Integrating Lync with Exchange 2010 SP2 OWA

One of the nicest features of Microsoft products is integration . In this post I’ll show how Lync 2010 can be integrated with Exchange 2010 SP2 OWA , so that corporate users can get benefit from messaging / IM via single interface.

Integration process will be divided to two parts each will be performed from one side of integration components [ Exchange Clients Access Server & Lync frontend server ] 

• Exchange Clients Access Server side

First of all we need to download the following packages :

• Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Web Service Provider : Here
• OCS 2007 R2 Web Service Provider Hotfix KB 981256 : Here
• Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Redist (64 Bit) Hotfix KB 2400399 : Here
• Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Hotfix KB 968802 : Here [ Required only if your CAS server is deployed on Windows server 2008 R2 ]

Note :

While downloading “Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Redist (64 Bit) Hotfix KB 2400399” you will notice that it has the same name “UcmaRedist.msp” as that for “Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Redist (64 Bit) Hotfix KB 2400399” so to differentiate rename the file to something else , for example “UcmaRedist-4WinR2.msp”

Start by extracting “Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Web Service Provider” – by default C:\Web Service Provider Installer Package – which will result in having the following packages :

After downloading the remaining packages proceed with installation in the following sequence :

1. vcredist_x64.exe

2. UcmaRedist.msi

3. UcmaRedist.msp

4. UcmaRedist-4WinR2.msp,  [ CAS is installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 ]

5. CWAOWASSP.msi

6. CWAOWASSP.msp

7. Dotnetfx35setup.exe

After finishing installation of all package , open Exchange Management Shell and execute the following commands :

• The first command creates a variable that will store your corporate Exchange certificate used for IIS.

$cert= (Get-ExchangeCertificate | Where {$_.Services -ilike "*IIS*"}).Thumbprint

• The second enable your OWA for instant messaging integration , create link to the certificate retrieved from the previous command and finally assign the Lync server/pool to which integration will take place. [ Replace values in grey with your corporate values ] 

Get-ExchangeServer “Client Access Server Name” | Get-OWAVirtualDirectory | Set-OWAVirtualDirectory -InstantMessagingType OCS -InstantMessagingEnabled:$true -InstantMessagingCertificateThumbprint $cert –InstantMessagingServerName “FQDN of Lync frontend server”

• Lync frontend server side

On your Lync server , open Lync topology builder and choose “Download Topology from existing deployment” and save it.

Expand your site , then go to “Trusted application servers” right click and choose “New Trusted Application Pool” . At “Define the Trusted Application pool FQDN” window choose “Single Computer Pool” and add the FQDN of the Client Access Server ( Single server infrastructure ) or the FQDN of the CAS array / NLB ( Multiple servers infrastructure ).

For the new trusted application server , right click and choose Edit properties. Uncheck Enable replication of configuration data to this pool checkbox and click ok.

Then , publish the topology

Finally , create a new CsTrustedApplication using Lync server management shell as follow :

New-CsTrustedApplication -ApplicationID ExchangeOutlookWebApp –TrustedApplicationPoolFqdn “Client Access Server FQDN or Client Access Server array FQDN” –Port “Unused port [ 5555 for example ]”

You can use the following command on the Lync Server to search for any current usage of the desired TCP port

netstat -a | findstr 5555

Then enables the published Lync Server topology. so that the the changes will take effect , for that execute :

Enable-CsTopology

Now , go to your OWA and check , it worked for me

Hope that to be the same for you !