• Increased scale, with up to 10,000 attendees in a Skype Meeting Broadcast
• Support for participating in meetings from iOS, Android, and other mobile devices
• Better quality, with HD video and video based screen sharing
• And more… (see the complete comparison below)

• Bits are available from the Microsoft Download Center here.
• Documentation is available here.

Be aware that the Skype Product Group has recommended that customers hold off on installing .NET Framework 4.6.1 on their Skype for Business Server 2015 and Lync Server 2013 servers.  You can follow the How to temporarily block the installation of the .NET Framework 4.6.1 KB article to block in installation of .NET 4.6.1.

More information is available here.

Shared Line Appearance (SLA) is a new feature in the Skype for Business Server November 2015 Cumulative Update.  To enable this feature, you must have first deployed this cumulative update.  You can download the latest Skype for Business Server 2015 Cumulative Update here.  There are also two TechNet articles, Plan for Shared Line Appearance in Skype for Business Server 2015 and Deploy Shared Line Appearance in Skype for Business Server 2015, that provide additional information.  Shared Line Appearance is configured via PowerShell using the following cmdlets:

• Set-CsSlaConfiguration
• Remove-CsSlaDelegates
• Get-CsSlaConfiguration
• Add-CsSlaDelegates
• Remove-CsSlaConfiguration

Shared Line Appearance enables you to configure a group of multiple devices that can each answer calls to a shared phone number (extension).  SLA is supported only on the following phone devices (it is not supported for Skype for Business clients on computers, mobile phones, or other devices):

Polycom (with firmware update 5.4.1)

• VVX201
• VVX300/301
• VVX310/311
• VVX400/401
• VVX410/411
• VVX500/501
• VVX600/601

Setting up an SLA group enables the following:

• All delegates in the group can answer inbound calls to the same shared number.  The calls can be PSTN-based or SIP-based.
• Delegates can hold and pick up calls.
• Delegates can transfer calls to a number outside of the SLA group.
• Delegates can see how many calls are currently on the shared number, and view the status of each of those calls.
• You can configure a maximum number of concurrent calls for the shared number.  You can also set how you want additional calls to be handled after this maximum is reached.  Excess calls can be rejected with a busy signal, forwarded to an alternate number, or forwarded to voice mail.
• You can configure how you want missed calls (calls not picked up after a certain time) to be handled.  If you enable voice mail for the group identity, missed calls automatically go to voice mail.  If you do not have voice mail enabled for the group identity (shared number), you can choose for missed calls to be rejected with a busy signal, forwarded to an alternate number, or disconnected.

Enabling Shared Line Appearance

After installing the Skype for Business Server November 2015 Cumulative Update the installer will have deployed the latest version of the SLA application, however, the application is not enabled by default.  You will need to enable it by following the steps outlined below:

Register SLA as a server application by running the following command for each pool:

New-CsServerApplication -Identity 'Service:Registrar:%FQDN%/SharedLineAppearance' -Uri https://www.microsoft.com/LCS/SharedLineAppearance  -Critical $false -Enabled $true -Priority (Get-CsServerApplication -Identity 'Service:Registrar:%FQDN%/UserServices').Priority

Note: You may need to click on the image above in order to read the text.

Next, run Update-CsAdminRole to update the RBAC roles for the SLA cmdlets:

Note: You may need to click on the image above in order to read the text.

Restart all the Front End Servers (RTCSRV service) in all the pools where SLA was installed and enabled:

Stop-CsWindowsService RTCSRV

Note: You may need to click on the image above in order to read the text.

Start-CsWindowsService RTCSRV

Note: You may need to click on the image above in order to read the text.

Now that SLA is enabled, you will need to create an SLA group and add users to it.  Create the SLA group by using the Set-CsSlaConfiguration cmdlet:

Set-CsSlaConfiguration -Identity <IdentityOfGroup> -MaxNumberOfCalls <Number> -BusyOption <BusyOnBusy|Voicemail|Forward> [-Target <TargetUserOrPhoneNumber>]

Note: What you specify for Identity must be a valid Enterprise Voice-enabled user.

In this example I created an AD user called MainOfficeSLA, enabled it for Skype for Business, enabled it for Enterprise Voice, and assigned it a phone number.

Note: You may need to click on the image above in order to read the text.

Next, add delegates to the group.  These are the users that will receive notification of an incoming call to the Main Office number:

Note: Each user added to the group must be a valid Enterprise Voice-enabled user.  You can add delegates that aren't homed on a Skype for Business Server 2015 pool.

