Chapter 01 Planning Primer Planning for Your Organization

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Chapter 1: Planning Primer

Planning for Your Organization

Microsoft Lync Server 2010

Published: November 2010



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Contents

Planning Primer: Planning for Your Organization ........................................................................ 5 Beginning the Planning Process ............................................................................................... 5 Topology Basics You Must Know Before Planning .................................................................. 8

Sites ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Server Roles .......................................................................................................................... 9

Initial Planning Decisions ........................................................................................................ 13 Clients for Lync Server 2010 .................................................................................................. 15 Reference Topologies ............................................................................................................. 16

Reference Topology With Limited High Availability ............................................................. 16 Reference Topology With High Availability and a Single Data Center ................................ 18 Reference Topology for Multiple Data Centers ................................................................... 21





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Planning Primer: Planning for Your OrganizationThe topics in this section help you get started with planning your Microsoft Lync Server

2010 communications software deployment.

In This Section

Beginning the Planning Process helps you understand how to get started, and how the

planning documentation works with the Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool and

Topology Builder.

Important:

At this time, the Planning Tool that is described in this documentation is a prerelease

version. Final release of the Planning Tool is currently scheduled for the first quarter

of 2011. For details about the release candidate, see the release notes thataccompany the Planning Tool. Importing from a prerelease version of the Planning

Tool to the final version of Topology Builder is not supported. Note that the capacity

planning numbers in the Planning Tool are preliminary and are not supported for the

final release.

Topology Basics You Must Know Before Planning describes the basics of Lync Server

topologies, including sites and server pools. You must understand these concepts when

using the Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool.

Initial Planning Decisions takes you through the questions you must answer to decide what

workloads and features of Lync Server to deploy.

Clients for Lync Server 2010 describes the different types of client software that you can

deploy to your organization’s users, including computer -installed client software, web-based

clients, and mobile devices.

Reference Topologies shows three sample topologies that illustrate good topology design in

three typical organization types, and explains the reasoning behind many of the decisions in

designing those topologies.

Beginning the Planning Process

Important:


version. Final release of the Planning Tool is currently scheduled for the first quarter of2011. For details about the release candidate, see the release notes that accompany the

Planning Tool. Importing from a prerelease version of the Planning Tool to the final

version of Topology Builder is not supported. Note that the capacity planning numbers in

the Planning Tool are preliminary and are not supported for the final release.

While planning a unified communications deployment may seem intimidating, Microsoft Lync

Server 2010 communications software provides two valuable tools to help you:



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Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool is a wizard that presents a series of questions

about your organization, the Lync Server features that you want to enable, and your capacity

planning needs. It then creates a recommended deployment topology based on your

answers, and produces several forms of output to aid your planning and installation.

Topology Builder is an installation component of Lync Server 2010. You use Topology

Builder to create, adjust, and publish your planned topology. It also validates your topology

before you begin server installations. When you install Lync Server on individual servers, the

servers read the published topology as part of the installation process, and the installation

program deploys the server as directed in the topology.

Lync Server 2010 Planning Tool

The Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool takes your answers to the questions in the tool and

generates a topology based on Lync Server guidelines and best practices. It also provides

several views of a deployment based on your answers. It shows both a global view of all your

sites (that is, including both central sites and branch sites), and detailed views showing the

servers and other components at each site.

Running the Planning Tool does not commit you to any specific deployment or initiate any

processes. In fact, running the Planning Tool even before you have a firm plan in mind can be a

very instructive way to understand the kinds of questions you need to think about in your planning

process.

You can run the Planning Tool multiple times, answering questions differently, and compare the

outcomes. If you have a design you are mostly satisfied with but that you need to make changes

to, you can return to the Planning Tool, load the design, and make the changes. It takes about 15

minutes to complete the Planning Tool once.

After you are completely satisfied, you can use the Export to Topology Builder option to exportyour planned topology to an XML file that you can then input to Topology Builder.

You use the Planning Tool only for your initial topology design. After you export the topology to

Topology Builder and begin working with it there, you can no longer use the Planning Tool to

modify your topology.

