PowerShell Script to trace OCS Components

Tracing OCS components may be vital in troubleshooting various issues you may face in your deployment. On machines where you have OCS components installed, you’ll typically find a tool called OCSLogger.exe which allows you to start/stop/view traces of OCS components. However, sometimes this is not enough, for instance when you see problems at the startup of a machine. It’s kind of hard to run the GUI if you cannot logon yet. But you can typically run a scheduled task. Or maybe you are — just like me — more like the console guy and thus want to have a script/cmdline tool for everything.

Let’s start with the config file used by the script (TraceConfig.xml) which defines the components you want to trace, to what level the traces are supposed to be and some more things. The sample given here traces mostly the components which are useful in troubleshooting issues related to the Response Group Service of OCS.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Config>
    <!--
        Levels:
            TL_FATAL        1
            TL_ERROR        2
            TL_WARN         3
            TL_INFO         4
            TL_VERBOSE      5
            TL_NOISE        6

        Flags:
            TF_COMPONENT    0x00000001
            TF_PROTOCOL     0x00000002
            TF_CONNECTION   0x00000004
            TF_SECURITY     0x00000008
            TF_DIAG         0x00000010
            TF_AUTH         0x00000020
            TF_PARSE        0x00000040
            TF_NETWORK      0x00000080
            TF_STACKTRACE   0x00000100
    -->
    <Default Level="6" Flags="0xffff" />
    <Paths Tracer="C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2\Tracing"
           Etl="D:\Tracing"
           Log="D:\Tracing"
           TmfSearchPath="C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2\Tracing">
    </Paths>
    <Components>
        <Component Name="LcsWMI" Enabled="no" />
        <Component Name="LcsWMIUserServices" Enabled="no" />

        <Component Name="PowerShell" Enabled="yes" />

        <Component Name="ApplicationServer" Enabled="yes" />

        <Component Name="RgsClientsLib" Enabled="yes" />
        <Component Name="RgsCommonLibrary" Enabled="yes" />
        <Component Name="RgsDatastores" Enabled="yes" />
        <Component Name="RgsDeploymentApi" Enabled="yes" />
        <Component Name="RgsDeploymentLibrary" Enabled="yes" />
        <Component Name="RgsDiagnostics" Enabled="yes" />
        <Component Name="RgsHostingFramework" Enabled="yes" />
        <Component Name="RgsMatchMakingService" Enabled="yes" />
    </Components>
</Config>

I added the most importan trace levels and flags in the comment. Right now, the Default element defines the levels and flags for all components, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do that per component you want to trace.

The PS1 script itself (Tracer.ps1) heavily relies on the OcsTracer.exe tool which also comes with OCS and is typically installed in the same place as OcsLogger.exe. It has four main actions:

  1. Start tracing components
  2. Stop tracing components and format the traces
  3. Format traces of ETL files (e.g. from a different machine)
  4. Show the configuration details from a particular config XML file
<#
.SYNOPSIS
        Starts or Stops tracing of Office Communications Server components.
.DESCRIPTION
        Starts or Stops tracing of Office Communications Server components.
.PARAMETER Action
        The action to perform. Must be one of 'Start', 'Stop', 'Config' or
        'Format'.
.PARAMETER ConfigPath
        The path to the configuration XML file. If not specified,
        "TraceConfig.xml" is used.
.LINK
        This script was originally posted to
        http://www.cymbeline.ch/post/2009/12/11/PowerShell-Script-to-trace-OCS-Components.aspx
.EXAMPLE
        .\Tracer.ps1 Start

        Starts tracing all the enabled components from the "TraceConfig.xml" file.
.EXAMPLE
        .\Tracer.ps1 Stop

        Stops tracing all the enabled components from the "TraceConfig.xml" file
        and formats the traces.
.EXAMPLE
        .\Tracer.ps1 Format "MyOtherConfig.xml"

        Formats the traces of the enabled components from the "MyOtherConfig.xml"
        file with all the settings from the "MyOtherConfig.xml" file.
.EXAMPLE
        .\Tracer.ps1 Config

        Shows the configuration of the "TraceConfig.xml" file.
#>
param(
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [ValidateSet("Start", "Stop", "Config", "Format", IgnoreCase=$true)]
    [String] $Action,
    [String] $ConfigPath = "TraceConfig.xml"
)

