• Article

Managing Databases

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.

Database management generally requires regular backup of all databases, as covered in the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Backup and Restoration Guide, as well as routine maintenance. Depending on growth of a topology and other factors, it may also be necessary to change the location of a database. Use the information and procedures in this section for the following:

  • Managing the Schedule for Maintenance of the RTCConfig and User Database

  • Moving the Back-End Database

  • Changing the Database Used by an Archiving and CDR Server

Managing the Schedule for Maintenance of the RTCConfig and User Database

You should schedule database maintenance for the RTCConfig and user database during off-hours when it will not interfere with business operations.

To configure the schedule for database maintenance

  1. Open Office Communications Server 2007.

  2. In the console tree, expand the forest node, and then do one of the following:

    • For an Enterprise pool, expand Enterprise pools, expand the pool, right-click Front Ends, and then click Properties.

    • For a Standard Edition Server, expand Standard Edition servers, right-click the pool, click Properties, and then click Front End Properties.

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  3. On the General tab, in Automatic database maintenance time, specify the hour when database cleanup is to start each day. The possible values are 0 (midnight) to 23 (11 p.m.). The default is 2 (2 a.m.).

Moving a Back-End Database

If you need to move the back-end database, such as might be required if the current location has insufficient space available for the database, you can move the back-end database as follows:

  • For an Enterprise pool, you can move the back-end database to a different location on the same computer or to another computer.

  • For a Standard Edition server, you can move the back-end database to a different location on the same computer.

Note

Before you move a database, ensure that the new location meets the system requirements for a back-end database. If you are moving the database of an Enterprise pool to a different computer, ensure that SQL Server 2005 is installed on the server. For more information about system requirements and installation of SQL Server 2005, see the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Planning Guide, the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition Deployment Guide, and the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition Deployment Guide.

Moving a Back-End Database for an Enterprise Pool

In order to move a back-end database for an Enterprise pool, you do the following:

  • Detach the RTC, RTCConfig, and RTCDyn databases from the Enterprise pool and move the database files to the new location.

  • Attach the RTC and RTCConfig databases to the Enterprise pool.

To detach the RTC, RTCConfig, and RTCDyn databases and move the database files for an Enterprise pool

  1. Verify that the RTC database is backed up and that the backup files are accessible. For details about backing up the database, see the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Backup and Restoration Guide.

  2. Log on as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group to the server on which Office Communication Server is installed.

  3. Stop all Office Communications Server 2007 services in the pool, including the following:

    • A/V Conferencing service

    • Web Conferencing service

    • Front end services, including IM Conferencing service, Telephony Conferencing Server service, and Front End service

  4. Log on as a member of the Administrators group to the Back-End Database Server for the pool.

  5. Open SQL Server Management Studio for Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and then click SQL Server Management Studio.

  6. In the console tree, expand the server node. Expand Databases, and then for each of the three databases (RTC, RTCConfig, and RTCDyn), do the following:

    1. Right-click the database, point to Tasks, and then click Detach.

    2. In the Detach Database dialog box, in the details pane, select the checkbox in the Drop Connections column, and then click OK.

    After you have detached all three databases, move the .mdf and .ldf files of the RTC and RTCConfig databases to the new location (server or path), and then use the following procedure to attach the RTC and RTCConfig databases.

To attach the RTC and RTCConfig databases for an Enterprise pool

  1. Log on as a member of the Administrators group to the Back-End Database Server where you are moving the databases.

  2. Open SQL Server Management Studio for Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

  3. In the console tree, expand the server node. Right-click Databases, and then click Attach.

  4. For the RTC database and the RTCConfig database, do the following:

    1. In the Attach Databases dialog box, in the details pane, under Databases to attach, click Add.

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    2. In the Locate Database Files dialog box, click the .mdf file for the RTC database, and then click OK.

    3. In the Attach Databases dialog box, verify that both the .mdf file and the .ldf file of the RTC database are listed under database details. If Rtc.ldf is not listed, add it now: Click the button in the Current File Path column, next to Rtc.mdf, click the .ldf file for the RTC database, and then click OK. In the Attach Databases dialog box, click OK.

  5. After you have verified that the RTC and RTCConfig databases are listed under the Databases folder in SQL server, update the pool back-end settings. Click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK. At the command prompt, type the following command with information about your deployment:

    lcscmd /forest /action:UpdatePoolBackend /poolname:[name of pool to which databases have been attached] /poolbe:[name of SQL server instance for the pool back-end]

  6. Log on as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group to the server on which the Enterprise pool was created (generally, the Front End Server of the Enterprise pool).

  7. Insert the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 CD, or if you installed Office Communications Server from a network share, go to the \Setup\I386 folder on the share, and then double-click setup.exe.

  8. In the deployment tool, do one of the following:

    • Click Deploy Pools in a Consolidated Topology.

    • Click Deploy Pools in an Expanded Topology.

  9. At Create Enterprise Pool, click Run.

  10. In the Create Enterprise Pool Wizard, on the Pool Name, Domain, and Back-End page, do the following:

    • In Pool name, type the pool name.

    • In Domain, verify that the domain FQDN is correct.

    • In Pool FQDN, verify that the FQDN is the pool name followed by the domain name.

    • In SQL Server instance, type the name of the SQL Server that is to host the back-end database and the name of the database instance. If you are using the default instance, specify only the name of the SQL Server. Otherwise, enter the SQL Server name and instance by using the following syntax: <servername>\<instance>.

    Note

    The SQL Server instance must already exist before you perform this step.

  11. On the Web Farm FQDNs page, in Internal Web farm FQDN and External Web farm FQDN, type the same FQDNs as before.

  12. On the Reuse Existing Database page, clear the Replace existing database check box.

    Warning

    If you select the Replace existing database check box, all of your existing data will be lost.

  13. On the Locations for User Database page, in Persistent user database and the Transient user database, type the appropriate path for each

  14. On the Meeting Content and Archive Location page, do the following:

    • Under Meeting content location, type the address of the share where Web conference presentations are stored. You must specify a remote UNC path.

    • Under Meeting metadata location, type the address of the share used to store metadata used by the pools Web Conferencing Server for the pool. You must specify a remote UNC path.

    • To enable archiving of Web conference data, select the Enable meeting archiving check box. Click Meeting archive location, and then type the address of the share used to store Web conference compliance information. You must specify a remote UNC path.

    Note

    If for some reason, the wizard cannot access any of these shares or cannot grant the correct permissions, the wizard fails. If you encounter this issue, ensure that the account you are using has permissions to administer the shares. As a last resort, you can bypass this step by using LcsCmd.exe with the /force switch. If you do this, you must grant the appropriate permissions on these shares manually. For more information, see the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Command Line Reference Guide.

  15. On the Address Book Server page, in Address Book Server file store, type the UNC path of the share that is used for storing Address Book information. You must specify a remote UNC path.

  16. On the Archive and Call Detail Recording page, select the Archive instant messages check box and the Archive call detail recording check box, if appropriate.

  17. On the Ready to Create Enterprise Pool page, review the settings that you specified. If you are satisfied with them, click Next to begin installation.

  18. When the files have been installed and the wizard is complete, select the View the log when you click Finish check box, and then click Finish.

  19. After looking at the log and verifying that all tasks completed successfully, start all Office Communications Server services for the Enterprise pool in the following sequence:

    • Office Communications Server Front End service

    • Office Communications Server IM Conferencing service

    • Office Communications Server Telephony Conferencing service

    • Office Communications Server Web Conferencing service

    • Office Communications Server A/V Conferencing service

Moving a Back-End Database for a Standard Edition Server

In order to move a back-end database for a Standard Edition server, you do the following:

  • Detach the RTC, RTCConfig, and RTCDyn databases from the server and move the database files to a new path on the same server.

  • Attach the RTC and RTCConfig databases.

To detach the RTC, RTCConfig, and RTCDyn databases and move the database files for Standard Edition server

  1. Verify that the RTC database is backed up and that the backup files are accessible. For details about backing up the database, see the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Backup and Restoration Guide.

  2. Log on as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group to the Standard Edition server.

  3. Stop all Office Communications Server 2007 services in the pool, including the following:

    • A/V Conferencing service

    • Web Conferencing service

    • Front End services, including IM Conferencing service, Telephony Conferencing service, and Front End service

  4. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.

  5. In the console tree, expand the server node. Expand Databases, and then for each of the three databases (RTC, RTCConfig, and RTCDyn), do the following:

    1. Right-click the database, point to Tasks, and then click Detach.

    2. In the Detach Database dialog box, in the details pane, select the check box in the Drop Connections column, and then click OK.

    After you have detached all three databases, move the .mdf and .ldf files of the RTC, RTCConfig, and RTCDyn databases to the new path on the Standard Edition server, and then use the following procedure to attach the RTC, RTCConfig, and RTCDyn databases.

To attach the RTC, RTCConfig, and RTCDyn databases for a Standard Edition server

  1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express.

  2. In the console tree, expand the server node. Right-click Databases, and then click Attach.

  3. For each database, do the following:

    1. In the Attach Databases dialog box, in the details pane, under Databases to attach, click Add.

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    2. In the Locate Database Files dialog box, click the .mdf file for the RTC database, and then click OK.

    3. In the Attach Databases dialog box, verify that both the .mdf file and the .ldf file of the RTC database are listed under database details. If Rtc.ldf is not listed, add it now: click the button in the Current File Path column, next to Rtc.mdf file, click the .ldf file for the RTC database, and then click OK. In the Attach Databases dialog box, click OK.

