Configuring Delegation for Lync Users that are not enterprise voice enabled
Problem Overview
Companies that deploy Lync Enterprise Voice (EV) have the ability to easily leverage the "delegate" scheduling feature. However, customers that don't deploy EV do not get to take advantage of the delegate functionality.
A delegate scheduler should be able to schedule a Lync meeting on behalf of their boss/manage even if both users are not enabled for Enterprise Voice.
Detailed Description of the Problem
We will walk through an example of delegation without EV and show how it works without administrative interaction.
In this example we have two users named Player2 (Manager) and Player3 (Delegate). As you can see in Figure 1 below, Player2 has shared his Outlook calendar with Player3.
Figure 1 - Player2 Delegation Configuration
Player3 is now eligible to create meetings on behalf of Player2.
Figure 2 - Player3 schedules a meeting for Player2
So far everything is working as expected.
The issue arises when Player3 attempts to schedule a Lync meeting on behalf of Player2.
Figure 3 - Error message when Player3 tries to schedule a Lync meeting
As you can see in Figure 3 above, Player3 receives an error that they do not have delegate permissions for Player2. These particular delegate permissions are in addition to the mailbox delegate permissions that are needed.
The issue here is that Player2 is not enabled for Enterprise voice and therefore has no ability to alter his delegates list.
Solution Overview
The solution that we will describe in this blog post involves the Lync administrator using the SEFAUtil administrative tool to configure Player 3 as a delegate for Player2. This solution will enable Player3 to be configured as a delegate for Player2 while neither user is enabled for Enterprise Voice. This solution requires some administrative input but it is scalable and allows the configuration to be easily changed after the fact.
Detailed Description of the Solution
This configuration requires that you are running a minimum build of 8308.577 of the SEFAUTIL that is available via the following URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=36821.
This document will only cover the delegation configuration using SEFAUtil and it will not cover the actual Lync server configuration required to make the SEFAUtil work. For detailed steps on how to enable SEFAUtil please see this blog post (https://blogs.technet.com/b/jenstr/archive/2010/12/07/how-to-get-sefautil-running.aspx).
In this sample configuration we will start with two users named Player2 and Player3 that are not EV users and do not have delegation in Lync configured. At this point we assume that the Exchange delegation has already been completed (https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/allow-someone-else-to-manage-your-mail-and-calendar-HA102749417.aspx) and that the EnableExchagneDelegateSync parameter has not been set on any client policies. The reason that we choose not to use this option is that Exchange Delegate sync is a one way sync only in that when someone is removed as an Exchange delegate they are not automatically removed as a Lync delegate.
Figure 4 - Player2 signed in to Lync
Figure 5 - Player3 signed in to Lync
As you can see in Figure 4 and Figure 5 above, both users are not enabled for Enterprise voice and as a result do not have the ability to manage their call forwarding settings and the delegate access feature.
The following steps assume that you have configured the Lync infrastructure (see note earlier in this document) to support the SEFAUtil and are now ready to configure the delegate relationship between these two users.
Open a command prompt and type the following command syntax (in this example pool01.p52.local has already been configured as a trusted application pool to run the SEFAUtil application)
SEFAUtil.exe /server:pool01.p52.local player2@p52.ca /adddelegate:player3@p52.ca
Once the command completes you should see output such as what is shown below.
User Aor: sip:player2@p52.ca
Display Name: Player2
UM Enabled: True
Simulring enabled: False
Simultaneously Ringing Delegates: sip:player3@p52.ca
You should now see a change in the Lync client for both Player2 and Player3.
Figure 6 - Player2 showing Player3 as a delegate
Figure 7 - Player3 showing as a delegate for Player2
As you can see in Figure 6 above Player2 now has Player3 listed under the "Delegates" group which gets created automatically when you have delegates configured.
In Figure 7 above you can see that Player3 has Player2 listed under the "People I Manage Calls For".
As you can see in Figure 8 below Player3 is now able to schedule a Lync conference on behalf of Player2.
Figure 8 - Player3 schedules a meeting for Player2
If you decide that you want to reverse the changes made earlier you can do that with the SEFAUtil as well.
