In the process of migrating a customer to Lync recently we inherited an obligation to provide a *BIG* Message Waiting Indicator (MWI) light whenever a voicemail message arrived in a particular high-priority mailbox. That inspired me to embark on a campaign to see how many ways I could bring an external MWI light to reality.

Mucking with MWI – Part I uses a scheduled PowerShell script to query MWI and light a Blynclight.
Mucking with MWI – Part II is this post. Here we use the MWI LED in a CX600 to drive a mains-powered light through an optically-isolated solid-state relay (herein “SSR”).

Do I or Don’t I?

There are some pros and cons to this that we need to document:

Pros

• Easy to do – the CX600 was cracked and modded in under 10 minutes. Easy peasy!
• Relatively cheap to implement
• Flexible. Use any suitable solid-state relay and drive any mains load that it’s rated for
• Safe. Provided you do it properly of course, the mains isn’t at risk of coming into contact with the phone’s electrics
• Unplug the SSR from the phone and the phone’s LED still works like normal

Cons

• You need a phone, and it needs to be always signed-in as the relevant user
• You’re going to void the phone’s warranty the moment you pop the case
• Supportability might be an issue for you. It’s requiring a modified phone and some non-standard hardware that your average UC consultancy or customer isn’t going to keep handy
• Potentially fragile. If you hide the phone away under a bench you won’t actually know if the phone or SSR become unplugged or the user’s signed out

A Video Demo

Here’s a quick demo of the solution:

The Circuit

There’s nothing to it. All we’re doing is extending the phone’s MWI LED so that the LED in the SSR is added in series. When one lights, so does the other.

Why not in Parallel?

Being techy himself, Glen asked me why I went with a serial approach over wiring the LEDs in parallel. There’s no right or wrong answer to this one, but without knowing what was driving the phone’s LED, I thought running them in series would be more friendly to the phone’s electrics. This results in a slight reduction in brightness of the phone’s LED, and you can see the difference in the video when I unplug the SSR from the phone – the intensity of the phone’s LED jumps up. A serial connection also covers us if – as in the case of the AudioCodes – the LED in the phone is blue. Blue LEDs require a higher voltage to light, and if we paralleled a red LED across the blue there’d be the risk the blue one would no longer illuminate.

Building it

Finding the most suitable phone to use turned out to be the hardest part. I took apart most of the phones I had here at home and in the end it was the CX600 that stood out as being by far the easiest to mod. (The others I’ve detailed below).

Ingredients

1. Your preferred phone. In this demo that’s a CX600
2. Approx 4-6” (10-15cm) of light-duty 2-core hookup wire or ribbon cable. This will run from the phone to the socket we’re going to mount in the body
3. An 1/8” (3.5mm) mono panel-mounting socket, with internal switch. The switch is crucial to ensuring the phone’s MWI LED will still light if you unplug the SSR

   Don’t go overboard here and choose a 1/4” (6.35mm) socket – you’ll have problems fitting it in the phone

4. A matching plug for the socket
5. A solid-state relay that presents only a LED (without voltage-dropping resistors) for its trigger. In my demo I’m using a 240V “PowerSSR Tail” (US$14.99 + shipping) that I built from a kit. If you’re in the US or other 110V market you might like their pre-built PowerSSR Tail (US$19.99 + shipping) – although I’ve not tested this & can’t find its circuit
    
    
6. If you’re building the PowerSSR kit, you’ll need some mains cabling between the supply and your light. I cut a 1m mains extension lead in half and used that. The benefit here is that the plug and socket ends are nicely moulded to the cable
7. Some light-duty 2-core flex (say 3’ / 1m) to run from the phone to the SSR. If your plan is to leave the phone on the desk and bury the electrics underneath, perhaps double this length
8. Soldering iron, solder, cutters, small Phillips-head screwdriver, drill, drill-bits, insulation tape

Method

1. Sign the phone in and send that user a voicemail message. Confirm the LED lights on arrival of the message and extinguishes after it’s been listened-to. OK, we have a baseline – we know it used to work before you started!
2. Disconnect all cables from the phone
3. Unscrew the 6 case screws. Put them somewhere you’re not going to lose them
4. The phone should come apart in two pieces. Take it slowly here as the speaker is actually mounted in the base. Thankfully it plugs in so you can unplug it to separate the phone halves
5. With the phone resting face-down on a cushion or some bubble-wrap you’ll see the MWI LED on a small PCB, connected back to the main board with black and red wires. (If yours aren’t black and red don’t worry – the colour’s not important)
6. I used a soldering iron to lift the black wire from its pad, soldering one end of the hookup wire to the pad and the other end of the wire to the now floating black wire. Insulate the join. If you’re not comfortable soldering onto the board (or your iron has too big a tip or poor temperature control), simply cut the red or black wire mid-span, strip some insulation and splice the hookup wire into the break.
    
   Click on these Before and After images for higher-res views:
    
7. Solder the socket to the other end of the hookup wire. Bridge the ‘switch’ tag to the ‘sleeve’ tag so that the socket presents a short-circuit when nothing’s plugged in. For the socket shown in the Ingredients list, that means the two left-hand tags are shorted together. Test this with a multimeter if in doubt.
8. Locate a suitable place on the rear of the phone for the socket. I found there’s a good gap at the top rear. (Refer the RH photo above)
9. Drill a small hole, then gradually increase the size of the drill-bit until it’s the right-size for the socket. (Mine ended up 15/64”)
10. Mount the socket and reassemble the phone, checking to make sure the socket and its pins aren’t going to contact anything internally. Check the cable isn’t also going to get in the way
11. At this point you can re-power the phone and repeat the test in step 1. The LED should still be lighting OK – if not, refer to Troubleshooting
12. Solder the flex to the 1/8” plug and strip the other ends in preparation for the SSR. If you connect the plug to the phone with the MWI LED lit it should go out, but re-light if you short the free ends of the cable together. This proves all your soldering and wiring is good to the end of the flex
13. Now connect the free end of the flex to your SSR. If you plug the other end into the phone and apply power, your mains light should follow the status of the LED on the phone. If not, reverse the polarity to the SSR and try again
14. Tada:
    

Troubleshooting

• If the prep test in Step 1 failed, check that the *only* UM IP Gateway in Exchange set with MWI enabled is Lync:
   

  Get-UMIPGateway | ft Name,MessageWaitingIndicatorAllowed -auto

• If the phone’s MWI lights but the mains light doesn’t, you might have gotten the pin connections wrong on the socket. (The SSR is plugged in and you know the lamp you’re using is good, right?)
• If nothing lights, you might still have gotten the pins wrong on the socket, have bad joins internal to the phone, or the polarity to the SSR is the wrong way ‘round. There are two quick checks here: disconnect the two wires at the SSR and short them together. If the wiring’s good to that point the phone’s MWI LED will light. If that’s the case, just reconnect the wires to the SSR the other way around and brightness should ensue
• If nothing lights and your cabling checks out OK in the step above, it might be that your SSR device isn’t presenting a LED to the phone. Check its circuit or ask the vendor. If it has an internal voltage dropping resistor or is marked as being designed for 5 or 12V operation it’s unlikely to work without a separate power supply or modifications
• If the phone’s MWI LED doesn’t light when the SSR cable is unplugged, you’ve gotten the pin connections wrong on the socket

Alternate Phone Choices

I tried a few others but only the AudioCodes 420HD and Polycom VVX 410 appear to make the cut – and then only if you practice micro-surgery in your spare time. The most suitable phones appear to be those with a separate MWI LED and not one that’s a part of a switch or buried in amongst the keypad.

Snom 300

I had an old Snom 300 here but the LED wouldn’t light at all – not even when power was applied and every other LED lit. I don’t know if my phone’s faulty or if it’s too old to support this feature. It’s a shame as it’s a cheap phone and the LED is easy to get to: it’s mounted on the rear of the PCB, poking through a hole in the board to shine forward. (Click the image for a larger version).

Snom 700

I thought the Snom 700 had promise, but as I researched it I found that the big LED in the top corner *can’t* be used as an MWI light. This annoyed me as it’s REALLY easy to get to it and its wiring. Not to be deterred I refocussed my attentions on the mid-mounted Message button, but upon closer inspection realised it was going to take some doing – and I wasn’t game. The LED’s in a switch that’s on the front-facing side of the board, and I honestly doubted I could get it all back together after and still have the switch functioning and LED visible. If you have a spare you’re willing to sacrifice, take it for a whirl and let me know how you go. Send pictures. :-)

AudioCodes 420HD

The blue MWI LED on this guy drew me in like a moth to a flame. Remove the five screws and then with the phone face-up use a jeweller’s screwdriver or thin knife at the mid-point of each side to tease the snap-together clips apart. Be careful here as the headset socket and handsfree mike are mounted in the rear half by short cables. Both can be gently eased out of their mounts to free the two halves of the phone. With a good eye and SMD-capable soldering iron you should be able to de-solder the LED without further disassembly. I suggest you remove it entirely then reinstate it rotated through 60-90 degrees. With one leg on the board that will give you easy access to the other solder pad and to the free leg of the LED, whilst still letting the LED shine through the opaque part of the casing.

