Migration to Skype for Business Server 2019 – Phase 8 (part 8)

Are we done so soon? Well, for me this seemed all too quick but it looks like we’re in the last phase in your migration to Skype for Business Server 2019! If you are joining us for the first time, I highly recommend you check our Phases 1-7 here, as this article won’t make much sense without it 🙂

Phase 8: Decommission legacy pools

You’ve made it to the last phase! Phase 8 will discuss how to decommission your legacy Lync Server 2013 or Skype for Business Server 2015 pools. This will consist of updating DNS entries, moving the Content Management Server, decommissioning pools, and deactivating and removing servers and pools from a legacy deployment. Please note though, that not all of the procedures listed in this section are required. If you are interested in extensive documentation on decommissioning a deployment, please refer to the documentation here. Otherwise, just hang tight and I’ll give you the abbreviated version.

Important: For information on migrating and upgrading Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API (UCMA) applications, before decommissioning your legacy environment, see UCMA applications: Coexistence, migration, and upgrade scenarios. 

Updating DNS Records

To successfully complete this procedure, you should be logged on to the server or domain as a member of the Domain Admins group or a member of the DnsAdmins group. Below are the steps that should be taken to update your DNS records after you have finished your migration to Skype for Business Server 2019.

1. On the DNS server, click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click DNS.
2. In the console tree for your SIP domain, expand Forward Lookup Zones, expand the SIP domain in which Skype for Business Server 2019 is installed, and navigate to the _tcp setting.
3. In the right pane, right-click _sipinternaltls and select Properties.
4. In Host offering this service, update the host FQDN to point to the Skype for Business Server 2019 pool.
5. Click OK.

Verifying that the FQDN of the Front End pool or Standard Edition server can be resolved

1. Log on to a client computer in the domain.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
4. At the command prompt, type nslookup <FQDN of the Front End pool> or <FQDN of the Standard Edition server>, and then press ENTER.
5. Verify that you receive a reply that resolves to the appropriate IP address for the FQDN.

• After migrating to Skype for Business Server 2019, and before you can remove the legacy server, you need to move the Central Management Server to the Skype for Business Server 2019 Front End Server or pool. The Central Management Server is a single master/multiple replica system, where the read/write copy of the database is held by the Front End Server that contains the Central Management Server. After you have successfully moved the Central Management Server, you should remove the Central Management Server databases from the original Front End Server. For information on removing the Central Management Server databases, see Remove the SQL Server database for a Front End pool.
  • You use the Windows PowerShell cmdlet Move-CsManagementServer in the Skype for Business Server Management Shell to move the database from the legacy install SQL Server database to the Skype for Business Server 2019 SQL Server database, and then update the SCP to point to the Skype for Business Server 2019 Central Management Server location.

Preparing an Enterprise Edition Front End pool

1. On the Skype for Business Server 2019 Enterprise Edition Front End pool where you want to relocate the Central Management Server, log on to the computer where the Skype for Business Server Management Shell is installed as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group. You must also have SQL Server database sysadmin user rights and permissions on the database where you want to install the Central Management store.
2. Open the Skype for Business Server Management Shell.
3. To create the new Central Management store in the Skype for Business Server 2019 SQL Server database, in the Skype for Business Server Management Shell, type: Install-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SQLServerFQDN <FQDN of your SQL Server> -SQLInstanceName <name of instance>

4. Confirm that the status of the Skype for Business Server Front-End service is Started.

Preparing a Standard Edition Front End Server

1. On the Skype for Business Server 2019 Standard Edition Front End Server where you want to relocate the Central Management Server, log on to the computer where the Skype for Business Server Management Shell is installed as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group.

2. Open the Skype for Business Server Deployment Wizard.
3. In the Skype for Business Server Deployment Wizard, click Prepare first Standard Edition server.
4. On the Executing Commands page, SQL Server Express is installed as the Central Management Server. Necessary firewall rules are created. When the installation of the database and prerequisite software is completed, click Finish.
5. To create the new Central Management store on the Skype for Business Server 2019 Standard Edition Front End Server, in the Skype for Business Server Management Shell, type: Install-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SQLServerFQDN <FQDN of your Standard Edition Server> -SQLInstanceName <name of instance - RTC by default>

6. Confirm that the status of the Skype for Business Server Front-End service is Started.

Note: The initial installation may take some time with no visible updates to the command output summary screen. This is due to the installation of SQL Server Express. If you need to monitor the installation of the database, use Task Manager to monitor the setup.

