Shared Components High-Availability

Lync Server relies on many commonly shared services to provide Lync services. This includes Active Directory, Office Web Apps Server, Exchange Server, and various network components such as firewalls and hardware load balancers.

Active Directory

It is important to ensure that Active Directory is configured in a redundant fashion. Active Directory topologies vary across every organization; however, a general rule of thumb is to make sure that each site where Active Directory components are deployed always contains a redundant server configuration. It is more important to take Active Directory availability into consideration when planning for availability of your Lync infrastructure, and to identify any gaps in redundancy before deployment.

Office Web Apps Server

In the context of providing high-availability to Office Web Apps Server, it is best to be classified as a simple web application. Office Web Apps Server can be configured as a farm with multiple servers in the farm. Office Web Apps Server supports using a hardware load balancer to distribute traffic to all servers in the farm, providing redundancy and increased scale.

Exchange Server

Exchange Server redundancy probably has many books of its own, and is not outlined in detail here. However, much as with Active Directory, it is important to consider the availability of Exchange Server in your Lync service availability planning. Remember, the availability of your Lync solution is only as high as the weakest link; if voice mail goes down, your SLA will not be honored.

Network Equipment, Firewalls, Reverse Proxies and Hardware Load Balancers

Network switches, routers, firewalls, reverse proxies and hardware load balancers of all types support redundant configurations. In many cases, these devices support being configured as a redundant pool or pair. This allows for a seamless failover of one node while retaining services on the failover node. Regardless of how the devices are configured for redundancy, it is important to make sure that all equipment supporting your Lync users and servers is deployed with high-availability in mind.

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