Polycom CX200 / “Catalina”

It took more time to remove all *9* screws holding the Catalina together than it did to dismiss it as too hard. The tiny MWI LED in this is part of the sandwich of buttons held to the face of the device by the PCB. Even if you *could* get it apart and back together again so that the buttons still worked, you’d have a hell of a time re-routing tiny wires to the back for the socket. Only for the determined or those with Olympic-grade stubbornness.

Polycom VVX 410

Eight screws gets you into the VVX 410 and the back pops off. (There are two hidden in the foot-stand slots). It looks do-able as well, with the same micro-surgery approach as per the AudioCodes. A few notes here before you start though: the LED winks at you in normal operation. That might be a good thing or a bad thing. Also, be careful to disable the power-saving LED otherwise you’ll get false indicators of MWI when the phone goes to sleep. A recent comment on my “Optimising the VVX for Lync” post gives that config element.

Have I missed any? Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

– Greig.

Pro-Exchange community leads will bring you the best content from Microsoft Ignite Chicago. Tonino Bruno will kick of our event with interesting and fun facts regarding both Exchange on premises and Online. Ruben Nauwelaers and Johan Delimon will entertain us during the remainder of the evening regarding Skype for Business (formerly called Lync). Last but not least some refreshments will help digesting all of this information in the most pleasant way possible.

WHEN:
Wednesday May 21, 2015

AGENDA:
18h30: Welcome
19h00: Exchange
20h15: Break
20h30: Skype4B
21h45: Q&A
22h00: Drinks

WHERE:
Location : Xylos Antwerp (Portview restaurant @ 10th floor)
Noorderlaan 138, 2030 Antwerp, Belgium

REGISTRATION:
Register now: https://eventbrite.com/event/16785393564/

This is somewhat a “throwback” article (sigh, time to look for a new ISP Provider) as the post was stuck at my draft till it was “officially” published :(

Although there’re various materials available from the Internet on how to join a Lync Online Meeting – either through Lync On-Premise or Office 365, I’d came out with a short guide to help some customers/readers especially users whom are part of the organization but still wishes to use Lync Online Meeting to join meetings.

1. Usually you’ll receive an Online Meeting Calendar invite from the sender, within the content it as a hyperlink/URL with the word Join Online Meeting
2. Upon clicking the Lync Meeting URL, the web page brings you to Online Meeting page which it’ll starts detecting whether you have a native Lync Client installed. If not, you’ve an option to use Lync Web App
3. Usually you’ll join as a Participant (Guest). Upon loading up the page, type in your preferred display name to join the meeting. If this is the first time joining such meeting and there is not Lync Web App Plugin detected, you’ll see this:-
   
4. Select the Install Lync Web App plug-in and click on Join the Meeting
   
5. Select RUN when prompted
   
6. Lync Web App plugin will then start the installation
   
7. Once the installation completes, the web page will automatically refreshes. Type in an appropriate Name and Select on the Join the Meeting
   
8. You’ll be placed at the Lync Virtual Lobby till the presenter verifies your identity and Admits you into the Meeting session
   
9. If you receive a warning message, select on Allow to grant the plugin permission to interact with your machine. I would recommend to select the Always allow the plug-in for this domain to ease future access
   
10. If you’re Windows Firewall is enabled, select on Allow access to grant access for the plugin. If this is not available, you may need to grant the it manually from the Windows Firewall option. If you do not grant the plugin through the Windows firewall, you’ll experience difficulties such as there’re no output for its audio and/or video during the meeting session
    
11. Once you’re done, Enjoy the Meeting!
    

Many thanks to @KatherineChen as the meeting organization and initiator for this guide to help out the SEA MVP in joining our monthly MVP Meetings!

In case you missed it, on the eve of Microsoft Ignite, the Skype for Business Server 2015 build has been officially released – the RTM version is available for download on MSDN (thanks to fellow MVP Jeff Schertz for alerting me to this):

The download is 1.4 GB. Just a reminder, it is an in-place upgrade from Lync Server 2013 with no additional hardware requirements.

