Starting and Stopping Services and Deactivating Server Roles
Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will reach end of support on January 9, 2018. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.
After some administrative actions, you may need to stop and restart one or more Office Communications Server 2007 services. As your needs change, you may decide to deactivate one or more server roles.
Additionally, you can remove a server or pool from your Office Communications Server deployment as described later in this guide in Removing Servers and Server Roles, Removing Enterprise Pools, and Decommissioning Servers and Pools.
Stopping and Starting Services
You can start or stop each individual Office Communications Server 2007 service by using any of the following tools:
Computer Management snap-in extension for Office Communications Server 2007 (on the server on which the service is running).
Office Communications Server 2007 administrative snap-in (on the server on which the service is running or from a remote computer in the same forest for all services except services that are running on an edge server or proxy server).
Services snap-in.
Note
For details about setting changes that require service restarts, see Appendix C: Services That Must Be Restarted.
To stop or start an Office Communications Server 2007 service
Log on as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group to the Office Communications Server 2007 server on which the service is running.
Open Computer Management.
In the console tree, expand Services and Applications, right-click Office Communications Server 2007, and then do one of the following:
If the computer is running a single server role, click Start or Stop.
If the computer is running services for multiple server roles, point to Start or Stop, and then click the appropriate services for the server roles that you want to start or stop. (Services for server roles that are not installed on the server are not activated.)
Deactivating Server Roles
Occasionally, you may need to take a Standard Edition server or a server in an Enterprise pool offline, for example, for purposes of maintenance or replacement. When you deactivate a server role, the services that are provided through that role are no longer available to users. If you take a server offline without first taking appropriate precautionary steps (as described in the following subsection), you can significantly affect the availability of service.
Deactivating a server role removes specific Active Directory objects that are associated with the role, but any service accounts and group accounts that you created to run the associated services remain intact. You can deactivate a server role by using any of the following tools:
Computer Management snap-in extension for Office Communications Server 2007
Office Communications Server 2007 administrative snap-in (for all server roles except edge servers, Proxy Servers, and any other servers not in a domain).
LcsCmd.exe command-line tool
This section explains the following tasks:
Deactivating server roles for a Standard Edition server or a server in an Enterprise pool
Deactivating a Mediation Server
Deactivating an Archiving and CDR Server
Deactivating an edge server role
Deactivating Server Roles for a Standard Edition Server or an Enterprise Pool
Before you deactivate a server role on a Standard Edition server or on an Enterprise Edition server in an Enterprise pool, do the following in order to mitigate the effects of the server role being unavailable:
Provide users with sufficient notice that they can plan for the down time.
Deactivate the server roles on the weekend or holiday or during other off-peak hours.
At the appointed time, wait until all active sessions that will be affected by the down time are completed.
Warning
Deactivating a server role can result in the loss of data and settings. Before you deactivate a server role, ensure that all data and settings have been backed up and appropriate restoration procedures are in place. For details about backing up data and server settings, see the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Backup and Restoration Guide.
If you deactivate any server role on a computer, you must deactivate all server roles on that are running on the same computer. These server roles should be deactivated in the following sequence:
A/V Conferencing Server
Web Conferencing Server
Web Components Server
Front End Server
Note
Only server roles that are installed on the server and activated are available for deactivation.
Before you deactivate a server role, we recommend that you stop all Office Communications Server services to help ensure that no users are connected to the server. For details about stopping a service, see Starting and Stopping Services and Deactivating Server Roles earlier in this guide.
To deactivate a server role on a Standard Edition Server or server in an Enterprise pool
Log on as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group to the Office Communications Server 2007 server.
Open Computer Management.
Expand Services and Applications, right-click Office Communications Server 2007, point to Deactivate, and then click the server role that you want to deactivate.
Note
Only server roles that are installed on the server and activated are available for deactivation. Additionally, the Web Conferencing Server is dependent on the Web Components Server, so the Web Components Server role is not available for deactivation until after the Web Conferencing Server role has been deactivated.
In the Deactivation Wizard, review the information on each page, and then click Next.
When the wizard is complete, select the View the log when you click Finish check box, and then click Finish.
Use the log file to verify that the deactivation status in the Execution Result column (including the status of each deactivation task) for a server role is Success.
Important
The deactivation status that is shown in the log must indicate success before you deactivate any other server role or take other Office Communications Server actions. If any task does not complete successfully, resolve the problem and run the Deactivation Wizard again to complete the deactivation.
