End of Life Products and Features - Configure Office Web Apps on an Express for Lync Appliance

Overview

This document will help you setup an Office Web Apps server (OWAS) within your Express for Lync appliance. The OWAS server is used with Lync in order to present content within meetings. The content includes:

• PowerPoint sharing

The Office Web Apps server also enables Office over a web browser, which is used to edit office documents without the need for the Office suite to be installed on a system.

Enable the Office Web Apps Server Virtual Machine

The Express for Lync Domain Controller virtual machine can be activated by using the Windows Hyper-V Manager applet. Please follow the instructions below to activate the VM:

1. Access the Windows Start Screen by pressing on the Windows key on your keyboard.

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2. Click on the Hyper-V Manager tile to launch the Hyper-V manager.

3. In the Windows Hyper-V Manager window, select the Virtual Machine labelled "Office Web Apps Server". Right click on it, and select "Settings...".

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4. In the settings window, on the left hand side you will notice configuration options. Scroll down to "Automatic Start Action" and select "Always Start the Virtual Machine automatically". This will always start the domain controller when the Express for Lync appliance boots up. Click OK to accept the changes.

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5. Double click on the virtual machine labelled "Active Directory Server" to launch the Remote Terminal Window. Click on the start button to start the virtual machine. The start button is the Green icon at the top of the virtual machine connection window. 

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 Deploy Office Web Apps Server

In order to deploy the Office Web Apps server, you must first add the virtual machine to the domain. Follow the instructions below to perform these actions:

Add OWAS to the Active Directory Domain

To add the Express for Lync appliance to your Active Directory Domain Infrastructure, please follow the steps below:

1. On the Windows Start Screen, right click on "Computer" and select "Properties".

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2. This will bring up the "System" window. In the Computer name, domain and workgroup settings, click on the "Change Settings" link.

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3. In the "System Properties" window, under the "Computer Name" tab, click on the "Change..." button.

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4. In the Computer Name/Domain Changes window, select "Domain:" from the "Member of" section. In the textbox below "Domain:", enter the AD Domain name. In this example, i will be using the domain lynctest.local. Click OK to accept the changes.

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5. Windows Security will ask you to enter a username and password associated with a Domain Administrator account. If you have left the Express for Lync domain credentials at defaults, use the following credentials:
   Username: administrator
   Password: sangoma1!
   If you have changed them, please use the valid Domain Administrator account and click OK.

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6. Once the changes are accepted, the Computer/Domain window will welcome you to the new domain. Click OK to proceed. It will then inform you that the appliance will need to be restarted to complete the process. Click OK to restart the appliance.

7. Once restarted, you would need to login with the new Domain Credentials. if you use the old credentials, you will not log into the domain and will not be able to complete the Lync Server setup. 
   At the windows welcome screen, select "login as different user", and under the username use the notation "DOMAIN\USERNAME". Enter the password below it

Deploy OWAS

Now that the system is deployed within Active Directory, we can finalize the Office Web Apps server installation. Follow the instructions below to finalize the deployment:

1. Launch Windows PowerShell from either the Windows start screen or from the task bar. Make sure you right click on the icon and select "Run as administrator".

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2. You will now need to provision the Office Web Apps farm. To do this, enter the following powershell command:
   New-OfficeWebAppsFarm -InternalUrl "https://<internalURL>" -ExternalUrl "https://<externalURL>" -SSLOffloaded –EditingEnabled
   Make sure that you change the URLs to what is specific to your environment.

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3. Now you need to add your domain to the accepted domain list within the Office Web Apps server. To do this, enter the following command in the PowerShell window:
   New-OfficeWebAppsHost -Domain contoso.com
   You have to run this command for all the domains within your environment.

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4. If you have any additional Office Web Apps machines, please navigate to that machine and run the following command:
   New-OfficeWebAppsMachine –MachineToJoin “office1.contoso.com”
   Make sure that the new OWA Server is within the Active Directory DNS as this command will fail if it is not.
   
   

Once done, your Office Web Apps server is setup and ready to be added to the Lync topology.