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Lync Enterprise Voice Fundamentals for the 70-337 Exam

The Microsoft 70-337 Exam, focused on Enterprise Voice and Online Services with Lync Server 2013, was a key component of the MCSE: Communication certification path. This exam was designed for IT professionals responsible for designing, deploying, and managing advanced real-time communication solutions. Passing this exam validated a candidate's expertise in integrating the on-premises Lync Server infrastructure with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and with Microsoft's cloud-based online services. It signified a deep understanding of complex voice routing, call management, and hybrid connectivity.

The 70-337 Exam was targeted at consultants and telecommunication specialists who already had a solid foundation in Lync Server 2013 and were looking to specialize in its enterprise-grade voice capabilities. The exam content covered a wide array of topics, from the core architectural components that enable voice communication to the intricate details of dial plans, voice policies, and call admission control. A significant portion of the exam was also dedicated to hybrid configurations, testing a candidate's ability to create a seamless communication experience between on-premises and cloud-based users.

This five-part series will provide a detailed retrospective on the skills and knowledge required to master the topics of the 70-337 Exam. In this initial part, we will build the foundational layer. We will explore the Lync Server architecture for voice, introduce the core concepts of VoIP telephony, and discuss the critical design and planning considerations for an Enterprise Voice deployment. A strong grasp of these fundamentals is the essential first step toward tackling the advanced configurations and scenarios presented in the 70-337 Exam.

Lync Server 2013 Voice Architecture

A thorough understanding of the Lync Server 2013 architecture is the starting point for any professional preparing for the 70-337 Exam. Several key server roles work in concert to deliver the Enterprise Voice workload. The core of the deployment is the Front End Server. This role provides the primary services for user registration, presence, and instant messaging, and it is also the central point for call control and routing logic for internal Lync-to-Lync calls. In Lync 2013, many of the essential voice applications, such as the Conference Attendant and Response Group Service, also run on the Front End Server.

To connect the internal Lync environment to the outside telephone world (the PSTN), the Mediation Server is required. The Mediation Server acts as a critical gateway and translator. It handles all the signaling and media traffic between the internal Lync infrastructure and the external PSTN gateways or SIP trunks. It is responsible for tasks like protocol translation (from SIP over TLS used internally to SIP over TCP used by many gateways) and media transcoding between different codecs. The 70-337 Exam required a deep understanding of the Mediation Server's role.

For external and remote user access, the Edge Server is essential. While its primary role is to enable communication for users outside the corporate firewall, it also plays a part in voice scenarios, particularly for enabling media traffic for remote users. Finally, all the configuration data for these roles, including the complex voice routing rules, is stored in the Central Management Store (CMS). The ability to describe how these roles interact to process a simple PSTN call was a fundamental concept for the 70-337 Exam.

Core Concepts of Enterprise Voice

The 70-337 Exam assumes a solid foundation in general Voice over IP (VoIP) principles. The signaling protocol at the heart of Lync and modern telephony is the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). SIP is a text-based protocol used to set up, modify, and tear down communication sessions, such as a voice call. All the call control in Lync, from making a call to transferring it, is managed using SIP messages.

While SIP handles the signaling, the actual voice conversation is carried in media packets using the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). RTP is the protocol that carries the digitized audio stream between the two endpoints of a call. The audio itself is encoded and decoded using a specific algorithm known as a codec. Lync Server 2013 supported several codecs, such as G.711 and RTAudio. The Mediation Server plays a key role in transcoding, or converting, between these codecs if the endpoints do not share a common one. The 70-337 Exam required knowledge of these fundamental protocols.

The primary goal of Enterprise Voice is to provide connectivity to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This allows Lync users to make and receive calls to and from traditional landline and mobile phones. This connectivity is achieved either through a physical PSTN Gateway, which converts TDM-based circuits like a T1/E1 into SIP, or through a direct SIP Trunk connection to an Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP). Understanding the differences and use cases for these two connectivity methods was essential.

Designing an Enterprise Voice Solution

Before deploying any voice components, a thorough design and planning phase is required. The 70-337 Exam would often test this planning knowledge through scenario-based questions. One of the first and most critical steps is to perform a network readiness assessment. Voice and video traffic are highly sensitive to network conditions like latency, jitter, and packet loss. You needed to analyze your network infrastructure to ensure it could support real-time media and to plan for the implementation of Quality of Service (QoS).

QoS is a mechanism for prioritizing real-time media traffic over less sensitive data traffic on the network. This ensures a high-quality user experience for voice calls. The 70-337 Exam would expect you to be familiar with the concepts of QoS, including the use of Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) markings to classify and prioritize RTP packets.

Another key design decision was choosing the right PSTN connectivity model. You would need to decide whether to use a distributed model, with a PSTN gateway at each major office site, or a centralized model, with one or more large SIP trunks at a central datacenter. This decision would be based on factors like cost, existing telephony infrastructure, and resilience requirements. The ability to weigh these factors and design an appropriate voice topology was a key skill for the 70-337 Exam.

Understanding Dial Plans and Normalization

Dial plans are one of the most fundamental and critical components of any Enterprise Voice deployment, and they are a major topic on the 70-337 Exam. A dial plan is a collection of "normalization rules" that are used to translate the phone numbers dialed by users into a single, standard format. This standard format is the E.164 format, which is a global standard for representing telephone numbers (e.g., +14255550123).

Users are accustomed to dialing numbers in various formats, such as a 7-digit local number, a 10-digit number, or a 4-digit extension. Normalization rules, which are based on regular expressions, take these different inputs and convert them into the consistent E.164 format. For example, a rule could be created to take any 7-digit number and automatically add the correct country code and area code to it. This standardization is essential because all the call routing logic within Lync is based on the E.164 format.

Dial plans are assigned to users based on their location or a set of policies. A user in the London office would have a different dial plan with different normalization rules than a user in the New York office. The 70-337 Exam would require you to be proficient in creating these normalization rules using regular expressions and to understand how to design and assign dial plans to properly process user-dialed numbers.

Overview of Voice Policies and Call Routing

While dial plans handle the translation of phone numbers, "voice policies," "PSTN usage records," and "voice routes" work together to control what calls a user is allowed to make and how those calls are routed to the PSTN. The 70-337 Exam required a deep, practical understanding of how these three components are interconnected.

A "voice policy" is assigned to a user and determines which calling features they have access to. For example, a voice policy could enable or disable features like call forwarding, delegation (allowing an assistant to answer your calls), and simultaneous ringing (making your desk phone and mobile phone ring at the same time). The voice policy also contains a list of "PSTN usage records."

A PSTN usage record is simply a label, such as "Local," "Long Distance," or "International." These usage records are then linked to "voice routes." A voice route is a rule that matches a specific number pattern (in E.164 format) and associates it with a specific PSTN gateway or SIP trunk. By combining these elements, you can create very granular call authorization. For example, a user's voice policy might only include the "Local" PSTN usage, meaning they can only make calls that match a voice route associated with that usage. This entire call authorization flow was a critical concept for the 70-337 Exam.

Navigating Lync Server Management Tools

To configure all of these Enterprise Voice features, Lync Server 2013 provided two primary management tools, and the 70-337 Exam required proficiency in both. The first was the Lync Server Control Panel. This was a web-based graphical user interface that provided a user-friendly way to perform most of the common administrative tasks. Within the control panel, there was a dedicated "Voice Routing" section where you could manage your dial plans, voice policies, routes, and PSTN gateways.

While the control panel was convenient for many tasks, the ultimate tool for power and flexibility was the Lync Server Management Shell. This was a command-line interface based on Windows PowerShell. The management shell provided access to every single configuration setting in Lync, including many advanced options that were not exposed in the graphical interface. All the voice components were managed through a set of specific PowerShell cmdlets, such as New-CsDialPlan, Set-CsVoicePolicy, and Get-CsTrunkConfiguration.

The 70-337 Exam would often present questions that required you to know the correct PowerShell cmdlet or syntax to accomplish a specific configuration task. A successful candidate needed to be comfortable moving between the control panel for straightforward tasks and the management shell for more complex configurations and automation. This dual-tool proficiency was a hallmark of an expert Lync administrator.

Deploying and Configuring the Mediation Server

The Mediation Server is a mandatory component for any Enterprise Voice deployment, and its configuration is a core topic for the 70-337 Exam. Its primary role is to act as a back-to-back user agent, effectively translating signaling and media between the internal Lync environment and the external PSTN connection. It processes every call that goes to or comes from the PSTN.

When deploying the Mediation Server, you had a key architectural choice. You could collocate it on the Front End Server, which was a common choice for smaller to medium-sized deployments to save on hardware. Alternatively, for very large deployments or for specific routing needs, you could deploy it as a standalone server or in a dedicated pool. The 70-337 Exam would expect you to understand the scalability and performance considerations behind this choice.

Configuration of the Mediation Server was done primarily through the Lync Server Topology Builder. In the topology, you would define the Mediation Server and, crucially, associate it with a specific PSTN gateway or SIP trunk. This association tells the Mediation Server where to send outbound calls destined for the PSTN. You would also configure its listening ports. The server listens for traffic from the Front End pool on one port (typically 5067) and for traffic from the gateway on another (typically 5066), providing a clear point of demarcation.

