11.04.2014 update – Added steps for OWA SP1 integration 

Integrating Lync 2013 with OWA 2013

Howdy,

This is the 2nd part of my article on how to integrate Lync 2013 with Exchange 2013, in Part-1 I talked about integrating Lync 2013 with Exchange 2013 UM, in this one I will write a quick how to guide

About integrating Lync 2013 and OWA 2013 using PowerShell mostly.

 

As communication between Lync 2013 and Exchange 2013 is encrypted, you will need a Certificate either from your CA or 3rd party, during installing Lync 2013 you already requested and assigned a certificate, for Exchange you can use the one you created before in Part-1 integrating with UM.

On Exchange Side

On your CAS server you open Exchange Management Shell and run the following command lines

  • Get-OwaVirtualDirectory | Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -InstantMessagingEnable $true -InstantMessagingType OCS

Now get the Thumbprint of the certificate you will assign to the OWA virtual directory using

  • Get-ExchangeCertificate and copy the thumbprint of the Certificate you requested for the exchange services (Should be same you used in Part-1)

For Exchange 2013 without SP1:

On your Exchange CAS 2013 server, go to “C: Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\ClientAccess\Owa\” and open make a copy of web.config file before we work on it.

Open web.config using Notepad search for the </App Settings> and add the following before it

<add key=”IMCertificateThumbprint” value=”OWA Certificate Thumbprint “/>

<add key=”IMServerName” value=”Lync Server FQDN” />

For Exchange 2013 SP1:

if you have Exchange 2013 SP1 the web.config file for OWA been moved to the Mailbox server not CAS, so do the following for each Mailbox server you have in your deployment:

go to “C: Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\ClientAccess\Owa\” and open make a copy of web.config file before we work on it.

Open web.config using Notepad search for the </App Settings> and add the following before it

<add key=”IMCertificateThumbprint” value=”OWA Certificate Thumbprint “/>

<add key=”IMServerName” value=”Lync Server FQDN” />

Don’t forget to Import the SSL certificate you are using to publish your OWA to your Mailbox server, then enable it for the IIS services by using the following cmdlet:

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Enable-ExchangeCertificate -Services iis -Thumbprint “thumbprint here”

1

Following steps apply for both Exchange versions

Then run this command from a command prompt, go to “C:\Windows\System32\Inetsrv” then

.Appcmd.exe recycle apppool /apppool.name:”MSExchangeOWAAppPool”

Now you need to make a policy for IM on OWA , you can either enable it for all users, or create one and assign it to specific mailboxes.

1- enable it for everyone using the following PowerShell command line on Exchange Management Shell

  • Get-OwaMailboxPolicy | Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -InstantMessagingEnabled $true –InstantMessagingType OCS

2- create a Policy and assign it to specific mailboxes

  • Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -identity “Default” -InstantMessagingEnabled $true –InstantMessagingType OCS

We are done for now from the exchange side

Lync 2013 Side

Logon to your frontend and start Lync Management Shell, and get the Lync Site ID by using the PowerShell command

  • Get-CsSite

Create Trust Application Pool for OWA

Using the following command line we will create a trusted application pool for OWA

  • New-CsTrustedApplicationPool -Identity <Certificate Subject Name of Client Access> -Registrar <FQDN do Pool Lync server> -Site <Lync Server SiteID> -RequiresReplication $False

Create Trusted Application for OWA

Using the following Command line to do so

  • New-CsTrustedApplication -ApplicationId OutlookWebAccess -TrustedApplicationPoolFqdn <Client Access Certificate Subject Name> -Port < available TCP port number>

Publish the new topology changes

Now we need to publish the changes we did to the Lync 2013 Topology using the PowerShell

  • Enable-CSTopology

Now the last thing is to restart the IIS services on Exchange 2013 CAS server (also Mailbox server in case of Exchange 2013 SP1), using the command prompt you can restart the IIS services

  • Iisreset /noforce

With this I completed a How-to Guide in integrating Lync 2013 Server with Exchange 2013, I covered integration of UM services with Lync Server and OWA integration as well.