VMRole Gallery Item – Lync Server 2013
This post is part of a series for the Building Clouds Blog Gallery Items for Collaboration Workloads. For more information see the following Table of Contents post - https://aka.ms/bcbgicw.
Overview
The Lync Server 2013 gallery resource enables a service provider or enterprise administrator to publish a gallery item for tenants to deploy Lync Server 2013 on Windows Server 2012.
Download the Lync Server 2013 CU2 Windows Azure Pack Virtual Machine Role Gallery Item
Notes
This item does not include Active Directory which is required by Lync or an Enterprise Root Certificate Authority to provide certificates to the Lync server. You might consider the Domain Controller VMRole published to the Service Models WebPI Feed, to also publish in your environment. For more information see the page below in reference to the Web Platform Installer. You can manually add the Certificate Authority role to the VM after it provisions or add a post-install script to the VMRole if you are comfortable with that.
Downloading and Installing Windows Azure Pack Gallery Resource
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/20194.downloading-and-installing-windows-azure-pack-gallery-resource.aspx
This item has required post-installation tasks. After the VMRole is online, the following tasks need to be completed.
- Launch the topology builder and update the friendly URLs. Republish the topology.
This VMRole Gallery Item is loosely based on work we completed regarding a Service Template for the same workload. For more information see the following post.
Introducing Lync Service Templates
https://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2013/11/06/introducing-lync-service-templates.aspx
Guidance
In order to publish the gallery resources as a gallery item, you must
- Add application payload content to the resource extension package.
- Import the resource extension package into System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
- Ensure the virtual hard disk for the operating system is properly prepared and has all the necessary properties set.
- Import the resource definition package as a gallery item.
- Make the gallery item public and add it to a plan.
Application Payload
Before importing the resource extension package, you must complete the modifications below.
File copy
Edit the resource extension file and copy the prerequisite installers in to the application payload folder. If this is the first time you have imported content in to a resource extension and you would like additional information, a more detailed guide to this process is also linked below.
- Open the ResExtPkg file by renaming it and adding .zip.
- Open the folder src.
- Open the folder LyncInstallScript.
- Open the folder LyncServer2013.
- Copy the Lync Server 2013 installation files in to this folder.
- Open the folder prereqs.
- Copy the downloaded Silverlight install file in to this folder.
- Open the folder LyncServer2013.
- When finished, remove the .zip file extension.
Detailed guidance.
Windows Azure Pack VMRole Gallery Items for Collaboration Workloads
https://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2013/12/13/building-clouds-blog-windows-azure-pack-vmrole-gallery-items.aspx#apppayload
Downloads
The content required as application payload can be downloaded from the following sites.
Lync Server 2013
Download the ISO from the volume licensing website or from an MSDN subscription.Microsoft Silverlight
https://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/
System Center Virtual Machine Manager
In order to use a gallery resource, you must take the following actions in System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
Import Resource Extension Package
Using PowerShell, you must import the resource extension package into the virtual machine manager library.
Sample Windows PowerShell
| 001 002 003 | $libsharepath = <you must set the library sharepath from your environment> $resextpkg = “<pathtofile>\LyncServer2013.resextpkg” Import-CloudResourceExtension –ResourceExtensionPath $resextpkg –SharePath $libsharepath –Description “Lync Server 2013” |
The import can only be done using PowerShell.
To verify the import, run the get-CloudResourceExtension PowerShell command and locate the newly imported extension.
| 001 | Get-CloudResourceExtension |
Prepare the virtual hard disk – Operating System template
A virtual hard disk containing a sysprepped version of one of the available editions of Windows Server 2012 must be added to a SCVMM library share.
Note that one of the Features that needs to be enabled for this image is .NET 3.5 For more information on adding .NET 3.5 to an offline VHD using the Roles and Features wizard in Windows Server 2012 R2, see the following Technet article.
Install or Uninstall Roles, Role Services, or Features
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831809.aspx
Set Virtual Hard Disk Properties
You must provide a virtual hard disk from which the virtual machine role will be created. You may have a virtual hard disk used in other virtual machine creations that will work for this gallery resource.
Operating System
The virtual hard disk must be sysprepped and contain a valid Windows Server 2012 operating system.
Since this resource extension will only work with Windows Server 2012, use one of the following operating system values on your Windows Server 2012 virtual hard disks.
- 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
- 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2012 Standard
Sample PowerShell
| 001 002 003 | $myVHD = <you must set to the virtual hard disk in your environment> $WS2012Datacenter = Get-SCOperatingSystem | where { $_.name –eq “64-bit edition of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter” } Set-scvirtualharddisk –virtualharddisk $myVHD –OperatingSystem $WS2012Datacenter |
The Operating System value can be set using PowerShell or the Virtual Machine Manager Administrator Console.
FamilyName and Release
The FamilyName and Release properties of the virtual hard disk must be set in order for the Windows Azure Pack portal to display the virtual hard disk as an available disk for this gallery resource. The FamilyName and Release properties are shown in the portal drop-down list, so set them to values that will make sense to your user.
FamilyName property values should indicate the contents of the virtual hard disk, including the Windows Server release and edition. For this gallery resource, you should consider the following FamilyName values.
- Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
- Windows Server 2012 Standard
Release property values must conform to the Windows Azure versioning scheme of n.n.n.n
- 1.0.0.0
- 1.0.0.1
- etc
Sample PowerShell
| 001 002 003 | $myVHD = <you must get the virtual hard disk in your environment> Set-SCVirtualHardDisk –VirtualHardDisk $myVHD –FamilyName “Windows Server 2012 Standard” ” –Release “1.0.0.0” |
FamilyName and Release values can be set using PowerShell or the Virtual Machine Manager Administrator Console.
Tags
This gallery resource depends on a virtual hard disk with the following tags.
- WindowsServer2012
- R1
Sample PowerShell
| 001 002 | $myVHD = <you must set to the virtual hard disk in your environment> Set-SCVirtualHardDisk –virtualharddisk $myVHD –Tag “WindowsServer2012”,”R1” |
The tag property can only be set using PowerShell.
Windows Azure Pack Service Administrator Portal
Once the resource extension and virtual hard disk are all correctly set in SCVMM, you can import the resource definition package using the Service Administrator Portal in the Windows Azure Pack.
Import Resource Definition Package
- Open the Service Admin Portal.
- Navigate to the VM Clouds workspace.
- Click the Gallery tab.
- Import.
- Select and import the LyncServer2013.resdefpkg file in the unzipped location.
- Note that the gallery item now is listed on the Gallery tab.
Now that the packages for the Virtual Machine Role have been installed, you can publish the gallery item to make it available to tenants.
Publish gallery item and add to a plan
To make the Virtual Machine Role available to the tenant, you need to add it to a plan. In this procedure, you publish the Virtual Machine Role that you installed.
To publish the gallery item
- On the Gallery tab, select the version of the gallery item that you just imported.
- Click the arrow next to the gallery item name.
- Explore the details of the gallery item.
- Navigate back and click Make Public.
- Select the Plans workspace in the Service Admin Portal.
- Select the plan to which you want to add this gallery item.
- Select the Virtual Machine Clouds service.
- Scroll to the Gallery section.
- Click Add Gallery Items.
- Select the gallery items that you imported, and then click Save.
The Virtual Machine Role is now available to the tenant as part of the selected plan.
Deployment settings
When deploying this virtual machine role, the user must provide values for the following settings
- Name – Sets the name of the object that will appear in the WAP interface to represent the service.
- Local Administrator Credential – Type the password for the Administrator account that will be used inside the virtual machine for the local operating system.
- Domain Name – The FQDN of the existing Active Directory environment that the VM will join.
- Run As Credentials – The domain\account and password that will be used to join the domain and install Lync. This also means the account will require permissions to extend the Active Directory schema.
Summary
When complete, log in as a test admin and construct the prerequisites in the environment including a network, domain controller including a DNS server, and add the DNS client settings to the network. Then deploy the Lync gallery item. Console connect to the resulting VM and perform post-installation tasks.
This gallery item may be combined with the other Building Clouds Blog Gallery Items and the Sample VMRole Packages to construct a collaboration environment.
Stay tuned to the Building Clouds Blog!
Comments
- Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Hi Michael,Only issue I encountered with deployment is if Internet Access is not enabled; to get around this I copied the SxS store into my OS VHDX and configured the alternate files location using Group Policy; if this isn't done the .NET Framework 3.5 installation will fail with and trigger the following deployment error:Error (22011) VMM failed to enable the specified server features....Recommended Action Log on to the virtual machine and look in the event logs. Hope this helps anyone who is deploying this in an isolated/lab network environment.Cheers,Hayden - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Anon - there is a small paragraph under prepare OS disk image that talks about adding .NET 3.5 to the OS disk offline. Tim - you have a good point here. I included a data disk but I left the blog text out to include setting metadata so WAP could include it. I will add that today. In the mean time, it is very similar to the data disk requirements for Exchange and SharePoint. - Anonymous
December 20, 2013
Pingback from Windows Azure Pack Blog Post Overview on Building Clouds & TechNet - Building Clouds Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs - Anonymous
January 06, 2014
Pingback from Windows Azure Pack Blog Post Overview on Building Clouds & TechNet - Anonymous
January 08, 2014
Over the last three “Best Practices” posts, I’ve looked at how to Plan , Build , and Deploy a Hybrid - Anonymous
January 08, 2014
Pingback from Success with Hybrid Cloud: Best Practices for Operating Your Hybrid Cloud - Anonymous
January 09, 2014
Over the last three “Best Practices” posts, I’ve looked at how to Plan , Build , and Deploy a Hybrid - Anonymous
January 09, 2014
Pingback from Success with Hybrid Cloud: Best Practices for Operating Your Hybrid Cloud - Anonymous
February 13, 2014
Hi Michael, When trying to deploy the gallery item I am receiving an error in VMM " Disk with Name (DataDisk) and Version (1.0.0.0) not found while translating Resource Definition for cloud resource" I have followed all the documentation, the O/S disk does show up in WAP... any direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks - Anonymous
March 24, 2014
在前三篇“最佳实践”文章中，我们讨论了如何 规划 、 构建 和 部署 混合云 – 既然混合云已经上线运行，接下来该看看如何 保持 它始终在最佳状态下运行，并提供高性能