Skype for Business SEFAUTIL Done Right

NOTE: At this time SDR is a project in the research stage. So no guarantees on what we can ultimately deliver. What is noted below is research/viability testing/prototype demos. Any future product may have features considerably different than represented below.)

This article is some of our notes on the possibility of creating a SEFAUTIL replacement that fixes some of the issues with the current SEFAUTIL. Codename: “SEFAUTIL Done Right” (SDR).

We suspect that some of our findings will be interesting to Skype for Business/Lync IT Pros so we will keep you up to date with our findings.

Performance: Some quick notes on SDR vs SEFAUTIL performance

We did very informal testing on a mediocre lab Standard Edition server. Below is a comparison:

• SEFAUTIL takes an average of 14 seconds per contact to read or write a setting.
• Our prototype SDR tool writes setting change at a rate of 100ms (.10 second) per contact.

Admin/Mass Contact Change Interface: Powershell

The Administrator interface for SDR is PowerShell commandlets:

• set-csUserForwarding
• set-csUserPresence
• set-csUserNote

Powershell cmdlets can have piped input allowing easy mass changes.

User/Single Contact Change Interface: Instant Message Bot

The user/colleague change/single contact change interface (as oppose to the admin/mass change interface) is using an IM bot.

Commands:

• /ChangeForwarding
• /ChangePresence:AppearAway, Available, Donotdisturb, etc. <sip:user_uri>
• /ChangeNote:This is the note text <sip:user_uri>
  • Alternative: /cn:This is a note text <sip:user_uri>

Note that ChangePresence is really just an example (and not actually that good of one for the Admin mass change side of things) Imagine call forwarding change like “/setfwddestination” to better imagine a Admin mass change.

Also, as you watch you can take note of the time to actually make the change.

 

What Would You Name This IT Pro Tool?

Also welcome any input on what might be a good final name to call this type of an IT Pro tool.

This is a Landis Technologies team effort even though I get to communicate and I want to recognize those involved: Japheth Nolt, CJ Martin, Wendell Martin and more.