Attempting to generate a certificate request (CSR) on the Avaya Session Border Controller for Enterprise fails with the error: “The Subject Alt name field can not be empty.” or “Subject Alt Name is not properly formatted. See here for more information.”

Problem

You attempt to create a CSR on Avaya Session Border Controller for Enterprise 6.3 000-19-4338:

… but notice that you are unable to generate the CSR if the Subject Alt Name is left blank:

The Subject Alt name field can not be empty.

Attempting to fill it in with the Common Name fails with:

Subject Alt Name is not properly formatted. See here for more information.

Solution

The reason why the above 2 errors are thrown is because the entry is not supposed to be the FQDN as most Windows administrators are used to but rather an IP address and SIP domain.  The Avaya Session Border Controller should have 2 interfaces, 1 for internal and 1 for external so depending which interface this CSR is for, the format should either be:

IP:1.1.1.1,DNS:external.domain.com

… or:

IP:10.1.1.1,DNS:internal.domain.com

**Note that the certificate for the public interface should be have the public address accessible from the internet and not the internal NAT address.

The CSR should complete once this has been corrected:

Changing the Phone Extension in Avaya Communicator for Microsoft Lync 2013 after the initial configuration

Problem

You’ve completed deploying the Avaya Communicator for Microsoft Lync (version 6.4.0.2.50) client side integration with Skype for Business Server 2015 to replace the previous Lync Server 2013 and Avaya AES server’s RCC functionality but noticed that you are unable to change the Extension in the Avaya Communication for Microsoft Lync because it is greyed out once it has been configured:

Solution

I’m not exactly sure if this is by-design but one of the ways I found to workaround this was change the Choose the Device for Calls: setting to another option (in this case it is the Computer setting):

Then change it back to the previous Desk Phone option and you will then notice that the Extension field is no longer greyed out: