Step-By-Step: Configuring Office Online Server with Skype for Business

 Abstract:This short HowTo drives true the steps to install a Microsoft Office Online Server which can be used for Microsoft Skype for business (or Exchange 2016, but we will cover only SfB here).

As part of this integration with Skype for Business, Office Online Server is used in read-only mode, but the server can also be shared with Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange.

Requirements:

- A Microsoft Web Application Proxy (=WAP) will be used (so this must be already in place) to allow user in the Internet to reach the Microsoft Office Online Server

- Make sure that:

* every SfB Fronted server can reach the Microsoft Office Online Server via HTTPS

* the Microsoft Web Application Proxy server can reach the Office Online Server via HTTPS

- The Microsoft Office Online Server is deployed in the internal LAN

- For the moment it might be a good idea to block the 4.6.1 framework as mentioned here.

Needed steps:

01.) Download the Office Online Server ISO and mount it on Windows 2012 R2

02.) Install perquisites via powershell as explained here:

Install-WindowsFeature Web-Server, Web-Mgmt-Tools, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-WebServer, Web-Common-Http, Web-Default-Doc, Web-Static-Content, Web-Performance, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Security, Web-Filtering, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-App-Dev, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Includes, InkandHandwritingServices, Windows-Identity-Foundation

03.) restart the Office Online Server

04.) Install all pending updates, if not you might see an error message that updates are missing (e.g. the Universal C Runtime [=CRT]) and when you try to install them you failed. Depending on your environment you need to perform these steps multiple times until the windows update search process didn´t find any pending updates.

05.) Download and install "Universal C Runtime (CRT)" via KB 2999226 from here.

06.) Mount the ISO and install the "Microsoft Office Online Server"

07.) Once completed check again for the pending updates and install them (might be around 1.2 GB). Do not proceed without installing the latest updates, as you need to remove and re-add a Office Online Server during the patch process as mentioned here.

08.) Request a SSL server certificate from your internal CA. Use the internal name (example: officeonlinesrv.int.contoso.com) as well as the external name (example: officeonlinesrv.contoso.com)

09.) Run the following powershell (run as admin) command on your Office Online Server:

New-OfficeWebAppsFarm -InternalUrl "https://officeonlinesrv.int.contoso.com" -ExternalUrl "https://officeonlinesrv.contoso.com" -CertificateName "OOS Certificate"

Depending on your system specification this takes some time and will result in a short summary from the configuration.

Get-OfficeWebAppsFarm will show you the current configuration

10.) If you open the following URL, you should see a XML output

https://officeonlinesrv.int.contoso.com/hosting/discovery

11.) Configure now the Microsoft Web Application Proxy (=WAP)

11a.) Create a SSL certification request via the IIS with the external name from the Microsoft Office Online Server (e.g. oos.emea.contoso.com). Let it be signed by a trusted authority (e.g. Comodo, Verisign, ...)

11b.) According to the Microsoft SfB Deployment Documentation for WAP the Microsoft Office server listens for client requests on TCP/443.  As such, it is not necessary for a reverse proxy to bridge connections to MS Office Server to a different port. So it can be configured as passtrue via:

Add-WebApplicationProxyApplication -BackendServerUrl "https://officeonlinesrv.int.contoso.com" -ExternalCertificateThumbprint "1D19CD39E4H03B2D3212632C29F2AE52DFKB79FA" -ExternalUrl "https://officeonlinesrv.contoso.com" -Name "Microsoft Office Online Server" -ExternalPreAuthentication PassThrough

Tip: You can get the certificate thumbprint via Get-ChildItem -path cert:\LocalMachine\My

11c.) As the internal and external URL is different, it is important to disable the DisableTranslateUrlInRequestHeaders. This couldn´t be done via gui, so we run the following via powershell

$Rule = (Get-WebApplicationProxyApplication -Name "Microsoft Office Online Server").ID
Set-WebApplicationProxyApplication –ID $Rule –DisableTranslateUrlInRequestHeaders:$True

11d.) Now open the topology builder from SfB and add a Office Web App Server with the following Hostnames:

FQND: officeonlinesrv.int.contoso.com
Discovery URL: https://officeonlinesrv.int.contoso.com/hosting/discovery

12.) Then associate the SfB Frontend pool with the new Microsoft Office Online Server you added.

13.) After that publish the topology

14.) On the configured SfB frontend server restart the "Skype for Business Server Web Conferencing" service

If you then check the eventlog on the SfB frontend server for event 41032 you should see something like:

Web Conferencing Server Office Web Apps Server (WAC) discovery has succeeded

Office Web Apps Server internal presenter page: https://oos.int.contoso.com/m/Presenter.aspx?a=0&e=true&
Office Web Apps Server internal attendee page: https://oos.int.contoso.com/m/ParticipantFrame.aspx?a=0&e=true&
Office Web Apps Server external presenter page: https://oos.contoso.com/m/Presenter.aspx?a=0&e=true&
Office Web Apps Server external attendee page: https://oos.contoso.com/m/ParticipantFrame.aspx?a=0&e=true&

15.) Start a SfB Meeting and upload some powerpoint presentation now

Build with with info`s from:

http://exchangepro.dk/2013/11/15/use-web-application-proxy-to-publish-lync-server-2013/
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/canitpro/2016/06/16/step-by-step-configuring-office-online-server-with-skype-for-business-2015/
https://dmunified.com/2016/05/23/deploy-office-online-server-with-skype-for-business/
https://technet.microsoft.com/de-de/office/dn947483.aspx
http://www.msexchange.org/articles-tutorials/exchange-2016-articles/migration-deployment/migrating-small-organization-exchange-2010-exchange-2016-part5.html