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Device Update Service Overview

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.

Device Update Service performs the following functions that help you manage and deploy updates to your organization’s Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Communicator Phone Edition and RoundTable devices:

  • Update file management. When you upload an update cabinet (.cab) file from Microsoft to the Device Update Service Management Console, Device Update Service writes the data in the files to its data store. It also copies the image files from the .cab file to the Device Updates file store.

  • Device update management. Using the Management Console, you can upload, view, approve, reject, roll back, and purge device updates as well as add test devices to test pending updates. In addition, Device Update Service logs all update activity and provides settings for maintaining and purging log files.

  • Automatic deployment of approved updates. Each time a device is turned on, it automatically connects to Device Update Service. If you have approved an update for the current firmware version running on the device, Device Update Service automatically deploys the update to the device.

Device Update Service runs on the Web Components Server. As with Web Components Server, there is a separate instance of Device Update Service running in each pool. When you make a configuration change to Device Update Service, it is propagated to all of the servers in the current pool, but not to any other pool. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Enterprise Edition may have multiple servers in the pool. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard Edition has one server in the pool.

Note

In the previous release of Office Communications Server, the update service for devices, which was called Software Update Service, required a separate, somewhat complex installation. In the current release the update service, now called Device Update Service, is automatically installed along with the Web Components service, greatly simplifying deployment. You still need to set up the infrastructure for the update service, such as by creating a file system location for update files, configuring DNS records, and configuring proxy settings for external access. For details, see Device Update Service in the Planning and Architecture documentation.

The remaining topics in this section describe the components and architecture of Device Update Service, and how the update process works. It also describes common scenarios for Device Update Service.