Group Call Pickup with Lync Server 2013 CU1 (February 2013)
With the addition of Lync Server 2013 CU1 you now have two major new features in terms of Enterprise Voice. First is Location Based Routing which I have already detailed. Now we get Group Call Pickup. Don’t confuse this with Line Appearance, because they are not the same thing, at all. What Group Call Pickup does is allows you to grab another persons line if you happen to hear it ringing. This is of course very different than Delegate Ring or something like that as it requires the end user to configure, instead this is an administrative tool.
Under the covers it leverages the Call Park service and the Call Orbits to allow you to configure this.
Matt Landis does a great job of explaining it here: http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2013/02/call-pickup-groups-coming-to-lync.html
So how do you configure this service:
First, you will need a server that is running the SEFAUtil resource kit tool. This can be a trusted app server or if you like living on the edge, you can configure an existing front-end as a trusted app server – but that isn’t supported and should be used in labs only.
Second, create a Call Park Orbit Range. This can be created in the GUI but you will need to edit it via PowerShell anyways, so just create it in PowerShell:
New-CsCallParkOrbit -Identity “Minneapolis” -NumberRangeStart “#100” -NumberRangeEnd “#199″ -CallParkService pool.domain.com –Type GroupPickup
Third, using the SEFAUtil tool you will enable a set of user(s) to a particular range:
SEFAUtil.exe /server:pool.domain.com user@domain.com /enablegrouppickup:”#100”
If successful, you will see SEFAUtil spit out a bunch to the screen and you know it has worked. If it doesn’t give you the details of the user, then the tool didn’t do anything. Most likely because of a typo or your server isn’t configured as a trusted application server.
Hope that helps.
Hi,
As you mentioned ,I’ve done one by one. I’ve installed UCMA 4.0. But , I’ve tried to run SEFAUtil width several paramaters but I never get a response back. No error/access messages, just a blank line. I shutdown windows firewall.
My topology is like:
1- Lync Server 2013 Front-End Server : lyncfe.domain.com
2- Dedicated Server : dedicate01.domain.com
Trusted Application Command :
— $Site=Get-CsSite –Identity CompanyName
— New-CsTrustedApplicationPool –id dedicate01.domain.com –Registrar lyncfe.domain.com -site $Site.SiteId
— New-CsTrustedApplication –ApplicationId sefautil –TrustedApplicationPoolFqdn dedicate01.domain.com –Port 7489
Does anyone know what I’m missing here?
Thanks in advance,
And I’m assuming you ran an enable-cstopology after running the above commands. Do you get anything back when you run SEFAUtil and just try to gather information like this:
SEFAUtil.exe /server:lyncserver.contoso.com katarina@contoso.com
You could install the debugging tools and on the front-end and UCMA server and see what errors are being reported back.
Thanks,
Richard
I think you’re making a mistake! Once you create a Call Park Orbit from within the GUI, you can apply the cmdlet “New-CsCallParkOrbit” as it will conflict and give you an error stating that there’s an already existed call park.
You should use the command Set-CsCallParkOrbit
Thanks for the good work.
Mohammed,
I was saying you sure just create it in PowerShell because you if you do it in the GUI you still need to go back to PowerShell anyways – so why waste the time. But you are correct, if you do create it in the GUI you would then need the Set command.
Thanks,
Richard
Call Pickup for Lync: There are two other interesting new blog posts on this topic.
Greg Sheridan: Call Pickup: A history lesson, I explain the different types and compare the Lync 2013 CU1 feature with Cerebro https://greiginsydney.com/lync-call-pickup/
Matthias Friedrichs: Comparison of Microsoft Lync CU1 Group Call Pickup and colima Cerebro Universal Call Pickup, http://blog.colima.de/en/2013/03/microsoft-lync-cu1-group-call-pickup-colima-cerebro-universal-call-pickup/.
Best regards Susanne
Pingback: NeWay Technologies – Weekly Newsletter #36 – March 28, 2013NeWay | NeWay
Pingback: Group Call Pickup with Lync Server 2013 CU1 (February 2013)
This works great. What I would love to see is the ability to set presence or some other indicator next to a users name with ‘incoming call’ so calls can be picked up.
We have an issue where a call comes in for another staff member in the office, and you can hear it ringing but don’t actually know which phone it is as they all have the same ringtone set.