With Lync Server 2013, Persistent Chat configuration is performed using
the standard Lync Server administration tools, greatly simplifying the
entire process of configuring and maintaining the Persistent Chat
environment. Both the Lync Server Control Panel and the Lync Server
Management Shell can be used to perform Persistent Chat configuration
tasks. The following sections provide details on the primary tasks that
are necessary for a Persistent Chat deployment.
Administrative Access
The first task in configuring the Persistent
Chat environment is granting administrative permissions to the accounts
that will be managing the environment. With all Lync Server roles, RBAC
(role-based access control) is used to grant privileges by assigning
users to predefined Lync Server administrative roles represented by
Active Directory security groups, and this includes Persistent Chat.
One such group is provided specifically for the administration of the
Persistent Chat environment, the CsPersistentChatAdministrator
group. This security group, along with the rest of the predefined Lync
security groups, is located by default in the top-level Users container
in the forest root AD domain. Members of the CsPersistentChatAdministrator
group are granted access to the Lync Persistent Chat cmdlets, which can
be executed using either the Lync Management Shell or the Lync Server
Control Panel.
Note
While the CsPersistentChatAdministrator
group grants specific access to the Persistent Chat portion of the Lync
environment, two other groups also have administrative access to much
of the Persistent Chat configuration as part of their broader
administrative scope: CsAdministrator and CsUserAdministrator.
Therefore, in smaller organizations where one group of administrators
manages the entire Lync environment including Persistent Chat, it might
not be necessary to populate the CsPersistentChatAdministrator group.
By default, there are no members of the CsPersistentChatAdministrator
group, and therefore the group must be populated with user accounts to
delegate administrative rights to the Persistent Chat configuration.
Persistent Chat Policies
Persistent Chat policies are used to
determine which Lync users are enabled for Persistent Chat. There are
four levels of policies that can be used: global, pool, site, and user.
There is only one global policy, which is automatically created when
Persistent Chat is deployed, and is simply named Global. This default
Global policy does not need to be used, but it cannot be deleted.
Only one Persistent Chat pool policy can be
created per Lync pool, and it affects all users within that pool.
Similarly, one Persistent Chat site policy can be created per Lync
site, and it affects all users in that site. On the other hand,
multiple Persistent Chat user policies can be
created, and applied on a user-by-user basis as needed. Pool and site
policies override the global policy, and user policies override the
pool and site policies.
Tip
Only a single setting exists in a Persistent
Chat policy; it simply allows users that are assigned to the policy to
be enabled for Persistent Chat. For this reason, at most only a few
Persistent Chat polices are typically needed. If it is determined that
all users in the environment will be enabled for Persistent Chat, this
can be accomplished using just the global policy. If, on the other
hand, Persistent Chat will be assigned to specific users, then the
pool, site, or user policies will be useful.
The following example shows the steps for creating a user policy and then assigning the policy to a user:
1. Log on to a system where the Lync administrative tools are installed using an account that is a member of the CsAdministrator or CsPersistentChatAdministrator security groups, and open the Lync Server Control Panel.
2. In the left pane, select Persistent Chat, and then click the Persistent Chat Policy tab at the top.
3. From the New drop-down menu, select User Policy.
4. At the New
Persistent Chat Policy screen, enter a name and description for the
policy, and then select the Enable Persistent Chat setting, as shown in
Figure 1.
Figure 1. Creating a Persistent Chat user policy.
5. Click Commit to save the policy.
6. In the left pane, select Users.
7. Type a portion of
the target user’s name in the search field at the top of the screen,
and then click Find to list all users that meet the search criteria.
8. Select the target user account in the bottom pane, and then from the Edit drop-down menu click Show Details.
9. Scroll
down to the bottom of the user properties, and then use the Persistent
Chat Policy drop-down menu to select the user policy created previously.
10. Click Commit to save the setting.
