With Office Communications Server 2007 R2, the recommended container for Office Communications Server global settings is the Configuration container, which is the default container. In previous versions of Office Communications Server, the default container was the root domain System container. Although storing global settings in the System container has advantages, such as faster replication and fewer replicated copies, in centralized topologies, this approach might not perform as well in geographically distributed topologies if root domain availability is insufficient. If you deployed Live Communications Server 2005 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Office Communications Server 2007 with global settings stored in the System container and experience performance problems, such as long service start time or long replication delays when you manage global settings, you can migrate from the System container to the Configuration container. The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Global Settings Migration Tool is designed for this purpose. This tool is available at the Microsoft Download Center http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=137424 .

This section provides an overview of the steps required to migrate global settings. For details about how to use the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Global Settings Migration Tool to accomplish the migration, see Using the Global Settings Migration Tool to Move to Configuration Container.

Important:
If you decide to migrate your global settings to the Configuration container and you plan to migrate from a prior version of Office Communications Server to Office Communications Server 2007 R2, you must perform the global settings migration first. Once you upgrade to the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Active Directory schema, you can no longer use this tool to migrate your global settings.

You can migrate global settings in the following scenarios:

Important:
After you begin to migrate global settings, do not attempt to move or modify users until the final step in the process is complete.

Migrating global settings involves the following seven steps:

  1. Copying the tree structure to the Configuration container.

  2. Copying the global settings attributes.

  3. Running forest preparation and, for Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1, also running domain preparation to set permissions.

  4. Updating distinguished name (DN) references to the global settings tree.

  5. Updating msRTCSIP-PrimaryHomeServer DN references for user, contact, and inetOrgPerson objects.

  6. Verifying that the migration was successful.

  7. Removing the original global settings tree structure from the System container in the root domain.

1. Migrating the Tree Structure

The MigrateGlobalSettingsTreeaction of the MigrateOcsGlobalSettingscommand copies the global settings tree structure from the System container to the Services sub-container in the Configuration container. This step does not copy the global settings attributes because the new hierarchy must fully replicate before the DN references stored in some attributes can succeed.

Membership in the EnterpriseAdmins or DomainAdmins group for the forest root domain is required to perform this step.

This step is complete when the global settings tree structure is successfully copied to the Configuration container and replication is complete.

2. Copying Global Settings Attributes

The MigrateGlobalSettingsPropertiesaction of the MigrateOcsGlobalSettingscommand copies the Office Communications Server global settings attributes from the original tree structure to the corresponding nodes of the new tree built in the previous step.

For DN references stored in attributes, the DN is changed to point to the Configuration container.

Membership in the EnterpriseAdmins or DomainAdmins group for the forest root domain is required to perform this step.

This step is complete when all attributes are copied to the new global settings tree and replication is complete.

Caution:
It is critical that replication completes before you proceed to step 3.

3. Setting Permissions

Once the tree structure and global settings attributes are successfully copied, the next step is to set up the Access Control Entries (ACEs) that allow the Office Communications Server service to access the new global settings tree.

For both Office Communications Server 2007 and Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1, the ForestPrepaction of the Lcscmd.exe command-line tool sets up the permissions. You must run the forest preparation step again to create the ACEs for administrators and for Office Communications Server services and to validate the new global settings tree. You cannot use the Prep Forestwizard for this migration step. For details about forest preparation for Office Communications Server 2007, see the Office Communications Server 2007 Active Directory Guide at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=129697 .

Important:
You must use the Live Communications Server 2005 or the Office Communications Server 2007 version of LcsCmd.exe to perform this step. You must not use the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 version of LcsCmd.exe.

For Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1, you must also run domain preparation. In Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1, domain global groups control domain access. Most global settings permissions are created by either the DomainPrepor the DomainAddaction of the Lcscmd.exe command-line tool. Because global settings are located on every domain controller after deployment, it is not necessary to rerun DomainAdd. Therefore, rerunning DomainPrepfor each Live Communications Server 2005 domain is sufficient to create the ACEs for the new global settings tree. For details about the domain preparation step for Live Communications Server 2005, see Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1: All Technical Documents http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139639 .

Membership in the EnterpriseAdmins or DomainAdmins group for the forest root domain is required to perform this step.

This step is complete when all permissions have been created for the new global settings tree, and the new global settings tree is replicated to forest global catalogs. Depending on the topology and replication configuration, full replication can take anywhere from minutes to days.

4. Updating DN References to the Global Settings Tree

Once the new global settings tree is replicated, all server DN references to the global settings tree must be modified to point to the Configuration container for the following server roles:

  • Front End Servers

  • Conferencing Servers

  • Web Components Servers

  • Mediation Servers

Membership in the RTCUniversalServerAdmins or RTCUniversalUserAdmins group is required to perform this step.

This step is complete when all DN references for all the server roles mentioned above point to the new global settings tree.

5. Updating msRTCSIP-PrimaryHomeServer DN References

The final migration step is to modify all user DN references to the global settings tree to point to the Configuration container. This step modifies the msRTCSIP-PrimaryHomeServer and msRTCSIP-UserPolicy attributes to point to the objects in the new location.

Membership in the RTCUniversalServerAdmins or RTCUniversalUserAdmins group is required to perform this step.

This step is complete when all user DN references point to the new global settings tree. Depending on the number of enabled users and their geographical location, this step might take the longest time to run (for example, with stable network connectivity, it takes about one hour to migrate 30,000 users).

6. Verifying that Migration Is Successful

After completing the previous five steps, it is recommended that you test the migration by performing some instant messaging and conferencing to verify that the new global settings tree is working properly.

Important:
Do not use Active Directory Users and Computers, the Live Communications Server 2005 administrative tools, or the Office Communications Server 2007 administrative tools to move or modify users until the final step in the migration process is complete.

7. Removing Global Settings Tree from the System Container

When you are sure that the migration was successful, remove the original global settings tree from the System container.

Important:
This step must not be performed until all server DN references and all user DN references have been modified.

See Also