few things to note. in order to make lync-skype connectivity available, if your organization is already provisioned for MSN

1 - You don't have to reprovision or initiate a provisioning request for  skype so you can skip the provisioning part and jump directly to the Lync Server configuration, which consists of the following.

1 - Remove the existing Public Provider for Messenger

Remove-CsPublicProvider -Identity Messenger
2 - add a New Public Provider  for Skype

New-CsPublicProvider -Identity Skype -ProxyFqdn federation.messenger.msn.com -IconUrl "https://images.edge.messenger.live.com/Messenger_16x16.png" -VerificationLevel 2 -Enabled 1

you will notice that the Proxy Server  and even the icon URL for the Messenger and skype providers are the same, however they have verification levels.

once the Server configuration changes are applied, Lync users can start adding skype users to their contact list using skype MSA accounts which means skype users must sign in to skype with a Microsoft account formely known by Windows Live ID in order to communicate with Lync contacts.

Cumulative Updates

• Cumulative update for Lync Phone Edition for Aastra 6721ip and Aastra 6725ip: April 2013
• Cumulative update for Lync Phone Edition for HP 4110 and HP 4120: April 2013
• Cumulative update for Lync Phone Edition for Polycom CX500, Polycom CX600, and Polycom CX3000 telephones: April 2013
• Cumulative update for Lync Phone Edition for Polycom CX700 and LG-Nortel IP Phone 8540 telephones: April 2013

Release Highlights

• KB Article 2828830: Exchange UM-disabled user cannot check call logs on an Aries or Tanjay telephone that is running Lync Phone Edition
• KB Article 2829269: Message waiting indicator light on an Aries telephone that is running Lync Phone Edition doesn’t turn off after a user plays all unopened voice mail
• KB Article 2829272: "Music on hold" feature doesn't work for Lync Phone Edition for an Aries telephone when an audio file is configured

------------------------------Check original post on NextHop--------------------------------------

I Started by checking the user account permissions for which I am running the task, and I could verify that my user has the required permissions, since it was member of Local Administrators Group on the Server Machine on which I am running the installation.

Moreover I have verified that my Server Machine Computer Account is Member of RTCUniversalServerAdmins (Membership of this group is required for Read Access to the Central Management Database).

At this point I have concluded that most probably the problem is not related to the existing Lync configuration especially since I have already successfully deployed, one Enterprise Edition pool , also defined all required items and parameters for the standard Edition Server in the Lync topology and have also been able to successfully publish my topology.

So I went and double checked the network settings on the Server machine and everything was configured properly, DNS settings where set correctly the primary DNS pointing to the domain controller in the same Active Directory Site Site-B where the server is located and the alternate DNS pointing to the domain controller In the Remote Active Directory Site-A which is the main site where the Enterprise Pool has been already deployed. DNS resolution for the domain and various entries, was successful.

At this time I decided to have a look on the Lync configuration from Active Directory perspective and launch ADSI edit while connecting to the configuration partition on both Domain controllers, and try to compare the configuration to check if Active Directory configuration was successfully replicated, between both sites domain controllers, but the result was also good all the settings where the same on both Domain controllers, so the problem is not at this level, I was relying also on the fact that I have already deployed the first pool at site-A .

Then I went back to the lync deployment wizard and launch it once again, this time I select the "Active Directory Preparation" task, to find out that there's also an error at this level. Below is a snapshot.

Ok situation is getting hot! J, and now at least I know my problem is located on this level, for the first glance I thought it is a permission issue, but this time I was sure that my account has all the required permissions,

Member of schema admins Group
the Schema Master is available and contactable, and also the schema registry modification is enabled on the Schema Master.

That's really nice, I have all the above information, but till now I don't have a clue about the reason why this is happening.

So in order to narrow down the issue, I went and run Get-CsAdServerSchema from the Lync Management shell, I knew that I will get an error but this time I got more information with the error. Specifically the error was:

"Get-CsAdServerSchema : Command execution failed: cannot find any global catalogs in forest L2013.ptg"

That's Nice! Now I have narrowed down the reason, and we have a clue about what is going on, even though the error was clear enough and points to the exact problem, what is would be the result when running "Get-CSManagementConnection" PowerShell command from the Lync management shell. And indeed as expected the results shows the exact same error, below is a snapshot

Alright so the problem is that Lync can't locate a Global Catalog in the AD Forest, but I can also confirm that I have at least one GC per AD site, I can also confirm that both GC Servers are available, so let's try to query the Gcs in the forest manually from the Standard Edition Server machine.