  4. After you have verified that the RTC, RTCConfig, and RTCDyn databases are listed under the Databases folder in SQL server, enable database chaining for the RTC and RTCDyn databases by running the following two stored procedures from the SQL Server query window:

    Exec sp_dboption 'RTC','db chaining',True
Exec sp_dboption 'RTCDyn','db chaining',True

  5. Start all Office Communications Server services on the Standard Edition Server in the following sequence:

    • Office Communications Server Front End service

    • Office Communications Server IM Conferencing service

    • Office Communications Server Telephony Conferencing service

    • Office Communications Server Web Conferencing service

    • Office Communications Server A/V Conferencing service

Changing the Database Used by an Archiving and CDR Server

To change the database used by the Archiving and CDR Server, you deactivate the server and then activate it again, specifying the new database name during the activation process.

Before you activate the Archiving and CDR Server to specify a new database name, be aware of the following:

  • If you are running a 64-bit version of SQL for the database, you must activate the server role from a 32-bit computer with the SQL Distributed Management Objects (SQL-DMO) installed.

  • To activate the Archiving and CDR Server on a server other than the back-end archiving database, you must install SQL database management objects (SQLDMO) on the computer. To install SQLDMO, do one of the following:

    • If you are using SQL Server 2000 SP4, you can install SQL DMO by running SQL Server 2000 Setup and installing the client tools.

    • If you are using SQL Server 2005 SP1 either 32-bit or 64-bit, you can install SQL DMO by using the SQL Server Setup CD and running SQLServer2005_BC.msi for the 32-bit version. This download is available on the Microsoft Web site at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24793. If you are using a 64-bit version of the SQL database but are trying to activate on a 32-bit computer, the 32-bit SQL DMO tools will work for activation.

The database can be located on either of the following computers:

  • The computer that is running the Archiving and CDR Agent.

  • A separate, dedicated SQL back-end computer that is attached to the server or servers that are running the Archiving and CDR Agent.

The Archiving and CDR database must be a dedicated SQL database, and it cannot be on the same computer as the Back-End Database Server of an Enterprise pool.

To change the database of the Archiving and CDR Server

  1. On the server where you installed the Archiving and CDR Server, log on as a member of the DomainAdmins and RTCUniversalServerAdmins groups.

  2. Open Office Communications Server 2007.

  3. Expand Archiving and CDR Servers, right-click the FQDN of the Archiving and CDR Server, and then click Deactivate to start the Deactivate Archiving and CDR Server Wizard.

  4. Complete the wizard to deactivate the server.

  5. To start the activation process, insert the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 CD. Setup starts and launches the deployment tool. If you installed the Archiving and CDR Server from a network share, go to the \Setup\I386 folder on the share, and then double-click setup.exe.

  6. Click Deploy Other Server Roles, and then click Deploy Archiving and CDR Server.

  7. On the Archiving and CDR Server page, next to Step 2: Activate Archiving and CDR Server, click Run to start the Activate Archiving and CDR Server Wizard.

  8. On the Welcome page, click Next.

  9. On the Select Service Account page, specify a new or existing service account to use for the Office Communications Server Archiving and CDR service, and then enter the password. The default account is RTCArchivingService. For a new account, ensure that you use a strong password that meets your organization's Active Directory password requirements. When you are finished, click Next to continue.

  10. On the Select SQL Server Instance page, type the SQL Server instance that the Archiving and CDR Server is to use. The format for the SQL Server instance is <servername>/<instance>. For example, sqlserver/dbInstance.

  11. In Enter database name, type the name of the SQL Server database that the Archiving and CDR Server will use (by default, LcsLog), and then click Next.

  12. On the Reuse Existing Database page, do one of the following:

    • If you want to use a database that is already on the SQL Server instance, clear the Replace any existing database check box.

    • If you want to use a new database, or overwrite an existing database, select the Replace any existing database check box.

    Warning

    If you select the Replace any existing database check box, any existing database on the SQL Server instance will be deleted, and all its data will be lost.

  13. Click Next.

  14. On the Location for Database Files page, specify where you want to install the archiving database and transaction log files:

    • Under Archiving database, in Database, accept the default directory, or click Browse to locate another directory.

    • In Transaction logs, accept the default directory, or click Browse to locate another directory.

  15. When you are finished, click Next.

  16. On the Start Service Option page, select the Start the service after activation check box.

    Note

    SQL Server (the MSSQLServer service) must be started before you start the Office Communications Server Archiving and CDR service (the RTCLog service).

  17. When you are finished, click Next.

  18. On the Ready to Activate Archiving and CDR Server page, review the settings that you specified, and then click Next to activate the Archiving and CDR Server. To make any setting changes, click Back.

  19. When the wizard finishes, verify that the View the log when you click Finish check box is selected, and then click Finish.

    Note

    Any change that you make to the pool-level archiving and CDR settings do not take effect until you restart the Office Communications Server Front End service. If you change any of the archiving or CDR settings for a pool, you should restart all Front End Servers in the pool to ensure that the settings take effect uniformly. If you mark archiving as critical on your Front End Servers and you then disable the Archiving and CDR Server, you must restart all Front End Servers; otherwise, one or more Front End Servers might stop running.