Note:


version. Final release of the Planning Tool is currently scheduled for the first quarter of

2011. For details about the release candidate, see the release notes that accompany the


version of Topology Builder is not supported. Note that the capacity planning numbers inthe Planning Tool are preliminary and are not supported for the final release.

Lync Server 2010 Topology Builder

Topology Builder takes the XML file provided by the Planning Tool, and displays the topology.

Then, you can use Topology Builder to make final adjustments, such as specifying IP addresses

and fully qualified domain names (FQDNs). After you are satisfied, you use Topology Builder to



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validate the topology, and then, if it passes, you can publish the topology. When you publish the

topology, Lync Server puts the topology into the Central Management store, which is created at

this time if it does not already exist. When you install Lync Server on each server in your

deployment, the server reads the topology from the Central Management store and installs itself

to fit into its role in your deployment.

Alternatively, if you are very familiar with Lync Server and need less prescriptive guidance, you

can skip the Planning Tool and use the wizards in Topology Builder for the initial design of your

deployment, as well as for the validation and publishing steps.

Using Topology Builder to plan and publish a topology is a required step. You cannot bypass

Topology Builder and install Lync Server individually on the servers in your deployment. Each

server must read the topology from a validated, published topology in the Central Management

store.

High-Level Planning Process

We recommend the following general process for using both the documentation and the Planning

Tool to plan your Lync Server deployment.

1. Run the Planning Tool to get a sense of the kind of questions you need to think about as you

begin the planning process.

2. Read New Server Features in the Getting Started documentation to familiarize yourself with

the new features and requirements in Lync Server 2010.

3. Read the other topics in this section: Topology Basics You Must Know Before Planning, Initial

Planning Decisions, Clients for Lync Server 2010, and Reference Topologies.

4. Now that you are more familiar with Lync Server features and the kinds of questions that

must be answered, run the Planning Tool again and view the resulting topology and its

details.

5. If there are particular workloads or features you are interested in or need to learn about, read

the appropriate sections of Planning for Microsoft Lync Server 2010.

6. Run the Planning Tool again. You can start with the deployment you created in step 3 and

modify the results, or start over from the beginning.

If needed, run the Planning Tool a third time and repeat until you are satisfied with the output.

7. When you have finalized the topology plan, use the export feature of the Planning Tool to

create an XML file that you can use with Topology Builder. Load that XML into Topology

Builder and add final details such as IP addresses.

8. Before you begin deployment, read Determining Your System Requirements and Determining

Your Infrastructure Requirements in the Planning documentation to familiarize yourself with

the prerequisites and necessary infrastructure for Lync Server. Additionally, be sure you have

read all the sections of Planning for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 that apply to the workloads

and features that you plan to deploy.

Note:





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Migrating from Previous Versions

If you are migrating to Lync Server from a previous version, see the Migration documentation for

specific instructions for your migration and deployment.

Topology Basics You Must Know Before Planning

You do not have to be an expert on Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software to run

the Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool. In fact, running the Lync Server 2010, Planning

Tool multiple times, answering questions differently, and comparing the output is a good way to

learn about Lync Server 2010.

Note:







Before you learn about the various components in more depth, you should understand the

following basic aspects of Lync Server topologies.

In This Section

Sites

Server Roles

Sites

In Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software, you define sites on your network that

contain Lync Server 2010 components. A site is a set of computers that are well-connected by a

high-speed, low-latency network, such as a single local area network (LAN) or two networks

connected by a high-speed fiber optic network. Note that Lync Server sites are a separate

concept from Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) sites and Microsoft Exchange Serversites. Your Lync Server 2010 sites do not have to correspond to your Active Directory sites.

Site Types

Each site is either a central site , which contains at least one Front End pool or Standard Edition

server, or a branch site . Each branch site is associated with exactly one central site, and the

users at the branch site get most of their Lync Server functionality from the servers at the

associated central site.



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Each branch site contains one of the following:

A Survivable Branch Appliance , which is a new device introduced in Lync Server 2010. The

Survivable Branch Appliance is an industry-standard blade server with a Microsoft Lync

Server 2010 Registrar and Mediation Server running on Windows Server 2008 R2. TheSurvivable Branch Appliance also contains a PSTN gateway. The Survivable Branch

Appliance is designed for branch sites with between 25 and 1000 users.

