Following the release of the first cumulative update for Skype for Business 2019 the Skype for Business Control Panel is getting refreshed to get ride of Silverlight.
Well, sort of as at this stage the capabilities available in this new Control Panel are quite limited to Users management; the other capabilities are not yet included and will come in later cu’s.
If you want to start using this new (but limited) SfB control panel, you need to enable the OData feature
- If you use PowerShell run the below command (as always using the Run As Administrator)
Add-WindowsFeature ManagementOData
- If you use Server Manager enable the Management OData IIS Extension (and additional required features)
You deploy the cumulative update (it can be also done before deploying the required feature).
Once completed, you have to run the bootstraper to install the additional required Skype components (MacpWebComponents)
NOTE you may have an error during the pre-checks asking to enable additional features:
- Management OData IIS Extension,
- HTTP Activation,
- Basic Authentication
- Windows Authentication
- Web Management Tools
- IIS Management Console
- IIS Management Scripts and Tools
- IIS Management Service
- IIS 6 Management Compatibility
- IIS Meta base and IIS 6 configuration compatibility
- IIS 6 WMI Compatibility
- IIS 6 Scripting Tools
- IIS 6 Management Console
You can check if the installation has been completed by checking the Skype for Business web sites in IIS to see if the MACP virtual directory is present
Then you to https://<your SfB pool URL>/macp using one of the supported browser:
- Microsoft Edge (version 44.17763.1.0 or higher is recommended)
- Google Chrome (version 72.0.3626.121 or higher is recommended)
- Mozilla Firefox (version 65.0.2 or higher is recommended)
The account used to logon to the new control panel needs to be Skype for Business enabled and hosted on-premises
If the account is not Skype enabled, the error “Exception : Invalid user credentials : User is not SIP enabled.” is shown
If the account is hosted on Skype for Business Online, the error “Exception : Invalid user credentials : User is not an administrator” is shown (while of course the account I used is a Skype for Business administrator )
NOTE if you have defined a different URL to access the SfB control panel, the authentication may failed with the error “
Exception : Invalid user credentials : The AppliesTo element of web ticket request points to a different web server or site.”
Another thing to note, it is very very slow to authenticate
If you plan to run in Hybrid mode, move to Teams or already are running in Hybrid mode, you need to run the script available at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/SkypeForBusiness/control-panel-auth-script to create a required Azure AD application and enable OAuth authentication; it will required the AzureAD powershell module to be installed – if not it will do it for you but you may want to control it.
When you connect to the ‘old’ control panel you have a notification offering to try the new interface
