ErwinBierens.com | Sharing Knowledge

Skype for Business environment running with just one Public IP

11/08/2017 2 Comments

For quite some time I’m running a home lab, first on a big server (HP Proliant DL360) and since beginning of this year I have a Intel Nuc, saves a lot of energy costs 😂

Domain Controller and CA on Windows 2016 Core Edition
Skype for Business Front-End Server on Windows Server 2012r2 standard
SQL 2014 std for monitoring and persistent chat on Windows Server 2016
Exchange 2016 on Windows Server 2016
Skype for Business Edge on Windows Server 2016
IIS ARR (Reverse Proxy) on Windows 2016
PBX on Windows Server 2016

This lab was great for testing purposes but the problem was always, no connection to the outside world with Skype because of the requirement for at least 2 external IP’s with the use of Skype for Business.

*** To be clear, DON’T use this for production environments, this is not supported by Microsoft ***

So I started searching on the internet, could not find much about setting up a Edge Server with just one nic or 2 nic’s in the same subnet.
Only on the site from Mark Vale I saw a blog article that he did the same setup with 2 nic’s and 1 public IP. The missing part for me was the Edge server configuration. How do I need to configure my networking. Check below to find out!

Powershell

Powershell Enable / Disable / Set / Show Windows Web Proxy

08/08/2017 No Comments

I’m currently working for a company where I have to set up a web proxy to connect my laptop to the Internet. Because I’m a little bit lazy to enable/disable this every morning when i come in, or when i open my laptop at home, i use these two oneliners in powershell:

EnableProxy:

set-itemproperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings' -name ProxyEnable -value 1

DisableProxy:

set-itemproperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings' -name ProxyEnable -value 0

Complete Script:

I also created a simple menu script with all the options to Enable, Disable, Set and Show. You can download the script from Technet Gallery
If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me now 🙂

Skype for Business

How to install and deploy Polycom VVX 5.6.0 firmware in to Skype for Business

21/07/2017 No Comments

Polycom has released version 5.6.0 for their range of VVX handsets, which includes the following enhancements for Skype for Business:

Support for Dial Plan Normalization,
Multiple Emergency Number Dial Plan
Skype for Business User interface enhancements
Skype for Business Conference Enhancements
Device Lock Enhancements
Profile Picture on Device Lock Screen
Secure Single Sign-On With Third-Party Supporting Solutions
Safe Transfer for Boss-Admin Enhancements
Busy Options for Incoming Calls.

The release applies to the following phones and accessories:

VVX 201
VVX 300/301/310/311
VVX 400/401/410/411
VVX 500/501
VVX 600/601

For the full list of updates, read the release notes.

How to install new firmware in Skype for Business

Skype for Business Online

Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition 2.0.0

19/07/2017 No Comments

Today the new Cloud Connector Edition 2.0.0 is released. You can download it right here.

The Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition is a set of packaged virtual machines for deployment on-premises which connect a customer’s existing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) service provider circuits with Skype for Business Cloud PBX operating in Office 365. This allows for the user’s phone capability to be managed out of Office 365 while their phone calls continue to use their existing phone number, circuits and PSTN provider contract

The following updates were made in Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition version 2.0.0:

Deployed support for Media Bypass.
Added the following NCS cmdlets an administrator uses to configure Media Bypass:
New-CsNetworkMediaBypassConfiguration
Get-CsNetworkConfiguration
Set-CsNetworkConfiguration
Added new configurations under the TrunkConfiguration section in CloudConnector.ini:
EnableFastFailoverTimer: optional, default value is “true”.
ForwardCallHistory: optional, default value is “false”.
ForwardPAI: optional, default value is “false”.
If a new deployment is created with this version, it is required to manually enter the password for CceService, ExternalCert and CABackupFile credentials. The domainadmin, vmadmin and safemodeadmin passwords are using password input for CceService by default, need to be entered again. Use the Get-CcCredential cmdlet with DisplayPassword parameter to view the passwords. Use Set-CcCredential to update the password for domainadmin and vmadmin.
Added support to detect and recover Skype for Business services on the CMS server.
Added new cmdlets Import-CcConfiguration and Export-CcConfiguration. After a user updates configurations in cloudconnector.ini in ApplianceRoot path, redeploy the appliance or wait for the CCE Management Service to upgrade the current appliance to new version. However, if only BaseVMIP, WSUSServer and/or WSUSStatusServer in cloudconnector.ini are updated, run Import-CcConfiguration, a redeploy is not required.
Renamed the Renew-CcCACertificate, Renew-CcServerCertificate cmdlets to Update-CcCACertificate, Update-CcServerCertificate.
Updated the Get-CcVersion cmdlet. User can pass a parameter to the cmdlet and retrieve RunningScripts, RunningBits and/or BackupBits version.
Updated the Start-CcDownload cmdlet to support downloading only Skype for Business binaries.
Updated the Set-CsHybridConfiguration and Get-CsHybridPSTNAppliance online cmdlets.
Update Set-CcCrential to support updating password for domainadmin and vmadmin.

Join Microsoft this Friday, the 21st at 9 a.m. PT for our next Broadcast: Cloud Connector Edition – What’s New in 2.0!
This session covers the new release of CCE v2.0. We will discuss the major new features of Media Bypass and several improvements in reliability and scale.

Speakers: Oliver Chiu, Bill Verthein

Where: http://aka.ms/sfbcast

Install Instructions

To install this download:

- 1. Download the file by clicking the Download button and saving the file to the hard disk of the machine you wish to run Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition on.
  2. Double-click the program file on your hard disk to start the Setup program
  3. To configure Cloud Connector Edition with Cloud PBX in your Office 365 tenant, please see “Configure Skype for Business Cloud Connector edition”

To uninstall this download:

1. On the Start menu, point to Settings and then click Control Panel
2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs
3. In the list of currently installed programs, select Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition and then click Remove or Add/Remove. If a dialog box appears, follow the instructions to remove the program
4. Click Yes or OK to confirm that you want to remove the program

Teams

Why Microsoft Teams is so great!

18/07/2017 No Comments

Microsoft Teams is a relative new tool in the Office 365 suite. Teams is combining Office 365 Apps in one tool to facilitate collaboration and communication for groups or you probably can guess, teams. There are several applications on the market like Slack, Azendoo and HipChat but in my opinion they are missing some great integration with all the Office 365 Apps.

Below some reasons why i choose to use Microsoft Teams at Work.