Surface Hub: Skype for Business vs Teams

Surface Hub supports running both Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams, based on the Teams mode you configure.

Skype for Business supports both On-Premises and Online deployments, whereas Teams is available online only.

The following table lists the major differences between the Skype for Business and the Microsoft Teams functionalities on Surface Hub:

Functionality	Microsoft Teams	Skype for Business
Join Scheduled meetings	✔	✔
Create Ad-hoc meetings	✔	✔
Make/Receive PSTN calls*	✔ Outbound only	✔
Make/Receive Audio calls	✔	✔
Make/Receive Video calls	✔	✔
Instant messaging	❌	✔
Screen sharing	✔	✔
Auto camera switching	✔	✔
Store update**	✔	❌
Windows update**	❌	✔
Whiteboard launch	✔	❌
Maximum live incoming video	4 simultaneous streams	2 simultaneous streams
Connect to On Premises environment	❌	✔
Can be used with Meeting Room license	✔	✔
Can be used with another UC app	✔	✔
QOS Ready	✔	✔

* PSTN calling is Subject to licensing
** Skype for Business is part of the OS and will update when OS updates are available. Microsoft Teams is a Windows Store UWP app and will update automatically from the store as updates become available.

• In Teams mode 0 and 1 the appropriate UI will launch based on the type of the invite; the Skype UI will launch if it’s a Skype for Business scheduled meeting, and the Teams UI will launch id it’s a Teams scheduled meeting.
• You can still launch the full Teams client from the Microsoft Edge browser on Surface Hub, that will provide you with the full Microsoft Teams experience, using the Surface Hub’s cameras, microphones, speakers and touch.
• Launching the Microsoft Whiteboard from inside the Teams app will automatically grant access to anyone in the meeting (Tenant limitations apply), enabling them to co-author simultaneously from any supported device.

Add Surface Hub and SRS Rooms to Microsoft Teams Meetings

(Or any room, as a matter of fact)

 

If you’re using Outlook and have the Teams Meeting add-on, you can schedule a Teams meeting and add a room to the meeting:

 

 

But if you try to schedule a meeting from Teams and look for a room to find its availability, you might face a challenge as Teams would not show any rooms:

 

Looking at the glass half full, this is a great opportunity to make some order in how users book rooms with Teams:

Teams takes advantage of Exchange’s New-DistributionGroup cmdlet -RoomList switch. The RoomList switch specifies that all members of a specific distribution group are room mailboxes.

You can create as many distribution groups as you need – based on any parameter that you want. In my scenario, I chose to create two lists:

• One for rooms equipped with Surface Hubs
• One for rooms equipped with Skype Room Systems.

This way my users will know which collaboration devices are available for them when they book a room.

Creation process of the distribution groups is easy.

Connect to Exchange Online:

$365Cred = Get-Credential
$365Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell -Credential $365Cred -Authentication Basic –AllowRedirection
$ImportResults = Import-PSSession $365Session

Create the new distributiobn groups with the -RoomList switch:

New-DistributionGroup -Name “Surface Hubs” -Roomlist

Add rooms to the distribution groups:

Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity “Surface Hubs” -Member “SurfaceHub01"

Log back into your Teams client and see the new lists:

 

Choose the available room from the list:

 

 

And you’re all done:

 

The room is now booked. If you’re using a Surface Hub or a Skype Room System the meeting will be displayed on the device.

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This post was originally posted on my TechNet blog: https://aka.ms/y0av.

Surface Hub and the Skype for Business Trusted Domain List

Check out the post I wrote on my Microsoft TechNet blog:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/y0av/2017/10/25/95/

Surface Hub and the Skype for Business Trusted Domain List

Surface Hub takes advantage of all the automatic configuration options Microsoft’s Productivity tools has to offer; it will use Exchange’s autodiscover to find the Room Mailbox’s account and policies, and will use Skype for Business’ Lyncdiscover to locate the Conference Room’s registrar.
Due to the nature of Surface Hub’s OS (Windows 10 Team Edition), and due to the fact that it’s a locked-down, secured, communal device, it will not show you any popups during the step-by-step configuration (OOBE) or later when it attempts to connect to services and servers. This makes the environment preparation task even more critical: When installing them, Surface Hubs can be configured individually by the installer if they have the required information, or using a PPKG file for mass deployments. In any case, having all the required information is crucial – as the installation will not complete if it hits an issue along the way.
One of the most common issues with Surface Hub installation and Skype for Business is the Trusted Domain List.

