Modify Numbers in SKYPE4B contactcard without absconfig.exe

I recently came across a customer with the need to modify which attributes are sync’ed from AD into the contactcards i SKYPE for Business. However the absconfig.exe (part of ressourcekit) is not yet supported for Skype for Business server 2015 – so what to do ?

Let me walk you through an example of how to modify theese mappings directly in the backend database.

As always when laying hands directly on LYNC / SfB backends databases, proceed with caution 🙂

I this example we use the IP phone property in AD to store a phonenumber that is unwanted in the SKYPE contactcard.

You start by connecting to your backend SQL with SQL Server Management Studio – and find the RTCAB database.

Then you scroll to dbo.abattribut attribute – and rightclick and select top 1000 rows, to find the value you want to modify
OR use this query:

SELECT [Name]
      ,[Flags]
      ,[Enabled]
  FROM [rtcab].[dbo].[AbAttribute]

As you can see from the results, the property we want to modify has the ID 13.

When the property is enabled the "enabled" column will show a "1" 

The you create a new SQL query - and IF nescessary modify the line "where id=13" if you want to disable og enable aother property that "IPPhone"

USE
[rtcab]


GO




SELECT
[Id] 


,[Name]     


,[Flags]     


,[Enabled]


  FROM [dbo].[AbAttribute]


GO


update dbo.AbAttribute


set
Enabled=0


where Id=13

Rerun the select query to verify that the value indeed did change.
Now its time to let SKYPE for Business know that you updated this value.
Open up SKYPE for Business Management Shell - 
First Run update-csuserdatabase cmdlet and then wait app. 15 minutes (keep an eye on the event viewer for ID's 30024, 30027 and 30028
Then run update-csaddressbook - and again wait for event id 62020
Now all data is resynced - and you can clear the address book cache and see the reflected change.

If you are looking for a GREAT in depth article on the addressbook service and sync as a whole - please go to this link by Hans Sleurink;
http://www.fots.nl/lync-address-book-sync-process-information/


As always - Happy SKYPE'ing