Adding Domains to Lync Online/Office 365

The first task involved in getting Lync Online up and running is adding the SIP domains that will be used with the service. When you are signing up for a Lync Online or Office 365 subscription, a single DNS domain is assigned. This initial domain is referred to as the tenant domain, and always has a suffix of .onmicrosoft.com. This tenant domain is meant only for administration of the Lync Online organization, and is not intended to be used as a SIP domain.

To add a new domain to Lync Online/Office 365, follow these steps:

1. Log on to the Office 365 Portal.

2. On the left side of the main page, click Domains.

3. At the Domains page, click the link for Add a domain.

4. At the Add a domain to Office 365 page, click the link for Specify a domain name and confirm ownership.

5. At the Provide domain name page, enter the fully qualified name of the domain owned by the organization that will be used for Lync Online, and click Next.

6. At the Confirm ownership page, read the instructions presented regarding the requirement for adding a DNS record to verify ownership of the domain. The drop-down menu offers a choice of common DNS providers; select one of these to view instructions for adding the required DNS record using that DNS provider. If the DNS registrar for the SIP domain being added does not appear in this drop-down list, select General Instructions to view the generic steps for adding the required DNS record, as shown in Figure 22.2.

Figure 22.2. Office 365 domain verification instructions.

7. Follow through with the instructions to add either the TXT or the MX record to the public DNS zone, and then wait for the change to take effect. The amount of time required will depend on DNS propagation delay, as well as the DNS provider being used.

8. Click the Done, go check button to complete the verification process. If the domain verification is not successful, it might be necessary to wait some additional time and continue clicking this button until the verification succeeds.

9. After the verification is successful, the next screen confirms that the domain has now been added to the account. Click Finish to return to the Add a domain to Office 365 page.

10. If new users will be added to the domain right away, click the link for Add users and assign licenses, and then follow the instructions in the “Adding Lync Online User Accounts” section later in this chapter to add the new users. Once the new users have been added, return to the Add a domain to Office 365 page and click the link for Set the domain purpose and configure DNS.

11. At the Set domain purpose page, select the check box for Lync Online. If the domain will also be used with Exchange Online or SharePoint Online as part of an Office 365 subscription, these can be selected as well. When finished, click Next.

12. At the Add DNS records page, the online portal displays a list of DNS records required for the domain, based on the services that were selected on the previous page. If the DNS records required for Lync Online have not already been configured based on the information in Chapter 28, “Planning for Lync Online and Hybrid Deployments”, then these DNS records will need to be added.

13. Once the DNS records are in place, click the Done, go check button to complete the DNS record verification process. If the domain verification is not successful, it might be necessary to wait some additional time and continue clicking this button until the verification succeeds.

14. After the DNS record verification is successful, the next screen confirms that the required DNS records were found. Click Finish to complete the procedure. The new domain now appears in the list of verified domains, as shown in Figure 22.3.

Figure 22.3. Newly verified domain listed in the Office 365 portal.