The March 2009 Issue of TechNet Magazine Is Now Available Online

The March 2009 issue of TechNet Magazine is now available online.

In this issue, we delve into Office Communications Server. Learn about the new features in OCS 2007 R2, see how you can extend your R2 deployment to legacy devices, get advice on securing your OCS environment, discover how you can manage OCS from a command line, and get a free tool for planning your deployment.       

FEATURE ARTICLES
Office Communications Server: What’s New in Office Communications Server 2007 R2
Office Communications Server 2007 R2 introduces not only a number of brand-new  features, it also delivers some significant enhancements to existing functionality. Here’s an overview of some of the most important new features and functions you’ll find in this latest release.

Office Communications Server: How Remote Call Control Powers OCS 2007 R2
The Remote Call Control capabilities in OCS can be used to extend your R2 deployment to legacy devices. Find out how to configure Remote Call Control to provide rich OCS capabilities in an environment with a PBX system.

Office Communications Server: Securing OCS with ISA Server
To securely extend your OCS 2007 infrastructure to remote users and  organizations, you need to deploy one or more Edge Servers and provide reverse proxy access to these servers. Here’s what you need to know to use and configure ISA Server 2006 as a reverse proxy for your OCS deployment.

Office Communications Server: Managing OCS 2007 R2 from the Command Line
Though you can configure Office Communications Server using wizards, there are times it makes sense to work from the command line. Explore the LCSCmd command-line tool and see how you can use it to set up OCS 2007 R2.

Office Communications Server: A Powerful Tool for OCS Planning and Deployment
The Planning Tool for OCS 2007 R2 is a wizard that provides prescriptive guidance to help you prepare to deploy R2 in your organization. Discover how you can quickly generate a topology and create a list of recommended hardware to help guide your planning and deployment efforts.

 

COLUMNS
Toolbox: New Products for IT Pros
Greg Steen discusses tweaking your system with TuneUp Utilities, auditing system configurations with SysCompare Pro, and fixing configuration errors with  HijackThis. He also looks at the Microsoft Press book "Configuration Manager 2007 Administrator’s Companion".

Exchange Q & A: Site Resiliency with SCR, Recommended Root Volume Size, and More
Should you deploy CCR-based mailbox servers in a multi-subnet environment? Can you determine the maximum latency for Outlook clients running in cached mode? Get answers to these Exchange Server questions and more.

Utility Spotlight: VMC to Hyper-V Import Tool
Discover how you can use the free VMC to Hyper-V Import tool to import and then modify VMC files, easing the process of migrating older virtual machines to Hyper-V.

Inside SharePoint: Updating Security Account Credentials
The second of a two-part series, this installment discusses how automating password changes for SharePoint security accounts is complicated despite the fact that the SharePoint object model includes the necessary logic to carry out credential updates.

Windows PowerShell: Automating User Provisioning, Part 1
Don Jones kicks off a four part series that will look at how you can use Windows PowerShell to create a real-world user provisioning script.

Geek of All Trades: Tools of the Trade
Get an overview of some handy free tools created by Microsoft that cover many of the tasks IT professionals must deal with on a regular basis. These utilities will help ease the administration of file servers, Exchange servers, desktops, and more.

Desktop Files: Mitigating Circumstances
It’s not enough to simply wait for security problems to surface and then try to eliminate them. Wes Miller explains how real security involves proactively seeking out the root causes of vulnerabilities and fixing them. Wes Miller

Hey, Scripting Guy!: Watch the Stopwatch
The Scripting Guys demonstrate a script that times an activity and writes the results to the registry. After subsequent runs, the script retrieves the previous value from the registry and tells you both the current time and the previous time.

Field Notes: Listening to the User
Find out how establishing a system for listening to both internal and external customers can help your IT department become a more vital part of the larger business structure.

Windows Confidential: The Forgotten Hotkey
Raymond Chen looks at the evolution of the Alt+Tab hotkey and how the Alt+Esc hotkey has remained unscathed.

 

ON THE WEB
VIDEO: Windows PowerShell: Automating User Provisioning, Part 1  
Don Jones kicks off a four part series looking at how you can use Windows PowerShell to create a real-world user provisioning script. Watch Don demonstrate these techniques in his monthly video screencast.