In the previous blog post, we prepared our host server for CCE1.4.1 installation with the necessary hardware and software pre-requisites and customized the CloudConnector.ini file. In this post, we will start building the VMs which will actually download the necessary software bits from the internet as well and downloading and installing updates, while leveraging the base OS iso image on the host server. After that, we will configure the CCE components to work with our Office365 E5 tenant. As mentioned, we are using an Asterisk IP-PBX to emulate a PSTN Gateway. One additional point that I did not mention in the previous post is that we are using pure Azure AD user accounts for CCE, as opposed to on-premise AD synchronized user accounts required by PSTN Connectivity via an on-premise instance of Skype4B.

On Aug 22, Microsoft released version 1.4.1 of the Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition with several new features such as a smaller hardware specification that supports 50 concurrent calls, as well as support for REFER and Forwarding PAI from Mediation Server to PSTN Gateway. Just as a recap, Cloud Connector Edition is a minimum topology of Skype for Business Server comprising of 4 VMs per instance that allows Office365 Skype for Business Online users to leverage existing on-premise PSTN connectivity. This is particularly useful for users in countries where PSTN Calling Service from Microsoft is not yet available, or in cases where users still want to leverage existing on-premise PSTN infrastructure. This blog post is the first part of a series that walks through the setup and configuration of CCE1.4.1 in a lab environment for testing and learning purposes and deploys a single instance of CCE with a single SIP domain.

In this blog post, I would like to cover some of the configuration tips on deploying and managing the Polycom VVX family of VoIP phones as well as the Polycom Trio8800 SmartHub registered to Skype for Business environments. Note that this blog post is based on an on-premise deployment of Skype for Business Server. This post does not cover Cloud Connector Edition (CCE) scenarios, which is targeted for a future series of blog posts. As always, IT professionals looking to deploy these devices in an enterprise production environment should leverage the documents available the Polycom Support site. The firmware versions I'm using for this blog post is UCS 5.4.1.14510 for the VVX and UCS 5.4.3.2342 for the Trio8800 SmartHub.

In the previous article we upgraded our directory synchronization server from the older DirSync to the latest version of AAD Connect to prepare our Skype for Business hybrid environment for Office 365 E5 Cloud PBX with on-premise PSTN Connectivity. In this article, we will configure our Skype for Business on-prem environment with a simulated PSTN connectivity using an Asterisk IP-PBX. We will create the necessary PSTN Gateway and Trunk from the Skype for Business side, and configure the corresponding SIP trunks and inbound/outbound routes on the Asterisk side. Then we will register a Polycom VVX600 and Polycom Trio8800 using accounts homed on the on-premise Skype for Business and make sure they are able to call extensions on the Asterisk IP-PBX. Once this is completed, we will move those accounts to Office365 E5 and test the voice functionality again to confirm that on-premise PSTN connectivity is working. Below is the diagram of the initial setup before moving accounts to Office365:

In a previous post we setup and deployed a Lync2013 environmemt for hybrid split domain with Office365. That environment was later upgraded to Skype for Business 2015 servers while retaining all the hybrid functionality such as users homed on-prem and on-line, as well as Exchange Online with UM. In preparation to deploy and move users to Office365 E5 Cloud PBX with On-Premise PSTN Connectivity, one of the first tasks is to upgrade the existing DirSync server to Azure AD Connect. The version of AAD Connect must be version 1.0.9125.0 or later. This blog posts walk through the steps required and follows the guidance provided in this Azure documentation.

Coming back to the office after a the year-end holidays like most people, I found that the Skype4B clients, IP Phones and Video Endpoints were no longer able to register with the Skype4B front-end pool. Yes time does pass very quickly and certificates that were created and assigned during installation do expire. The default expiry date for default FE server certificates is 2 years. This article explores the renewal of these FE certificates to get the system back to normal.

First and foremost, the client error message displayed during sign-in was rather misleading as this error was not due to DNS records at all. I suspect this could be due to the fact that this was a Hybrid setup with some users hosted on-premise and others hosted online on Office365. A quick check on the lyncdiscover.domain.com and lyncdiscoverinternal.domain.com DNS records as well as the fallback SRV records _siptinernaltls._tcp.domain.dom were correctly pointed to the on-premise FE Pool. Users who are homed online simply get redirected to the Office365 pool after they first hit the on-premise servers. Since the error cannot be due to DNS, then we need to look into the FE server itself to find out what the issue was.

The Polycom RealPresence Trio8800 brings a new era of innovation for meeting rooms devices by being the first smart hub for group collaboration that transforms the iconic three-point conference phone into a voice, video and content sharing system for Microsoft Skype for Business 2015 and Lync 2013. More information regarding the product can be found in the Polycom website. This blog post focuses on the technical overview and configuration of the Trio8800 for Microsoft Skype for Business. For a full list of device specifications, customers may refer to the data sheet at the Polycom Trio Website and thus only the more important ones will be highlighted here.

Skype Meeting Broadcast is an exciting new feature coming to Skype for Business later this year. As mentioned in the Skype Preview website, this enables organizations to broadcast a Skype for Business meeting on the Internet to up to 10,000 attendees from a browser on nearly any device. Skype Meeting Broadcast makes it easy to host large virtual events such as “Town Hall” style meetings and webinars. The current preview also includes integration with Bing Pulse, for real-time polling and sentiment tracking, and Yammer, to enable attendee dialogue during the broadcast. This article walks through the steps to configure Skype Meeting Broadcast in a O365 Hybrid setup where users homed on-premise or on-line can leverage this new capability.

Polycom has recently released its latest 5.0 firmware version for the Group Series Room Telepresence systems. Among the new features that come with this new version, the two most important are support for content receive over RDP Skype for Business and Lync 2013 as well as Office365 Exchange Online calendaring support. Note that Skype for Business Online is not yet supported with this release and Polycom's plan of intent is to support it in H1 2016. For now, companies need to have a hybrid configuration where Skype for Business is installed on-premise while utilizing Exchange Online for email and calendaring. This article walks through the configuration of the Group Series 5.0 firmware for Exchange Online in 2 scenarios: using a standard O365 user account; and using an Exchange Online Resource mailbox which requires no licenses.

Recently I had to renew the SSL certificate for my AFDS Server and ADFS Proxy, both of which expired in Aug. We installed the ADFS and ADFS Proxy servers in the blog post Road to Lync Hybrid as we configured Lync 2013 for a Hybrid configuration with Office365. That Lync environment has since been upgraded to Skype for Business 2015. Generating a new CSR and obtaining a new cert was the easy part, however problems started appear shortly after for users who were dirsync'ed from AD to O365. They were unable to sign in to the Office365 portal and could not login to Exchange Online from either internal network or external network. Users hosted on Skype4B on-premise servers could still login to Skype5, but only from internal network. Users not dirsync'ed from AD continued to work as normal.

In a previous article we walked through the steps to take a Lync 2013 Standard Edition Server to Skype for Business Server 2015. In this follow up post, we perform the upgrade on a Lync 2013 Enterprise Pool comprising of 3 Front End servers and 1 SQL Back End server. The steps to perform the upgrade are similar so only the key differences between upgrading a Standard Edition server vs. an Enterprise Front End Pool will be highlighted here.

High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) capabilities continue to improve in Skype for Business Server 2015 to provide even greater uptime reliability and performance for end users. Fundamentally the Front-End HA/DR capabilities are built upon the Windows Fabric v1 foundation that was introduced in Lync Server 2013, and now improved with v3 in Skype4B server, For the Back-End servers the redundancy is built on SQL Mirroring or Always-On technologies This article aims to provide some of the best practices for Front End Server HA+DA in Skype4B server. For readers already familiar with these concepts, then this article can also serve as a refresher and/or reference.