Complete Lync 2013 Installation Guide including – Persistent Chat Installation and configuration PART 4 of 6

Hello All

Part 4 of the 6 part series on how to install and configure a fully functional Lync 2013 enterprise edition deployment.

Please check out the other parts at the links below

Part 1 Complete Lync 2013 Installation Guide including – Pre Reqs, Enterprise Edition Pool, SQL Mirroring and Witness, Archiving/Monitoring, Persistent Chat, Edge Setup and XMPP integration PART 1 of 6

Part 2 Complete Lync 2013 Installation Guide including – Pre Reqs, Enterprise Edition Pool, SQL Mirroring and Witness, Archiving/Monitoring, Persistent Chat, Edge Setup and XMPP integration PART 2 of 6

Part 3 Complete Lync 2013 Installation Guide including – Web Access WAC, Archiving and Monitoring Server and Reports PART 3 of 6

Part 4 – Installation and configuration of Persistent Chat

Thanks for checking back everyone. I hope you find the below useful.!

So to recap we have built our servers, we’ve add our topology information (Part1), we’ve installed our Enterprise edition servers with SQL Mirroring (Part2), we’ve added the WAC server for Powerpouit presentation as part of conferencing and now its time to configure and install persistent chat.

Starting with Adding the Chat server to the topology.

Open up your topology. (for me that means jumping back onto one of the front-end servers as i don’t add the admin tools to all my Lync servers.

Lync2013fe01 is the server of choice.

Navigate and open your Lync 2013 Pool, and right click on the persistent chat option to select to add a new chat server.

For my lab and guide I’m not going to have the Chat servers as a pooled topology. Im selecting it as a single server.

The next page you need to give your Chat Pool a name which will be seen by all chat users.

If your company is governed by compliance you can also add this into your achieving topology if you have that option enabled for Lync 2013

Also you have the option to make the pool the default. (if you are creating it as a passive pool then don’t tick this option)

The next step is to select your SQL Server and instance.

For our guide I’m using a separate instance for all my pools, but I’m using my Mirrored SQL Server to home the PChat Services

LyncCore – Lync 2013 Frontends

LyncArcMon – Archiving and Monitoring

LyncPChat – Persistent Chat

Now select your fileShare. Again I’m going to collocate the Chat files into my global Lync file share called LyncFileShare

Add your next hop pool. By default it will select your main Pool

Select Finish.. then publish your revised topology

When select next through the publish dialog’s you will prompted to change if required the SQL storage as part of the Pchat database installation.

Make sure your topology publishes without errors. if you do get errors or warnings ensure you fixed them republish until your fully successful

Ok we are now finished with the topology element, so now its time to move onto the LyncChat server installation

Persistent Chat Server Pre Req’s (Roles and Features)

– Windows Identity Foundation (This is part of the Windows 2012 Features function)

Now install the deployment wizard. (the lync 2013 setup.exe)

you will already see a green tick in the prepare activity directory

now select the ‘install and update Lync Server system’

Run through the steps again starting at 1,2,3 (you do require a certificate for the chat server, so use your CA)

Once you’ve generated and assigned your certificate from your CA to the chat server. it time to start the services

Run Step 4 and start your services

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Persistent Chat – Chat Configuration

Now go back to your lync control panel and from the left hand pane select > persistent chat. At this point you need to have an idea of the type of chat categories you are going to enable.

For the purpose of the lab demo or chat category will be about and sudo issue relating to ‘Lync 2013 enabling of Users’

Once your in the chat profile in the control panel, select New

Select your Chat Pool, and next

Add the name of your category. In our case Lync 2013 – Enabling Users Issue

Im also going to select to invite people to the chat forum, and also enable upload, enable chat history.

Then I’m going to add my members. Im only going to add my own Lync demo user called Iain Smith

Click add on allowed members and search then add your member/s.

Also I’m going to add user iain smith, as a creator who can add rooms to my category. The commit your actions

you then need to tab to the Persistent chat policy and ensure chat is enable as the chat feature

Thats it from the Lync client your user should be able now to select the chat option and add new rooms to the chat forum and also add other users to the chat forum.

Thanks again for looking

Regards

Iain Smith

Complete Lync 2013 Installation Guide including – Pre Reqs, Enterprise Edition Pool, SQL Mirroring and Witness, Archiving/Monitoring, Persistent Chat, Edge Setup and XMPP integration PART 1 of 6

This blog post will be made up of several parts covering all the main aspects of a greenfield Lync 2013 installation. The reason for the post is to help others who are not clear on the requirements and installation methods used within Lync 2013 plus also to raise awareness of the new features that are imbedded in the Lync 2013 build.

The blog parts will be made up of the follow posts

Pre Req’s upto Topology Publishing – Part 1

Front-end Installation and Certificate enablement – Part 2

Archiving and Monitoring installation – Part 3

Persistent Chat – Part 4

Edge Setup – Part 5

XMPP integration – Part 6

Please feel free to request additional areas as i would gladly add them to the build guide. Any comments or feedback is also welcome

PART 1

Server Pre Reqs – Domain Name is northernlync.local

Domain Controller Server

Within my lab DC, I’m running DNS, AD services and my certificate authority. This is a Windows 2008r2 server running 2008r2 Domain and Forest attributes.

DNS Entries

Under my Forward look up zone, i’ve added the following entries for Lync 2013

Lync frontend servers 1 – lync2013fe01.northernlync.local = IP 192.168.1.4

Lync frontend servers 2- lync2013fe02.northernlync.local = IP 192.168.1.20

Lync Pool – lyncpool1.northernlync.local = IP 192.168.1.4 & lyncpool1.northernlync.local = IP 192.168.1.20

Lync SQL Mirroring Server 01 – lync2013SQL01.northernlync.local = IP 192.168.1.2

Lync SQL Mirroring Server 02 – lync2013SQL02.northernlync.local = IP 192.168.1.3

Lync SQL Mirroring Witness – lync2013SQL03.northernlync.local = IP 192.168.1.21

Lync Web Access Server – lync2013wac01.northernlync.local = IP 192.168.1.5

Lync Persistent Chat Server – lync2013pchat.northernlync.local = IP 192.168.1.6

Updated DNS Entries I missed off – Thanks Andy for the headsup ! blog @legendarytechy

Lync Contol Panel access – For the purpose of the lab, im simply going to point this to the lync2013fe01.northernlync.local IP 192.168.1.4

Lyne Meet and Dialin for webaccess again Im simply going to point this to the lync2013fe01.northernlync.local IP 192.168.1.4

SRV Record

_sipinternaltls
_tcp
5061
lyncpool1.northernlync.local

Users and Member Groups

For my installation i always use a recognisable named account to do my installations. In this lab install, i have used the following account throughout the whole process of the installation.

User account

name = srv_lync which is a member of = Domain Admins, Schema Admins, Enterprise Admins (All are required for the AD prep as part of the initial build of Lync 2013)

***Thats it for now for the Lync administrative tasks. At a later point we will need to circle back and add the CSAdministrator permission to src_lync and also users accounts into Active Directory

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 Lync Frontend Server preparation.

As with Lync 2010 there are a number of pre reqs required on the actual servers for Lync, e.g.: dotnet3.5 etc. Below is a the installation guide for adding the required roles and features needed for a successful topology publish.

– Note: My Lync 2013 front ends are Windows 2012 running the latest updates. (Note: Lync 2013 requires a operating system of 64bit architecture)

Roles Required List

Your Front-ends will require the following to be installed
Roles
Web Server (IIS)

Roles additional 
Web Server (IIS), Role Services, Common Http Features Installed, Static, Default doc ,Https errors, Health and Diagnostics, Http logging, Logging Tools, Tracing, Performance, Static Content Compression ,Dynamics Content, Compression, Security, Request Filtering, Client Cert Mapping Authentication, Windows Authentication, Management Tools, IIS Mgt Console, IIS mgt Scripts and Tools, Application Development, ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET 4.5, .NET extensibility 3.5, .NET extensibility 4.5, ISAPI extensions, ISAPI Filters

Features
Message Queuing, Message Queuing Services, Remote Server Administration Tools, Role Administration Tools, AD DS and AD LDS Tools, User Interfaces and Infrastructure, Desktop Experience, Windows Identity Foundation 3.5, .NET Framework 3.5, HTTP Activation, Non-HTTP Activation .NET Framework 4.5 (Should already be installed as part of win2012)

****NOTE: Anyone running the installation against windows 2012 without update will encounter an issue with trying to enable .net3.5 as part of the roles and features install. (At the time of writing there is a bug which doesn’t allow the install direct from the GUI. You have to run the below cmd line to install .net3.5.

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /Source:D:\sources\sxs /all

– Source D being your DVD media!

Step 1

Guide to adding the roles required.

Select add new roles and features from the server manager wizard

Select Role-Based or Feature-based installation

Select the defaults of your frontend server in the server pool area of the wizard

As you can see Web Server IIS and .net4.5 is now installed

—- Now onto the Features list

Messaging Queue and all the other features listed above.

Now all our Roles and Features are installed its time to move onto the Lync frontend installation wizard.

Its also worth noting that as part of the SQL mirroring setup you will also require .net3.5 on the SQL servers as well.

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Deployment Wizard – Defining your Topology

From the Lync 2013 installation media, navigate to Lync2013\Setup\amd64 then select Setup.exe (NOT Setup2.exe)

you will then be prompted with a screen like below, select the default path and press the install button

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once this install is completes, then navigate to your start menu where you will find an option called ‘Lync Server Deployment Wizard’.

Select the option.

Once the deployment wizard opens up, select the option Install Administrative tools as below screenshot

You will see nothing happen apart from a green tick appear next to the selected item,

Once you get your green tick as above next to the admin tools, its time to go back to your Start menu again and select ‘Lync Server Topology Builder’

You will now be greeted by a few new dialog boxes for the topology

First dialog select ‘New Topology’

Then select OK

Before you start to configure your new topology you have to save the topology. this is incase you make an error and you then have the option to revert back to the previous topology build (you will be prompted to save your topology each time you enter the topology builder)

Name the SaveAs, then select Save

On the below screen enter your primary SIP domain name. In my lab case its nothernlync.local, if you are running a split brain domain you can add other SIP domain on the next screen

then select Next

Once you’ve added your SIP names etc its now time to Define your site details

Give your site a name and description, then select Next

And now add location details, then select Next

Now we’ve added all the required details for the topology, its now time to start defining details for the frontend topology elements

Leave the tick in the ‘Open Frontend Wizard option and select Finish

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Deployment Wizard – Defining your Frontends

Add your Lync 2013 Pool FQDN name into the dialog box.

In this guide i will be building the lab as enterprise edition setup, meaning i can add multiple frontend servers to my pool topology for resilience.

* Note – Enterprise Edition requires a separate SQL server, whereas Standard Edition runs SQL express within its only frontend server build.

** Note – Standard Edition can’t have a multiple servers in the pool BUT can be paired to another Lync 2013 pool for some resilience if required.

Please ensure you select the option which is right for your organisation.

Add the FQDN’s of your front ends then select add. Once you have finished select the Next button

Select the features you require. If your unsure, its better to deselect options then go back at a later date and add them as a separate exercise.

For the Lab, I’m going to select Conferencing, Archiving and Monitoring (Archiving and Monitoring as part of 3)

Also I’m going to Co-locate my mediation server onto the frontend for my lab as i have no requirement for voice apart from the demo purposes.

Next Dialog relates to Edge enablement. As part of our demo we are not going enable this for the time being as we will jump into edge as Part 5 of this guide.

Lets now go ahead and add the new information for SQL Store information. (My SQL has three new instances created LyncCore, LyncArcMon, LyncPChat)

Select New

Now add information for your first SQL server. (if you now doing SQL Mirroring, you will not be prompted for a second SQL server or SQL Witness)

For SQL Mirroring select New to add your second SQL server information

Now before committing your SQL setup information, this is a good chance to double check your details.

We need to now add the information for the Lync Share which holds the address book information etc. (You need to have writes to the share for the topology to completed successful)
As part of this lab, i have added the share to the first SQL Server

Enabling your Web Access Server. If you already have a WAC server in your organisation you don’t need to have a  separate one for Lync 2013, as you can utilise your existing WAC server.
For this lab demo i will add a WAC server for guide purposes.

Ok at the next dialog click Finish.

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Deployment – Prepare Active Directory

So before we can publish our now defined topology, we need to update the AD Schema, Domain and Forest.
Again from the Lync deployment wizard select ‘Prepare Active Directory’ and then accept the Run options and Next options in order of them becoming  defaults

At this point select local domain.

Once your AD is prep’d, at this stage i like to add the CSadministrator role to my user account src_lync

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Publishing the Topology

Ok onto the last step of Publishing the topology

select Lync Server from the topology pane on the left as right click and  select Publish topology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For your SQL Mirror you will need to select your file share for holding the mirroring information

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ensure your Topology publishes without Errors. If you do have errors ensure that you resolve all errors and warnings before continuing on.

 

Thats it for Part 1,
You’ve completed your PreReq’s and also added information about your Lync environment plus published your topology.

I will upload ((Front-end installation and Certificate enablement – Part 2)) in the next couple of days

Regards

Iain Smith