I did that by running the following command from the command prompt or from PowerShell, (it works on both) "dsquery server –forest –isgc".

The results were good! That's weird no? I said to myself ok the Gcs are available but maybe not responding to a query request so let's try to query an AD group manually, by running dsquery group –name "ADGroupNAme" –server <GCServerName>.

Below are the results of a query for AD Group Domain Users

Interesting!, now I can confirm the Global catalogs are available and responding to query requests, but this doesn't not make sense! I am confused if everything seems fine why I am getting these errors from the Lync deployment wizard?

At this point I decided to go back to the start, I usually do that when I face such situation where nothing seems logic. So to the beginning, I launched the deployment wizard again, and wait for checking the deployment state to find the first change, magically Active Directory preparation task now shows as complete.

Additional I went and installed the local configuration store by retrieving the configuration from the lync topology! OMG what happened, I was in the process of troubleshooting the issue and writing this article at the same time! And I didn't change any configuration yet, I just run a query against the Global Catalogs, would this introduce any changes to the environment? I don't believe so.

Although nothgin has changed I was able to deploy the Lync Standard edition in the remote site, now I can also get Active Directory State, also the Management Database Connection state.

Moral of the story

1. Lync powershell provides useful troubleshooting information, that are not often provided by the Graphical interface.
2. While deploying Lync always make sure that Active Directory is healthy, especially connection to global catalogs because although Lync server 2013 highly depends on SQL, considerable configuration and dependcies to active directory are still required for Lync to function properly.
3. Always go back to the basics when everything else fails J

This cumulative update improves the reliability, stability and performance, of Lync 2010 for iPhone and IPad, in addition to fixes described in the following knowledge based articles (KB):

1. IPhone platform
   

• Lync 2010 for iPhone 2800384, 2721062 and 2673223
• Update description http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2804674
• Microsoft Lync 2010 for IPhone, version 4.7 download link https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-lync-2010-for-iphone/id484293461?mt=8

   

1. IPad platform
   

• Lync 2010 for iPad 800385, 2709412, and 2673225
  
• Update description http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2804673
  
• Microsoft Lync 2010 for iPad, version 4.7 download link https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-lync-2010-for-ipad/id484222449?mt=8
  

This update improves the reliability, stability, and performance of Lync 2010 attendee, and also includes fixes for issues listed in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article:

• 2752157 Description of the cumulative update for the Lync 2010 Attendee - User level installation: October 2012
  
• 2752160 Description of the cumulative update for the Lync 2010 Attendee - Administrator level installation: October 2012
  

• User level Installation link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2815352
• Administrator level Installation link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2815354

2832123 You cannot start Lync 2010 after you install the March 2013 cumulative update for Lync 2010 in Windows XP Pro or Windows Server 2003

Full package description and download links are available at the Microsoft website on the following link

When upgrading from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013 CU1 the setup might fail with the bellow error when the server specified in the error is running Exchange 2010 Edge Role and has been upgraded to Exchange 2010 SP3

All Exchange 2010 servers in the organization must have Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 or later installed. The following servers don't meet this requirement: ServerName.
For more information, visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/library(EXCHG.150)/ms.exch.setupreadiness.E15E14CoexistenceMinMajorVersionRequirement.aspx

Reason

The reason for this error is that the Exchange 2010 Edge role version is not written in Active Directory but rather in the subscription file and you have subscribed your Exchange Edge before it was upgraded to Exchange 2010 SP3.

Solution

The solution to this error is simply to resubscribe your edge server to your Exchange organization, more info on how to do this at

• Create an Edge Subscription File on an Edge Transport Server
• Import an Edge Subscription File to an Active Directory Site

after that rerun the Exchange 2013 pre-requisites check and it should pass without further issues.

You can find the download information here

I would like to note that the sign-in experience still the same as with the lync 2010 client, and the voip expierience audio and video is really great, now we can enjoy Mobile lyncing

you can get it here

note that Lync Server 2013 cumulative update 1 is required for this client to be able to connect

the Lync server 2013 updates can be downloaded at this location http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2809243

For more details on the features supported check this great article by Matt landis