Note: You may need to click on the images above in order to read the text.

Once a user is added as a delegate, you can see below that two lines show up on the user's phone (VVX 500):

I only see two lines because when I created the SLA, I specified the "Maximum Number of Allowed Calls" to 2.  From the user's Lync/Skype for Business client, even though SLA is not supported for Lync/Skype for Business clients on computers, the user is notified that they were added as a delegate for the SLA group:

When a call comes in to the SLA group and is picked up by another user, you can tell by the red bar that is shown for that particular line.  In the example below, there is a call on 01-Main Office:

The user that took the call, can then place it on hold:

Other users could see that the call on that line is on hold by the flashing red bar.  They could then pick up the call by selecting that line on their phone.

• Add-CsSlaDelegates
• Remove-CsSlaDelegates
• Get-CsSlaConfiguration
• Set-CsSlaConfiguration
• Remove-CsSlaConfiguration
• New-CsGroupPickupUserOrbit
• Get-CsGroupPickupUserOrbit
• Set-CsGroupPickupUserOrbit
• Remove-CsGroupPickupUserOrbit
• Reset-CsNotificationQueues
• Get-CsServerPatchVersion

However, if you use Windows Powershell instead of the Skype for Business Management Shell to manage your Skype for Business environment, you may find that several new cmdlets are not immediately available in Windows Powershell instances after installing the November 2015 CU:

Note: You may need to click on the image above in order to read the text.

These new cmdlets will not be automatically loaded by Windows Powershell, and as such, will not be available until the "SkypeForBusiness" PowerShell module is manually loaded at least once.  After the module has been manually loaded (Import-Module SkypeForBusiness):

Note: You may need to click on the image above in order to read the text.

Windows Powershell will automatically load these new cmdlets each time a new PS instance is launched:

Note: You may need to click on the image above in order to read the text.

Thanks to Dave Howe for this information!

Prerequisite installation failed: Prerequisite installation failed: SqlInstanceRtc For more information, check your SQL Server log files. Log files are in the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL*.Rtc\MSSQL\Log, where the * represents your SQL Server version number. For example, SQL Server 2012 uses this path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.Rtc\MSSQL\Log.

Unfortunately, the log file didn't contain any helpful information on why the install failed.  Looking at the Application Event Log, however, the following errors are shown:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MsiInstaller
Date:          11/24/2015 8:25:06 PM
Event ID:      11330
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          TEST\Administrator
Computer:      TEST-W16-SE1.test.deitterick.com
Description:
Product: Microsoft Visual C++ 2010  x64 Redistributable - 10.0.40219 -- Error 1330.A file that is required cannot be installed because the cabinet file C:\Program Files\Skype for Business Server 2015\Deployment\SQLEXPR_x64\redist\VisualStudioShell\VC10SP1\x64\vc_red.cab has an invalid digital signature.  This may indicate that the cabinet file is corrupt.  Error 270 was returned by WinVerifyTrust.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MsiInstaller
Date:          11/24/2015 8:25:07 PM
Event ID:      1023
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          TEST\Administrator
Computer:      TEST-W16-SE1.test.deitterick.com
Description:
Product: Microsoft Visual C++ 2010  x64 Redistributable - 10.0.40219 - Update 'KB2565063' could not be installed. Error code 1603. Additional information is available in the log file C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20151124_202244\VC10Redist_Cpu64_1.log.

The same errors are shown for the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010  x86 Redistributable as well:

In this environment, the servers don't have internet access, so the installer is unable to validate the certificate and the installation fails.  In addition, this particular customer uses OS images that have been hardened according to a set of STIGs (Security Technical Implementation Guide).  You can find some more information on STIG here.  One of the STIG settings has you make a change to the way Authenticode performs certificate validation:

Microsoft Windows operating systems provide a feature called Authenticode. Authenticode technology and its underlying code signing mechanisms serve to provide a mechanism to identify software publishers and ensure that software applications have not been tampered with. Authenticode technology relies on digital certificates and is based on Public Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS) #7 (encrypted key specification), PKCS #10 (certificate request formats), X.509 (certificate specification), and Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) and MD5 hash algorithms. .Net application developers sign their application code with their public key and Authenticode technology performs certificate validation tasks prior to allowing the application to run.

Looking at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinTrust\Trust Providers\Software Publishing, you can see that "State" is set to 0x00010000:

To resolve this issue and continue with the install, you will need to change the value of 'State' back to 0x00023c00:

This will allow the install to complete successfully: