Getting Skype for Business Online to work with your domain in Office 365 operated by 21Vianet can be challenging. There are DNS records to set up, and the DNS system is slow and nitpicky. If you’re having trouble getting Skype for Business Online set up, read on to see if the steps here help.
Note: Just getting started with Microsoft 365? Learn about setting up and managing domains for Office 365 Small Business or Office 365 Enterprise and Office 365 Midsize Business.
Get help with one of these issues
I can’t schedule Skype for Business Online meetings, see presence info, or send instant messages from Outlook Web App
Applies to:
Office 365 Small Business , if you manage your DNS records at your DNS hosting provider ; Office 365 Enterprise; or Office 365 Midsize Business
What you see :
You can’t schedule Skype for Business Online meetings, you don’t see presence for contacts, and when you try to use the Instant Messaging (IM) feature in Outlook Web App, you receive an error message stating that Instant Messaging isn’t available.
Why it happens :
Incorrect DNS records (Office 365 Enterprise and Office 365 Midsize Business): The DNS records required for Skype for Business Online are either missing or misconfigured.
Incorrect DNS records (Office 365 Small Business): If you chose to have Office 365 manage your DNS records, the DNS records required Skype for Business Online are either missing or misconfigured.
Time delays: After you add or update DNS records for your domain, it can take up to 72 hours for the changes to take effect because of the way the DNS system does updates. And if you realize there was a typo in a record and you go back to fix it, the new update can also take up to 72 hours to finish updating across the system.
What you can do:
Look at the DNS records for your domain. Compare the list of DNS records that are needed for your Office 365 services to work against the DNS records that are set up at your hosting provider. To see the records that are required, do the following:
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For Enterprise or Midsize Business plans: Go to Admin > Office 365 > Domains, select the domain you’re setting up, and then click View DNS settings > DNS records.
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For Small Business plans: Go to Admin > Domains, and click Manage your website and email domains. Select the domain you’re setting up, and then click Manage DNS settings > DNS records.
Specifically, the DNS SRV record is required for federation, and the LyncDiscover CNAME record is required for IM and online meeting functionality.
For instructions for finding and changing the records at your DNS hosting provider, see Create DNS records for Office 365.
Make sure it’s been 72 hours. It’s frustrating to have to wait so long after you’ve added the record, but DNS can be very slow to update across all the network servers.
It’s been more than 72 hours, still not working. Try removing and adding the DNS records for Skype for Business Online again. Why can this help? Sometimes an error you can’t see gets added during a copy-and-paste, for example, and recreating the records can fix the problem. To recreate the records, follow the step-by-step instructions for your DNS hosting provider.
Get more information. See the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:
I can’t sign in to Skype for Business Online
Applies to:
Office 365 Small Business , if you chose to have Office 365 manage your DNS records (full redelegation )
What you see :
You receive an error message that states the server is temporarily unavailable.
Why it happens:
NS records not updated (Office 365 Small Business): The final step to setting up your domain is to switch DNS management over to Microsoft 365 by updating your name server (NS) records at your domain registrar. If you haven’t done this yet, you can’t sign in to Skype for Business Online.
Time delays: After you add or update DNS records for your domain, it can take up to 72 hours for the changes to take effect because of the way the DNS system does updates. And if you realize there was a typo in a record and you go back to fix it, the new update can also take up to 72 hours to finish updating across the system.
What you can do:
Look at the NS records for your domain (Office 365 Small Business). At your domain registrar, Set up your domain (host-specific instructions) to point to the Microsoft 365 name servers:
ns1.dns.partner.microsoftonline.cn
ns2.dns.partner.microsoftonline.cn
Make sure it’s been 72 hours. It’s frustrating to have to wait so long after you’ve added the record, but DNS can be very slow to update across all the network servers.
It’s been more than 72 hours, still not working. Try removing and adding the DNS records for Skype for Business Online again. Why can this help? Sometimes an error you can’t see gets added during a copy-and-paste, for example, and recreating the records can fix the problem. Also, for Office 365 Small Business, check the NS records at your domain registrar’s website and make sure they’re pointing to the Microsoft 365 name servers. To update the NS records, follow the step-by-step instructions for your DNS hosting provider.
Get more information. See the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: