com format you will need to go back and re-request your certificates on the front-end server (and potentially for the reverse proxy if not using a wildcard). You can do that via the deployment wizard (Step #3) and get an updated certificate. You can add as many names as you like into that certificate, so feel free to go nuts if you want.
Good stuff.
Just for those who might not know, you should explain the process of running the bootstrapper.
Pat Richard
Lync MVP
You forgot to add the scheduler URL as a SAN in the FE certificate and assign the new cert
As Lync MVPs, can you guys advise the Lync development team to make this functionality more robust? Comparing this webpage to interfaces for Webex and Cisco Meeting Place, this page is very rudimentary.
I am trying to pitch Lync Meeting as a replacement for our aging Meeting Place server and this limited interface is a real hinderance.
William – there is definitely more improvements coming along in terms of the Lync Web App but I understand there are still some functionality not there for the scheduling component. Remember, you can schedule everything through Outlook as well.
Have you tried using Option B for the Web Scheduler (https://meet.thegaragelab.info/scheduler)?
Great post!
Is it possible to use https://lync.company.com/scheduler/ as simple URL instead of scheduler.company.com?
This doesn’t appear to work. Looks like there is a problem with the rewrite rules.
Dear Richard,
Thank you for this post, I have deployed the scheduler and it works well internally on my network via https://lyncfrontend.domain.local/scheduler but accessing it via the internet using https://name.mydomain.org/scheduler doesnt work. i get to the scheduler home page but it gives error after entering my log on credentials. Error: “There was an error while signing in. Please try again”
My Meetings tab in Web Scheduler. Keep in mind that Web Scheduler lists only meetings that you’ve organized, not the meetings you were invited to.