$configXml = ((Get-Content $ConfigPath))
$tracerPath = $configXml.Config.Paths.Tracer
$etlDir = $configXml.Config.Paths.Etl
$logDir = $configXml.Config.Paths.Log
$tmfSearchPath = $configXml.Config.Paths.TmfSearchPath

# Construct the parameters for the 'Start' command to OcsTracer.exe
function getStartParams()
{
    $ret = @()

    $configXml.Config.Components.Component |
        ? {$_.Enabled -eq "yes"} |
        foreach {
            $ret = $ret +
                ("/Component:" + $_.Name + "," + $configXml.Config.Default.Level +
                    "," + $configXml.Config.Default.Flags + " ")
        }

    return $ret
}

# Construct the parameters for the 'Stop' command to OcsTracer.exe
function getStopParams()
{
    $ret = @()

    $configXml.Config.Components.Component |
        ? {$_.Enabled -eq "yes"} |
        foreach { $ret = $ret + ("/Component:" + $_.Name) }

    return $ret
}

# Format the ETL files for enabled components to a human readable format
function formatFiles(
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [String] $Timestamp
)
{
    md $logDir\$timestamp -ea silentlycontinue | Out-Null

    $configXml.Config.Components.Component |
        ? {$_.Enabled -eq "yes"} |
        foreach {
            $etlFile = $_.Name + ".etl";

            if (Test-Path $etlFile)
            {
                $logFile = $Timestamp + "\" + $Timestamp + "_" + $_.Name + ".log";

                & "$tracerPath\OcsTracer.exe" Format /LogFilePath:"$etlDir\$etlFile" /OutputFile:"$logDir\$logFile" /TmfSearchPath:"$tmfSearchPath" | Write-Verbose
            }
            else
            {
                Write-Warning "File $etlFile not found.";
            }
        }
}

Write-Host "Using Config File: $ConfigPath"
$timestamp = Get-Date -format "yyyy-MM-dd_HH.mm.ss"

if ($Action -eq "start")
{
    Write-Host "Removing all .etl files ..."
    ls $etlDir *.etl | ri

    Write-Host "Start tracing components ..."
    $params = getStartParams

    & "$tracerPath\OcsTracer.exe" Start $params /LogFileFolder:"$etlDir" | Write-Verbose
}
elseif ($Action -eq "stop")
{
    Write-Host "Stop tracing components ..."
    $params = getStopParams

    md $logDir\$timestamp | Out-Null

    & "$tracerPath\OcsTracer.exe" Stop $params /OutputFile:"$logDir\$timestamp\$($timestamp)_All.log" /TmfSearchPath:"$tmfSearchPath" | Write-Verbose

    if (!$?)
    {
        rd $logDir\$timestamp | Out-Null
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Host "Sessions stopped. Start formatting ..."
        formatFiles $timestamp
    }
}
elseif ($Action -eq "format")
{
    Write-Host "Formatting traces from ETL files ..."
    formatFiles $timestamp
}
elseif ($Action -eq "config")
{
    Write-Host "Default values"
    Write-Host "--------------"
    $configXml.Config.Default | ft Level,Flags

    Write-Host "Paths"
    Write-Host "-----"
    $configXml.Config.Paths | fl

    Write-Host "Components"
    Write-Host "----------"
    $configXml.Config.Components.Component | ft Name,Enabled
}
else
{
    Write-Error "Unknown action."
}

For samples on how to run the script, please run man .\Tracer.ps1 -Examples
Have fun 🙂

Finding the Private Key File of Certificates

At work, I have created multiple tools which we used to analyse and fix issues related to certificates that we use with Office Communications Server and their respective private key files. To summarize, a user/service who wants to use the certificate for authentication needs to have read access on the private key. If it doesn’t, you’ll typically see a strange error which many people don’t relate to missing ACLs on the private key file.

Now these days, you don’t need to write such tools anymore. PowerShell allows you to pretty much do everything you need in this area. Let’s look at the following PS script (let’s call it FindPrivateKey.ps1) which accepts a parameter of type System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2, i.e. a reference to the certificate you want to analyze.

param(
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2]
    $Certificate
)

echo "Looking for private key file of certificate"
echo $Certificate
echo ""
echo "The private key file is '$($Certificate.PrivateKey.CspKeyContainerInfo.UniqueKeyContainerName)'"
echo ""

$file = ls $env:userprofile -Filter $Certificate.PrivateKey.CspKeyContainerInfo.UniqueKeyContainerName -Recurse -Force -EA SilentlyContinue
echo "It is located at '$($file.FullName)'."