What is the Trusted Domain List and how to get it right?

The Trusted Domain List, also referred to as the “TrustModelData” is a List of the trusted domains that don’t match the prefix of the your SIP domain.
When a user (or a device, in this case) connects to the Skype for Business server, the client validates the connections against a list of trusted servers.
Who are the trusted servers?

1. The users’ SIP URI domain
2. Any server that the client connected to in the past, and that was added to the Trusted Domain List (More on this below)
3. The domain of the server that the client last connected to

Let’s break these down:

Scenario 1 is pretty straight forward; if  the users’ SIP URI domain and the servers’ domain are the same, there’s an automated trust and the client will sign in immediately.

User’s SIP URI	Alan@contoso.com
Server’s FQDN	SfBFE01.contoso.com

Scenario 2 is where the users’ SIP URI is different than the servers’ domain (due to internal naming convention – for example: domain.local, or due to users\resource forests, etc.)

User’s SIP URI	Alan@contoso.com
Server’s FQDN	SfBSVR.01.Resource.contoso.local

In this case, the Trusted Domain List can be prepopulated by the admin via GPO or manually configuring Registry keys, and also by the user:

Every time the client connects to a new server – an untrusted server – the user will receive a prompt saying “Skype for Business cannot verify that the server is trusted for your sign-in address. Sign in Anyway?”

Once the user clicks Connect, the server is added temporarily (See Scenario 3) to the  Trusted Domain List. If the user will go ahead and check the “Always trust this server” box, the server will be added to the Trusted Domain List and the warning will never appear again.

Scenario 3 is what’s happening when the user connects to an untrusted server and acknowledges the ‘Sign in Anyway?’ popup. The server we’re connected to is saved in the registry and will remain there until the user connects to a new server. As long as the server is there, the user will not be prompted to trust the server:

For most workstations, the Trusted Domain List will be pushed via using Skype for Business Server 2015 in-band provisioning, but it can also be pushed using Registry keys or GPO.

What does this have to do with Surface Hub?

Surface Hub will not prompt you to ‘trust a server’ if its not on the Trusted Domain List. Instead, you’ll have to make sure that all possible domain names are represented in Surface Hub. Otherwise, the Skype for Business client will not connect:

However, other features, like Emailing the whiteboard, will work, as Exchange doesn’t require a Trusted Domain List:

The Trusted Domain List on the Surface Hub can be edited in one of the following ways:

• Add the domain name in the “Configure domain name” window , under Settings -> Surface Hub -> Calling and Audio

• Using the Windows Configuration Designer, perpare a PPKG file that contains the domain name under RuntimeSettings/WindowsTeamSettings/SkypeForBusiness/DomainName

• Using Microsoft Intune, crate a new custom configuration policy for Windows 10 Desktop and add the following OMA URI:

  ./Vendor/MSFT/SurfaceHub/InBoxApps/SkypeForBusiness/DomainName

In the value field, add the domain name of your server:

Following these steps will ensure that Surface Hub can easily connect to Skype for Business in your environment.

For more information check the Surface Hub Admin Guide here.

Control how Skype for Business users join meetings

Had an interesting request lately, where a company wanted to control how users join meetings when they click the “Join” on their Skype for Business clients’ calendar tab or when they join Skype for Business meetings from Outlook.

In the client’s options, we have the ability to choose what happens when we join meetings; We can join immediately using the Skype for Business client or choose from four different phone numbers, all of which must be populated in our contact card, and can be seen under Tools -> Options -> Phones.
If your AD is configured right, you should have your Work phone (ideally your Skype for Business line URI), your Mobile phone, your Home phone and maybe even an additional ‘other’ phone.
You can also manually add phone numbers if they’re not automatically updated from AD.

