A New Year, and A New Journey

I know this is severely belated, but Happy New Year, all! While this blog post serves as my inaugural 2016 blog post, it is more of a personal announcement post than a technical-awesomeness post.

A new year often brings new beginnings, or at least new sets of goals (that usually fall by the wayside after a week or two). For me, there is a little bit of both. I won't bore you with any goals of achieving washboard abs or learning to speak conversational French (I can just use Skype Translator, after all!), but I will highlight some employment news, and talk about my some Skype for Business community-related topics.

One Chapter Closes...

Tomorrow, Friday, the 22nd of January, is my last day as a "Racker". Yes, after nearly 4 years at Rackspace, I am moving on. As goes the cliche, it is very bittersweet. While I am very excited about the adventure that lies ahead of me in my new position, and the next step in my career, Rackspace has been a phenomenal company to work for. Racker's are truly like an extension of family (the good kind, lol), and the culture is the envy of many companies.

I would like to thank Rackspace, my fellow Rackers, and especially my incredible managers, for all the years of opportunity to be a part of something unique and amazing. Rackspace prides itself on its Fanatical Support, and I truly believe it has built a solid reputation around this principle in the hosting industry. I am proud to have been a part of that!

Another Chapter Begins

So, what's next? This Monday, January 25th, will be my first day as a Unified Communications Architect at Deloitte Services, LP. I could not be more excited and grateful for this opportunity, and am really looking forward to getting oriented, meeting my team, and digging into some awesome UC deployments! I believe this role will bring tremendous opportunity to grow my knowledge and skill sets, and to give me exposure to a plethora of new (to me) configurations that I have been eager to sink my teeth into.

As you can imagine, I have been busy winding things down at Rackspace, and getting all my ducks in a row for starting at Deloitte, and as a result this blog has been a little quiet over the last month (que the cricket noise). While I am sure that I will remain quite busy in the coming months as I get settled into my new role and start taking on various responsibilities and tasks, I will try to do better at keeping up with fresh content and how-to posts here.

What else is new?

So, aside from a new job, what else have I been up to?

#Skype4BRecap Episodes

While the blog has been fairly quiet, I have managed to keep up with my weekly #Skype4BRecap episodes. I have really begun to enjoy doing these episodes, and while viewership is not exactly in the "viral" category, I fully intend to keep these up. However, I may end up shifting recording to Thursday nights. As the show is not being done in a "live broadcast" format yet, this does not really impact much (unless big news gets delivered to the community first thing Friday morning!). If you have not see these, check them out on my YouTube channel, and don't forget to Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKUU9Qm3DxJepggtAaO3q3w

My eBook: Skype for Business Hybrid Handbook, Version 1.2

When I released my FREE eBook on December 1st last year, it was pretty well received, but there was some work to be done. Thanks to some awesome feedback from various individuals in the community, I was able to update a chapter on User Management with accurate information and more detailed procedures, including new screenshots. I also update the few other areas in the book to reflect current information (Office 365 changes A LOT!).

About a week ago I released a newly updated version of the book, Version 1.2. This version replaced the available download on the Technet Gallery. I was quite blown away by the level of support I got from the community on this follow-up release. You all Shared, Re-Tweeted, and "Liked" the heck out the links to the Download page, and as of right now, I am just under 2,000 downloads! THANK YOU ALL! I would like to give a special Thank You to Fabrizio Volpe, Office Servers and Services MVP, for your kind blog review of the book. 

If you are interested in the downloading a copy yourself, you can grab it FREE here: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Skype-for-Business-Hybrid-9218205e.

To read Fabrizio's review, check out the post here: http://www.absoluteuc.org/reading-the-skype-for-business-server-2015-hybrid-handbook.

Something's Cooking in the Kitchen...

I am also working on a little something-something that I will be sharing soon, once I get the details figured out. About this initiative:

1. It will be video in nature
2. My hat will likely be present
3. And there will be relief from concentrated screen time on my ugly mug 

But that's all I'm saying for now! Stay tuned...

Stay techy, my friends!

Configure Hybrid Skype for Business and Move Users (GUI)

In an earlier post, Configure Hybrid In Your Skype  for Business Environment, I discussed the pre-requisites for setting up a Hybrid environment, and then walked through the configuration via PowerShell. In this post I will be demonstrating the Hybrid configuration and moving of users between environments all from the GUI within the Skype for Business Control Panel. To view details about the environment and the needed pre-reqs, please visit the blog post referenced above.

Configure Hybrid

Assuming that you have already satisfied all the pre-requisites per the blog post mentioned above, it is now time to connect your environments using the provided wizard in the Skype for Business Control Panel (on-premises).

From the Skype for Business Control Panel, on the Home tab, click the Set up hybrid with Skype for Business Online link as shown below: 

The Set up Hybrid with Skype for Business Online wizard will open, and the first screen simply presents a list of pre-requisites that must be satisfied. Click Next.

The next screen will likely prompt you to sign in to Office 365. Click the Sign in to Office 365 button.

Enter your credentials, and then click Ok.

You will then see that the wizard is attempting to sign in to Office 365 with the provided credentials.

The next screen will show that you are successfully signed in to Office 365 if your credentials were correct, and you can click Close.

The next wizard screen seems a bit repetitive, but it confirms that you are now signed in to Office 365. Click Next.

Now the wizard will actually perform a check to see if the pre-requisites have been satisfied. 

If any checks come back with an "X" in a red circle, no problem. Just click Next, and the wizard will take care of the needed configuration. As you can see, all pre-requisites were taken care of. The image below reflects that the "Federation with Office 365 is not configured" error in the above image was automatically configured for you. Click Close.

Wasn't that easy? Hybrid is now configured!

Move Users From On-Prem to Online

Now navigate to the Users tab in the Skype for Business Control Panel. Select the user that you want to move to Skype for Business Online, and then click on the Actions drop-down from the top navigation menu. Select the option to Move selected users to Skype for Business Online....

The Move users to Skype for Business Online wizard opens, and you are presented with a warning to make sure that the user has a Skype for Business Online license assigned in Office 365, and with another warning to make sure that you are familiar with the feature differences between environments. (NOTE: if you need to assign a license to the user in Skype for Business Online at this point, stop and do so. Then go grab a coffee from Starbucks; I have seen provisioning take between 30 - 60 minutes for this license assignment to be recognized from the Control Panel.) Click Next.

Again, you may be prompted to sign in to Office 365. If so, enter your credentials, and click Ok. Once you are signed in, click Close.

Repetition. More confirmation that you are signed in to Office 365. Click Next.

You are now presented with another prompt asking if you are sure you want to move this user to Skype for Business Online. Click Next.

Next, a screen appears displaying the progress of the move operation.

Once the move completes successfully, you will see the below screen. This would show if the move was unsuccessful for any reason (like licensing not being recognized yet). This report can be more helpful in cases where you are moving multiple users. Click Close.



Now, if you look at your users in the Control Panel, you can see that Shaggy and Thelma are still homed in the on-prem pool, but Scooby is now in Skype for Business Online.



Again, Provisioning may take its sweet time for your Skype for Business Admin Center to reflect this new user as being homed Online, but once it has finished, you should see this on your Skype for Business Admin Center dashboard:



Clicking on the Users tab in the Skype for Business Admin Center further confirms that Scooby is now indeed Online.



Back in the on-prem Control Panel, if we open the Properties of Scooby, and read the message, it hits the point home just a bit further that he is definitely homed in Office 365.

Move Users from Online to On-Prem

Alright, so you have moved a user to Online. Before they get too comfy, let's move them back to on-prem!

From the on-prem Skype for Business Control Panel, navigate to the Users tab, search for your user, and with the user highlighted, click on the Actions drop-down menu. Select the option to Move selected users from Skype for Business Online...

In the Move users to Skype for Business Server on-premises wizard, you are prompted to select the pool that you want to move the user to. Make your selection from the drop-down box, and then click Next.