Open a command prompt and type the following command syntax (in this example pool01.p52.local has already been configured as a trusted application pool to run the SEFAutil application)
SEFAUtil.exe /server:pool01.p52.local player2@p52.ca /removedelegate:player3@p52.ca
Once the command completes you should see output such as what is shown below.
User Aor: sip:player2@p52.ca
Display Name: Player2
UM Enabled: True
Simulring enabled: False
User Ring time: 00:00:20
Call Forward No Answer to: voicemail
Summary
This blog post described how a company that has not deploy Lync Enterprise Voice (EV) can use the SEFAUtil tool to configure delegate access and allow their users to leverage the "delegate" scheduling feature.
Comments
- Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Thanks Matt. I am glad you enjoyed it. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Hi Andrew, I just checked on this in my lab and it took about 15 seconds for the transaction to complete. The SEFAUtil acts like a regular SIP client and signs in to the server to issue its commands. I have never seen it hang completely however. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Hi Jez,
I have not personally tested any of this with the Lync Basic client so I am not sure how it would function. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Hi Eran, No unfortunately this solution only applies to on-premises deployments. For online deployments you will need to use the Exchange delegate sync. - Anonymous
March 31, 2014
Nice write-up, thanks for sharing! - Anonymous
April 01, 2014
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
May 06, 2015
I realise that this is about delegation where EV is not present for one of the users, but there is no mention at all of the client prerequisites - how does this work with Lync Basic in the mix? - Anonymous
May 14, 2015
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 20, 2016
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 20, 2016
Hi Max,
I'm not sure what you are confused about.
My experience in testing this in the past is that the exchange delegate sync was not two ways, meaning that if you removed a delegate from Exchange it did not remove the delegate from Lync.
In y our example above, I'm not quite sure how that resolution would have fixed the issue though. Maybe you can explain that and your confusion a bit further.
Scott - Anonymous
February 29, 2016
Hi Scott,
Thank you for the screenshot and details of the lync delegates. We have an issue that's not described in the article and wondering if you came across this before?
We have UserA delegator and UserB who is a delegate. However, UserA who left the company and AD account is removed. UserB still sees UserA as the "people that I manage calls for". I tried the solution on existing account which worked fine. However, when I run the SEFAUtil for the UserA /removedelegate:UserB@company.com, this doesn't do anything at all
.SEFAUtil.exe /server:lyncpool.company.com sip:UserA@company.com /removedelegate:UserB@company.com
Have you came across this, and do you have any suggestions on how to remove this orphaned account?
Lync server 2013, Lync client 2010
Alex - Anonymous
March 10, 2016
HI Alex, sorry about the delayed response on this.
I haven't come across this before myself.
What if you were to create a new temporary account and assign the sip uri of the old UserA to the account. Then use SEFAUtil to remove the delegate relationship and once confirmed in B's account, remove the temporary user account.
If that doesn't work I would suggest opening a support case.
Scott - Anonymous
March 16, 2016
@Scott
Thank you for the respond, it's not late at all.. and I appreciate the respond you gave.
That idea worked well !! The issue was resolved by re-creating a temporary account with the orphaned sip. Once its created, I used the ./SEFAUTIL tool to remove the delegator from the delegate's LYNC client.
Greatly appreciate your suggestion
Alex - Anonymous
April 18, 2016
Hi Scott,
Scenario- We have a client and enterprise voice is not enabled on her machine.
Do we must require this Enterprise voice enabled to get this issue fixed?
As i worked with Microsoft for the same issue (Lync delegation) but they stated that, do not require this feature to be enabled?
Thank you.
Sushen - Anonymous
April 19, 2016
Hi Sushen,
If the customer is on-premises they can use the SEFAUtil application as described in my post to make this work. If you are not able to configure this via SEFAUtil then yes, the user would need to be Enterprise Voice enabled in order to expose the Lync delegation feature in their client.
Scott - Anonymous
April 21, 2016
Am I being dense or should you not just be able to click the contact in Skype and select "Surrender Delegation" which removes delegation and notifies the delegator via email etc?
I was expecting Skype to be pretty much self service for user for basic stuff like this? - Anonymous
April 21, 2016
The comment has been removed