Now, in my previous post I went trough the roles and features of Lync 2010.
In order to get a better understanding of it, im going to walkthrough the installation and setup of a basic server.
This is going to consist of;
1 x SQL server (Back-end)
1 x Front-end server (Which is going to be collated with A/V Web conferencing roles)
So I’m most interested in trying VOIP, IM, Conferencing, desktop sharing.
Since this is going to be in a lab environment I don’t need the edge role and the director role. And I also don’t have a PSTN line or a SIP line, so I don’t need the mediation role as well. I will be implementing the archiving role and the monitoring role in a later post. I will also implement a front-end pool in case I want to install more front-end servers later on.
Before we continue, remember that you need to have a domain admin account, since we need to make changes to the schema, forest and the domain.
When we launch the setup on the Lync installation media,
This will deploy the files needed for the installation, (including the schema updates)
When that is done you can open the setup again and you will come to this screen. 
(Note here thou, that I’ve already updated the schema and prepped the domain and the forest for this setup so if you haven’t done that yet you wont get the “Complete” mark there)
But if not we start with Preparing Active Directory –>
(Note this has do be done as a schema domain admin)
Click the Run button –>
Click next –>
After this screen is done, take a look at the report that was generated under the appdatalocaltemp folder.
Incase you want to verify that the changes made to the schema were correct, open ADSI edit –> Choose connect to –>
Under the tree you will find this value, SIP-schemaversion.
Check that the value for this is
rangelower: 14
rangeupper: 1100
Now that the schema updates are done we can prep the forest.
We get the same menu as before, just click continue –> 
And again check the reports for errors. If you want you can double-check as see that these users appear in your AD.
these users are installed as a part of the script.
Next we continue with the domain prep –>
In case you have multiple DC’s you would want to double-check to see if the changes you made to the domain has been replicated.
Open the Lync shell and run the command “Get-csaddomain”
You should get the response LC_DOMAINSETTINGS_STATE_READY
Now that we are done with the AD changes, we can continue with the Lync setup.
Next we continue with the topology builder, this is the tool we use to setup our lync infrastructure.
So install this on the “to-be” lync server.
After its installed you can see that there’s a check mark behind it. So then you can open to topology builder.
The first menu – choose New topology.
Enter a sip domain. In my case it is test.local
Click next, now I get asked if I want to specify additional domains incase I had a larger AD infrastructure.
I could add those domains here.
click next, and then define the first site.
Click next –> 
Here you need to enter site details, then click next –>
Now that you are finished, check the mark at “Open the new front end wizard” and click finish.
Click next here –>
I choose enterprise front end pool here , click next –>
now add the computers that are going to participate in the pool.
Click next –>
Now we choose what other features we wish that this pool should manage, in my case I choose only the first one
“Conferencing, audio, video and application sharing”
And click next –>
Now I get the option to collocate other features in the front-end pool, so then I choose the A/V conferencing service.
Click next –>
I don’t want to enable any of these features yet, so I just click next –>
Now we get to the SQL store, enter the server name of the SQL server, choose default instance if you haven’t chosen any other name for the instance during SQL install.
Now we have to define a file share,
(NOTE that the setup does not create this share It has to be created before continuing)
If you are doing this in a lab environment create a file share with EVERYONE:F access.
Click next –>
Specify a url for the external base URL, click finsh!
Now when that’s complete what did we actually do ?
We actually just created a file which contains XML on how we want our topology to look like.
As you can see we have the Front-end pool we created,
The File share & and SQL store, but this is just a config file nothing has been created on the SQL server and no files have been created on the file share.
So now we have to publish this topology
So click the Action button and choose Topology and choose Publish.
As a part of this you will get the option to create the Lync database as well, so click next.
Choose the Front-end pool that is available on the drop down menu, click next
After that is done, (and everything went smooth ) you will get this screen.
Now we have to open the to-do list and see what we have to do further.
This is just a text file, that says we need to update our DNS records for the pool and the other addresses.
But still we haven’t actually installed anything on the Front-end server we have defined as “scsm” So we continue the install.
We have created the topology, and distributed this to the back-end server. So now we have to install the Front-end server.
So start the setup menu again.
And click on the Install or update Lync Server system, click on the Install Local Configuration Store (this will setup a local SQL express and copy down the Configuration from the CMS)
Once that is done, we can continue with the installation, so back to the setup menu and choose “Setup or Remove Lync Server components”
Click next –> This will install the roles that are defined for the server in the topology
(This part might take a while, and will require a reboot, after the reboot run the setup again)
When that is done you will get back to the setup menu. Now we have to assign certificates to the server.
NOTE: This requires that you have your own PKI setup, if you haven’t configured a PKI before I suggest heading over to my other post regarding SCCM and PKI.
So start by clicking Request –>
Click next –>
Choose send the request immediately, ( or in case you have an offline ca choose that option ) that click next –>
I already have a CA in my domain so I select that I click next –>
If I had to use another account to get the certificates I would enter them here, but im fortunate that my current account is full admin so click next 
In case you have created a different template for Lync you could choose another one here, if you want it to use the default which is “(Webserver template) just click next –>
enter a “Friendly name” and choose next (Leave the bit length at default ) –> 
This field will automatically get populated based on the topology so just click next –>
In my case I only have 1 SIP domain, so I mark it and click next.
if you have any other SAN you wish to enter, you can enter them here.
If not click the next button –>
Now it is sending a request to the sub-ca, so after this is completed click next –>
And as you can see the setup has now added a certificate to the local store.
Just click close now, and we get back to the wizard.
Now we have the green checkmark on the certificates and we can continue with starting the services,
Even thou is says “Completed” It takes some time before the services all are started.
In my case it took over 1 min before the front-end service got started.
But now that they are all started, we can continue on to setting up Lync.
Now when that Is done remember to add the front-end pool host in DNS or you will get an error when you try to open the Lync Control Panel.
And remember the lync control panel is based on silverlight
Now before we conclude this post, I want to SIP enable my user Administrator,
And make sure I can authenticate with the client. 
You can download a trial of the Lync Client here –> http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=10400
So when I enter my [email protected] and press login voila! it works.
(In my case I forgot to create the SRV which the client uses to find the dns name for the client, therefore I had to enter the FQDN for the server)
Incase you are having some trouble with connecting your client, open the options tab and choose
”Turn on Windows Event logging for Lync” then you can see in the application log if you are having any issues.
I will continue on with some posts regarding policies and such later.