Configuring and Managing PSTN Gateways

For organizations connecting to the PSTN using traditional telephony circuits like T1, E1, or ISDN PRI, a PSTN gateway was required. The 70-337 Exam required you to know how to integrate these devices with Lync. A PSTN gateway is a hardware appliance that translates between the TDM-based signaling of the traditional phone network and the SIP/RTP protocols used by Lync. The gateway is the bridge between the old world and the new world of telephony.

From a Lync perspective, configuring a PSTN gateway was done in the Topology Builder and the Lync Server Control Panel. In the Topology Builder, you would define a new gateway, giving it a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and associating it with a Mediation Server. After publishing the topology, you would move to the control panel to configure the "trunk" relationship between the Mediation Server and the gateway. A trunk is a logical connection that represents this relationship.

The trunk configuration settings allowed you to control various parameters, such as the encryption level for the signaling traffic and whether media bypass was enabled. You also needed to perform a corresponding configuration on the PSTN gateway appliance itself, defining the Lync Mediation Server as its SIP peer. The ability to configure both sides of this connection and troubleshoot common issues was a key practical skill tested by the 70-337 Exam.

Implementing and Securing SIP Trunks

For many modern deployments, connecting to the PSTN via a SIP trunk was the preferred method. The 70-337 Exam covered SIP trunking in detail. A SIP trunk is a direct SIP connection to an Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) over an IP network, such as the internet or a private MPLS circuit. This eliminates the need for physical gateway hardware and traditional telephony circuits, which can reduce costs and simplify the architecture.

The configuration of a SIP trunk was similar to that of a gateway, as it also involved defining a trunk relationship between the Mediation Server and the ITSP's Session Border Controller (SBC). In the Lync configuration, you would define the FQDN or IP address of the ITSP's SBC and the port they use for communication. One of the most critical aspects of SIP trunking was security. Since the connection often traverses the public internet, it was essential to secure the traffic.

This was typically achieved by using Transport Layer Security (TLS) for the SIP signaling, which encrypts the call setup information. The media traffic (RTP) was often encrypted using the Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP). The 70-337 Exam would expect you to be familiar with these security protocols and how to configure them in the trunk settings. You also had to consider media bypass, which could optimize the media path but had specific network requirements.

Creating and Assigning Dial Plans

As established in Part 1, dial plans are essential for translating user-dialed numbers. The 70-337 Exam required you to have the practical skills to create and manage them. This was done in the Lync Server Control Panel or via the Lync Server Management Shell. You could create dial plans with different scopes: a global dial plan that applied to everyone by default, site-level dial plans that applied to users in a specific physical location, and per-user dial plans for individuals with unique requirements.

The core of a dial plan is its set of normalization rules. Each rule consists of a "match pattern" and a "translation rule." The match pattern, written as a regular expression, identifies a specific type of number that a user might dial (e.g., a 7-digit number). The translation rule then specifies how to transform that number into the E.164 format (e.g., "+1425$1", where $1 represents the matched 7 digits). The 70-337 Exam often included questions that required you to interpret or write these regular expressions.

Once a dial plan was created, you had to assign it. You could set a dial plan at the global or site level, and users would automatically inherit it based on their assigned site. For exceptions, you could go to a user's properties and explicitly assign them a specific per-user dial plan. The ability to design a logical dial plan strategy and correctly apply it to your user base was a fundamental skill for any voice administrator.

Configuring User Voice Policies

Voice policies are the primary tool for controlling the calling features that are available to your users. The 70-337 Exam would test your ability to configure these policies to meet specific business requirements. Within the voice policy settings, you would find a series of checkboxes and options that correspond to different calling features.

For example, you could enable or disable call forwarding, which allows a user to redirect their incoming calls to another number. You could enable delegation, which allows an executive to designate an assistant to manage their calls. You could also enable simultaneous ringing, which allows a user to have their desk phone and another number, like their mobile phone, ring at the same time. The 70-337 Exam would expect you to know what each of these features does and where to configure it in the policy.

A critical part of the voice policy was the list of associated PSTN usage records. As discussed previously, these records are the link between the user's policy and the call routing configuration. By adding or removing PSTN usages from a voice policy, you could control what types of calls a user was authorized to make (e.g., only local calls versus local and international calls). This made the voice policy the central point for managing a user's entire calling experience.

Configuring Routes and PSTN Usages

The combination of PSTN usage records and voice routes forms the core of Lync's call routing engine. The 70-337 Exam required a deep, practical understanding of this relationship. The configuration followed a logical flow. First, you would create one or more PSTN usage records in the Lync Server Control Panel. These were simply text labels, such as "Internal," "Local," "National," and "International."