A Survivable Branch Server , which is another new device introduced in Lync Server 2010.

The Survivable Branch Server is a server running Windows Server that meets specified

hardware requirements, and that has Lync Server 2010 Registrar and Mediation Server

software installed on it. It must connect to either a PSTN gateway or a SIP trunk to a

telephone service provider. The Survivable Branch Server is designed for branch sites with

between 1000 and 5000 users.

A PSTN gateway and, optionally, a Mediation Server .

A branch office with a resilient wide area network (WAN) link to a central site can use the third

option, a PSTN gateway and optionally a Mediation Server. Branch office sites with less-resilient

links should use a Survivable Branch Appliance or Survivable Branch Server, which provide

resiliency in times of wide-area network failures. For example, in a site with a Survivable Branch

Appliance or Survivable Branch Server deployed, users can still make and receive Enterprise

Voice calls if the WAN connecting the branch site to the central site is down. For details about the

Survivable Branch Appliance, Survivable Branch Server, and resil iency, see Planning for

Enterprise Voice Resiliency in the Planning documentation.

Site Topologies

Your deployment must include at least one central site, and can include zero to many branch

sites. Each branch site is affiliated with one central site. The central site provides the Lync Server

2010 services to the branch site that are not located locally at the branch site, such as presence

and conferencing.

Server Roles

Each server running Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software runs one or more

server roles . A server role is a defined set of Lync Server 2010 functionality provided by that

server. You do not need to deploy all available server roles in your network. Install only the server

roles that contain the functionality that you want.

Important:At this time, the Planning Tool that is described in this documentation is a prerelease








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Even if you are not familiar with server roles in Lync Server, the Microsoft Lync Server 2010,

Planning Tool can guide you to the best solution for the servers you need to deploy, based on the

features that you want. This section provides a brief overview of the server roles and the general

features they provide:

Front End Server and Back End Server

A/V Conferencing Server

Edge Server

Mediation Server

Monitoring Server

Archiving Server

Director

For most server roles, for scalability and high availability you can deploy pools of multiple servers

all running the same server role. Each server in a pool must run an identical server role or roles.

For some types of pools in Lync Server, you must deploy a load balancer to spread traffic

between the various servers in the pool.

Standard Edition Server

The Standard Edition server is designed for small organizations, and for pilot projects of large

organizations. It enables many of the features of Lync Server 2010, including the necessary

databases, to run on a single server. This enables you to have Lync Server functionality for a

lesser cost, but does not provide a true high-availability solution.

Standard Edition server enables you to use instant messaging (IM), presence, conferencing, and

Enterprise Voice, all running on one server. One Standard Edition server supports as many as

5,000 users.

For a high-availability solution, use Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Edition.

Front End Server and Back End Server

The Front End Server is the core server role, and runs many basic Lync Server functions. The

Front End Server, along with the Back End Servers that provide the database, are the only server

roles required to be in any Lync Server Enterprise Edition deployment.

A Front End pool is a set of Front End Servers, configured identically, that work together to

provide services for a common group of users. A pool provides scalability and failover capability

your users.

Front End Server includes the following functionality:

User authentication and registration

Presence information and contact card exchange

Address book services and distribution list expansion

IM functionality, including multiparty IM conferences

Web conferencing and application sharing (if deployed)



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Application hosting services, for both applications included with Lync Server (for example,

Conferencing Attendant andResponse Group application) and third-party applications

Application services for application hosting and hosts applications (for example, Response

Group application, and several others)Additionally, one Front End pool in the deployment also runs the Central Management Server ,

which manages and deploys basic configuration data to all servers running Lync Server 2010.

The Central Management Server also provides Lync Server Management Shell and file transfer

capabilities.

The Back End Servers are database servers running Microsoft SQL Server that provide the

database services for the Front End pool. You can have a single Back End Server, but a cluster

of two or more servers is recommended for failover. Back End Servers do not run any Lync

Server software. If you already have a SQL Server cluster that you are using for other

applications, you can also use this cluster for Lync Server 2010, if performance allows.

