This is a continuation of Part II and covers installation and configuration of second Front End server and so on.

Install prerequisites on second server.

Install Windows update.

Install Silverlight.

Insert Skype for Business Server 2015 media and run setup.exe. Follow the same process as we did for first FE server.

Open Skype for Business Server 2015 – Deployment Wizard.

Install Administrative Tools.

Open Topology Builder and “Download Topology from existing deployment”

Right click on pool and add New Server…

Click on yes.

Write fqdn of second FE server and click on OK.

Now publish the topology.

Click on Next.

Select Pool FQDN and click on Next. (If you see any error with regards to pool state, ignore the same)

Now click on “Install or Update Skype for Business Server System”

Run “Install Local Configuration Store” and follow the steps as shown below.

Run “Setup or Remove Skype for Business Server Components” and follow the steps as shown below.

Now, Go to the first FE server and export the certificate from local computer certificate via adding through MMC.

Right click on certificate and click on Export…

Click on Next.

Select “Yes, export the private key”

Click on Next.

Use any user name and password.

Specify the location to export.

Review the settings and click on Finish.

Now Run “Request, Install or Assign Certificates”

Click on Import Certificate.

Import the certificate.

Now click on “Assign” to assign the certificate.

Select the certificate.

Now you are done with the installation of second FE server and use the same process for other FE servers.

Once you have minimum three FE servers in a pool then open Lync Management Shell to start the pool services.

Run à Start-CsPool –PoolFqdn <pool fqdn>

Enter “A” for Yes to All

Now check the services on each FE server and play with your FE pool. J

This is a continuation of my preceding post and will cover the step by step process to define FE pool and installation of first FE server.

Open Skype for Business Server 2015 Topology Builder and create “New Topology”.

(Note: this step is only required if this is the first pool in your environment, otherwise select “Download topology from existing deployment”)

Right click on Skype for Business Server and select New Central Site…

Define New Central Site.

12. Click on Next to Define New Front End Pool.

Define Pool FQDN (make sure you are using <pool name>.<domain fqdn> format).

Add first FE server fqdn.

Select features which you want to enable for your FE Pool.

Select this option if you want to collocate Mediation server role with FE servers.

Click on Next, we will add Edge pool later.

Add SQL server store, click on New. We are using SQL mirror with this FE pool.

Write Primary SQL Server Name.

Select Named instance and write instance name.

Select “Mirroring relation” from high availability settings.

Enable mirroring option and click on new.

Define SQL mirror server name and mirror instance.

Enable mirroring witness and click on new.

Define witness server name and instance.

Once done, click on next.

Define the file store. We are using DFS share which we had created for SfB.

Define a file share.

Define internal and external web services url.

Define Office Web Apps server.

Define the Archiving SQL server store in the same way as we defined Back End server store.

Define the Monitoring SQL server store in the same way as we defined Back End server store.

Now you have to define the CMS and admin url. Right click on “Skype for Business Server” and edit properties.

Select CMS and define administrative access url. (Note: this step is only required if this is the first pool in your environment.)

Publish the defined topology.

Click on Next to publish the topology.

Select databases and click on Advanced…

Use database location, select “Use SQL Server instance defaults”

Select mirror database and click on settings to define File share which will be used by SQL server to setup the mirror.

Note: SQL account which was used for the sql instance should have permission on share. (It could be your sql service account)

Click on Next.

Now it will publish the topology and will create all the databases as well as it will setup the mirror.

Once your topology has been published successfully. Click on “Install or Update Skype for Business Server Systems” from Deployment Wizard.

Run “Install Local Configuration Store”

Run “Setup or Remove Skype for Business Server Componenets”

Once you are done with the installation, can request and assign certificates. Click on Run to request the certificates.

Request and assign OAuth certificate.

Request certificate for SfB server and web services.

Fill the required fields and click on advanced.

Follow the process.

Make sure you marked private key as exportable.

Add rest of the servers which are going to be part of the pool.

Now you are done with the first FE server installation and configuration.

Next part (Part III) will cover the installation and configuration of second FE server, and the same process will be used to add more FE servers in the same pool.

In preceding posts, I have covered SQL Server installation, configuration, and DFS deployment which are required for Enterprise Edition Front End pool. This blog post will cover all the steps which are required before defining Front End pool while pool configuration and step by step deployment of the FE servers in a new pool will be covered in the next part of this post.

You need minimum three FE servers for Enterprise Edition Pool. Join all three server in domain and login to the first server with administrative account. Administrative account should have Schema Admin, Enterprise Admin and Domain Admin membership to prepare active directory.

1. Open PowerShell and install Skype for Business Server prerequisite.

Insert or map windows server installation media and open Powershell with administrative rights.

Note: In my setup, using D: for installation media. Change drive letter in below powershell cmdlet according to your setup.

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Core, RSAT-ADDS, Windows-Identity-Foundation, Web-Server, Web-Static-Content, Web-Default-Doc, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Dir-Browsing, 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, Web-Mgmt-Compat, Server-Media-Foundation, BITS -Source D:\sources\sxs

2. Download and install hotfix KB article 2858668 for windows server 2012 and KB article 2982006 for windows server 2012 R2.

3. Download and Install Silverlight.

4. Insert Skype for Business media and run setup.exe

5. Change installation location if you don’t want to install SfB on OS drive > Install

6. Accept license agreement > Next.

7. Prepare Active Directory.

Once prepare active directory step is completed successfully.

• Open Active Directory Users and Computers and make current user member of CSAdministrator
• Open DNS and create SRV and A records

i) Create _sipinternaltls service location record.

Open DNS Manager and select domain under Forward Lookup Zones. Right click on domain or right click on right pane and select other New Records

Select “Service Location (SRV)” and click on Create Record

Service: _sipinternaltls

Protocol: _tcp

Port number: 5061

Host offering this service: FQDN of your Standard Edition Server (Ex: pool1.uc.lab)

ii) Create following Host(A) records

Dailin

Meet

Admin

Sip

Lyncdiscoverinternal

8. Install Administrative Tools.

Please see, next part (Part II) for defining FE pool and installation and configuration of first FE server.