Network Requirements

Two or more 1GbE or 10GbE adapters are required. Again, consider the combined I/O of your virtual machines; sizing for total throughput is important. Virtual Machine Queue and SR-IOV are recommended.

In Lync Server 2010, there was a fairly strict suggestion from Microsoft that a dedicated network adapter should be used for each Lync virtual machine. As 10GbE network adapters have become more common, it is increasingly challenging to dedicate network cards to specific virtual machines.

In a traditional virtualization environment, most virtual machines share traffic through a single or teamed set of physical network adapters. Virtual machines compete for network bandwidth resources through the same physical links and can be subject to delays or queues when other virtual machines have heavy bursts of traffic. If shared network cards must be used, a level of hypervisor QoS should be utilized to ensure that Lync Server roles are provided with adequate bandwidth at all times.