Next, you would associate these PSTN usage records with your voice policies. A basic user might have a voice policy that only contained the "Internal" and "Local" usage records. A manager might have a policy that also included the "National" usage. An executive's policy might include all of them, including "International." This step defined the calling permissions for the users assigned to each policy.

Finally, you would create "voice routes." Each route consisted of a number pattern (using a regular expression to match E.164 numbers) and a list of the PSTN gateways or SIP trunks that should be used for that pattern. Crucially, each route was also associated with one or more PSTN usage records. This is what completed the link. When a user made a call, Lync would only consider using a route if that route was associated with a PSTN usage that was also present in the user's voice policy. This complex but powerful logic was a key focus of the 70-337 Exam.

Enabling Users for Enterprise Voice

Once all the backend infrastructure and policies were configured, the final step was to enable individual users for Enterprise Voice. The 70-337 Exam covered this essential user provisioning process. This was typically done in the Lync Server Control Panel on the "Users" page. You would search for the user you wanted to enable, and then edit their properties.

In the user's properties, you would change their telephony setting from "PC-to-PC only" to "Enterprise Voice." This would unlock the voice configuration options. The most important setting was the "Line URI." This is where you would assign the user's direct telephone number in the E.164 format (e.g., tel:+14255550123). This Line URI becomes the user's unique phone number in the Lync system.

You would also assign the user a specific dial plan and a voice policy. While users would typically inherit these from their site, you could override the defaults and assign a specific per-user policy if needed. Once you saved these changes, the user was fully enabled for Enterprise Voice. They could then sign in to their Lync client and would see a dial pad, allowing them to make and receive calls on the PSTN. This final provisioning step brought all the preceding configuration work together.

Configuring Call Park and Unassigned Numbers

Beyond basic call routing, Lync Server 2013 provided several advanced call handling features, which were covered in the 70-337 Exam. One such feature was Call Park. Call Park allows a user to place a call on hold in a way that it can be retrieved by someone else from a different phone. When a user parks a call, the system places the call in a special "orbit" and announces a unique retrieval number to the user. Anyone can then dial this number from any Lync phone to retrieve the call.

Configuring Call Park involved enabling the service and defining the orbit number ranges in the Lync Server Control Panel. This feature was particularly useful in environments like a retail store or a warehouse, where employees might not be at their desks. The ability to configure the Call Park service and understand its workflow was a key practical skill for the 70-337 Exam.

Another important feature was the treatment of calls to unassigned numbers. When a call came in to a phone number that was within your valid number range but was not assigned to a specific user or object, you needed a way to handle it. The Unassigned Number feature allowed you to configure a routing rule for these calls. You could route them to an announcement that would play a message (e.g., "The number you have dialed is not in service"), or you could forward them to a central receptionist or auto-attendant. This prevented callers from simply getting a fast busy signal.

Introduction to the Response Group Service (RGS)

For managing departmental call flows, such as for a help desk or a sales queue, Lync Server 2013 included the Response Group Service (RGS). A deep understanding of RGS was a major requirement for the 70-337 Exam. RGS provided basic Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) capabilities, allowing you to create call queues and route incoming calls to a group of designated agents. This was a built-in application that ran on the Front End Server.

The core of RGS was the "workflow." A workflow defined the entire logic for how a call would be handled from the moment it arrived. This included what welcome message to play, whether to ask the caller questions, which group of agents to send the call to, and what to do if all agents were busy. You could create multiple workflows, each with its own unique phone number, to handle different business functions within your organization.

The agents who answered the calls were organized into "agent groups." These were simply lists of the Lync users who were designated to answer calls for a particular queue. Agents could be formal, meaning they had to explicitly sign in to the queue to receive calls, or informal, meaning they would receive calls whenever they were signed in to their Lync client. The 70-337 Exam would test your ability to design and configure these workflows and agent groups.

Configuring RGS Workflows and Routing

The 70-337 Exam required practical knowledge of how to create an RGS workflow using the Lync Server Control Panel or Management Shell. When creating a workflow, one of the first decisions was the routing method. RGS supported several methods for distributing calls among the agents in a group. "Parallel" routing would ring all available agents simultaneously. "Serial" routing would ring them one by one in a predefined order. "Round Robin" would distribute calls evenly, sending each new call to the next agent in the list. "Longest Idle" would send the call to the agent who had been free for the longest time.

