How To: Upgrade Office Web Apps 2013 to Office Online Server 2016

On your current farm run “Get-OfficeWebAppsFarm“. Make a note of the InternalURL, ExternalURL, CertificateName and Machines (Note you may only have the ExternalURL configured). E.g.
InternalURL: https://webapps.mycompany.local
ExternalURL: https://webapps.mycompany.com
CertificateName: My WAC Certificate
Machines: WebApps01, WebApps02

Run “Get-OfficeWebAppsHost“. Make a note of the allowList. E.g.
allowList: mycompany.com, mycompany.local

On each Office Web Apps 2013 server:

• Uninstall “Microsoft Office Web Apps Server 2013”
• Install Windows Identity Foundation 3.5 (Add Roles and Features > Features)
• Install the Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows KB (https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/2999226)
• Install Microsoft Office Online Server 2016

Using the information you gathered from Get-OfficeWebAppsFarm, on the first machine in the farm (WebApps01) run New-OfficeWebAppsFarm, E.g.
New-OfficeWebAppsFarm -InternalURL https://webapps.mycompany.local -ExternalURL https://webapps.mycompany.com -CertificateName “My WAC Certificate”

For each domain gathered from Get-OfficeWebAppsHost run NewOfficeWebAppsHost, E.g.
New-OfficeWebAppsHost -Domain mycompany.com
New-OfficeWebAppsHost -Domain mycompany.local

For each additional Machine in the farm, log on locally, open PowerShell and run New OfficeWebAppsMachine, E.g.
New-OfficeWebAppsMachine -MachineToJoin WebApps01

You can test your Office Online Server farm is working by navigating to https://webapps.mycompany.com/hosting/discovery

Chris Hayward

Technical Architect at Symity