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Deploy Skype for Business Server 2019 pilot pool

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One of the first steps required for migration to Skype for Business Server 2019 is to deploy a pilot pool. The pilot pool is where you test coexistence of Skype for Business Server 2019 with your legacy deployment. Coexistence is a temporary state that lasts until you move all users and pools to Skype for Business Server 2019.

When you deploy a pilot pool, you use the Define New Front End Pool wizard. You should deploy the same features and workloads in your Skype for Business Server 2019 pilot pool that you have in your legacy pool. If you deployed Archiving Server, Monitoring Server, or System Center Operations Manager for archiving or monitoring your legacy environment, and you want to continue archiving or monitoring throughout the migration, you need to also deploy these features in your pilot environment. The version you deployed to archive or monitor your legacy environment won't capture data in your Skype for Business Server 2019 environment.

Note

The following procedure discusses features and settings you should consider as part of your overall pilot pool deployment process. This section only highlights key points you should consider as part of your pilot pool deployment.

To deploy a Skype for Business Server 2019 pilot pool

  1. Sign in the computer where Topology Builder is installed as a member of the Domain Admins group and the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group.

  2. Expand the tree until you reach Skype for Business Server 2019 > Enterprise Edition Front End pools.

  3. Right-click Enterprise Edition Front End pools and select New Front End Pool.

  4. Enter the pool fully qualified domain name (FQDN). When you define your pilot pool, you can choose to deploy an Enterprise Edition Front End pool or a Standard Edition server. Skype for Business Server 2019 doesn't require that your pilot pool features match what was deployed in your legacy pool.

    Caution

    The pool or server FQDN that you define for the pilot pool must be unique. It cannot match the name of the currently deployed legacy pool or any other servers currently deployed.

  5. On the Select features page, select the check boxes for the features that you want on this Front End pool. For example, if you deploy only instant messaging (IM) and presence features, you would select the Conferencing check box to allow multiparty IM, but you wouldn't select the Dial-in (PSTN) conferencing, Enterprise Voice, or Call Admission Control check boxes, because they represent voice, video, and collaborative conferencing features.

  6. On the Select collocated server roles page, we recommend that you choose to collocate the Mediation Server in Skype for Business Server 2019. When merging a legacy topology with Skype for Business Server 2019, we require that you first collocate the legacy Mediation Server. After merging the topologies and configuring the Skype for Business Server 2019 Mediation Server, you can decide whether to keep the collocated Mediation Server, or change it to a stand-alone server when you move the Mediation Server role to Skype for Business Server 2019 later in the deployment process.

  7. On the Associate server roles with this Front End pool page, during pilot pool deployment, do not choose the Enable an Edge pool to be used by the media component of this Front End pool option. This is a feature you will enable and bring online in a later phase of migration. Keep this setting cleared for now.

  8. On the Select an Office Web Apps Server page, select New, and specify the FQDN of the application server.

  9. On the Define the Archiving SQL Server store page, when defining the SQL Server store for both Skype for Business Server Archiving and Monitoring, select the SQL Server instance created earlier for Skype for Business Server 2019.

  10. To publish your topology, right-click the Skype for Business Server node, and then select Publish Topology.

  11. When the publish process has completed, click Finish.

  12. Before moving to the next section called "Verify pilot pool coexistence with legacy pool" you need to install the Skype for Business Server new Front End pilot pool we just defined in the published topology, follow the procedures outlined here Install Skype for Business Server on servers in the topology

  13. Once previous step is complete, move to the next section to Verify pilot pool coexistence with legacy pool.