Lync 2013 Deployment and Migration Step by Step

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

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

Server 2012R2

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

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

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.

Create the DNS records required to support the topology.*Ensure that DNS round robin is enabled for DNS load balancing.

The folder must be shared, however when the Topology is published the required NTFS permissions will be added.

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

Enterprise Edition

 

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:

• Publish the Topology – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425880.aspx
• Delegate Setup Permissions (if you do not want to grant the setup account Domain Admin rights) – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg412735.aspx

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)

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.