(C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 1
Dean Suzuki Blog
Title: Building an Office Web Apps (OWA) Server
Created: 12/10/2012
Description:
The new Wave 2013 Platform (Exchange 2013, SharePoint 2013, and Lync 2013) use a new server
called the Office Web Apps Server. This is important not to confuse this server with the Outlook
Web Access or Outlook Web App server in Exchange. Both functions unfortunately use the
same abbreviation OWA. So, you need to be careful as you read through the documentation to
distinguish if the documentation is referring to an Office Web Apps server or Outlook Web App
function. In this post, we will create an Office Web Apps server and connect it to Lync 2013.
Lync Server 2013 employs Office Web Apps Server to handle PowerPoint presentations in conferences.
References:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219455.aspx ; Deploy Office Web Apps Server
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj204792(OCS.15).aspx ; Configuring Integration with
Office Web Apps Server and Lync Server 2013
Disclaimer:
Contents of this blog and article represent the opinions of Dean Suzuki, and do not reflect the
views of my employer. (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved
Procedure:
Table of Contents 1 Create Office Web Apps Server (OWAS) VM: ................................................................................. 2
2 Load Operating System Pre-requisites ............................................................................................ 2
3 Download and Install the Office Web Apps Server ........................................................................ 3
4 Install the OWAS Language Pack ..................................................................................................... 5
5 Create the Office Web Apps Farm .................................................................................................... 7
6 Verify that the OWA Farm Was Created .......................................................................................... 8
7 Request SSL Certificate ...................................................................................................................... 9
8 Submit the Certificate Request to the Certificate Authority .............................................................. 11
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9 Process the Certificate ........................................................................................................................ 13
10 Create the Web Farm ...................................................................................................................... 14
11 Test the Web Farm .......................................................................................................................... 15
12 Add the OWA Server to Lync 2013.................................................................................................. 15
13 Install Any Additional Components on the Lync Server .................................................................. 18
1 Create Office Web Apps Server (OWAS) VM: Create a new virtual machine for the Office Web Apps Server (OWAS).
See the earlier posts for building a base Windows 2012 VM.
Copy it and make a virtual machine for OWAS.
Set IP address
Set server name.
Join machine to the domain
Set IP address
2 Load Operating System Pre-requisites Browse to the following article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219455.aspx
Open a Powershell Window
Execute the following command
Then the following command:
Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-WebServer,Web-
Common-Http,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Static-Content,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-
Dyn-Compression,Web-Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-
Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,InkandHandwritingServices
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You’ll need to reboot after the command runs
3 Download and Install the Office Web Apps Server Download the Office Web Apps Server from: http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=35489
It will come as an img file (Disk image file)
Double-click it and it will open the disk file.
Double –click setup.exe
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4 Install the OWAS Language Pack
Download the Office Web Apps Server Language Pack (http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=35490)
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5 Create the Office Web Apps Farm
Open a Powershell Window and execute the following command:
New-OfficeWebAppsFarm –InternalURL "http://servername" –AllowHttp -EditingEnabled
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iisreset /restart /noforce
6 Verify that the OWA Farm Was Created Execute the following command in a browser:
http://servername/hosting/discovery
You should have something like:
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7 Request SSL Certificate
Lync requires HTTPS connection to the OWA server.
Request SSL certificate for the Office Web Apps Server (OWA). Launch IIS Manager.
Select “Server Certificate”
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On the right menu, select “Create Certificate Request”
Note: I had to re-run the Certificate Wizard since I should have put the FQDN into the common
name field. The above picture is not correct and I forgot to snap the picture with the correct
value in the common name field. The common name field should be:
Lab2012-owas.contoso2012.com
The FQDN of the OWA server should be specified instead of just the hostname.
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8 Submit the Certificate Request to the Certificate Authority
Go to the Certificate Authority’s Certificate Request website (http://<servername>/certsrv). In my lab,
it’s http://lab2012-dc/certsrv
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Select “Request A Certficate”
Select “Advanced Certificate Request”
Select “Submit a certificate request . . .”
Select “Web Server” as the certificate template
Press “Submit”
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Select “Download Certficate”
9 Process the Certificate
Launch IIS Manager on the OWAS.
Select “Complete Certificate Request” on the right-hand menu.
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Specify the file that was downloaded from the Certificate Authority Certificate Request web site
in the prior section.
10 Create the Web Farm Open a Powershell window.
Execute the following command:
New-OfficeWebAppsFarm -InternalUrl "https://server.contoso.com" -ExternalUrl
"https://wacweb01.contoso.com" –CertificateName "OfficeWebApps Certificate" –EditingEnabled
In my case, it is shown below:
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Enter the following command:
Iisreset /restart /noforace
11 Test the Web Farm Open a web browser and access the following web site:
https://server.contoso.com/hosting/discovery
In my lab, the URL that I accessed and the results are shown below:
12 Add the OWA Server to Lync 2013 Launch Lync 2013 Topology Builder
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Navigate to the Office Web Apps Server and right-click and select “New Office Web Apps
Server…”
Enter the FQDN of the OWA Server and the discovery URL.
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Right click the Lync Server at the top and select Publish Topology
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13 Install Any Additional Components on the Lync Server
This step may not be necessary but I wanted to update the Lync server with any changes that may have
been published by the topology so I launch the Lync Deployment Wizard
Select “Install or Update Lync Server System”