This operation requires you to connect to Office 365 once again, so click the Sign in to Office 365 button, enter your credentials, click Ok, and then once you are signed in, click Close. 

You will receive the expected confirmation window stating that you are now signed into Office 365 as was demonstrated above. Click Next. The next screen is asking you to confirm that you want to move this user to your on-prem pool. Click Next.

Again, you are presented with the progress of the move operation.

Lastly, you will see the results screen. In our case, you can see that Scooby moved back successfully. Click Close.

Now, if we take another look at all of our users, we can see that they are all back nice and snug in our on-prem pool. 

And that's it! Once your pre-reqs are in place and Directory Synchronization is working, configuring Hybrid and moving users between environments is very simple and straightforward from the Skype for Business Control Panel.

Stay techy, my friends!

New eBook Annoucement: Skype for Business Hybrid Handbook

Good morning, everyone, and Happy December! Today is a big day, both for me, and for Skype for Business and Office 365. Today, Office 365 begins selling their brand new premium license: E5, making Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling Generally Available. On my side of things, I am launching a new, free, e-book titled, Skype for Business Hybrid Handbook!

I planned the launch of this book to fall closely in line with the arrival of E5 and Cloud PBX, as I feel that this new subscription option will really bolster the implementation of Hybrid models across many organizations. The fact that I finished in time to actually launch on the same day is just icing on the cake to me!

For now, this ebook is available exclusively in the Technet Gallery. It is 100% FREE, and will remain so, at least for this first edition. To download your own copy, whether for educational purposes or for a handy resource to guide you in your own Hybrid Skype for Business efforts, visit the Technet Gallery: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Skype-for-Business-Hybrid-9218205e.

As with all my community contributions, I am one of the most open individuals to thoughts and feedback that there is. So, with that in mind, I would GREATLY appreciate your thoughts. Accolades, constructive criticism, and outright sarcasm are all welcome!

For a preview of the structure of the book, below are the included chapters and sub-sections:

Terminology Review.. 6

Chapter 1: Introduction to Skype for Business Environments. 7

     - Skype for Business Server 2015 (On-Premises)

     - Skype for Business Online. 9

Chapter 2: On-Premises vs. Online: Feature Comparison. 11

Chapter 3: Supported Hybrid Configurations and Available Features. 13

     - Exchange Server On-Premises Integration

     - Exchange Online Integration

     - SharePoint ServerOnPremises Integration

     - SharePoint Online Integration. 16

Chapter 4: Hybrid Prerequisites and Requirements. 18

     - Skype for Business Online Management with PowerShell 18

     - On-Prem Infrastructure Requirements. 19

     - Supported (Required) Topologies. 19

     - Federation in a Hybrid Environment. 20

     - DNS and Port Requirements. 20

Chapter 5: User Data, Features, and Policy Limitations. 21

     - Notes About User Data. 21

     - Notes About Policies. 21

Chapter 6: Configure Directory Synchronization with Azure AD Connect. 23

Chapter 7: Set Up Federation with Skype for Business Online Tenant. 33

     - GUI-Based: Set up Hybrid with Skype for Business Online Wizard. 33

     - PowerShell-Based: Configure Federation with the Management Shell 34

     - Federating with an Audio Conferencing Provider. 39

Chapter 8: Move Users from On-Prem to Skype for Business Online. 40

     - Pilot Users First. 42

     - Move Users in the Control Panel 42

     - Move Users in the Management Shell (PowerShell). 43

Chapter 9: User Management in a Hybrid Environment. 49

Chapter 10: Deploy Hybrid in a Multi-Forest Environment. 52

     - Forest Topology. 52

     - Forest Trusts. 54

     - Hybrid User Placement Considerations. 54

     - Notes on AD FS Configuration. 54

     - Notes on Azure Active Directory Connect. 57

Chapter 11: Configure Hybrid in Reverse: Online-to-On-Prem.. 60

Chapter 12: Cloud PBX with PSTN Connectivity via On-Premises Environment. 64

     - Feature Comparison. 64

     - Enabling a User for Cloud PBX with PSTN Connectivity. 65

     - Configure & Assign Voice Routing Policy. 65

     - Assign Licensing in Office 365. 66

     - Move the User to Skype for Business Online. 68

     - Enable for Enterprise Voice and Cloud PBX Voicemail

I hope you have a chance to download a copy for yourself, and more importantly, I hope it is useful in your pursuit of a Hybrid environment!

