Chapter 16. Migrating from Lync Server 2010

Much as with Microsoft Exchange, there’s only one way to do an upgrade or a migration to Lync Server 2013. The upgrade process is a migration in the sense that Lync must be built on separate servers in parallel to the existing deployment. This is commonly referred to as a side-by-side migration. The process is fairly straightforward with only a few challenging areas. The lack of options can be a blessing in the sense that there is less to go wrong when there is only one “right” way to do it. Keep in mind that in most migration scenarios there will be a period of coexistence with Lync Server 2010.

If your organization is still using Live Communications Server 2003 or 2005, you’ll need to crawl out from under that rock and upgrade to Office Communications Server 2007 R2 as an interim step before moving on to Lync Server 2013.

Assuming that Lync Server 2010 is already in place, the Lync Architect will want to plan the architecture, starting with deploying a Lync Server 2013 pool, and then Edge Server. The Lync 2013 Edge Server can proxy connections for users in both Lync Server 2013 pools and Lync Server 2010 pools. This means there is no need to maintain separate Edge Servers during the coexistence period. This chapter goes into more detail in the “Edge Migration to Lync Server 2013” section coming up. If you have completed a migration from Office Communications Server 2007 to Lync Server 2010, the process will be very familiar to you.

This chapter highlights the full life cycle of the migration process. The migration sequence is always site-by-site and side-by-side, starting with the first site deploying the Lync 2013 pool, Edge, and Director (if required), and then migrating the pools side-by-side. Where the “migration” is a simple rip-and-replace, such as the archiving server role and monitoring server role, the topic isn’t covered in great detail. Finally, the chapter concludes with troubleshooting and best practices.