You also had to configure the business hours for the workflow. You could define a schedule for when the response group was "open" and able to receive calls. You could also define a separate call handling logic for what should happen when a call arrived outside of these business hours, such as playing a different message or forwarding the call to a voicemail box.

The workflow also allowed you to configure music on hold for callers who were waiting in a queue and to set queue timeouts. For example, if a caller had been waiting in the queue for more than five minutes, you could configure the workflow to automatically forward them to an alternate number or to voicemail. The ability to combine these settings to build a complete call flow was a key skill for the 70-337 Exam.

Managing RGS Queues and IVR

When all the agents in a response group were busy, incoming calls were placed in a queue. The 70-337 Exam covered the configuration of these queues. You could configure the maximum number of calls allowed in the queue at any one time. If this limit was reached, you could define a specific action for the next incoming call, such as disconnecting it or forwarding it to a different number. This prevented the queue from growing indefinitely and ensured callers did not wait for an excessive amount of time.

RGS also provided basic Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capabilities. An IVR allows you to present a caller with a series of spoken prompts and then route them based on their telephone keypad responses. For example, a workflow could start by playing a message like, "For sales, press 1. For support, press 2." Based on the caller's selection, the workflow would then route the call to the appropriate agent group (the sales team or the support team).

The IVR configuration involved defining the questions and the possible answers. For each answer, you would specify the action to take, which was typically to transfer the call to another queue or a specific phone number. While not as advanced as a full-featured contact center solution, the ability to create these simple phone trees using the built-in RGS was a powerful feature and a key topic for the 70-337 Exam.

Implementing Call Admission Control (CAC)

In a geographically distributed organization, voice and video traffic often has to traverse slower wide-area network (WAN) links between sites. Call Admission Control (CAC) is a critical Lync feature for preventing this real-time traffic from overwhelming these constrained links and causing poor call quality for everyone. A deep understanding of CAC was a major objective of the 70-337 Exam.

CAC worked by keeping track of the amount of bandwidth being consumed by real-time media on these WAN links. As an administrator, you would define policies that specified the maximum amount of bandwidth that could be allocated for voice and video on each link. When a user tried to make a call that would cross one of these links, Lync would first check the CAC policy. If accepting the new call would exceed the bandwidth limit, the call would be rejected with a message, or it could be rerouted over the PSTN as a backup.

The configuration of CAC was complex. It involved defining network regions, sites, and the links between them in your Lync network topology. You also had to define the bandwidth policies and associate them with these links. While it was a powerful feature for managing network quality, it required careful planning and configuration. The 70-337 Exam would test both the conceptual understanding and the practical configuration of CAC.

Configuring Location Services and E9-1-1

Providing location information for emergency calls is a legal requirement in some countries and a critical safety feature. The 70-337 Exam covered the configuration of Lync's Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) capabilities. The goal of E9-1-1 is to automatically detect the location of a Lync user when they make an emergency call and to route that call to the appropriate local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

The core of this feature was the Location Information Service (LIS). As an administrator, you were responsible for populating the LIS database with location information. This involved mapping network identifiers, such as IP subnets, wireless access point BSSIDs, or network switch port IDs, to specific physical addresses (e.g., street address, floor, and office number). When a Lync client connected to the network, it would query the LIS to determine its location.

When a user dialed 911, the Lync server would use this location information to route the call to the correct local emergency services operator, often through a certified E9-1-1 service provider. It would also send a notification to the company's internal security desk, alerting them of the emergency call and the user's location. The ability to configure the LIS database and the emergency call routing policies was an advanced and important topic on the 70-337 Exam.

Understanding and Using Media Bypass

Media bypass was an important feature for optimizing the media path in certain voice scenarios, and it was a key concept for the 70-337 Exam. By default, when a Lync user made a PSTN call, the media (RTP) traffic would flow from the user's client, through the Mediation Server, and then to the PSTN gateway. This meant that the Mediation Server was always in the media path, which could add a small amount of latency and consume processing resources on the server.

Media bypass allowed the media path to be optimized. If the Lync client had a direct, high-bandwidth network connection to the PSTN gateway, media bypass could be enabled. With media bypass, the signaling traffic (SIP) would still flow through the Mediation Server for call control, but the media traffic (RTP) would flow directly from the client to the gateway, completely bypassing the Mediation Server.

This had several benefits. It reduced the processing load on the Mediation Server, which could improve scalability. It also eliminated a hop in the media path, which could improve call quality. However, media bypass had strict requirements, including the need for direct connectivity and compatible gateways. The 70-337 Exam would expect you to be able to explain how media bypass works, its benefits, and the scenarios in which it could and could not be used.

Introduction to Lync Online Services

While Lync Server 2013 was a powerful on-premises solution, Microsoft also offered Lync Online as part of its Office 365 cloud suite. The 70-337 Exam dedicated a significant portion of its content to understanding and integrating with these online services. Lync Online provided many of the same core features as the on-premises server, such as presence, instant messaging, and PC-to-PC calling, but it was delivered as a multi-tenant, cloud-hosted service managed by Microsoft.

One of the key differences at the time was in the area of Enterprise Voice. While Lync Online provided basic communication features, its native PSTN connectivity options were very limited or non-existent in many regions. This created a strong use case for a "hybrid" configuration, where an organization could use both the on-premises Lync Server and the cloud-based Lync Online service together. The 70-337 Exam emphasized this hybrid model as the bridge between the two worlds.

Understanding the features and limitations of Lync Online was the first step. For example, an administrator using Lync Online had less granular control over the configuration compared to the on-premises server. The service was managed through a web-based portal and a specific version of PowerShell, but many of the deep architectural settings were abstracted away. A high-level understanding of the Lync Online service offering was a prerequisite for tackling the hybrid configuration topics on the 70-337 Exam.

Configuring a Lync Hybrid Deployment

A hybrid deployment, also known as a "split domain" configuration, was the core of the online services content for the 70-337 Exam. This model allowed an organization to have some of its users "homed" on the on-premises Lync Server, while other users were homed in the Lync Online cloud service, all under the same SIP domain. This provided a seamless experience for end-users, who could communicate with each other regardless of where their account was located.

Setting up a hybrid configuration was a complex, multi-step process. It began with configuring the on-premises Lync Server environment for federation with the cloud. This involved configuring the on-premises Edge Server to allow communication with the Lync Online data centers. You also had to configure your public DNS records, including specific SRV records that allowed external clients and the cloud service to discover your on-premises Edge Server.

On the Lync Online side, you had to enable the tenant for a split domain configuration. This was done through a series of PowerShell commands. Once the initial setup was complete, you had established a federated and shared address space relationship between your on-premises environment and your Office 365 tenant. The 70-337 Exam would test your knowledge of this entire setup process, from DNS and certificates to the specific Lync configuration steps.

Directory Synchronization and Identity Management

For a hybrid deployment to work seamlessly, both the on-premises and online environments needed to have a consistent view of the user directory. This was achieved through directory synchronization. The 70-337 Exam required a solid understanding of this identity management foundation. The tool used for this at the time was the Directory Synchronization Tool, or DirSync. DirSync was an on-premises application that would read user accounts from your local Active Directory and synchronize them up to the cloud directory (now known as Azure Active Directory).

This synchronization ensured that a user account existed in both places, which was a prerequisite for moving a user between on-premises and the cloud. For a truly seamless user experience, you also needed to set up single sign-on (SSO). This was accomplished using Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS). AD FS is an on-premises service that acts as an identity provider. When a user tried to log in to Lync Online, they would be redirected to the on-premises AD FS server to authenticate against the local Active Directory.

This meant that users could log in to all their services, both on-premises and online, using their familiar corporate username and password. The combination of DirSync for directory consistency and AD FS for SSO was the standard identity model for a rich hybrid deployment. The 70-337 Exam would expect you to be able to describe the role of both of these components in a Lync hybrid scenario.

Moving Users Between On-Premises and Online

Once the hybrid connectivity was established, you could begin migrating users between the on-premises Lync server and the Lync Online service. The 70-337 Exam covered the administrative procedures for performing these moves. The entire process was managed using the on-premises Lync Server Management Shell. There were specific PowerShell cmdlets, such as Move-CsUser, that were used to initiate the migration.

When you moved a user to Lync Online, the cmdlet would connect to the cloud service, create the necessary user object in the cloud, transfer the user's contact list and other settings, and then update the user's attributes in the on-premises Active Directory to point to their new location in the cloud. You could also move users back from Lync Online to the on-premises server if needed, using a similar process.

The 70-337 Exam would test your knowledge of the prerequisites for moving a user, such as ensuring that directory synchronization was working correctly and that the necessary administrative credentials were in place. You also needed to be familiar with the cmdlets used to check the status of a user move and to troubleshoot any failures that might occur during the migration process. This user lifecycle management was a key operational aspect of administering a hybrid environment.

The Edge Server's Role in Hybrid Voice

The on-premises Edge Server played a pivotal role in a hybrid deployment, a fact that was heavily emphasized in the 70-337 Exam. It acted as the secure gateway for all communication between the on-premises environment and the Lync Online cloud. For a hybrid voice scenario to work, the Edge Server had to be configured to trust and communicate with the Microsoft cloud infrastructure.

This involved several key configuration steps. You had to configure the Edge Server's external interface with publicly trusted SSL certificates. You also needed to create a "hosting provider" entry in your Lync configuration that defined the connection details for the Lync Online service. This allowed your Edge Server to federate with the cloud, enabling presence sharing and instant messaging between your on-premises and online users.

For hybrid voice specifically, the Edge Server was responsible for enabling the media path for calls between on-premises and online users. It handled the secure traversal of the RTP traffic across the internet. The proper configuration of the Edge Server, including its DNS records, certificates, and federation settings, was arguably the most critical and complex part of setting up a hybrid Lync environment, and therefore a major focus of the 70-337 Exam.

Managing Enterprise Voice in a Hybrid Model

One of the most common reasons for deploying a Lync hybrid model was to provide PSTN connectivity to users who had been migrated to Lync Online. Since Lync Online's native PSTN capabilities were limited, the hybrid model allowed you to leverage your existing on-premises Enterprise Voice infrastructure, including your PSTN gateways and SIP trunks, to provide phone service for your cloud-based users. This was a key scenario for the 70-337 Exam.

In this model, when a Lync Online user wanted to make a PSTN call, the call would be routed from the Microsoft cloud, across the federated link to your on-premises Edge Server, then to your on-premises Mediation Server, and finally out to the PSTN through your local gateway. This required careful configuration of the voice routing policies on both the on-premises server and in the Lync Online tenant.

You had to configure your on-premises dial plans and voice routes to handle these calls from your online users. You also had to configure the user's voice policy in the Lync Online tenant to route PSTN calls back to the on-premises infrastructure. The ability to design and troubleshoot this complex call flow, which spanned both the on-premises and cloud environments, was an advanced skill that the 70-337 Exam was designed to validate.

Troubleshooting Hybrid and Online Connectivity

Given the complexity of a hybrid deployment, troubleshooting was a critical skill for any administrator, and the 70-337 Exam would test this through scenario-based questions. Issues could arise in several areas, including directory synchronization, single sign-on, and the Lync federation itself. For directory sync issues, you would need to check the logs of the DirSync tool. For AD FS problems, you would check the event logs on the federation servers.

For Lync-specific connectivity issues, Microsoft provided a set of online tools, such as the Remote Connectivity Analyzer. This web-based tool could perform a series of tests against your on-premises Lync environment from an external perspective, checking for correct DNS records, valid certificates, and proper Edge Server configuration. This was often the first step in diagnosing a problem with hybrid connectivity.

Within the Lync environment itself, you would use the standard troubleshooting tools. The Lync Server Logging Tool could be used to capture detailed traces of the SIP traffic on the Edge Server to see exactly what was happening during a failed communication attempt between an on-premises and an online user. The ability to use these different tools to systematically diagnose and resolve hybrid connectivity problems was a key competency for the 70-337 Exam.

Proactive Testing with Synthetic Transactions

While the Monitoring Server reports were excellent for analyzing past calls, Lync also provided a way to proactively test the health of the voice infrastructure. This was done using "synthetic transactions." These are PowerShell cmdlets that simulate a common user action and report on its success or failure. The 70-337 Exam required familiarity with these powerful testing tools.

For Enterprise Voice, one of the most important synthetic transactions was Test-CsPstnOutboundCall. This cmdlet would instruct a Lync server to automatically place a real test call out to the PSTN through a specified gateway or trunk. The cmdlet would then report back on whether the call was successfully established. You could run this test on a regular schedule using the Windows Task Scheduler. If the test failed, you could have it trigger an alert, notifying you of a potential problem with your PSTN connectivity before any users were impacted.

There were other synthetic transaction cmdlets for testing various aspects of the Lync service, such as user logon and conferencing. The ability to use these tools to create a proactive monitoring strategy, rather than just waiting for users to report problems, was a key differentiator for an expert administrator and a topic covered by the 70-337 Exam.

Troubleshooting Common Enterprise Voice Issues

The 70-337 Exam would heavily test your problem-solving skills through complex troubleshooting scenarios. You needed a systematic approach to diagnosing common Enterprise Voice issues. For example, if a user reported that they could not make outbound PSTN calls, you would need to follow a logical troubleshooting path. This would involve checking the user's voice policy and PSTN usage, verifying the dial plan's normalization rules, and then checking the voice routes to ensure the number pattern was correctly routed to a gateway.

Another common issue was one-way audio, where one party in a call can hear the other, but not vice-versa. This is almost always caused by a network firewall or router blocking the RTP media traffic in one direction. To troubleshoot this, you would need to verify that all the required firewall ports for media traffic were open between the Lync client, the servers, and the PSTN gateway. The 70-337 Exam would expect you to know the specific port ranges required for Lync media.