Stay techy, my friends!

#Skype4BRecap Episode 7 - Plantronics Headset Review, A S4B DHCPUtil Replacement, Mac Client & More

Happy Thanksgiving (belated)! The community has kept me on my toes this week. My tardiness in getting Episode 7 out on Friday was called out twice! As Mark Vale (@UnifiedVale) pointed out, Thanksgiving is no excuse! ;-) Good to be kept on your toes, and to know someone is watching!

I started this week's episode out by doing a review of the Plantronics Voyager Focus UC headset that I won at the Charlotte Lync Users Group raffle. Let me just say, the headset is AMAZING! If you want to know how amazing, check out the episode below, or listen to the audio-only version (link also below). I followed that up by calling out the Skype for Business DHCPUtil tool replacement that James Cussen announced he was working on on Twitter.

Next, I gave my two cents about the preview of information that we received last Friday about the upcoming Skype for Business Mac client (coming Summer of 2016). Finally, I briefly mentioned a few smaller items that I thought were interesting nuggets of gold shared on Twitter and LinkedIn throughout the week. Man, it was busy for a holiday week!

You can check out the video for the rest, but I will briefly touch on the preliminary pricing details that have been making their way through the grape vine:

Enjoy the episode, and don't forget to Subscribe to my YouTube channel if you find the weekly show at all helpful (or amusing)!

Audio-Only Link

http://www.get-csjosh.com/podcast-audio

Video Content Links

• Plantronics Voyager Focus UC: http://www.plantronics.com/us/support/product/voyager-focus-uc/
• ExpressRoute Routing Requirements: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/expressroute-routing/#support-for-bgp-communities

Honorable Mentions 

• James Cussen (@mylynclab)
• Mark Vale (@UnifiedVale)

Stay techy, my friends!

Mac for Skype for Business Client News

The "Mac for Skype for Business" (what a mouth-full!) client is around the corner, sort of, and we finally got some details today. The Skype for Business Video Cast shared many details about what is on the horizon in today's episode. In the presentation, we got some screenshots of the client's look and feel, and a few details around timelines. Let's break this down below:

What We Know Now

So, the details that we have now that we did not have before seem to be centered around the aesthetics of the client, and timelines, vague as they may be. For the look and feel of the client, Matthew Landis (@matthewlandis) did a great job capturing some screenshots during the video cast, and you can take a look on his blog: http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2015/11/take-look-at-totally-new-skype-for.html?showComment=1448046343744#c7496842788115337775. 

One of the cool things that stood out to me is having the control buttons float over the video feed itself, giving more of the screen real estate to the video, without fumbling for the controls. This is an improvement from even the latest and greatest PC client. It seems that Microsoft is really trying to establish that they are making Mac users 1st-class citizens in the Skype for Business arena. This is wise, as they have really begun to alienate many Mac users, and even entire organizations because of subsets of Mac users, simply because this client has been neglected for so long.

Now, for timelines, we have estimates as specific as Quarters, but no more granular than that. The part that I am really disappointed about is that from the rumors I had previously heard, we should have been getting a new Mac client in Q4 2015. It looks like we are looking at next year, though. Check out the below schedule:

• Q1 2016 - Nominations for Preview Program
• Q2 2016 - Technical Preview Program
• Summer 2016 - General Availability. 

So, yeah...it would appear that the general public will not have an updated Mac client for nearly 6 more months. Not the best news ever. Yeah, the client looks like it will be pretty, and it also sounds like a lot of effort is being put into it being very stable, but 6 months is a long time in technology. That also puts on a lot of pressure to make sure they get this right, and that it truly is extremely stable once it is in GA.

What We Still Don't Know

Ok, there is one thing I am going to focus on for this section, and they even touched on it in the episode: Mac client support for PERSISTENT CHAT. Now, to be fair, they did fess up about the fact that this first release of the product will likely NOT provide support for Persistent Chat capabilities. I repeat, do NOT hold your breath hoping for Persistent Chat support in the first release of the Skype for Business Mac client. So, that begs the question, are there at least plans to add it in as an update, much the way they mentioned plans to update the client with Video-Based Screen Sharing at a later date? Of course, there was no comment on that, and so we are still left in the dark about whether that functionality will ever become a reality for Mac users. *SIGH* And this has left a lot of room for the rise of tools like Slack within larger organizations, or other competing products like IRC.

In Conclusion...

At any rate, at least we have some real details on the upcoming client, and it is really slick. Sadly, it is still a ways off, and will not likely deliver on missing features at GA. My thoughts? If Microsoft really wants to prove that Mac users are 1st-Class citizens in the Skype for Business arena, a more feature-consistent experience needs to be delivered across the enterprise, for ALL mainstream OS types. Yes, even a solution for Linux users, even if it is 100% WebRTC-based. Your thoughts?

Stay techy, my friends!

Skype for Business Online Voice Refresher and E5 Licensing Explained

"I'm getting that Cloud Voice Whatchamacallit!"

I have had several conversations lately where it has become clear that there is definitely excitement around the emergence of calling (PSTN) capabilities in Office 365, but that there is also a bit of confusion about the various terms that are related to this functionality. This confusion can become compounded with the different hybrid options that are also available, and still in Preview (and thus, still subject to some change). The distinctions are becoming more important to make, however, as the time is right around the corner to start paying for these services!

With the arrival of the Office 365 E5 sku on Dec. 1, I figured now was as good a time as any to throw a few of the terms out there, and chat about what is what. For starters, lets talk about the "Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling" preview.

Cloud PBX

Alright, so when the preview came out, it was called "Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling", and it was a single preview. This made it feel like the new functionality that you were previewing was a single feature or billable product. However, that is not quite the case. That "with" is really a bridge that allowed you to preview two separately billable items. "Cloud PBX" refers to the call control features and abilities that are present for a user that is licensed for Cloud PBX in Office 365. Essentially, a properly licensed user for Cloud PBX has similar features available that they would have over their phone via an on-premise PBX. This sets them up for being able to make/manage calls and have voice connectivity to the PSTN, BUT, it does not actually provide them with that connectivity, a phone number, or dial plan with minutes. Much the same way that you can enable a user for Enterprise Voice in Skype for Business Server 2015, which brings with it additional licensing costs, that user still cannot call a phone number unless you have also paid a provider for service and phone numbers.

So, why would you even have Cloud PBX if it doesn't allow you to make calls to/from the PSTN? Well, you would not have Cloud PBX by itself, plain and simple, unless you enjoy flushing money down the drain. This will always be paired with a voice plan of some sort, whether it be directly through Microsoft's cloud, or through your existing voice provider on-prem. The E5 base plan will include Cloud PBX, but unless you bring your own voice services to the table, the PSTN Calling is an additional cost to the base E5 plan.

PSTN Calling

Alright, so now that we have sort of established "Cloud PBX" as a needed base license for PSTN capabilities in Skype for Business Online, what do we need to actually get a phone number assigned to a user, and to allow that user to place and  receive phone calls on the PSTN? That would be the piece that we refer to as "PSTN Calling"! While this will not be included in the base E5 plan, you can add this service on for about an extra $12/month/user, and this will  provide you with the needed phone number and a dial plan to start making calls, all packaged within Microsoft's cloud. According to this article, that total package will  run you about $47/month/user, and will give you about 3,000 minutes of talk time (U.S. talk time; International is extra). Not too shabby!