Moving the legacy installs Central Management Server to Skype for Business Server 2019 

1. On the Skype for Business Server 2019 server that will be the Central Management Server, log on to the computer where the Skype for Business Server Management Shell is installed as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group. You must also have the SQL Server database administrator user rights and permissions.

2. Open Skype for Business Server Management Shell.

3. In the Skype for Business Server Management Shell, type:

   Enable-CsTopology
   

   CAUTION: If Enable-CsTopology is not successful, resolve the problem preventing the command from completing before continuing. If Enable-CsTopology is not successful, the move will fail and it may leave your topology in a state where there is no Central Management store.

4. On the Skype for Business Server 2019 Front End Server or Front End pool, in the Skype for Business Server Management Shell, type:

   Move-CsManagementServer
   

5. Skype for Business Server Management Shell displays the servers, file stores, database stores, and the service connection points of the Current State and the Proposed State. Read the information carefully and confirm that this is the intended source and destination. Type Y to continue, or N to stop the move.

6. Review any warnings or errors generated by the Move-CsManagementServer command and resolve them.
7. On the Skype for Business Server 2019 server, open the Skype for Business Server Deployment Wizard.
8. In Skype for Business Server Deployment Wizard, click Install or Update Skype for Business Server System, click Step 2: Setup or Remove Skype for Business Server Components, click Next, review the summary, and then click Finish.
9. On the legacy install server, open the Deployment Wizard.
10. In Skype for Business Server Deployment Wizard, click Install or Update Skype for Business Server System, click Step 2: Setup or Remove Skype for Business Server Components, click Next, review the summary, and then click Finish.
11. Reboot the Skype for Business Server 2019 server. This is required because of a group membership change to access Central Management Server database.
12. To confirm that replication with the new Central Management store is occurring, in the Skype for Business Server Management Shell, type:

    Get-CsManagementStoreReplicationStatus
    

    Note: The replication may take some time to update all current replicas.

Removing legacy install Central Management store files after a move

1. On the legacy install server, log on to the computer where the Skype for Business Server Management Shell is installed as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group. You must also have the SQL Server database administrator user rights and permissions.

2. Open Skype for Business Server Management Shell

   CAUTION: Do not proceed with the removal of the previous database files until replication is complete and is stable. If you remove the files prior to completing replication, you will disrupt the replication process and leave the newly moved Central Management Server in an unknown state. Use the cmdlet Get-CsManagementStoreReplicationStatus to confirm the replication status.

3. To remove the Central Management store database files from the legacy install Central Management Server, type:

   Uninstall-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SqlServerFqdn <FQDN of SQL Server> -SqlInstanceName <Name of source server>
   

   For example:

   Uninstall-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SqlServerFqdn sql.contoso.net -SqlInstanceName rtc
   

   Where the <FQDN of SQL Server> is either the legacy install Back End Server in an Enterprise Edition deployment or the FQDN of the Standard Edition server.

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Moving Conference Directories

• Before decommissioning a pool, you must perform the following procedure for each conference directory in your legacy pool.

1. Open the Skype for Business Server Management Shell.

2. To obtain the identity of the conference directories in your organization, run the following command:

   Get-CsConferenceDirectory
   

   The preceding command returns all the conference directories in your organization. Because of that, you might want to limit the results to the pool being decommissioned. For example, if you are decommissioning the pool with the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) pool01.contoso.net, use this command to limit the returned data to conference directories from that pool:

   Get-CsConferenceDirectory | Where-Object {$_.ServiceID -match "pool01.contoso.net"}
   

   That command returns only the conference directories where the ServiceID property contains the FQDN pool01.contoso.net.

3. To move conference directories, run the following command for each conference directory in the pool:

   Move-CsConferenceDirectory -Identity <Numeric identity of conference directory> -TargetPool <FQDN of pool where ownership is to be transitioned>
   

   For example, to move conference directory 3, use this command, specifying a Skype for Business Server 2019 pool as the TargetPool:

   Move-CsConferenceDirectory -Identity 3 -TargetPool "pool02.contoso.net"
   

   If you want to move all the conference directories on a pool, use a command similar to the following:

   Get-CsConferenceDirectory | Where-Object {$_.ServiceID -match "pool01.contoso.net"} | Move-CsConferenceDirectory -TargetPool "pool02.contoso.net"
   

Download Uninstalling Microsoft legacy and Removing Server Roles for comprehensive, step-by-step instructions on decommissioning legacy pools.