Information stored in the Back End Server databases includes presence information, users'

Contacts lists, conferencing data including persistent data about the state of all current

conferences, and conference scheduling data.

Front End Server Scalability

In a Front End pool, you should have one Front End Server for every 10,000 users homed in the

pool, plus an additional Front End Server to provide good performance when one server is

unavailable. The maximum number of users in one Front End pool is 80,000. If you have more

than 80,000 users at a site, you can deploy more than one Front End pool.

The additional Front End Server ensures good performance in case one server is unavailable.

When an active server is unavailable, its connections are transferred automatically to the other

servers in the pool. For example, if you have 30,000 users and three Front End Servers, then

when one server is unavailable, the connections of 10,000 users need to be transferred to the

other two servers, for an average of 5,000 per server. If you start with four Front End Servers for

your 30,000 users, then when one is unavailable a total of 7,500 users will be moved to three

other servers, for an average of 2,500 per server. This is a much more manageable load.

A/V Conferencing Server

A/V Conferencing Server provides A/V conferencing functionality to your deployment. It can be

collocated with Front End Server, or deployed separately as a single server or A/V Conferencing

Server pool.

For details, see Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing in the Planning documentation.

A/V Conferencing Server ScalabilityIf you deploy A/V Conferencing Server separately, you need one A/V Conferencing Server for

each 20,000 users at a site. At a minimum we recommend two A/V Conferencing Servers for high

availability.

Edge Server

Edge Server enables your users to communicate and collaborate with users outside the

organization’s firewalls. These external users can include the organization’s own users who are



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currently working offsite, users from federated partner organizations, and outside users who have

been invited to join conferences hosted on your Lync Server deployment. Edge Server also

enables connectivity to public IM connectivity services, including Windows Live, AOL, and

Yahoo!.

For details, see Planning for External User Access in the Planning documentation.

Edge Server Scalability

For performance, you should deploy one Edge Server for every 15,000 users you expect to

access a site remotely. At a minimum we recommend two Edge Servers for high availability.

Mediation Server

Mediation Server is a necessary component for implementing Enterprise Voice and dial-in

conferencing. Mediation Server translates signaling and, in some configurations, media between

your internal Lync Server infrastructure and a public switched telephone network (PSTN)

gateway, IP-PBX, or a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk.

For details, see Mediation Server Component in the Planning documentation.

Mediation Server Scalability

For details about Mediation Server scalability, see Estimating Voice Usage and Traffic in the

Planning documentation.

Monitoring Server

Monitoring Server collects data about the quality of your network media, in both Enterprise Voice

calls and A/V conferences. This information can help you provide the best possible media

experience for your users. It also collects call error records (CERs), which you can use to

troubleshoot failed calls. Additionally, it collects usage information in the form of call detail records

(CDRs) about various Lync Server features so that you can calculate return on investment of yourdeployment, and plan the future growth of your deployment.

For details, see Planning for Monitoring in the Planning documentation.

Monitoring Server Scalability

One Monitoring Server can support up to 250,000 users if it is not collocated with Archiving

Server. If collocated, it can support up to 100,000 users.

Archiving Server

Archiving Server enables you to archive IM communications and meeting content for compliance

reasons. If you do not have legal compliance concerns, you do not need to deploy Archiving

Server.

For details, see Planning for Archiving in the Planning documentation.

Archiving Server Scalability

One Archiving Server can support up to 500,000 users if it is not collocated with Monitoring

Server. If collocated, it can support up to 100,000 users.



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Director

Directors can authenticate Lync Server user requests, but do not home user accounts, or provide

presence or conferencing services. Directors are most useful in deployments that enable external

user access, where the Director can authenticate requests before sending them on to internal

servers. Directors can also improve performance in organizations with multiple Front End pools.

For details, see Director in the Planning documentation.

Director Scalability

For performance, you should deploy one Director for every 15,000 users who will access a site

remotely. At a minimum we recommend two Directors for high availability.

Initial Planning Decisions

The first part of the planning process is deciding which Microsoft Lync Server 2010 workloads

and major features you want for your organization.