The TechNet documentation was released a couple of days ago and is available here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398616.aspx.

Fellow MVP Matt Landis has already done a nice job on a Step by Step Skype for Business Server 2015 In Place Upgrade blog post.

And lastly, Microsoft has already updated the Key Health Indicators for the new Skype release – available here: Key Health Indicators for Lync Server 2013 and Skype for Business Server 2015.

Buried in amongst the excitement of yesterday’s arrival of the Skype for Business Server 2015 ISO on MSDN and the swarm currently descending upon Chicago is quite a worthy update to Lync Server 2013. This one takes Lync Server 2013 from 5.0.8308.871 (or 5.0.8308.872 depending upon where you look) to 5.0.8308.887.

What’s Fixed?

• kb3051962 Lync Server 2013 URL filter policy does not filter hyperlinks that do not contain the “http://” prefix in a Lync client
• kb3051963 Lync Mobile Client call is dropped immediately when you dial 0 for an operator
• kb3062801 Lost data when Lync Server 2013 directories move to Skype for Business
• kb3053028 Incorrect notification “You’ve left the call” appears in a meeting in Lync Web App in a Lync Server 2013 environment
• kb3051965 Audio modality icon status is not updated after you join a Lync audio meeting in Lync Server 2013-based Lync Web App
• kb3051968 Meeting fails when you escalate a peer-to-peer instant message conversation to it in a Lync Server 2013 environment
• kb3051969 Lync Server 2013 Web Conferencing service cannot input or output data in a Lync file share
• kb3057445 Event 41027 is logged when the Lync Server 2013 Web Conferencing service creates the “Meeting.Active” file
• kb3051964 You cannot see some Lync Server 2013 response groups that you are a member of on the agent sign-in page in Lync client

What’s New?

• Nothing apparent just yet.

Is this a pre-req for Skype for Business 2015 server?

Strictly, no, but in reality it’s looking more like a YES. If you’re planning on performing an in-place upgrade of your Lync 2013 server to Skype for Business the published minimum is 5.0.8308.738, which was the August 2014 update. I think this is overridden by one of the fixes above (kb3062801) that addresses a known issue with conferencing data loss when migrating users to a Skype for Business pool. So by my reading that makes this KB a pre-req!

Download

• Download the installer from here.
• Here’s the kb article.

Installation

My lab Front-End here’s not the most blessed with resources, and it took just on 6 minutes to install. The end of the process prompted for a reboot. Here’s the ‘before” view:

The September update last year listed as a pre-req that “You must make sure that all instances of the Event Viewer and Performance Monitor windows are closed before you install this cumulative update” so it’s best to follow that guidance here – especially if your servers AREN’T presently already at least at 5.0.8308.815.

Other than that requirement, the update process remains much the same as usual, although the installation process for the Windows Fabric update (NOT required this time if you’re already on 5.0.8308.815 or later, as per my image above) also requires all Lync services are stopped before you run the installer. If your server is running at version 5.0.8308.291 or later (which I think just about covers everything BUT an unpatched brand new server) you only need to run my steps 1-5 below:

1. Check you’re ready for this: run “Get-CsPoolUpgradeReadinessState”
2. Stop-CsWindowsService
3. Get-CsWindowsService – just to make sure
4. Run the update
5. Update “configured databases”, making sure you don’t overlook your Persistent Chat, Monitoring and Archiving Databases. NB: Take extra care – and read the kb guidance – if you’re Mirroring, or have co-located databases
6. Update the CMS (ONLY if it’s hosted on a Lync 2013 server & ONLY if you’re still on RTM, aka 5.0.8308.0)
7. Enable the Mobility service (with Enable-CsTopology)
8. Enable UCWA by running bootstrapper.exe on all Front-End and Director servers

A good test after applying the updates is to run Pat’s “Get-CsDatabaseUpdateStatus” script just to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

Don’t Overlook Exchange

There’s an update to the UCMA Runtime in this bundle, so if your Exchange 2013 server has the UM role installed it’ll want an update too! (If in doubt, just run the installer – it will tell you if UCMA is installed and needs the update. You can then back out and schedule it at a suitable time).

Revision History

3rd May: Updated “is this a pre-req” to say ‘not officially, but yeah’.

– G.

