Forum Discussion
Migrate from Skype for Business Hybrid to Skype for Business online
Has anyone attempted this and what was your experience? We are currently in the process of moving all of our users from on-premises to the cloud. I found a great article that goes through some steps modify DNS to support online only connnectivity.
The article doesn't go into detail about managing accounts or removing all of the on-premises servers. Our goal is to completely remove our on-premises servers. However, I'm not sure if this is possible if we sync our on-premises AD accounts to Azure AD. We don't create accounts in Office 365, so to enable new accounts, we might still have to keep the on-premises environment in place, at least one pool to move users from onprem to the cloud.
Earl,
When you say remove Hybrid mode and go to Cloud only, are you referring to Skype for Business Hybrid, or are you talking about even disconnecting Azure AD? For removing Hybrid from a Skype for Business Online tenant, you would simply change the required DNS over to point at Skype for Business Online, and then remove the configuration that was set via PowerShell to setup the "SharedSipAddressSpace" in SFBO. At that point, your Skype for Business Online environment is completely standing on its own (and on-prem servers can be decommissioned), but your user accounts themselves will still show "Synced", as they are created in your on-prem AD and synced to the Cloud using Azure AD Connect.
Sorry if I seem to be rambling, I just wanted to make sure it was all cleared up on your end.
Josh
19 Replies
PS D:\> Get-CsAccessEdgeConfiguration
Identity : Global
AllowAnonymousUsers : True
AllowFederatedUsers : False
AllowOutsideUsers : False
BeClearingHouse : False
EnablePartnerDiscovery : False
DiscoveredPartnerVerificationLevel : UseSourceVerification
EnableArchivingDisclaimer : False
EnableUserReplicator : False
KeepCrlsUpToDateForPeers : True
MarkSourceVerifiableOnOutgoingMessages : True
OutgoingTlsCountForFederatedPartners : 4
DnsSrvCacheRecordCount : 131072
DiscoveredPartnerStandardRate : 20
EnableDiscoveredPartnerContactsLimit : True
MaxContactsPerDiscoveredPartner : 1000
DiscoveredPartnerReportPeriodMinutes : 60
MaxAcceptedCertificatesStored : 1000
MaxRejectedCertificatesStored : 500
CertificatesDeletedPercentage : 20
SkypeSearchUrl : https://skypegraph.skype.com/search/v1.0
RoutingMethod : UseDnsSrvRouting
PS D:\> Get-CsHostingProvider
Identity : Exchange Online
Name : Exchange Online
ProxyFqdn : exap.um.outlook.com
VerificationLevel : UseSourceVerification
Enabled : False
EnabledSharedAddressSpace : True
HostsOCSUsers : False
IsLocal : False
AutodiscoverUrl :Yes certainly possible to complete your migration and after the last user has been moved to Skype4B Online you can begin the process to transistion DNS to be a cloud only Skype4B deployment. This esstientially is repointing specific records to Skype4B online servers vs your on-prem infrastructure. Once this is done and you are confident there are no dependencies on-prem from a Skype perspective you can decommission all the Skype4B Servers.
From an accounts perspective, and ongoing user management you will still need your DirSync/ADConnect server to synchronize accounts to the cloud from your on-prem AD. If using SSO you will also still continue to your on-prem ADFS infrastructure as well. User management from a Skype perspective will now be handled entirely in the cloud using the Skype for Business Online Admin Center.
Thanks for the response. I don't see the option to Enable users in the Skype for Business Admins center. Is this somehow turned on after Hybrid mode is removed? Furthermore, are there Powershell commands to enable a user in Skype for Business online?
I found a link somewhere that states when provisioning an Office 365 user, after creating the account and assigning a license, the user is enabled "in cloud".
Hello Earl!
Looking to the future when you no longer have an on-prem infrastructure for Skype for Business, your users will still be synced to Office 365 via Azure AD Connect, as Dino pointed out. At this point, however, all you have to do to enable a user for Skype for Business is assign them the appropriate license. For instance, if you assign an E5 license, and Skype for Business is toggled On within the E5 drop-down, then that user is now enabled for SKype for Business Online. You will then be able to manage their Skype for Business settings within the Skype for Business Admin Center. There is no where within the Skype for Business Admin Center, however, to "Enable" a user for Skype for Business; that is all done via licensing once you are in a pure Skype for Business Online environment.
Hope that helps to clarify!
Respectfully,
Josh Blalock
