Installing Prerequisites for Skype for Business Server 2015

Update 3/6/17 - Added information about KB2966828.

Taken from the Server requirements for Skype for Business Server 2015 and Install prerequisites TechNet articles, the following prerequisites need to be installed before attempting to install Skype for Business Server 2015:

First, make sure you are running the latest service pack for your OS:

  • Windows Server 2012 R2, latest service pack is recommended.
  • Windows Server 2012 with SP1 (required), latest service pack is recommended.

If it's not on this list, it won't work properly, please don't try it for new installs of Skype for Business Server 2015.

You may have noticed Windows Server 2008 R2 isn't on this list. That's because we recommend Windows Server 2012 R2 for all new servers to be used for Skype for Business. You should only be using Windows Server 2008 R2 when you have existing servers with Lync Server 2013 already installed, and you're intending to do an in-place upgrade of them. Windows Server 2008 R2 reached the end of the mainstream support lifecycle on 1/13/2015.

In addition to the latest service pack, you'll want to ensure the following updates are installed where relevant to you:

  • For Windows Server 2012, KB2858668 should be installed before an upgrade.
  • If you have Windows Server 2012 R2, please install KB2982006 before upgrading. To apply this hotfix, you must first install KB2919355, which requires KB2969339 to be installed first.
  • If you're upgrading on a Windows Server 2008 R2 box, then you'll want to install KB2533623 first.

Roles and Features/Software

  • Windows Media Format Runtime
  • Windows Identity Foundation
  • RSAT AD DS and AD LDS tools
  • Silverlight

Internet Information Services (IIS)

  • Web Server
    • Common HTTP Features
      • Static Content
      • Default Document
      • HTTP Errors
    • Application Development
      • ASP.NET - (Note: For Windows Server 2012, ASP.NET 3.5 & ASP.NET 4.5 are required.)
      • .NET Extensibility
      • Internet Server API (ISAPI) Extensions
      • ISAPI Filters
    • Health and Diagnostics
      • HTTP Logging
      • Logging Tools
      • Tracing
    • Security
      • Windows Authentication
      • Client Certificate Mapping Authentication
      • Request Filtering
    • Performance
      • Static Content Compression
      • Dynamic Content Compression
    • Management Tools
      • IIS Management Console
      • IIS Management Scripts and Tools
  • .NET Framework 4.5
    • WCF Services
      • HTTP Activation - (Note: Required for Windows Server 2012/2012 R2.)

To make installing the prerequisites easier, here are the PowerShell commands.  This will install all of the prerequisites except for the KBs and Silverlight.

For Windows Server 2012/2012 R2, open a PowerShell command window as Administrator and run the following commands:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Core, RSAT-ADDS, Windows-Identity-Foundation, Web-Static-Content, Web-Default-Doc, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Asp-Net, Web-Net-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Log-Libraries, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Filtering, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Dyn-Compression, NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Mgmt-Tools, Web-Scripting-Tools, Server-Media-Foundation -Restart

Note: On Windows Server 2012/2012 R2, you may get the following error message when you try to run the Add-WindowsFeature cmdlet above:

Add-WindowsFeature : The request to add or remove features on the specified server failed.
Installation of one or more roles, role services, or features failed.
The source files could not be downloaded.
Use the "source" option to specify the location of the files that are required to restore the feature. For more information on specifying a source location, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=243077. Error: 0x800f0906

This is because the .NET Framework 3.5 is not included in Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 and needs to be either downloaded from Windows Update or you need to provide the location to the Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 installation media.  You can read more about this in the Error codes when you try to install the .NET Framework 3.5 in Windows 8 or in Windows Server 2012 KB article.  To provide the location of the Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 installation media, run the Add-WindowsFeature cmdlet from above and add the -Source parameter with the location of the Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 installation media, i.e -Source D:\sources\sxs.

You may also get Error: 0x800f0906 if you have KB2966828 installed.  You can find more information on how to resolve that issue here.