1. Do you want a physical or virtualized topology? Microsoft Lync Server 2010 supports allworkloads and server roles in both physical and virtualized topologies. User capacity in a

virtualized topology is roughly 50 percent of the capacity in a physical topology. For details,

see Running in a Virtualized Environment in the Planning documentation.

2. Instant messaging (IM) and presence are always enabled. In any Lync Server

deployment, the instant messaging (IM) and presence workload is installed and enabled by

default. IM enables your users to communicate with real-time text messages, and presence

enables them to see the status of other users on the network. A user’s presence status

provides information to help others decide whether they should try to contact the user, and by

what means. For details, see Planning for IM and Presence in the Planning documentation.

3. Do you want to deploy any modes of conferencing? Conferencing is another core

feature of Lync Server. Several modes of conferencing are supported. You can choose to

deploy all supported types of conferencing, or just some of them. Web conferencing enables

users to see a file, such as a slide deck created with Microsoft PowerPoint presentation

graphics program, that is being presented. Application sharing enables users to share all or

part of their desktop with each other in real time. With A/V conferencing , users can add audio

(and possibly video) to their conferences and peer-to-peer communications. Dial-in

conferencing enables users to use standard PSTN phones to join the audio portion of

conferences hosted at your organization. For details, see Planning for Conferencing in the


4. If you deploy A/V conferencing, you should also monitor the audio quality of these

conferences. Many factors affect the audio and video quality of Lync Server A/Vconferences. By using the A/V quality monitoring features provided by the Monitoring Server

role, you can detect issues that affect media quality, and ensure that your users have the

best possible media experience.

5. Do you want high availability for your IM, presence, and conferencing servers? If you

have only one server at a site providing IM, presence and conferencing features, your users’

productivity will be greatly affected if that server goes down. By deploying a pool of multiple

servers for these functions, you make it possible for Lync Server to continue functioning with





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Clients for Lync Server 2010

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software supports several types of client software

that you can deploy to your organization’s users, including computer -installed client software,

web-based clients, and mobile devices. This topic outlines the different clients that you can use.For a detailed comparison of the features provided by different clients, see Client Comparison

Tables in the Planning documentation.

Microsoft Lync 2010

Microsoft Lync 2010 is the default client for Lync Server 2010 meetings. Features include

presence, contact management, instant messaging (IM), telephony, and greatly enhanced

conferencing.

To implement the manager/delegate scenario with Lync 2010, both manager and delegate need

to install and use Lync 2010.

Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendee

Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendee is a rich conferencing client that allows users without Lync 2010

installed to fully participate in Lync Server 2010 meetings. Lync 2010 Attendee can be installed

on a per-user basis, so you can choose to selectively deploy this client, or you can allow users to

download and install it as needed.

For details about how to control the conferencing client choices that appear on the online meeting

join page, see the “Configuring the Meeting Join Web Page” section in Migration Considerations

for Meetings in the Planning documentation.

Microsoft Lync Web AppMicrosoft Lync Web App is a web-based conferencing client that supports most Lync 2010

collaboration and sharing features, as well as presenter meeting controls and dial-in and dial-out

voice conferencing.

For users who do not have Lync 2010 installed, you can offer this conferencing option when it

isn’t practical or possible to install Lync 2010 Attendee. All of the in-meeting features except

computer audio, video, and PowerPoint presentations are available to Lync Web App users.

For details about how to control which client options appear on the meeting join page, see the

“Configuring the Meeting Join Web Page” section in Migration Considerations for Meetings in the


Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Attendant

Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendant is an integrated call management application that enables a

receptionist to manage multiple conversations at once through rapid call handling, IM, and on-

screen routing.

Although previous versions of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Attendant supported

both manager/delegate scenarios and receptionist scenarios, Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendant is



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designed for the receptionist scenario only. If necessary, a delegate can use Lync 2010 Attendant

to receive calls for the manager, but delegate features are now provided in Lync 2010.

Microsoft Lync 2010 MobileMicrosoft Lync 2010 Mobile provides IM, enhanced presence, and telephony for users in your

organization who are connecting from a smartphone or a phone running a Professional edition of

Windows Mobile.