For reports of poor call quality, your primary tool would be the QoE reports from the Monitoring Server. These reports would allow you to pinpoint the exact network segment that was introducing the high jitter or packet loss that was causing the problem. This would help you determine if the issue was on the user's local network, the corporate WAN, or the connection to the ITSP.

Using the Centralized Logging Service (CLS)

For deep, advanced troubleshooting, Lync Server 2013 introduced the Centralized Logging Service (CLS). The 70-337 Exam required an understanding of this powerful new tool. The CLS allowed an administrator to enable and collect very detailed diagnostic logs for specific scenarios across all the servers in a pool simultaneously. This was a significant improvement over the older Lync Server Logging Tool, which had to be run on each server individually.

The CLS Logger was managed entirely through the Lync Server Management Shell. You would use PowerShell cmdlets to start a logging session, specifying a particular scenario (e.g., "Voice") and the identity of the user or call you were trying to trace. The CLS would then capture all the relevant log data from all the involved servers (Front End, Mediation, Edge) into a single set of correlated trace files.

Once the logging session was complete, you would use another set of cmdlets to stop the trace and export the log files. These files could then be analyzed using a tool called Snooper. Snooper was a log file viewer that was specifically designed to parse and display the Lync trace logs in a readable, color-coded format, allowing you to follow the SIP signaling and diagnose complex call flow problems. The ability to use the CLS and Snooper for advanced troubleshooting was a key skill for the 70-337 Exam.

Comprehensive Review of 70-337 Exam Objectives

In the final phase of your preparation for the 70-337 Exam, it is crucial to return to the official exam objectives and perform a comprehensive review. Go through each major section, from designing and configuring Enterprise Voice to managing online services and troubleshooting. Ensure you have a firm grasp on the core call routing logic, including the interplay between dial plans, voice policies, PSTN usages, and routes. You should be able to diagram this flow from memory.

Revisit the advanced call management features. Be confident in your ability to configure the Response Group Service, including workflows and IVRs. Review the concepts and configuration of Call Admission Control and the Location Information Service for E9-1-1. Spend a significant amount of time reviewing the hybrid configuration topics. Make sure you can describe the roles of DirSync and AD FS, the process for moving users, and the critical role of the on-premises Edge Server.

Finally, review the monitoring and troubleshooting tools. Be able to differentiate between CDR and QoE data and know which PowerShell cmdlets to use for synthetic transactions and the Centralized Logging Service. A systematic review of these key areas, mapping them directly to the exam's published skill set, will ensure you have covered all the required knowledge domains and are fully prepared for the 70-337 Exam.

Navigating the Exam Format and Question Types

The 70-337 Exam, like other Microsoft exams from that era, was known for its challenging question formats, which went beyond simple multiple-choice. You could expect to see complex case studies that presented a detailed description of a fictional company's environment and business requirements. You would then be asked a series of questions based on this case study, requiring you to apply your knowledge to design a solution or troubleshoot a problem within that specific context.

You would also likely encounter other interactive question types, such as drag-and-drop questions where you might need to place configuration steps in the correct order, or questions where you had to build a PowerShell command by selecting the correct components. These question types were designed to test your practical, hands-on knowledge more effectively than standard multiple-choice questions.

The key to success with these formats is to read the entire question and all associated information, such as the case study text, very carefully. Do not rush to an answer. Take the time to understand the full context of the problem you are being asked to solve. For case studies, it can be helpful to take notes on the key requirements and constraints as you read through the text.

Conclusion

In the last few days before your 70-337 Exam, avoid trying to learn new topics. Your focus should be on light review and reinforcing the knowledge you have already gained. Use practice exams to get a feel for the timing and pressure of the test environment. For any questions you answer incorrectly, make sure you go back and understand the concept thoroughly. This is one of the best ways to solidify your knowledge.

Get a good night's sleep before the exam. Being tired can significantly impair your ability to think clearly and analyze the complex scenarios presented in the exam. On the day of the test, arrive at the testing center early to avoid any stress. Once the exam starts, manage your time wisely. Keep an eye on the clock and the number of questions remaining. If you get stuck on a difficult question, especially in a case study, mark it and move on. You can come back to it later.

Trust in your preparation. The 70-337 Exam was a challenging test of a deep skill set. If you have put in the time to study and, ideally, have hands-on experience with the product, you will be well-prepared. Stay calm, read each question with care, and apply your knowledge systematically. Passing the exam was a significant achievement that validated your expertise as a Microsoft unified communications specialist.

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