Configuring Client Version Filtering
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.
The Client Version Filter application provides you with a way to specify the version of clients that are supported in your Office Communications Server 2007 environment. When two clients of differing versions interact, the features that are available to either client can be limited by the capabilities of the previously released client. To make the greatest use of features included in Office Communications Server 2007 and to improve the overall user experience, you can use the Client Version Filter to restrict the client versions that are used in your Office Communications Server environment. Using the Client Version Filter can also help improve costs associated with supporting multiple client versions.
The Client Version Filter application is a managed program that is installed by default on the following Office Communications Server 2007 server roles:
Standard Edition Server
Enterprise pool Front End Servers
Access Edge Servers
Note
If you are running Office Communications Server 2007 in a mixed environment, Office Communications Server 2007 is the minimum version required to use the Client Version Filter application. The Client Version Filter is not supported on Live Communications Server 2005.
The Client Version Filter provides the following:
Filtering of Office Communicator and legacy IM clients
Filtering of Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 clients
When an Office Communicator client, legacy IM client that supports SIP INVITE messages, or Office Live Meeting client logs on, the Client Version Filter application checks the version of the client (by checking the SIP User Agent header) and takes action according to the client version. The Client Version Filter checks the SIP User Agent header in order to determine the client version. Depending on the version of the client, the Client Version Filter application can do one of the following:
Allow - Allow the client to log on to the pool.
Block - Prevent the client from logging on to the pool.
Block with URL - Present the user with a message that indicates the user is using a client that is not supported.
Each pool Front End Server maintains a client version control list that you configure with the client versions you want to filter and the appropriate action for each client version. The Client Version Filter can act according to a specific client version number. The Client Version Filter can also act according to a client version that is less than or equal to or greater than or equal to the version number that you specify. The Client Version Filter also includes a configuration option that specifies the default action for clients that are not included in the version control list.
When you configure the Client Version Filter, you specify the way in which clients are handled during logon. The Client Version Filter provides options for configuring the following:
User Agent header. This is the name of the agent for the client version.
Client version number. This includes the major version number, minor version number, and build number.
Matching rules. This specifies the comparison operation to perform to identify the specific version or range of versions of the client to which the filtering action is to apply.
Action to take based on client version. As covered previously in this section, the action can be Allow, Block, or Block with URL.
Client download URL. This is used only for the Block with URL option.
A default list of filters is installed when you install Office Communications Server Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition. You can edit any of the preceding options for an existing filter or you can create a new filter. You can use wildcards when specifying the client version number.
Client version filters in the version control list act on specific criteria. However, you also need to configure a default filter to apply to clients that do not match any other client version filter, specifying one of the following:
Allow. This allows the client to log on.
Block. To prevent the client from logging on.
Block with URL. To prevent the client from logging on and display a message indicating that the client version is not supported. The message is from the URL that you specify.
Use the procedures in this section to do the following:
Create or edit a client version filter.
Configure the default behavior when there is no match.
To create or edit a client version filter
Open Office Communications Server 2007.
In the console tree, do one of the following:
To configure client version filtering for an Enterprise pool, expand Enterprise pools, right-click the pool name, point to Application Properties, and then click Client Version Filter.
To configure client version filtering for a Standard Edition Server, expand Standard Edition servers, right-click the name of the pool, point to Application Properties, and then click Client Version Filter.
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On the Client Version Check tab, select the Enable Version Control check box, and then do one of the following:
To create a new client version filter, click Add. You can create multiple client version filters, but the criteria must be different for each filter.
To edit an existing client version filter, under Client application version control, click the filter you want to edit, and then click Edit.
In the Add or Edit Version Filter dialog box, in the User agent header drop-down list box, click the type of client for which you want to create a filter from the following list:
LCC – Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 instant messaging client
RTC - Real-Time Communications instant messaging client
RTCC - Real-Time Communications and Collaboration client
UCCP - Unified Communications Client Platform client
OC - Office Communicator 2007 instant messaging client
WM - Windows Messenger instant messaging client
CWA - Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access instant messaging client
COMO - Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile instant messaging client
LMC - Office Live Meeting client
Under Version Information, do the following:
In Major version number, type the version number corresponding to the major release of the client.
In Minor version number, type the version number corresponding to the minor release of the client.
In Build number, type the build number corresponding to the major and minor release of the client.
To specify the matching operation for the client version you specified in the preceding steps, in the Select comparison operation to perform drop-down list box, click one of the following:
<= less than or equal to
= equal to
>= greater than or equal to
To specify the action to perform when the criteria in the preceding steps are met, click one of the following in the Select the action to apply to this version drop-down list box:
Allow - allow client to log on
Block - prevent client from logging in
Block with URL - prevent client from logging on and present error message
Do one of the following:
If, in the previous step, you clicked Allow or Block, go to the next step.
If, in the previous step, you clicked Block with URL, in URL, type the client download URL to include in the error message in the Information URL box.
To configure the default behavior when there is no match
Open Office Communications Server 2007.
In the console tree, do one of the following:
To configure client version filtering for an Enterprise pool, expand Enterprise pools, right-click Front Ends, point to Application Properties, and then click Client Version Filter.
To configure client version filtering for a Standard Edition Server, expand Standard Edition servers, right-click the name of the pool that you want to archive, point to Application Properties, and then click Client Version Filter.
On the Client Version Check tab, under Default behavior if no match, in Action, click one of the following:
Allow - Allow client to log on if client version does not match any filter in the Client application version control list.
Block - Prevent client from logging in if client version does not match any filter in the Client application version control list.
Block with URL - Prevent client from logging on if client version does not match any filter in the Client application version control list and include error message with URL to download newer client.
If, in the previous step, you clicked Allow or Block, go to the next step. If, in the previous step, you clicked Block with URL, in URL, type the client download URL to include in the error message.