Microsoft Lync 2010 Phone Edition

Microsoft Lync 2010 Phone Edition is software that runs on intelligent Internet Protocol (IP)

phones (for example, USB-attached phones), and supports placing and receiving calls, enhanced

presence, and client audio capabilities for conferences.

Online Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Lync 2010The Online Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Lync 2010 supports meeting management from within

Outlook. This software is installed automatically with Lync 2010.

Reference Topologies

The ideal Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software topology depends on your

organization’s size, the workloads you want to deploy, and your preferences for high availability

versus cost of investment.

The following topics outline three reference topologies, including the reasoning behind many of

the decisions that drive the requirements for each topology.

In This Section

Reference Topology With Limited High Availability

Reference Topology With High Availability and a Single Data Center

Reference Topology for Multiple Data Centers

Reference Topology With Limited High Availability

The reference topology with limited high availability is for an organization that wants to deploy

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software functionality at a minimum cost. Typically,

the specific topology shown in the following diagram is recommended for organizations with 5,000

or fewer users, although you can support additional users by adding additional Standard Edition

servers.



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Reference topology with limited high availability

Active Directory deployment. All Lync Server deployments reside in a single Active

Directory forest. For this topology, the customer has Lync Server deployed in the child

domain, retail.contoso.com. Voice pilot. The organization using the exact topology shown in this diagram is currently

running a pilot program of the Enterprise Voice feature of Lync Server. Some users are using

Lync Server as their sole voice solution.

If they go on to fully deploy Enterprise Voice and remove the PBX system, they should

provide high availability for their voice solution by deploying a second Standard Edition server

or moving to a Front End pool. A single Standard Edition topology as shown in this diagram is

recommended only if you are not deploying Enterprise Voice in a production environment.

Because being able to make calls is mission critical for almost every organization, you should

provide high availability if you use Enterprise Voice as your telephone solution.

Another Standard Edition server can be added. A single Standard Edition server cansupport up to 5,000 users. If you want to accommodate more users or provide some high

availability capability for Enterprise Voice (at a minimum cost), you could add another

Standard Edition server to this topology.

For a true high availability solution, you should deploy Enterprise Edition and deploy a Front

End pool. Although having two Standard Edition servers would maintain Enterprise Voice

functionality should one of these servers go down, a Front End pool provides much better

continuity of service for other Lync Server features.



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Branch site survivability. This organization is running the Enterprise Voice pilot with some

branch site users as well. The branch office does not have a reliable wide area network

(WAN) link to the central site, so a Survivable Branch Appliance is deployed there. With this

deployed, if the WAN link goes down users at the branch site can still make and receive calls

(both calls within the organization and PSTN calls), have voice mail functionality,

communicate with two-party instant messaging (IM). Users can also be authenticated when

the WAN link is unavailable as well.

Edge Server deployment is recommended. Although deploying an Edge Server is not

required for internal IM, presence and conferencing, it is recommended even for small

deployments. You can maximize your Lync Server investment by deploying an Edge Server

to provide service to users currently outside your organization’s firewalls. The benefits include

the following:

Your organization’s own users can use Lync Server functionality, if they are working from

home or are out on the road.

Your users can invite outside users to participate in meetings.

If you have a partner, vendor or customer organization that also uses Lync Server, you

can form a federated relationship with that organization. Your Lync Server deployment

would then recognize users from that federated organization, leading to better

collaboration.

Your users can exchange instant messages with users of public IM services, including

any or all of the following: Windows Live, AOL, and Yahoo! A separate license might be

required for public IM connectivity with Windows Live, AOL, and Yahoo!

If you also deploy the Lync Server XMPP Gateway, you can enable your users to

exchange instant messages with the users of providers and servers that use Extensible

Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), such as Google Talk and Jabber.

Note:

To use XMPP, you must install the XMPP Gateway. You can download the

XMPP Gateway from the Microsoft Download Center at

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=202714. After you install the XMPP

Gateway, you need to install the hotfix, which is available for download from

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=204561.