A new addition in Skype for Business Server is the ability for the installer to check to see if any updates have been released, then download and install them during the installation of Skype for Business Server.  This is very similar to what newer versions of SQL Server do during their installation process.  When you launch the setup for Skype for Business Server, you will see the following:

The installer will connect to the Internet and check for any updates for Skype for Business.  If there are updates, they will be downloaded.  If not, you can continue on with the installation:

This will be a welcome addition to anyone who will be doing a bunch of installs of Skype for Business Server.

Taken from the Server requirements for Skype for Business Server 2015 and Install prerequisites TechNet articles, the following prerequisites need to be installed before attempting to install Skype for Business Server 2015:

First, make sure you are running the latest service pack for your OS:

• Windows Server 2012 R2, latest service pack is recommended.
• Windows Server 2012 with SP1 (required), latest service pack is recommended.

If it's not on this list, it won't work properly, please don't try it for new installs of Skype for Business Server 2015.

You may have noticed Windows Server 2008 R2 isn't on this list. That's because we recommend Windows Server 2012 R2 for all new servers to be used for Skype for Business. You should only be using Windows Server 2008 R2 when you have existing servers with Lync Server 2013 already installed, and you're intending to do an in-place upgrade of them. Windows Server 2008 R2 reached the end of the mainstream support lifecycle on 1/13/2015. 

In addition to the latest service pack, you'll want to ensure the following updates are installed where relevant to you:

• For Windows Server 2012, KB2858668 should be installed before an upgrade.
• If you have Windows Server 2012 R2, please install KB2982006 before upgrading. To apply this hotfix, you must first install KB2919355, which requires KB2969339 to be installed first.
• If you're upgrading on a Windows Server 2008 R2 box, then you'll want to install KB2533623 first.

Roles and Features/Software

• Windows Media Format Runtime
• Windows Identity Foundation
• RSAT AD DS and AD LDS tools
• Silverlight

Internet Information Services (IIS)

• Web Server
  • Common HTTP Features
    • Static Content
    • Default Document
    • HTTP Errors
  • Application Development
    • ASP.NET - (Note: For Windows Server 2012, ASP.NET 3.5 & ASP.NET 4.5 are required.)
    • .NET Extensibility
    • Internet Server API (ISAPI) Extensions
    • ISAPI Filters
  • Health and Diagnostics
    • HTTP Logging
    • Logging Tools
    • Tracing
  • Security
    • Windows Authentication
    • Client Certificate Mapping Authentication
    • Request Filtering
  • Performance
    • Static Content Compression
    • Dynamic Content Compression
  • Management Tools
    • IIS Management Console
    • IIS Management Scripts and Tools

• .NET Framework 4.5
  • WCF Services
    • HTTP Activation - (Note: Required for Windows Server 2012/2012 R2.)

To make installing the prerequisites easier, here are the PowerShell commands.  This will install all of the prerequisites except for the KBs and Silverlight.

For Windows Server 2012/2012 R2, open a PowerShell command window as Administrator and run the following commands:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Core, RSAT-ADDS, Windows-Identity-Foundation, Web-Static-Content, Web-Default-Doc, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Asp-Net, Web-Net-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Log-Libraries, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Filtering, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Dyn-Compression, NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Mgmt-Tools, Web-Scripting-Tools, Server-Media-Foundation -Restart

Note: On Windows Server 2012/2012 R2, you may get the following error message when you try to run the Add-WindowsFeature cmdlet above:

Add-WindowsFeature : The request to add or remove features on the specified server failed.
Installation of one or more roles, role services, or features failed.
The source files could not be downloaded.
Use the "source" option to specify the location of the files that are required to restore the feature. For more information on specifying a source location, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=243077. Error: 0x800f0906

This is because the .NET Framework 3.5 is not included in Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 and needs to be either downloaded from Windows Update or you need to provide the location to the Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 installation media.  You can read more about this in the Error codes when you try to install the .NET Framework 3.5 in Windows 8 or in Windows Server 2012 KB article.  To provide the location of the Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 installation media, run the Add-WindowsFeature cmdlet from above and add the -Source parameter with the location of the Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 installation media, i.e -Source D:\sources\sxs.

In case you missed it, on the eve of Microsoft Ignite, the Skype for Business Server 2015 build has been officially released – the RTM version is available for download on MSDN (thanks to fellow MVP Jeff Schertz for alerting me to this):

The download is 1.4 GB. Just a reminder, it is an in-place upgrade from Lync Server 2013 with no additional hardware requirements.

The TechNet documentation was released a couple of days ago and is available here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398616.aspx.

Fellow MVP Matt Landis has already done a nice job on a Step by Step Skype for Business Server 2015 In Place Upgrade blog post.

And lastly, Microsoft has already updated the Key Health Indicators for the new Skype release – available here: Key Health Indicators for Lync Server 2013 and Skype for Business Server 2015.

Updates:

• KB 3051949 May 2015 Cumulative Update 5.0.8308.887 for Lync Server 2013 (Front End Server and Edge Server)
• KB 3051956 May 2015 Cumulative Update 5.0.8308.887 for Lync Server 2013 Unified Communications Managed API 4.0 Runtime
• KB 3051953 May 2015 Cumulative Update 5.0.8308.887 for Lync Server 2013 web components server
• KB 3051951 May 2015 Cumulative Update 5.0.8308.887 for Lync Server 2013 core components
• KB 3051955 May 2015 Cumulative Update 5.0.8308.887 for Lync Server 2013 Conferencing Attendant
• KB 3051950 May 2015 Cumulative Update 5.0.8308.887 for a Lync Server 2013 Web Conferencing server
• KB 3051957 May 2015 Cumulative Update 5.0.8308.887 for the Lync Server 2013 Response Group service

Download:

• Lync Server 2013 Cumulative Update KB 2809243 (Direct Download)

Fixes:

• Lync Server 2013 URL filter policy does not filter hyperlinks that do not contain the “http://” prefix in a Lync client
• Lync Mobile Client call is dropped immediately when you dial 0 for an operator
• Lost data when Lync Server 2013 directories move to Skype for Business
• Incorrect notification “You’ve left the call” appears in a meeting in Lync Web App in a Lync Server 2013 environment
• Audio modality icon status is not updated after you join a Lync audio meeting in Lync Server 2013-based Lync Web App
• Meeting fails when you escalate a peer-to-peer instant message conversation to it in a Lync Server 2013 environment
• Lync Server 2013 Web Conferencing service cannot input or output data in a Lync file share
• Event 41027 is logged when the Lync Server 2013 Web Conferencing service creates the “Meeting.Active” file
• You cannot see some Lync Server 2013 response groups that you are a member of on the agent sign-in page in Lync client

If you have an Lync Server Infrastructure today and want to upgrade it to Skype for Business here is how to:

Planning

Updating to Skype for Business Server 2015 can be done in a couple of different ways, but you need to plan how you will do.

One of the new features in Skype for Business is that you can do an in-place upgrade from Lync Server 2013, meaning that you perhaps do not need to create new servers, and move users like we have been used to.

So why do I write perhaps… You need to look at your environment and see if you meet the pre-requisites:

The Server OS and Hardware

Your Lync servers need to be Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2, to have Windows Fabric ver. 3

If you are on a Windows 2008 R2 platform with your Lync servers, it might be a good time to create new Windows Server 2012 R2 Servers, and do a side-by-side installation.

Also your servers might also be a bit small – so consider if they need more resources. When I create new Lync/SfB servers they usually have the below specs (depending of course of the customer usage and size):

Single Frontend: (up-to 500-1000 Users)

4 x vCPU

16 GB RAM

100 GB disk for the OS (Windows Server 2012 R2)

100 GB for the Lync/SfB files

Other Sfb Servers roles (up-to 500-1000 Users)

2 x vCPU

8 GB RAM

100 GB disk for the OS (Windows Server 2012 R2)

On Enterprise pools I typically have much larger servers and the customer usage is also very different.

The Lync Server version

You need to have Lync Server 2013 patched with all the latest updates from Windows Update, to be able to do an in-place upgrade.

If you have Lync Server 2010, you need to do an side-by-side installation.

If you have a mixed environment with Lync Server 2010 and 201, then it’s not supported to have SfB 2015 in the same topology – In this scenario you need to move the users and services to Lync Server 2013 and decommission the old Lync Server 2010 before you install SfB 2015.

Downtime

When you do an in-place upgrade from Lync Server 2013 you must schedule to have downtime, as the pool or server that you upgrade needs to be taken offline doing the upgrade.

So if you cannot afford to have the servers offline – make an side-by-side installation and move users and services.

If the upgrade process fails – the procedure to revert back is to have a good backup of your Lync configuration, and then deploy new Lync servers and restore your lync topology – so again consider if can you afford to have the pool or servers offline for a longer period (the time to restore), if something goes wrong.

