Technical Considerations for Mobile Clients
Topic Last Modified: 2013-02-22
The Planning for Mobility section describes considerations for configuring your Lync Server environment to support mobile access. This topic gives additional client-specific information to consider.
Certificate Requirements for Mobile Clients
In addition to the certificate requirements for Lync Server 2010 described in Certificate Infrastructure Requirements, if you choose to support automatic discovery for Microsoft Lync 2010 mobile clients, you need to include certain subject alternative name (SAN) entries on certificates to support secure connections from the mobile clients. For details, see Certificate Requirements for Mobility.
Aside from the requirements for installing and configuring certificates on your servers, there are no additional requirements for installing certificates on mobile clients.
Requirements for Automatic Discovery
During the planning phase, you need to decide whether you want to support automatic discovery for Lync mobile clients or use your existing Web Service URLs. To use the automatic discovery feature, you need to configure DNS and create new web publishing rules to support the feature. For details, see Defining Your Mobility Requirements and Technical Requirements for Mobility.
Sign-in Requirements for Mobile Clients
When deploying mobile access to your users, the sign-in information that you’ll need to communicate to your users depends on the following factors:
The Lync mobile client
Whether Lync Server 2010 is configured to use automatic discovery for mobile clients
Whether users are hosted on an on-premises Lync Server or Office 365 and/or Lync Online
Whether a user’s SIP address is the same as the user’s user principal name (UPN)
The next sections summarize the sign-in fields required for each mobile client.
Sign-in requirements for Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, and Android
The following table describes the sign-in fields required for Lync 2010 for Windows Phone, Lync 2010 for iPhone, Lync 2010 for iPad, and Lync 2010 for Android users. If you have not configured automatic discovery for mobile clients, users will also need to turn off Auto-detect server and type the internal and external discovery addresses.
Note
The Sign-in address and Password fields are available on the sign-in screen. Users can access the User name, Auto-detect server, internal discovery address, and external discovery address fields by selecting additional sign-in settings from the sign-in screen.
| User is hosted by | Does the SIP address match the UPN? | Sign-in fields |
|---|---|---|
Lync Server 2010 (on-premises) |
Yes |
Sign-in address = SIP address Password = password User name = blank |
Lync Server 2010 (on-premises) |
No |
Sign-in address = SIP address Password = password User name = UPN or domain\username |
Office 365 and/or Lync Online |
Yes |
Sign-in address = SIP address Password = password User name = blank |
Office 365 and/or Lync Online |
No |
Sign-in address = SIP address Password = password User name = UPN |
Sign-in requirements for Nokia (Symbian)
The following tables summarize the sign-in fields required for Lync 2010 for Nokia (Symbian) mobile client. If you have not configured automatic discovery for mobile clients, users will also need to turn off Auto-detect server and enter the internal and external discovery addresses.
Note
The Sign-in address, Password, User name, and Domain fields are available on the Lync 2010 setup screen. Users can access the internal discovery address and external discovery address fields by deselecting the Auto-detect server check box.
| User is hosted by | Does the SIP address match the UPN? | Sign-in fields |
|---|---|---|
Lync Server 2010 (on-premises) |
Yes |
Sign-in address = SIP address Password = password User name = UPN, domain\username, or username Domain = User’s domain if not specified in User name field |
Lync Server 2010 (on-premises) |
No |
Sign-in address = SIP address Password = password User name = UPN, domain\username, or username Domain = User’s domain if not specified in User name field |
Office 365 and/or Lync Online |
Yes |
Sign-in address = SIP address Password = password User name = blank Domain = blank |
Office 365 and/or Lync Online |
No |
Sign-in address = SIP address Password = password User name = UPN Domain = blank |
Requirements for the Call via Work Feature
If you plan to use the call via work feature, you must assign users a voice policy that has the Enable simultaneous ringing of phones option selected, and a mobility policy that has the EnableMobility option selected. For details, see Configuring Mobility Policy.
Users should be made aware that if they want to allow certain federated contacts to use the call via work feature to reach them on their mobile devices, they must assign the federated contacts the Colleagues privacy relationship. Otherwise, federated contacts, who are assigned the External Contacts privacy relationship by default, will not be able to use the Call via Work feature.