Now if you scroll down the tabs to “Skype Meetings”, this is where all the fun begins:

In the tab above you can choose any of the numbers you have in the ‘Phones’ tab and get to choose whether you’d like to be prompted at the beginning of each meeting which device you’d like to use, or just go with what you chose.

How do you control it?

Like most things, the Registry.
You can make changes to the user’s preferences but not grey-out the options. If the users want to bypass the setting they can, but they’ll be defaulted to your setting at logon.

First, decide if you want the user to be prompted with each call. If yes, we need to tick the “Before I join meetings, ask me which audio device I want to use”.

The registry setting fro this checkbox is located at

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Lync

The key is

AllowOverridingDeviceAtJoinTime

If it’s set to 1 – it means the box is ticked and the user will be prompted to choose which device they’d like to join the meeting from.
If it’s set to 0 – it means the box is unticked, and the user will automatically join via the configured device.

Choosing a device is the next funny setting:
Same registry location as above, look for the following key:

JoinAudioConferenceFrom

The setting of the last binary bit is as follows, as reflected in the users’ “Phones” tab:

0 – Do not join Audio.
1 – The Skype for Business client.
2 – Work Phone (If different from your Skype for Business line uri).
3 – Mobile.
4 – Home.
5 – Other.

If one of the above is not configured or missing, the client will default to “Do not join Audio”.

For example, if I want to set my users to join from their mobile phones without being prompted, I’ll set the AllowOverridingDeviceAtJoinTime registry key to 0 and the JoinAudioConferenceFrom key to 3.

 

Skype for Business for Windows Phone updated

The Skype for Business client for Windows Phone received an update last night.

No major changes or additions (as far as I can see).
No changelog for the app at the Windows Store.

App version is now 6.3.1551.0

November 2015 update for Skype for Business and Lync 2013

Microsoft released an update for Skype for Business and Lync 2013.

The update resolves vulnerabilities in Microsoft Lync 2013 and Skype for Business as described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS15-116 and Microsoft Security Bulletin MS15-123.

This security update also fixes the following issues:

• Sent emoticons are displayed differently in instant messages between Lync 2010 or 2013 and Skype for Business clients
• Large conversations in Lync 2013 (Skype for Business) are lost in the Conversation History folder in Outlook
• Skype for Business client crashes when you search for a contact in the Skype Directory tab
• No phone numbers are displayed for a user whose photo is disabled in the contact list in Lync 2013 (Skype for Business)
• The Current Conversations option is missing when you do a consultative transfer in Lync 2013
• Call button is unavailable (grayed out) for a meeting organizer in Lync 2013 (Skype for Business)
• Registry key isn’t honored when you customize the title name of user interface in Skype for Business
• Lync 2013 (Skype for Business) users can’t save meeting contents to a redirected folder that’s in Offline mode

Note that this update will upgrade your Lync 2013 client to Skype for Business.

*** The download link was removed by MS – I will update as soon as it’s available.

*** Update is available again.

Download (32-bit)

Download (64-bit)

Source: Microsoft

Skype for Business Response Groups Diagrams

This is something I was looking for every time I had a deployment with multiple Response Groups.

Customers and management would usually like to see a graphic chart of how the Response Groups’ workflows work, what are the timeout and over flow options, what’s the chosen routing method for each group,  and who are the users in each group.

Looking at Matt Landis‘ great Get-csRgsWorkflowDiagram script, I was inspired (and in need) to do something similar.

Took a while to get it where I wanted, but the version published here now is one I’m very happy about and it actually gives me everything I was looking for.

It’s actually two files;

• One file is the script that you should run from your PC.
• The second file is a custom Visio stencil (.vss file) that will be downloaded to your “My Shapes” folder (That’s always in your “My Documents” folder after you install Visio) and will provide the Visio images for the script. You can find it here if you wish to download it to your machine beforehand.
  The script will detect proxy\download issues and will prompt you to download the VSS file manually if required.

