In a Lync hybrid deployment, we have the following:
- User accounts and related information homed in the on-premises Directory Services and replicated to Office 365.
- A part of our Lync users that consume on-premises resources and a part of them that use online (Office 365 / Lync Online) resources.
- The same (public) domain name used both online and on-premises (Lync-split DNS).
- Other Office 365 services and integration with other applications available to all our users, irrespective of where their Lync is provisioned.
One way to define Lync hybrid configuration is by using an on-premises Lync deployment federated with an Office 365 / Lync Online tenant subscription. While it is not a perfect explanation, it gives us an idea of the scenario we are talking about. Not all the features of Lync Server 2013 (especially the ones related to Enterprise Voice) are available to Lync Online users. The previously mentioned motivations, along with others (due to company policies, compliance requirements, and so on), might recommend a hybrid deployment of Lync as the best available solution. What we have to clarify now is how to make those users on different deployments talk to each other, see each other's presence status, and so on. What we will see in this section is a high-level overview of the required steps. The Planning and configuring a hybrid deployment recipe will provide more details about the individual steps. The list of steps here is the one required to configure a hybrid deployment, starting from Lync on-premises. In the following sections, we will also see the opposite scenario (with our initial deployment in the cloud).
- It is required to have an available Office 365 tenant configuration. Our subscription has to include Lync Online.
- We have to configure an Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) server in our domain and make it available to the Internet using a public FQDN and an SSL certificate released from a third-party certification authority.
- Office 365 must be enabled to synchronize with our company's Directory Services, using Active Directory Sync.
- Our Office 365 tenant must be federated.
- The last step is to configure Lync for a hybrid deployment.
One of the requirements for a hybrid distribution of Lync is an on-premises deployment of Lync Server 2013 or Lync Server 2010. For Lync Server 2010, it is required to have the latest available updates installed, both on the Front Ends and on the Edge servers. It is also required to have the Lync Server 2013 administrative tools installed on a separate server.
More details about supported configuration are available on the TechNet post Planning for Lync Server 2013 hybrid deployments at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj205403.aspx.
Note
DNS SRV records for hybrid deployments, _sipfederationtls._tcp.<domain> and _sip._tls.<domain>, should point to the on-premises deployment. The lyncdiscover. <domain> record will point to the FQDN of the on-premises reverse proxy server. The _sip._tls. <domain> SRV record will resolve to the public IP of the Access Edge service of Lync on-premises.
Depending on the kind of service we are using for Lync, Exchange, and SharePoint, only a part of the features related to the integration with the additional services might be available. For example, skills search is available only if we are using Lync and SharePoint on-premises. The following TechNet post Supported Lync Server 2013 hybrid configurations at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj945633.aspx offers a matrix of features / service deployment combinations.
Interesting information about Lync Hybrid configuration is presented in sessions available on Channel9 and coming from the Lync Conference 2014 (Lync Online Hybrid Deep Dive at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Lync-Conference/Lync-Conference-2014/ONLI302) and from TechEd North America 2014 (Microsoft Lync Online Hybrid Deep Dive at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2014/OFC-B341#fbid=).