Lync 2013 Deployment and Migration Step by Step

This is a step by step guide to assist those new to Lync in deploying an Enterprise or Standard Edition topology. To make the content easier to navigate it is split in to sections, just click those to expand the content.

Hardware Prerequisites

Microsoft recommends the following minimum requirements for Front End Servers, Back End Servers, Standard Edition Servers, Persistent Chat Servers, and Persistent Chat Store and Persistent Chat Compliance Store (Back End Server Roles for Persistent Chat Server):

  • Dual CPU with 6 Cores, 2.26GHz
  • 32Gb Ram
  • 72Gb Disk Space
  • 1GHz Network adapter
For Edge Servers, Standalone Mediation Servers, and Directors Microsoft’s recommendations are slightly less:
  • Dual CPU with 4 Cores, 2GHz
  • 16Gb Ram
  • 72Gb Disk Space
  • 1GHz Network adapter
In reality these can be much less depending on the number of users and activity. To give you an example for a deployment of 500 users, a Lync Front End will happily run as follows:
  • Single CPU with 4 Cores, 2.26GHz
  • 12Gb Ram
  • 72Gb Disk Space
  • 1GHz Network adapter
Software Prerequisites

Before you get started you will need to decide on and operating system and install some prerequisits. Lync 2013 is supported on Server 2008R2, 2012, and recently 2012R2 with the October 2013 cumulative update.To make your life easier you can use Pat Richards prerequisites script for Server 2012 and 2012R2 – http://www.ehloworld.com/1697

Server 2008R2
Standard and Enterprise Edition Front Ends
  • .NET 3.5 (installed by default with Server 2008 R2)
  • SilverLight (Required from Lync Control Panel)
  • KB2646886 for IIS 7.5 – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2646886/en-us *Install after PowerShell below is Run as it requires IIS to be installed

PowerShell for pre-req’s:

Persistent Chat

PowerShell for pre-req’s:

Director

PowerShell for pre-req’s:

Edge

No additional prerequisites are required.

Mediation

No additional prerequisites are required.

Server 2012R2
  • Apply all Windows Updates
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 – http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=268529
    • After Installation ensure WCF Activation and HTTP Activation are enabled
  • Windows PowerShell 3.0 (installed by default with Server 2012)
  • Windows Identity Foundation 3.5 (install from Server Manager)
Standard and Enterprise Edition Front Ends
  • .NET 3.5
  • SilverLight (Required from Lync Control Panel)

PowerShell for pre-req’s:

Persistent Chat

PowerShell for pre-req’s:

Director

PowerShell for pre-req’s:

Edge
No additional prerequisites are required.

Mediation

No additional prerequisites are required.

Active Directory Preparation

Schema Update – Enable-CsAdServerSchema
Schema Check – Get-CsAdServerSchema

Forest Prep – Enable-CsAdForest -GroupDomain <domain to create security groups>
Forest Check – Get-CsAdForest

Domain Prep – Enable-CsAdDomain –Domain <domain to prepare>
Domain Check – Get-CsAdDomain

NOTE: After Active Directory preparation has completed it’s a good time to add the CSadministrator role to user account that will be performing the installation as well as any other account that will require full access to Lync. It is also worth adding RTCUniversalServerAdmins to the installation account.

DNS Records
Create the DNS records required to support the topology.*Ensure that DNS round robin is enabled for DNS load balancing.
Lync File Share
The folder must be shared, however when the Topology is published the required NTFS permissions will be added.
Topology
Create your Lync Topology using the Topology Builder.If you already have Lync 2010 installed select “Download Topology from existing deployments”, otherwise create a “New Topology”.

Standard Edition
Run “Prepare First Standard Edition Server” to install SQL Express and populate RTC databases. This step is only required for new deployments, and does not apply to migrations from Lync 2010.
Enterprise Edition
TBCInstall Backend Databases (this can be completed when publishing the topology)

Pre-req’s:

  • SQL sysadmin role is required to install Lync databases
  • Remote access to SQL must be configured and the relevant ports opened
  • If SQL mirroring has been defined then the SQL share and permissions must have already been created
NOTE: The databases can also be installed using the topology builder, however if the databases are not in the default path it is better to use PowerShell.

 

Publish the Lync Topology
When you publish the topology for the first time the backend databases are created. One if these databases, named XDS, holds data for the Central Management Store (CMS). This is an important database because it holds Lync Servers Topology, policy and configuration information.

  • Topology – Topology information that was generated by the Topology Builder tool
  • Policy – All of the policies that you configure in Lync
  • Configuration – Configuration information such as certificate and dial-in conferencing access numbers.

A replica copy of the XDS database is located locally on each Lync Server role as an instance of SQL Server Express named “RTCLOCAL”‘.

Permissions required to publish the topology:

What should you check after the topology has been published successfully?

  • Check that the Lync Share has been populated
  • Check that the following Db’s have been created
    • LIS (Local Information Server)
    • XDS (Configuration Database)
Install Server Roles
Once the topology has been published you are ready to install the Lync Server roles on the pre-built servers. One of the nice things about Lync is the ease in which this is done. All you need to do is run the installer and work through the wizards. Each server will contact the Central Management Store (CMS) to learn the role it lays in the topology. With this information the required components will be installed.For each server role the Lync Deployment Wizard needs to be run, here are the steps:

  1. Install Local Configuration StoreEdge ServerExport-csconfiguration -filename c:topology_export.zip
  2. Setup or Remove Lync Server ComponentsTip: The Edge Server requires that you add a DNS suffix to the computer name so that it matches the FQDN defined in the topology
  3. Request, Install or Assign CertificatesDepending on your security requirements you may wish to create a certificate template that has a validity period equal to the period you expect the current version of Lync to be in service.
    • FE Certificate
      • SN: FQDN of Pool
      • SAN: FQDN of FE, meet, dialin, admin, lyncdiscoverinternal, lyncdiscover, web services internal, sip, sipinternal
      • OAuth – Lync servers use this to communicate between themselves
    • Mediation Certificate
      • SN: FQDN of Mediation server
    • Edge Server Certificate
      • Internal SN: FQDN of Edge server
      • External SN: Access FQDN
      • External SAN: Access FQDN, Conferencing FQDN, sip, sipexternal, xmpp
  4. Start Services
  5. After Lync server roles have been installed there is an additional step if you have deployed monitoring. From the Lync Deployment Wizard select “Deploy Monitoring Reports”. When asked for a read only group normally RTCUniversalReadOnlyAdmins would be selected.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions just leave a comment below.

 

Andrew Morpeth
Andrew Morpethhttps://ucgeek.co/author/amorpeth/
Andrew is a Modern Workplace Consultant specialising in Microsoft technologies based in Auckland, New Zealand; Andrew is a Director and Professional Services Manager at Lucidity Cloud Services and a Microsoft MVP.

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Andrew Morpeth
Andrew Morpethhttps://ucgeek.co/author/amorpeth/
Andrew is a Modern Workplace Consultant specialising in Microsoft technologies based in Auckland, New Zealand; Andrew is a Director and Professional Services Manager at Lucidity Cloud Services and a Microsoft MVP.

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