Reference Topology With High Availability and a Single Data Center

The reference topology with high availability and a single data center is designed for a small-to-

medium size organization with one central site. The exact topology in the following diagram is for

an organization of 15,000 users. Typically, the type of topology shown in the following diagram is

recommended for organizations with 5,000 to 30,000 users, but it can support over 30,000 users.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=202714










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Branch site deployment options. The organization in this topology has Enterprise Voice

deployed as their voice solution. Branch Site 1 does not have a resilient wide area network

(WAN) link to the central site, so it has a Survivable Branch Appliance deployed to maintain

many Lync Server features in case the WAN link to the central site goes down. Branch Site 2

however has a resilient WAN link, so only a public switched telephone network (PSTN)

gateway is needed. The PSTN gateway deployed there supports media bypass, so no

Mediation Server is needed at Branch Site 2. For details about deciding what to deploy at a

branch site, see Planning for Branch-Site Voice Resiliency in the Planning documentation.

DNS load balancing. The Front End pool, Edge Server pool, and the Director pool have

DNS load balancing for SIP traffic deployed. This eliminates the need for hardware load

balancers for the Edge Servers, and significantly lessens the setup and maintenance of the

hardware load balancers for the other pools, as the hardware load balancers are needed only

for HTTP traffic. For details about DNS load balancing, see DNS Load Balancing in the


Exchange UM deployment. This reference topology includes an Exchange UnifiedMessaging (UM) Server, which runs Microsoft Exchange Server, not Lync Server. The

Exchange UM routing functionality for Lync Server runs on the Front End pool.

For details about Exchange UM, see On-Premises Exchange Unified Messaging Integration

and Hosted Exchange Unified Messaging Integration in the Planning documentation.

Edge Servers are recommended. Although deploying an Edge Server is not required, it is

recommended for any size of deployment. You can maximize your Lync Server investment by

deploying an Edge Server to provide service to users currently outside your organization’s

firewalls. The benefits include the following:

Your organization’s own users can use Lync Server functionality, if they are working from

home or are out on the road. Your users can invite outside users to participate in meetings.

If you have a partner, vendor or customer organization that also uses Lync Server, you

can form a federated relationship with that organization. Your Lync Server deployment

would then recognize users from that federated organization, leading to better

collaboration.

Your users can exchange instant messages with users of public IM services, including

any or all of the following: Windows Live, AOL, and Yahoo! Note that a separate license

might be required for public IM connectivity with Windows Live, AOL, and Yahoo!

If you also deploy the Lync Server XMPP Gateway, you can enable your users to

exchange instant messages with the users of providers and servers that use ExtensibleMessaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), such as Google Talk and Jabber.

Note:

To use XMPP, you must install the XMPP Gateway. You can download the

XMPP Gateway from the Microsoft Download Center at

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=202714. After you install the XMPP






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Gateway, you need to install the hotfix, which is available for download from

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=204561.

Reference Topology for Multiple Data CentersThe reference topology for multiple data centers is for any size of organization with more than

one central site. The exact topology in the following diagram is for an organization of 70,000

users, with 40,000 users at Central Site A and 30,000 at Central Site B. The type of topology

shown in this diagram can accommodate organizations with any number of users.

This topology is shown in multiple diagrams, with an overview first followed by detailed views of

the central sites.

Overview of the reference topology for multiple data centers






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Reference topology for multiple data centers: Detailed view of Central Site A



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Reference topology for multiple data centers: Detailed view of Central Site B



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Reference topology for multiple data centers: Detailed view of Central Site C

Active Directory deployment. All Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software

deployments reside in a single Active Directory forest. For this topology, the customer has

Lync Server deployed in two child domains, retail.contoso.com and

manufacturing.contoso.com.

Accommodate more users by adding more Front End Servers. The organization in this

diagram has five Front End Servers at Central Site A (for 40,000 users), and four Front End

Servers at Central Site B (for 30,000 users). If either site needs to accommodate more users,

you can simply add Front End Servers to the pool at that site. The maximum number of users

per pool is 80,000, with eight Front End Servers.However, each site can support even more users by adding another Front End pool to the

site. To support these extra users, you need to add only one additional Front End pool (that

is, just single pools at each site of A/V Conferencing Servers, Edge Servers, and Directors

are sufficient, although more servers may need to be added to these pools).

