Skype For Business Online PowerShell Cheat Sheet

There are just some things you can’t do inside the Office 365 portal. Exchange Online has matured to the point where remote PowerShell works perfectly and loads all of the cmdlets over the wire. Skype for Business Online is still building to that point. You need the separate PowerShell module (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39366 ) to get started, and while installing it is the easy part using it takes a little bit of work. Here are a cheat sheet I’ve put together.

How to Connect

If you install the Skype for Business PowerShell module and try to load it in the Skype for Business Administrative Shell, you must use the -AllowClobber switch with running Import-PSSession (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849970.aspx). Otherwise the Skype for Business on-premises cmdlets leach thru in place of the Online ones. Here’s the connection script that I usually save in a PowerShell file for quick launching:

Import-Module SkypeOnlineConnector
$cred = Get-Credential
$CSSession = New-CsOnlineSession -Credential $cred
Import-PSSession $CSSession -AllowClobber

Always have a cloud-only account (<tenant>.onmicrosoft.com) available for emergency situations.

In a Single Sign-On environment (https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-365-integration-with-on-premises-environments-263faf8d-aa21-428b-aed3-2021837a4b65?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US&fromAR=1) you’ll have a back door if on-premises is down. Once directory synchronization is setup, administrators grant their domain account (<user>@<yourdomain>.com) Global Administrator rights for daily tasks. Nothing wrong with this, but it can cause Problem #1

Problem #1 – LyncDiscover

When trying to setup Skype for Business Hybrid using your domain account, Skype for Business Online PowerShell doesn’t resolve the Cloud and instead the on-premises lyncdiscover.<yourdomain>.com. This cases a 503 error when trying to login.

PS C:\Users\user> $CSSession = New-CsOnlineSession -Credential $cred

Get-CsPowerShellEndpoint : The remote server returned an error: (503) Server Unavailable
At C:\Program Files\Common Files\Skype for Business
Online\Modules\skypeonlineconnector\SkypeOnlineConnectorStartup.psm1:94 char:26
+ … $targetUri = Get-CsPowerShellEndpoint -TargetDomain $adminDomain
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-CsPowerShellEndpoint], WebException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Net.WebException,Microsoft.Rtc.Management.OnlineConnector.GetPowerShellEndpointCm
dlet

This is a scenario where you will want to use that cloud-only account to sign in for an administrative tasks.

Problem #2 – The New Tenant

With a new Skype for Business Online tenant, even if you have users in your Office 365 tenant and have assigned them a Skype for Business Online license, there’s still that last bit of configuration that doesn’t seems to happen behind the scenes until at least 1 user logs in. If you don’t, when you go to connect to Skype for Business Online PowerShell you’ll get a 404 error:

PS C:\Users\user> $CSSession = New-CsOnlineSession -Credential $cred

Get-CsPowerShellEndpoint : The remote server returned an error: (404) File Not Found
At C:\Program Files\Common Files\Skype for Business
Online\Modules\skypeonlineconnector\SkypeOnlineConnectorStartup.psm1:94 char:26
+ … $targetUri = Get-CsPowerShellEndpoint -TargetDomain $adminDomain
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-CsPowerShellEndpoint], WebException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Net.WebException,Microsoft.Rtc.Management.OnlineConnector.GetPowerShellEndpointCmdlet

Once everything is tied together, you’ll achieve a successful sign on to Skype for Business Online PowerShell!

PS C:\Users\user> $CSSession = New-CsOnlineSession -Credential $cred -Verbose
VERBOSE: Determining domain to admin
VERBOSE: AdminDomain = ‘tenant.onmicrosoft.com’
VERBOSE: Discovering PowerShell endpoint URI
VERBOSE: TargetUri = ‘https://admin2a.online.lync.com/OcsPowershellLiveId’
VERBOSE: Requesting authentication token
VERBOSE: Success
VERBOSE: Initializing remote session
VERBOSE: Success

Chris Blackburn

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