When moving conference directories, you might encounter the following error:

WARNING: Move operation failed for conference directory with ID "5". Cannot perform a rollback because data migration might have already started. Retry the operation.
WARNING: Before using the -Force parameter, ensure that you have exported the conference directory data using DBImpExp.exe and imported the data on the target pool. Refer to the DBImpExp-Readme.htm file for more information.
Move-CsConferenceDirectory : Unable to cast COM object of type 'System._ComObject' to interface type 'Microsoft.Rtc.Interop.User.IRtcConfDirManagement'. 
This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with SID '{4262B886-503F-4BEA-868C-04E8DF562CEB}' failed due to the following error: The specified module could not be found.

This error typically occurs when the Skype for Business Server Management Shell requires an updated set of Active Directory permissions in order to complete a task. To resolve the problem, close the current instance of the Management Shell, then open a new instance of the shell and re-run the command to move the conference directory.

Removing the Archiving server association

To remove an Archiving Server, you need to change or clear the dependency on the associated Front End pool, Front End Server, Survivable Branch Appliance, and Survivable Branch Server. You edit the properties of the Front End pool, Front End Server, Survivable Branch Appliance, and Survivable Branch Server to remove the dependency. After you clear the dependency and delete the server in Topology Builder, you are notified that the associated database store object in Topology Builder will also be deleted.

1. On the Skype for Business Server 2019 Front End Server, open Topology Builder.

2. Navigate to the legacy install node.
3. In Topology Builder, expand Enterprise Edition Front End pools, Standard Edition Front End Servers, or Branch sites, depending on where the Archiving Server is defined.
4. If you have Survivable Branch Server associated, expand Branch sites, expand the branch site name, and then expand Survivable Branch Appliances.

   Note: Survivable Branch Appliances in the user interface applies to both Survivable Branch Server and Survivable Branch Appliance.

5. Right-click the pool, server, or device that is associated with the Archiving Server, and then click Edit Properties.
6. In Edit Properties, under General > Associations, clear the Associate Archiving Server check box, and then click OK.
7. Repeat the previous step for any other pool, server, or device associated with the Archiving Server that you want to remove.
8. Right-click the Archiving Server, and then click Delete.
9. On Delete Dependent Stores, click OK.
10. Publish the topology, check replication status, and then run the Skype for Business Server Deployment Wizard as needed.

Removing the Monitoring server association

To remove the Monitoring Server, you need to change or clear the dependency on the associated Front End pool, Front End Server, Survivable Branch Appliance, and Survivable Branch Server. You edit the properties of the Front End pool, Front End Server, Survivable Branch Appliance, and Survivable Branch Server to remove the dependency. After you clear the dependency and delete the server in Topology Builder, you are notified that the associated database store object in Topology Builder will also be deleted.

1. On the Skype for Business Server 2019 Front End Server, open Topology Builder.

2. Navigate to the legacy installs node.
3. In Topology Builder, expand Enterprise Edition Front End pools, Standard Edition Front End Servers, or Branch sites, depending on where the Monitoring Server is defined.
4. If you have Survivable Branch Server associated, expand Branch sites, expand the branch site name, and then expand Survivable Branch Appliances.

   Note: Survivable Branch Appliances in the user interface applies to both Survivable Branch Server and Survivable Branch Appliance.

5. Right-click the pool, server, or device that is associated with the Monitoring Server, and then click Edit Properties.
6. In Edit Properties, under General > Associations, clear the Associate Monitoring Server check box, and then click OK.
7. Repeat the previous step for any other pool, server, or device associated with the Monitoring Server.
8. Right-click the Monitoring Server, and then click Delete.
9. On Delete Dependent Stores, click OK.
10. Publish the topology, check replication status, and run the Skype for Business Server Deployment Wizard as needed.

Removing the Enterprise Edition Front End Pool or Standard Edition Front End Server

The procedures outlined in this section are designed to guide you through the process of removing an Enterprise Edition Front End pool or a Standard Edition Front End Server. After migrating to Skype for Business Server 2019, this is one of the first steps in decommissioning your legacy environment.