Prerequisites

• Run this script from your workstation – not from the server. It doesn’t matter if your workstation is in the domain or not.
• You’ll need an installation of Visio on that machine.
• PowerShell 3.0 is a must.
• ADDS RSAT is required if you’re sing Active Directory Distribution Groups for some of your Response Groups’ groups. We’re using the AD PowerShell Module to expand these groups and list their users.
• Your Lync\S4B pool’s FQDN and administrator credentials.
• Your Execution policy set to Bypass, at least until I start signing my scripts…

Running the script

From PowerShell, run the file, it will immediately prompt you for your Pool’s FQDN:

Enter your pool’s name and you’ll be prompted for credentials:

The script will generate a list of all your Response Groups. Pick up a Response Group nunmber from the list, or hit 0 for all Response Groups. Each workflow will be drawn in a new page:

If required, it will download the Visio stencil and place it in your “My Shapes” folder:

The script will start drawing the diagram in the background:

Upon completion, the script will auto-save the file to your My Documents folder:

The file is saved with the workflow’s name and the creation date:

And is ready to be opened:

For multiple Response Groups you’ll have multiple pages, each with the Workflow’s name.

Diagrams are scaled to fit the pages, but might be larger due to large number of agents in a group.

Known Issues

• This script was tested in English, you might experience some issues if you’re running Visio under a different language.
• Windows 10 OS build 10565 can’t install ADDS RSAT – the script will not expand Distribution Groups.

Download

Please download the script here.

Skype for Business Users’ pictures from URLs

This was out first on the November 2013 update for Lync Server 2013 where Microsoft brought back the (not so) loved Lync 2010 feature feature of allowing users to set their Lync pictures to internet accessible photos.
Soon, all users in the organization were superheroes and Sports Illustrated models.

Users that were not enabled for this feature will only see the following when trying to change their photo:

A short command will add this feature to any policy that you had at the time and you could later control this with the Set-CsClientPolicy -DisplayPhoto, specifying “NoPhoto”,
“PhotosFromADOnly”, or “AllPhotos”

Now, what happens if you have a new client policy that requires this feature? (Or you never enabled it before?)

First, find out which policies are enabled with this feature by running the following:

Get-CsClientPolicy | ft Identity,PolicyEntry

The result should be similar to this:

unless this was never enabled in your environment, then all of the above should be empty with only “{}”.

Now choose the policy you want to assign this feature to and run the following command:

$NPE=New-CsClientPolicyEntry -Name EnablePresencePhotoOptions -Value True

$Policy=Get-CsClientPolicy -Identity <PolicyName>

$Policy.PolicyEntry.Add($NPE)

Set-CsClientPolicy -Instance $Policy

Make sure you replaced “<PolicyName>” with your actual policy and then run the
“Get-CsClientPolicy | ft Identity,PolicyEntry” command again.
The output will now show you have that set for the policy you chose:

And the Client can now change their profile photo:

Remember there’s still a restriction on picture sizes (30 KB Max) and they must be publically available.

Skype for Business Server Response Groups Migration Gotcha

Noticed something weird during a recent upgrade to from Lync Server 2013 to a new Skype for Business Server pool.

I was double-checking my self against Greig Sheridan‘s very detailed guide and as expected, everything worked just fine.
We tested and confirmed that calls are coming through and the response groups are all working as expected – that was easy.

The next week I’m getting a phone call saying the Response Groups’ managers can’t change some of the settings they used to be able to.
Checking AD permissions – OK.
Opening the Workflow – I can’t see the managers and the workflow is set to “Unmanaged”.

I thought it was just a misconfiguration but then I checked the “Get-CsRgsWorkflow” export we did earlier (Never underestimate documenting!) and all workflows that were set to “Managed: True” are now set to “Managed: False“.

I thought it was a bug, but no – it’s by design. I couldn’t see it in the migration documents (nor thought I should look for it!) but the Microsoft planning document for Skype for Business Server 2015 states very clearly vaguely that “When you migrate response groups from a prior version to Skype for Business Server, the type is set to Unmanaged.”
Here, check for yourself.

I’m not sure if this is the behaviour when performing an in-place upgrade to Skype for Business, but assuming it is.