Roaming profiles issues

[tnshurtm]

We use roaming profiles at work and we have a problem where if a user moves to a different computer, their outlook integration doesn't go with them. We have to go into the Call Manager properties and re-install the outlook integration on each new machine.

Does anyone know a way around this? For us, roaming profiles is a necessity.

Thanks,

Marc

[cburgy]

We use roaming profiles at work and we have a problem where if a user moves to a different computer, their outlook integration doesn't go with them. We have to go into the Call Manager properties and re-install the outlook integration on each new machine.

Does anyone know a way around this? For us, roaming profiles is a necessity.

Thanks,

Marc

This has been a known issue for a while. It's actually not a shoretel issue but a microsoft issue. MS clears the directory where shoretel stores the information but it is exactly where software developers are supposed to store that information. You might ping TAC on the issue as escalations mentioned that a new build was coming that resolved a number of PCM issues. Not sure if they have finally discovered a workaround for this issue.

[mattwray]

We use roaming profiles in a Citrix environment and the fix I came up with was to call outlook with a script that also does an Xcopy of the FRMCACHE.DAT to the local profile. You could do something similar with a login script, just do the xcopy to the local profile and it should work.

[tnshurtm]

Thanks Mattwray,

Where do you copy it from?

This is so funny since I have the Shoretel Engineers at TAC opening a case with Microsoft to find out why they can't get it to work.....

[tnshurtm]

The word from the Engineers: (THERE HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY)

This is what I've discovered. It is possible to change how the form is registered so that Outlook copies/caches it on different machines -- we do not register the form this way today.

It is possible to register the form so that it "roams" with the user. The key is to register the form with the "Personal Forms Library". These forms are available to the Outlook user from any machine.

Note that this registration is part of Exchange Server and is independent of Windows roaming user profiles. So PCM and Outlook configuration won't be consistent unless both Outlook and Windows roaming are enabled.

Note that if a ShoreTel VM user opens Outlook on a machine without PCM installed, the ShoreTel form will be there but the PCM files will be missing -- the form will not work and Outlook will present a message that the custom form could not be loaded.

The manual configuration change below is obviously not a supported product configuration, though I will look into what it would take to get it changed in the product.

On to the detailed instructions:

1. Open the VMailfrm.cfg file with Notepad. It is located in C:\Program Files\Shoreline Communications\ShoreWare Client.

2. Find lines 25, 26 that say:
file1=VMailForm.dll
registry1=InprocServer32 = VMailForm.dll
And remove the "o":
file1=VMailFrm.dll
registry1=InprocServer32 = VMailFrm.dll

3. Open the following dialog: Tools | Other tab | Advanced Options... | Custom Forms... | Manage Forms...
You should see the following:


4. Make sure the top-right grayed-out box is "Personal Forms". If not, click the Set... button and change the folder/container to Personal Froms.

5. Click the Install... button, and open the VMailfrm.cfg file. Then click OK to the following dialog (hmm, still sez Shoreline, need to fix that):

6. The manual steps above must be done for every fresh install of PCM and Outlook. PCM upgrades will wipe out the changes in VMailfrm.cfg, but the form will remain registered if Outlook is not touched.

[mattwray]

Thanks Mattwray,

Where do you copy it from?

This is so funny since I have the Shoretel Engineers at TAC opening a case with Microsoft to find out why they can't get it to work.....

Sorry, I haven't checked the site for a bit...

What I did (remember this is a terminal server/Citrix environment so adjust for your environment) was to install PCM on a server from the console. I copied the FRMCACHE.DAT out to a network share.

My script first called outlook (which creates its own FRMCACHE.DAT) then does an xCopy and overwrites the FRMCACHE.DAT that outlook created with the one from the share.

Here is the code for the xCopy, maybe it will help... (HOUNAS01 is my file server and hosts the profiles)

xcopy \\hounas01\profiles$\FRMCACHE.DAT "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FORMS\" /y

[tnshurtm]

I found that another way to get around this issue IF you are using Microsoft Exchange, is to post the form in the Organizational forms of exchange. Once you do this, the client will look there if it doesn't already have the form.

No script, no extra steps.

[abuthemagician]

can you elaborate on the exchange forms?

[tnshurtm]

can you elaborate on the exchange forms?

Sure,

First, Create an organization Forms Library in Exchange:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=244591

Second, Go to a workstation that already has call manager installed (you may want to wait awhile for Exchange to replicate)

Open outlook and go to: Tools | Options | Other | Advanced Options | Custom Forms | Manage Forms

In there, you should be able to set one side to "Personal Forms" and that should contain the Shoretel form.

Set the other side to the organizational form library you created.

Then, highlight the Shoretel form and click copy. This should copy the shoretel form into the Organizational form library where everytime anyone in the organization trys to open a voicemail, it will look there for the form.

[abuthemagician]

I think I figured it out. Although the shoretel VM form wasn't in my personal list. Also, when i tried to install it from the VMailfrm.cfg file, it told me it couldn't find VMailform.dll in the shoretel program dir. I then copied the VMailFrm.dll file to VMailForm.dll and it installed. Tested it on another computer that I hadn't logged into before (no roaming profile though) and my VM's showed up like they would if shoretel call manager was open. When I opened it I got an error, but after setting up call manager everything worked great. If this is not the way to do it let me know

[chadd39]

Shoretel's problem

Shoretel says that thier product works in a Citrix / TS enviroment. They should fix this issue. Supposedly, in version 8, their is suppoed to be a PCM client just for Citrix / TS installs. We shall see.