Using Standard Edition server at a branch site. Aside from its use in Lync Server, this

organization considers Site C as a branch site because it has only 600 employees. However,

the users there have many A/V conferences among themselves. If it was deployed in Lync



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Server as a branch site, the media for these conferences would run across the wide area

network (WAN) to and from a central site with A/V Conferencing Server installed. To avoid

this potential performance problem, they have installed a Standard Edition server at this site,

which will host these conferences. And because a Standard Edition server is installed there,

Lync Server by definition considers it a central site, and it is treated as such in Topology

Builder and the Planning Tool.

Important:


version. Final release of the Planning Tool is currently scheduled for the first quarter

of 2011. For details about the release candidate, see the release notes that

accompany the Planning Tool. Importing from a prerelease version of the Planning

Tool to the final version of Topology Builder is not supported. Note that the capacity

planning numbers in the Planning Tool are preliminary and are not supported for the

final release.

As long as the users at this site have a pool in another site set as their backup Registrar pool,

they will have high availability for Enterprise Voice—voice support will fail over to the backup

Registrar site automatically. For a more complete high availability solution at this site, you

could deploy a second Standard Edition server there.

Although Site C is considered a central site, you do not have to deploy Edge Servers there. In

this example, Site C will use the Edge Servers deployed at Site A.

Monitoring Server and Archiving Server collocation. This organization deploys both

Monitoring Server and Archiving Server. For organizations that deploy both, we recommend

that you collocate them to save server investment. When collocated, Monitoring Server and

Archiving Server can each support up to 100,000 users.

Note that you need to deploy Monitoring Server and Archiving Server in only one central site.

If the link between the two central sites goes down, the Message Queuing (also known as

MSMQ) technology used by both Monitoring Server and Archiving Server helps preserve data

while the link is temporarily down.

In this topology, Monitoring Server and Archiving Server use a separate database server than

any Front End pool.. Topologies in which the Monitoring Server and Archiving Server share

the same database servers as the Front End pool are also supported, although on large

deployments such as this, separate database servers are recommended for performance.

Branch site deployment options. The organization in this topology has Enterprise Voice

deployed as their voice solution. Branch Sites 1 and 3 do not have a resilient WAN link to the

central site, so they have Survivable Branch Appliances deployed to provide telephoneservice in case the WAN link to the central site goes down. Branch Site 2 however has a

resilient WAN link, so you need only a public switched telephone network (PSTN) gateway.

The PSTN gateway deployed there supports media bypass, so no Mediation Server is

needed at Branch Site B. For details about deciding what to install at a branch site, see

Planning for Enterprise Voice Resiliency in the Planning documentation.

SIP trunking and Mediation Server. Notice that at Site A, Mediation Server is not

collocated with the Front End Servers. This is because standalone Mediation Server is



recommended for sites that use SIP trunking. In most other instances, we recommend you

collocate Mediation Server with Front End Server. For details about Mediation Server

topologies, see Components and Topologies for Mediation Server in the Planning

documentation.

DNS load balancing. The Front End pool, Edge Server pool, and the Director pool have

DNS load balancing for SIP traffic deployed. This eliminates the need for hardware load

balancers for the internal interface of the Edge Servers, and significantly decreases the

amount of time you have to spend on the setup and maintenance of the hardware load

balancers for the other pools, as the hardware load balancers are needed only for HTTP

traffic. For details about DNS load balancing, see DNS Load Balancing in the Planning

documentation.

Exchange UM deployment. Lync Server 2010 works with both on-premises deployments of

Exchange Unified Messaging (UM) and hosted Exchange UM. Central Site A includes an

Exchange Unified Messaging (UM) Server, which runs Microsoft Exchange Server, not Lync

Server. The Exchange UM functionality for Lync Server runs on the Front End pool.

Central Site B uses hosted Exchange, so the Exchange UM Server functionality is also

hosted.

For details about Exchange UM, see On-Premises Exchange Unified Messaging Integration

and Hosted Exchange Unified Messaging Integration in the Planning documentation.

Chapter 01 Planning Primer Planning for Your Organization

Documents