Finding Tools in OCS 2007 R2

Earlier this week Microsoft launched Office Communications Server 2007 R2. OCS 2007 R2 brings a plethora of new features and capabilities to the powerful OCS 2007 unified communications platform, but also a few unwelcome changes.

First, while not necessarily ‘unwelcome’, it should be noted that OCS 2007 R2 requires a 64-bit Windows Server operating system (preferably Windows Server 2008 64-bit). This is the direction Microsoft is headed with all server roles it seems, so if you don’t use 64-bit server operating systems today you should certainly plan to make that change in the near future.

Some of the unwelcome stuff though just seems silly. Its like one of the developers couldn’t come up with a worthwhile contribution and at the last minute they decided to move some existing functions around just for the sake of appearing productive. For example, OCS 2007 previously installed the Admin Tools necessary to work with the server on the various server roles. Those are gone now. Now you have to locate the directory and install them manually yourself.

It doesn’t end there though. The tools are usually available on the Computer Management console. So, just right-click on Computer and select Manage and…..hey? Where did the Computer Management console go? In Windows Server 2008 when you right-click on Computer and select Manage it takes you to the Server Manager console instead. The Computer Management console is still there, you just have to be more resourceful in figuring out how to get to it.