Reset Call Admission Control

1. Open Topology Builder.
2. Right-click the site node, and then click Edit Properties.
3. Under Call Admission Control setting, make sure Enable Call Admission Control is selected.
4. Under Front End pool to run call admission control (CAC), select the Skype for Business Server 2019 pool that is to host CAC, and then click OK.
5. Publish the topology.

Prevent sessions from services

1. From a user account that is a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group (or has equivalent user rights), or assigned to the CsServerAdministrator or CsAdministrator role, log on to any computer that is in the network in which you deployed Skype for Business Server 2019.
2. Open Skype for Business Control Panel.
3. In the left navigation bar, click Topology, and then click Status.
4. On the Status page, sort or search through the list as needed to find the computer that is running the services for which you want to prevent new sessions, and then click it.
5. Click Action.
6. Click Prevent new sessions for all services.

Prevent new sessions for a specific service

1. From a user account that is a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group (or has equivalent user rights), or assigned to the CsServerAdministrator or CsAdministrator role, log on to any computer that is in the network in which you deployed Skype for Business Server 2019.
2. Open Skype for Business Control Panel.
3. In the left navigation bar, click Topology, and then click Status.
4. On the Status page, sort or search through the list as needed to find the computer that is running the service you want to start or stop, and then click it.
5. Click Properties.
6. Sort the list of services, if necessary, and click the service for which you want to prevent new sessions.
7. Click Action.
8. Click Prevent new sessions for service.
9. Click Close.

Stop/Start legacy services

1. Open Skype for Business Server Control Panel.
2. In the left navigation bar, click Topology, and then click Status.
3. On the Status page, sort or search through the list as needed to find the computer that is running the services you want to start or stop, and then click it.
4. Click Action.
5. Click Start All services or Stop All services.

Stop/Start a specific service

1. Open Skype for Business Server Control Panel.
2. In the left navigation bar, click Topology, and then click Status.
3. On the Status page, sort or search through the list as needed to find the computer that is running the service you want to start or stop, and then click it.
4. Click Properties.
5. Sort the list of services, if necessary, and click the service you want to start or stop.
6. Click Action.
7. Click Start service or Stop service.
8. Click Close.

Removing a Front End Server from a pool

The Front End Server cannot exist as a stand-alone computer. It must be defined as a Front End pool, even if there is only a single computer in the pool.

This topic guides you through the process of removing an individual Front End Server from an existing Front End pool. If the Front End Server is the last server in the pool or if you are removing the pool completely, see Remove Front End pool or Standard Edition server. There is no need to remove the individual Front End Servers before you remove the Front End pool. When you remove the pool, you remove each Front End Server.

1. On the Skype for Business Server 2019 Front End Server, open Topology Builder.
2. Navigate to the legacy install node.
3. Expand Enterprise Edition Front End pools, expand the Front End pool with the Front End Server that you want to remove, right-click the Front End Server that you want to remove, and then click Delete.

Removing the entire Front End Pool or Standard Edition Server

This article guides you through the process of removing a Front End pool or a Standard Edition Front End Server. When you remove a Front End pool, you remove each Front End Server that belongs to the pool as a part of the pool removal process. When you remove a Standard Edition Front End Server, you must remove the SQL Store definition from Topology Builder.

To remove a Front End Server pool

1. Open Topology Builder.
2. Navigate to the legacy node.
3. Expand Enterprise Edition Front End pools, expand the Front End pool, right-click the Front End pool that you want to remove, and then click Delete.
4. Publish the topology, check replication status, and then run the legacy Deployment Wizard as needed.

To remove a Standard Edition Front End server

1. Open Topology Builder.

2. Navigate to the legacy installs node.
3. Expand Standard Edition Front End servers, right-click the Front End Server that you want to remove, and then click Delete.
4. Expand SQL stores, right-click the SQL Server database that is associated with the Standard Edition Front End Server, and then click Delete.

   Important: You must remove the definition of the collocated SQL Server databases from the Standard Edition Front End Server.

5. Publish the topology, check replication status, and then run the Deployment Wizard as needed.

You’re done! This concludes the series of migrating to Skype for Business Server 2019. I hope you have found this series helpful and check back to my blog regularly as I like to post about anything new in the Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams world! For the Microsoft documentation that I referenced throughout this series please see the docs articles here. I did my best to cut out the extraneous information however, I have found that Microsoft is very clear-cut with their instructions. Nevertheless, I look forward to seeing you in the next blog!