Join Launcher for Mobile Clients
The join launcher is part of the existing Lync Web App IIS web component. In Cumulative Update for Lync Server 2010: August 2011 and later releases, the join launcher lets users optionally join meetings by using a mobile device.
Mobile users can click the join link in the calendar reminder, which prompts the conference server to call the user back so that they can join the meeting. The mobile user’s identity displays in the roster after he or she joins the meeting. During the meeting, mobile users can hear the announcements when dial-in users join or leave the conference, and then can use dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) commands from the phone keypad to mute and unmute themselves.
If a user is not on the invitee list, the user is automatically added to the conference lobby until a presenter admits them, which initiates a call-back from the conference server to the mobile user.
If the mobile client does not have the Lync application installed, the join launcher displays a link that the user can click to download the Lync application from the mobile platform’s application marketplace.
Joining Conferences for Mobile Users Who are not Enabled for Enterprise Voice
For users to have access to mobility features and Call via Work, they must be enabled for Enterprise Voice. However, users who are not enabled for Enterprise Voice can join conferences by clicking the link on their mobile device if they have an appropriate voice policy assigned to them. You can either assign a specific voice policy to these users or make sure that a global or site level policy exists that applies to them. The voice policy you assign must have public switched telephone network (PSTN) usage records and routes that define the areas to which users can dial out to join a conference. For details about setting voice policy, PSTN usage records, and routes, see Configuring Voice Policies, PSTN Usage Records, and Voice Routes.
Push Notifications for Mobile Clients
When an iPhone, iPad, or Windows Phone mobile client is not active, the Mobility service can send notifications, called push notifications, to the mobile device for events such as new or missed IM invitations, missed calls, and voice mail. The Mobility service sends the notifications over https to a cloud-based service that is located in the Lync Online data center. This service, called the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Push Notification service, sends the notifications either to the Apple Push Notification service or to the Microsoft Push Notification service. The Apple Push Notification service or Microsoft Push Notification service then sends the notification on to the mobile device. Push notification service is turned off by default and can be configured by the administrator during or after deployment. For details, see Defining Your Mobility Requirements.
On iPhone and iPad mobile devices, Lync maintains the client session for up to three days. This allows the user to remain connected and receive push notifications for up to three days (for example, over a weekend) even if the user does not use the application during this time. After three days, Lync signs out and the user receives a message that they must sign back in again.
Note
On the Android and Nokia mobile platforms, the Lync application can run in the background. Therefore, push notifications are not required. The only way to exit the Lync application on an Android mobile device is to explicitly sign out of Lync. On a Nokia mobile device, the user can elect either to sign out directly from the Lync application or to stop the Lync application.
Collecting Logs on Mobile Clients
With Lync mobile clients logging feature, users can log usage data in their user profiles to be used for troubleshooting issues the user might experience with Lync on their mobile device. Diagnostic logging is turned off by default, but you can instruct your users to turn it on if they are experiencing issues. Diagnostic logging tracks information about Lync sessions, audio and connectivity parameters, device setup, presence data, message details, logon history, and Contacts list. After enabling diagnostic logging, users can choose to manually send logging information to the support team.
To send logs on iPad or iPhone devices, the user can go to Options, tap Logging, and then tap the Send Log Files button. When the email form displays, the user enters the email address of the recipient, for example, the support team, and then taps Send. The user must have Enable Logging turned on for this feature to work.
To send logs on Windows Phone, the user can go to Settings, select Logging, and then tap Send logs. A dialog box appears explaining that the logs have been converted to an image file that has been saved in the Saved Pictures file and must be attached. When the user clicks OK, an email form displays. The user enters the email address of the recipient, and then attaches the picture described in the dialog. Each log image filed has a number printed on the front to identify the file to attach. Each time the user sends logs, the number printed on the log image increments.
The Nokia device does not provide a feature for sending logs.
Note
Users may experience problems when trying to send log image files while their mobile device is connected to a computer. If this happens, the user can disconnect the computer cable and resend the logs.