Advice for transition of small company from Lync 2010 to Lync Online

Hi all

I have a client company who have about 25 users using Lync 2010 only for IM and presence functions. There is currently no audio/video, conferencing or any other usage. We need to move them to Lync Online and stop using Lync 2010.

I feel that doing a full migration to Lync Online by setting up an Edge Server and hybrid move (Move-CsUser) would be overkill for the simplistic needs we have here. Therefore, I have made the below plan.

1. Set up DNS records correctly for Lync Online as specified in the 'Domains' section in Office 365 admin center.

2. Uninstall Lync 2010 on-premises and remove all internal SRV, CNAME and A records that point to the Lync server or are Lync related.

3. After this, when the Lync clients try to log in using O365 user credentials, I expect them to correctly log in to Lync Online.

Can the more experienced users advise if this plan is good or if you see any issues / missing bits in this? Is there a better way of doing this?

P.S. I understand that this method will not migrate any user data like contact lists etc and they will have to re-add the contacts.

Hope to hear soon and thanks in advance for all help.

Regards

Nauman.

March 20th, 2015 12:12pm

Hi, the big kicker is the one that you already identified; the fact that users would essentially be greenfield and not retain any contacts etc.

If you are using directory synchronisation (dirsync or ADFS) with a split domain, then make sure that you remove the users from your on-premises Lync server before you decommission it. If you do not do this then the AD attributes for Lync will remain populated with the on-premises Lync data, and you will not be able to provision the account in O365 once they have been synchronised. If you are using completely new Office 365 identities / accounts that are not synchronised from your AD then this shouldn't be an issue.

Also with the split domain point; if the users SIP domain will remain the same (everything after the @ symbol), then you may come across a minor issue where the Lync registrar server for any given user is cached in their local Lync profile. This may result in a server not found or similar error - the cached details will need deleting or clearing.

Kind regards

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March 20th, 2015 12:28pm

Brilliant advice, Ben. Thank you for pointing out the Lync registrar persisting in the profile issue.

We are in the clear for Lync related attributes on the user objects as this being a small org, never had a directory synchronization from on-premises AD to Office 365. Even the Exchange migration to O365 was done using the cutover method which doesn't use dirsync or ADFS.

I would be very grateful if you would also share a method to clear the Lync client cache so it forgets about the previous Lync registrar.

Thanks again! :)

Nauman.

March 20th, 2015 1:18pm

Hi Nauman.Abbas,

To clear the Lync client cache:

1. Delete the sign in information.

Click Delete my sign-in information and Lync 2013 will automatically remove any saved password, certificates, and connection settings for the user account.

2. Delete the Lync User Profile and Registry Key.

User profile:

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync\sip_UserName@Domain.com

Registry Key:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync\UserName@Domain.com

 

Best regards,

Eric

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March 22nd, 2015 11:05pm

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