As Skype for Business bits are now available on MSDN, I started a deployment in my lab.
There is no previous Lync deployed in this lab, so this will be a fresh install steps post.
Skype for Business Setup
First, load the setup using the <DVD drive>\setup\amd64\setup.exe file
I choose to check if there is any updates – even if I’m pretty sure that right now there is no update for SfB
As usual, accept the license agreement if you want to install Skype for Business
As I chose to check for update, the setup let me know if there were available updates or not – as expected there is no update right now
So let’s continue while the setup installs SfB core components
The interface to setup Skype for Business has not changed; so if you are familiar with the Lync one, you will not be lost
Prepare Active Directory
So the first steps is to update Active Directory schema with SfB schema updates: just hit Prepare Active Directory
And then run each step – for step 5, if you have more than 1 domain deployed within your AD Forest, you may have to run this step on each other domain too
Prepare AD Schema
Prepare Current Forest
Prepare Current Domain
Standard vs Enterprise Deployment
As for Lync you can deploy both Standard and Enterprise edition using the same media; if you want to deploy Standard edition you just have to run the Prepare first Standard Edition server wizard from the right side of the setup wizard or for Enterprise start by installing the administrative tools using the Install Administrative Tools option
For the purpose of this post, I’m going to deploy Enterprise edition
Administrative Tools Deployment
Ok, so Skype for Business is ready to be configured as Enterprise Edition
Configure Skype for Business Enterprise Edition
Start the Skype for Business Topology Builder
Then I choose to create a new topology
Define the SIP primary
domain to use
Add additional SIP domains if you need to add more domains – don’t forget these domains will have to be included in the certificate
Define the first SfB site
And the details of this site
Then you will be able to start to configure the first Skype for Business site
New Front End Pool
After setting up the first site, you have to create a front end; this process is exactly the same for Lync
You can use a SQL Always On Availability Group