Deactivating a Mediation Server
If you remove a Mediation Server from service without first taking appropriate precautionary steps, you can significantly impact the availability of service, including causing any active calls to be dropped. Before deactivating a Mediation Server, do the following, as appropriate:
Deactivate the Mediation Server on the weekend or holiday, or during other off-peak hours, but only after you have checked the call logs to make sure nobody is using that particular gateway.
Change routes on the Communications Server so that no new calls are routed through the Mediation Server to be deactivated, and then wait for all calls to hang up. This option is riskier than the first option because mid-call transfers and other types of call routing might be broken if the routes have been deleted.
Do a combination of the first two options in which you change routes on the Communications Server during off-peak hours, but only after all calls are completed.
Warning
Deactivating a Mediation Server can result in the loss of data and settings. Before you start the deactivation procedure in this section, ensure that all data and settings have been backed up and appropriate restoration procedures are in place. For more information about backing up data and settings, see the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Backup and Restoration Guide.
To deactivate a Mediation Server
Log on to the Mediation Server as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group.
Open Computer Management.
Expand Services and Applications, right-click Office Communications Server 2007, and then click Deactivate Mediation Server.
In the Deactivation Wizard, review the information on each page, and then click Next.
When the wizard is complete, select the View the log when you click Finish check box, and then click Finish.
Use the log file to verify that the deactivation status in the Execution Result column (including the status of each deactivation task) for a server role is Success.
Important
The deactivation status that is shown in the log must indicate success before you deactivate any other server role or take other Office Communications Server actions. If any task does not complete successfully, resolve the problem and run the Deactivation Wizard again to complete the deactivation.
Deactivating an Archiving and CDR Server
If you remove an Archiving and CDR Server from service without first taking appropriate precautionary steps, you can significantly impact the availability of service. Before deactivating an Archiving and CDR Server, do the following:
Deactivate the Archiving and CDR Server on the weekend or holiday, or during other off-peak hours.
Verify the lack of archiving and CDR logging activity.
Warning
Deactivating an Archiving and CDR Server can result in the loss of data and settings. Before starting the deactivation procedure in this section, ensure that all data and settings have been backed up and appropriate restoration procedures are in place. For more information about backing up data and settings, see the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Backup and Restoration Guide.
Ensure that Archiving and CDR Server settings are configured to prevent the loss of any compliance records required for your organization.
To deactivate an Archiving and CDR Server
Log on to the Mediation Server as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group.
Open Computer Management.
Expand Services and Applications, right-click Office Communications Server 2007, and then click Deactivate.
In the Deactivation Wizard, review the information on each page.
When the wizard is complete, select the View the log when you click Finish check box, and then click Finish.
Use the log file to verify that the deactivation status in the Execution Result column (including the status of each deactivation task) for a server role is Success.
Important
The deactivation status that is shown in the log must indicate success before you deactivate any other server role or take other Office Communications Server actions. If any task does not complete successfully, resolve the problem and run the Deactivation Wizard again to complete the deactivation.
Deactivating an Edge Server
When you deactivate an edge server, you deactivate all edge server roles that are running on the server, which can include following:
Access Edge Server
Web Conferencing Edge Server
A/V Edge Server.
If you remove an edge server from service without first taking appropriate precautionary steps, you can significantly impact the availability of service for external users. Before deactivating an edge server, do the following:
Deactivate the edge server on the weekend or holiday, or during other off-peak hours.
Export or copy all certificates so they are available for subsequent use, if required.
Warning
Deactivating an edge server can result in the loss of data and settings. Before starting the deactivation procedure in this section, ensure that all data and settings have been backed up and appropriate restoration procedures are in place. For more information about backing up data and settings, see the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Backup and Restoration Guide.
To deactivate an edge server
Log on to the edge server as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group.
Open Computer Management.
Expand Services and Applications, right-click Office Communications Server 2007, point to Deactivate, and then click Edge Server.
In the Deactivation Wizard, review the information on each page.
When the wizard is complete, select the View the log when you click Finish check box, and then click Finish.
Use the log file to verify that the deactivation status in the Execution Result column (including the status of each deactivation task) for a server role is Success.
Important
The deactivation status that is shown in the log must indicate success before you deactivate any other server role or take other Office Communications Server actions. If any task does not complete successfully, resolve the problem and run the Deactivation Wizard again to complete the deactivation.