I guess I do not need to mention that you can easily find the certificate you’re interested in by running something like

pushd cert:\CurrentUser\My
ls
$cert = gci 0DAC31905AEB722D8561BFAF3F3BFD2F551AA197
popd
.\FindPrivateKey.ps1 $cert

where ‘0DAC31905AEB722D8561BFAF3F3BFD2F551AA197’ is simply the thumbprint of the certificate we’re interested in. From here on it should be easy to check what ACLs the file has (run $file.GetAccessControl()) and to modify them (run $file.SetAccessControl()).

Retrieving Agent’s Sign-in Information in RGS

Animated by a recent comment I decided to give some more insight into the Agent Sign-in logic of the Response Group Service of Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

We keep the sign-in states of agents in formal agent groups in a dedicated table called ‘AgentGroupSignInStates’ in the backend database (called ‘acddyn’) for each pool. The table is kept very simple. It consists only of three fields:

  • AgentId (uniqueidentifier)
  • GroupId (uniqueidentifier)
  • State (tinyint)

The first two fields, AgentId and GroupId, make up the primary key for the table, so they have to be unique. In other words, an agent can only have one sign-in state for every group he’s a member of. The State field indicates the current sign-in state for the agent with the given AgentId in the group with the given GroupId. A value of 0 means that the agent is not signed in, 1 means that the agent is signed in. If a record does not exist for an agent in a formal group, then the agent has never signed in yet (so he’s signed out). The AgentId and GroupId values should match the values of existing agents and groups in the RGS system (in WMI), though this is not enforced.

You should not modify records in the ‘AgentGroupSignInStates’ table, because the table is only kept as a reference in case of data-loss in the MatchMaking component of the Response Group Service. However, MatchMaking always keeps this table up-to-date, so reading from it should give you the most recent view on the sign-in states of the agents.

Troubleshooting Authentication Issues with RGS Agent Tab

Sometimes – especially in lab environments – you’ll see issues around user authentication with the RGS Agent Tab of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. This post should help you in determining what could be the issue and how to work around it.

First of all, when the OCS 2007 R2 WebComponents get installed on a machine, by default Integrated Windows Authenticated (IWA) for the RGS parts of WebComponents are enabled. We don’t require IWA, but this is the recommended setting; anything but Anonymous Authentication should work. If Anonymous Authentication is set for the RGS virtual directory in IIS, you’ll find a warning in NT event log about that. In that case, you should turn back on authentication for the virtual directory.

Another problem I’ve seen a couple of times was as follows: Agent A’s credentials are used to sign in with Office Communicator, but the Agent Tab in OC shows the RGS Agent Group memberships of Agent B, or it shows that the “Current User is not an Agent”. In this case, you should start tracing the RgsClientsLib component and either wait until the Agent Tab in OC refreshes automatically (this should happen within 30 – 60 seconds) or you can open the tab URL in IE; it’s typically something like https://pool-1.contoso.com/Rgs/Clients/Tab.aspx. Then, stop tracing and check out the captured traces for RgsClientsLib. You should now find something along the lines of

Authentication type: [Negotiate]
Authenticated user: [CONTOSO\AgentB]
Authenticated user's SID: [S-1-5-21-2278291046-1170081271-1450921830-1285]
Authenticated user's SID maps to: [efa2cabd-462c-49e4-a021-4dd71bd97ce4]

Please note that I left out the less important information like timestamps etc. here. What you see is that instead of AgentA, AgentB is being authenticated. Usually, this happens when the credentials you pass in to OC are different from the credentials you used to log in to Windows. OC uses the IE engine to render the tabs and thus also leaves the authentication for IE. Then, IE performs the authentication based on the “User Authentication” / “Logon” settings for the zone the Agent Tab is in. The default setting for the “Local Intranet Zone” in IE is to automatically try loggin on with the current user’s credentials – i.e. AgentB’s credentials in this case, because AgentB is the currently logged on (Windows) user. Only if authentication for this user fails, IE is going to prompt you for a different set of credentials. To change this behavior, you can set the security settings in IE accordingly:

IeSecurityZoneUserAuth

Setting it to “Prompt for user name and password” will always prompt you for sites in the intranet zone. Once you’ve done that, exit OC and start it again. Now you should be prompted for the credentials to the Agent Tab and you can provide AgentA’s credentials. You then should see the correct list of groups AgentA is a member of.