Lync Client Policy Configuration for VDI

Lync client policies are used to determine the features of Lync Server that are made available to users. Client policies can be configured at the global, site, and user level; a policy at the user level has the highest priority, and a policy configured at the site level overrides the policy at the global level for any users in that site. For Lync 2013, a client policy is automatically created at the global level, and is simply named Global.

For Lync Server 2013, a new client policy setting was created to allow Lync administrators to be selective regarding which users are enabled for the media redirection feature. By default, media redirection is disabled within the default client policy at the global level. This means that before users can leverage the Lync VDI plugin, either media redirection must be enabled in the global client policy, or a new client policy must be created with the setting enabled, and then applied at either the site or the user level. To create a new Lync client policy, or to adjust an existing one, the Lync Server Management Shell is used.

The following example outlines the procedure for using the Lync Server Management Shell to create a new client policy named VDI_Policy with media redirection enabled, and then apply the policy to all users in the IT department:

1. Log on to a system where the Lync administrative tools are installed using an account that is a member of the CsAdministrator or CsServerAdministrator groups in AD, and that has administrative rights on the local system.

2. Open the Lync Server Management Shell, and execute the following command to create a new client policy named VDI_policy with media redirection enabled:

New-CsClientPolicy -Identity VDI_Policy -EnableMediaRedirection $true

3. If the command is successful, the client policy is created and the properties of the policy are displayed, as shown in Figure 27.4.

Figure 27.4. Creating a new client policy with media redirection enabled.

4. Execute the following command to apply the new client policy to each user in the IT department:

Get-CsUser -LDAPFilter "Department=IT" | Grant-CsClientPolicy -PolicyName VDI_Policy

In the first portion of the PowerShell command executed previously in step 4, the Get-CsUser cmdlet is used with an LDAP filter to return a collection of users whose Department attribute in Active Directory is configured as IT. The results are then pipelined to the second portion of the command, where the Grant-CsClientPolicy cmdlet is used to apply the client policy to the IT users. There are many combinations of these cmdlets that can be used to selectively apply client policies to users across the organization, granting the ability to use media redirection along with a host of other features, many of which are displayed in Figure 27.4. After the client policy has been applied, the Get-CsUser cmdlet can be used to verify that the client policy has been correctly applied to the user, as shown in Figure 27.5.

Figure 27.5. Verifying the client policy setting for a user in the Management Shell.