Chapter 31. Planning to Deploy External Services

The Edge Server role is a key part of why Lync Server is such a compelling solution for businesses, but along with that power and flexibility comes a good deal of configuration work and upfront planning. Networking, firewalls, certificates, and load balancing mean the Edge Server touches practically every part of the network and, consequently, almost every team from server administrators to network engineers.

The Edge role has traditionally been the most difficult to configure, and Microsoft has made significant improvements to that process in the latest version. Configuration changes are now pushed out to Edge Servers from a central location instead of individually configuring servers, which cuts down on the chance for human error and ensures consistency among server pool members.

This chapter discusses what details to consider when planning for an Edge Server and how to properly prepare an Edge Server’s network adapters. It also details the firewall requirements and different topologies that can be used to support an Edge Server. Certificate requirements and planning guidance for the reverse proxy are also discussed. Lastly, some sample scenarios are presented for various deployment sizes with a full diagram, a list of certificate requirements, and public DNS entries.