If you have more than one pool, you have the option to move all users from one pool to the others, and then do an in-place upgrade of the empty pool.

When you are doing the planning, also consider that have the option to do both an in-place upgrade and the side-by-side installation, depending on the server or role that you are upgrading.

For the frontend you might do an side-by-side installation to avoid the risk of restoring if something goes wrong and “long” downtime – but for Edge or mediations servers you might choose to do the in-place upgrade, because they are easily restored or you can have the down for longer time.

In the next post we will start to upgrade to Skype for Business from Lync Server 2013, starting with the frontend pool.

Other Posts in this Serie

Part 2: In-Place Upgrade of the Frontend Server

Microsoft released today the new version of Skype for Business Server 2015 to MSDN and I’ve decided to use my Azure Virtual lab to upgrade my STD server.

There are two methods for upgrade Lync Server 2013 to Skype for Business Server 2015:

1. The Move User method, which requires no downtime for users (Swing upgrade)
2. The Offline method, which requires downtime

In this post I’ll cover the Offline method.

General Upgrader Order:

More information can be found here: Plan to upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2015

1. Upgrade the topology from the inside to the outside.
2. Upgrade all your pools first
3. Upgrade the edge servers
4. Upgrade the Central Management Store (CMS) pool.
5. If you use Kerberos authentication for Web Services, you must reassign Kerberos accounts and reset the password after the In-Place Upgrade is complete

Upgrade Steps – High Level:

The detailed steps can be found here: Upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2015

1. Step 1: Install Administrator tools and download topology
2. Step 2: Upgrade and publish topology using Topology Builder
3. Step 3: Wait for replication
4. Step 4: Stop all services in pool to be upgraded
5. Step 5: Upgrade Front End pools and non-Front End pool servers
6. Step 6: Restart services on all upgraded servers
7. Step 7: Verify Skype for Business functionality works

In-Place Upgrade Prerequisites:

The list of all prerequisites is mentioned here: Install prerequisites

1. Make sure the entire Lync environment is installed with CU5
2. The local SQL Express on the Front-End must have at least SP1 installed (can be upgrades by using Windows Updates as well)
3. KB2982006 for IIS Crash Issues is required for Server 2012 R2
4. Be sure to uninstall LRS Admin tool for Lync Server 2013 before running In-Place Upgrade.
   The LRS Admin Tool for Lync Server 2013 cannot coexist with Skype for Business Server 2015
5. If you have paired pools, do not unpair them before the upgrade.

Step by step Upgrade:

1. Connect to a computer which is part of the domain but does not have any Lync core components or admin tools installed on it.

2. Download the Skype for Business ISO file from the MSDN: en_skype_for_business_server_2015_x64_dvd_6622058.iso

3. Mount the ISO file and launch the setup.exe from: Setup\amd64 folder:

4. On the Setup screen, choose “Connect to the internet to check for updates” in order to install the latest cumulative updates of SfB Server 2015.
this is a useful changes for future deployment which can save a lot of time installing the CU updates.

5. On the End User License Agreement screen, select the “I accept the terms in the license agreement” and choose OK.

6. Now SfB setup will connect to the internet and download the latest updates

7. Once the updates is done, a notification will appear on Screen, choose Next

8. On the Deployment Wizard, click Install Administrator tools, and follow the steps to install

9. From the Windows Start screen, open Skype for Business Server  Topology Builder, Click Download topology from existing deployment, and click Next.

10. Right click on your STD pool and choose Upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2015:

11. On the Upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2015 Choose YES, the outcome should be that the server has been moved to the Skype for Business Server Container

12. Publish the topology and wait for replication to end.

13. Now we need to stop all services on the actual Lync server we are going to upgrade. in order to so we need to run the following command:

Disable-CsComputer -Scorch

14. After disabling the services, we need to run the Skype for Business server setup from the ISO file we’ve downloaded.

15. Once initiated, A prerequisites setup will launch and will determine if the current environment is ready for SfB upgrade or not.
Please remember that if you performing that on Enterprise pool, you have to go through each of the server before starting the services again.

16. Once setup is complete, we’ve left with starting Services on the server by running the following command:

Start-CsPool

17. Once the services are up and running, we need to make sure the upgrade was successful, for the pool that was upgraded.  Run some tests to make sure the functionality is working as expected.

18. Congrats, you’ve now successfully upgrade your Lync Server 2013 to Skype for Business Server 2015