Cloud PBX with On-Prem PSTN Calling

So that is a bit more of a mouth-full. As the very descriptive name implies, however, this gives you the above PSTN Calling functionality for your Cloud PBX licensed users by connecting your existing on-prem Skype for Business Enterprise Voice environment to your Skype for Business Online environment. Yes, we are talking about Hybrid here, with Directory Synchronization and the whole nine yards! Not only does this approach allow you to extend your existing Enterprise Voice functionality to your Office 365 users, but it also provides you with a gradual approach for slowly migrating an increasing base of users to Skype for Business Online. A lot of flexibility is introduced with this! However, before suddenly migrating all your users to the Cloud while maintaining your on-prem Enterprise Voice environment, keep in mind that not all features will be able to port over with your Online users. For example, Response Groups will only work on-prem. Check out this article for a complete list of which features will or won't work for Online voice users: https://technet.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/mt455212.aspx.

PSTN Conferencing

Alright, I feel like this one is pretty self-explanatory, but for the sake of being thorough, I'll glaze over it as well. Unlike the PSTN Calling add-on for the E5 plan, PSTN Conferencing is included in the E5 license, and does NOT come with a cap on minutes. This of course provides users with access to a conferencing phone number so that they can schedule Skype for Business meetings, and allow outside or anonymous users to join these meetings via PSTN dialin. Again, this would be packaged through services available in Microsoft's cloud, so you don't have to do the leg work of finding a provider and signing another contract.

In Conclusion...

So, for those of you that were starting to confuse any of these terms, blending any of them together, looking for a better high-level understanding of how all these new features relate to the upcoming E5 release, or just wanted to find out some preliminary E5 pricing details, I hope this helped prepare a bit better for what's coming. It's a bright and crazy new world out there, folks, and piece by piece, it's moving to the cloud!

Stay techy, my friends!

#Skype4BRecap Episode 4 - Call Recording Pro, Cloud PBX E5, and MVP Summit

Happy Friday, everyone! This week, we jumped into a number of awesome topics. First, we started out with a shameless ask on my part for feedback on your experiences with Server-Side Conversation History with Android Lync 2013 app in a Skype for Business Server environment. From there, we dove into the MVP Summit in Seattle, Matthew Landis' announcement for the new Call Recording Pro, new details on the Cloud PBX E5 license that hits on December 1st, and the introduction of Number Porting to the Cloud PBX Preview.

You can check out the video for the rest, but I will briefly touch on the preliminary pricing details that have been making their way through the grape vine:

1. E5 is pegged at $35/month, currently.
• This includes PSTN Conferencing
• This includes Cloud PBX functionality
2. DID and national PSTN Calling functionality comes at an additional $12/month.
3. International PSTN Calling will be another $12/month.
4. For all Cloud PBX functionality (as mentioned above), the grand total for a user per month is $59.

Video Content Links

• Server-Side Conversation History: http://ucmart.uk/2015/06/15/skype-for-business-enable-server-side-conversation-history/
• Call Recording Pro (Thanks Matthew Landis!) http://attendantpro.blogspot.com/2015/10/call-recording-pro-for-skype-for.html
• Skype for Business Bandwidth Calculator: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=19011

Honorable Mentions 

• Todd Klindt (@ToddKlindt)
• Matt Landis (@matthewlandis)
• Martin Boam (@MartinBoam)
• Kevin Kieller (@kkieller)

**CORRECTION** A quick correction. I made the mistake off of a post that I must have half-read that SEFAUtil Done Right and Call Recording Pro were one and the same product. They are indeed separate products. Call Recording Pro was making a debut, while SEFAUtil Done Right is a codename for a project that is still in progress. I apologize, and will do a much better job of thoroughly researching topics that I speak about in the future. Matt was a stand up guy, and even re-tweeted my video post, without calling me out! Another great soul had pity on me, and showed me the error of my ways. Finishing up a Friday strong!

Stay techy, my friends!