Automate Documentation via the Skype for Business Environment Report

Documentation is useful, but in my experience, it's one of the last things that gets done. At my last job, I was on a team of four people who supported over 20,000 Lync 2013 users. My day to day, tactical activities took precedence over writing wiki articles outlining server details, DNS entries, and other details. To be clear: I documented things, but it was often after hours. I spent most of my normal business hours keeping my users content and the environment stable.

If only there was a quick way to produce documentation about a Skype for Business environment...

Spoiler Alert: lucky for us, there is. 😏

A colleague of mine mentioned this super helpful tool. The Skype for Business Environment Report is a collection of PowerShell scripts that pull information from your Skype for Business topology and output the data into a Word Document, Visio Diagram, or both. 

Below is a list of steps to help run the scripts:

1. Download and unzip the file on a front end server in the Skype for Business environment.

2. Open PowerShell and run the 'Get-CsEnvironmentInfo.ps1' script. The script collects the initial information for the Skype for Business environment. Optional: you can supply credentials for your front end servers using the '-InternalCredentials' switch and for your edge servers using the '-EdgeCredentials' switch.

3. The script will run and collect information from your topology. When you are done, a .zip file is produced and resides in the script directory.

4. Note: the scripts to create the Word Document and Visio Diagram must be run on a machine with Word and Visio installed.

Run the 'New-CsEnvReport.ps1' script and use the .zip file you produced in the previous step. A window opens to allow you to select the .zip file from the previous step. Optional: you can supply the .zip file name via the 'envdatafile' switch. 

5. The Word Document is created in the script directory. Open the Word Docment and view all the data from your topology that is organized with a table of contents. Here is an example:

6. The steps to create the Visio Diagram are similar to Word Document creation steps above. You will run the 'New-CsEnvDiagram' script and supply the .zip file similar to Step 4.