Planning for im and conferencing lync server 2010 (rc)

Planning for Instant Messaging and Conferencing in Microsoft Lync Server 2010

Published: September 2010

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Contents

Planning for IM and Presence.....................................................................................................1

Features and Functionality of IM and Presence.......................................................................1

Defining Requirements for IM and Presence...........................................................................1

Topologies and Components for IM and Presence...................................................................2

Requirements for IM and Presence..........................................................................................2

Planning for Conferencing...........................................................................................................5

Defining Requirements for Conferencing.................................................................................5

Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing................................................................................9

Features and Functionality of Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing.............................9

Topologies for Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing...................................................10

Conferencing Topologies for Standard Edition................................................................10

Conferencing Topologies for Enterprise Edition...............................................................10

Components for Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing................................................11

Conferencing Components for Standard Edition..............................................................11

Conferencing Components for Enterprise Edition............................................................11

Requirements for Conferencing..........................................................................................12

Dial-In Conferencing in Lync Server 2010..............................................................................13

Dial-In Conferencing Capabilities........................................................................................13

Topologies Supporting Dial-In Conferencing.......................................................................15

Components Used for Dial-In Conferencing.......................................................................15

Requirements for Dial-In Conferencing...............................................................................17

Planning for Dial-In Conferencing.......................................................................................19

Deployment Process for Dial-In Conferencing....................................................................20

Planning for IM and PresenceInstant messaging (IM) and presence are the core capabilities of Microsoft Lync Server

2010 communications software, and are automatically deployed and enabled in every Lync

Server 2010 installation. The following sections provide more details about IM and presence.

Features and Functionality of IM and Presence

Defining Requirements for IM and Presence

Topologies and Components for IM and Presence

Requirements for IM and Presence

Features and Functionality of IM and PresenceInstant messaging (IM) enables your users to communicate with each other in real time on their

computers using text-based messages. Both two-party and multi-party IM sessions are

supported. A participant in a two-party IM conversation can add a third participant to the

conversation at any time. When this happens, the conversation window changes to support

conferencing features.

If you also deploy Edge Servers, you can choose to enable your users to exchange instant

messages with users of public IM services, including any or all of the following: the Windows Live

network of Internet services, AOL, and Yahoo!, as well as providers and servers that use

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

that a separate license might be required for public IM connectivity with Windows Live, AOL, and

Yahoo!

Presence provides information to users about the status of other on the network. A user’s

presence status provides information to help others decide whether they should try to contact the

user and whether to use instant messaging, phone, or email. Presence encourages instant

communication when possible, but it also provides information about whether a user is in a

meeting or out of the office, indicating that instant communication is not possible. This presence

status is exposed as a presence icon in Microsoft Lync 2010 communications software and other

presence-aware applications, including the Microsoft Outlook messaging and collaboration client,

Microsoft SharePoint technologies, Microsoft Word team services or portal server or services,

and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software. The presence icon represents the user’s current

availability and willingness to communicate.

Defining Requirements for IM and PresenceThe main task of planning for instant messaging (IM) and presence is ensuring that you have

enough Front End Servers for your users. In a Front End pool, you should have one Front End

Server for every 8000 users homed in the pool.

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Enabling Communication with External Users

You can greatly increase the benefits of your investment in Microsoft Lync Server

2010 communications software by enabling your users to communicate with external users.

External users can include:

Remote Users Your organization’s own users, when they are working outside your firewalls

and are using their laptops or other Lync Server devices.

Federated Users Users from companies you work with who also run Lync Server. To enable

your users to easily contact these users, you create federated relationships with these

companies.

Public Users Users of public IM services, such as IM services provided by Windows Live,

Yahoo!, and AOL.

Note:

Public IM connectivity requires a separate license.

To enable any or all of these scenarios, you need to deploy an Edge Server to help enable secure

communications between your Lync Server deployment and external users. Your organization’s

remote users, as well as users at federated organizations, will be able to see each other’s

presence and communicate using IM. For details about enabling communication with external

users, see External User Access.

Archiving IM Content

Lync Server provides features you can use if your organization must follow compliance

regulations. You can use the Archiving Server to archive the content of IM messages for all users

in your organization, or only certain users. For details, see Archiving Server.

Topologies and Components for IM and PresenceThe only components required for instant messaging (IM) and presence are:

Your organization’s Front End Servers or Standard Edition servers. IM and presence

capabilities are always enabled on these servers.

A load balancer, if you have a Front End pool. You can use either a hardware load balancer

for all load-balancing traffic, or use DNS load balancing for most of your traffic. For details

about DNS load balancing, see DNS Load Balancing.

Requirements for IM and PresenceInstant messaging (IM) and presence always run on Front End Servers. This section details the

hardware and software requirements for Front End Servers and Back End Servers, and the

supported collocation scenarios for Front End Servers.

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Hardware Requirements for Front End Servers

The hardware requirements for Front End Server are the same as for many other server roles in

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software. The following table outlines these

requirements.

Hardware Requirements for Front End Servers

Hardware component Minimum requirement

CPU Dual processor, quad-core 2.0 gigahertz

(GHz)+

4-way processor, dual-core 2.0 GHz+

Memory 16 gigabytes (GB)

Disk 10K RPM hard disk drive (HDD) (multiple

spindles recommended)

High-performance solid state drive (SSD)

with performance equal to or better than

10K RPM HDD

Network Dual 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) network

adapters (recommended)

Single 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) network

adapter (supported)

Software Requirements for Front End Servers

The Front End Server role can be deployed only on servers running Lync Server 2010 Enterprise

Edition.

You can use any of the following 64-bit Windows Server operating systems for all roles of Lync

Server 2010 Enterprise Edition, including Front End Server, A/V Conferencing Server, Director,

Mediation Server, Edge Server, Archiving Server, and Monitoring Server:

Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise

Windows Server 2008 Standard with Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise with SP2

Hardware Requirements for Back End Servers

The hardware requirements for Back End Server as follows:

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Hardware Requirements for Back End Servers



(GHz)+



Disk For a direct attached system drive:

10K RPM hard disk drive (HDD) (multiple




10K RPM HDD

For direct attached data storage:

10K or 15K RPM HDD (multiple spindles

recommended)

High-performance SSD with performance

equal to or better than 10K RPM HDD

Multiple spindles required

RAID 0 or RAID 10

Recommended minimum size per HDD: 72

GB



Single 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) network

adapter (supported)

Software Requirements for Back End Servers

The Back End Servers must run one of the following 64-bit versions of Microsoft SQL Server

database software:

SQL Server 2008 Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (SP1) (64-bit)

SQL Server 2008 Standard with SP1 (64-bit)

SQL Server 2005 Enterprise with SP3 (64-bit)

SQL Server 2005 Standard with SP3 (64-bit)

Supported Collocation

The Front End Server role can be collocated with A/V Conferencing Server and Mediation Server.

It cannot be collocated with Edge Server, Director, Monitoring Server, or Archiving Server.

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Planning for ConferencingMicrosoft Lync Server 2010 communications software offers a rich set of conferencing

capabilities:

Instant messaging (IM) conferencing, in which more than two parties communicate in a single

IM session.

Web conferencing, which includes document collaboration, application sharing and desktop

sharing.

A/V conferencing, which enables users to have real-time audio and/or video conferences

without the need for external services such as the Microsoft Live Meeting service or a third-

party audio bridge.

Dial-in conferencing, which allows users to join the audio portion of a Lync Server 2010

conference by using a public switched telephone network (PSTN) phone without requiring a

third party audio conferencing provider.

Both scheduled conferences and ad-hoc conferences are supported and can easily be initiated by

users.

When you deploy Front End Servers, you can choose whether to also deploy the web

conferencing, A/V conferencing, and dial-in conferencing capabilities. IM conferencing capabilities

are always automatically deployed along with IM conversation capabilities on Front End Servers.

The following sections describe what is required to deploy the various types of conferencing

capabilities, including the planning process, components, hardware and software requirements,

and the deployment process.

Defining Requirements for Conferencing

Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing

Dial-In Conferencing in Lync Server 2010

Defining Requirements for ConferencingDetermining which conferencing capabilities to deploy depends not only on the features you want

available to your users, but also on your network bandwidth capabilities.

The following list of questions guides you through the conferencing planning process to determine

what features of conferencing you should deploy, based on your organization’s requirements.

Do you want to enable web conferencing, which includes document collaboration and

application sharing?

If so, you must enable conferencing for your Front End pool in the Microsoft Lync Server

2010, Planning Tool or in Topology Builder. Enabling conferencing enables both web

conferencing and A/V conferencing.

Application sharing requires and uses more network bandwidth than document collaboration.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software provides a throttling mechanism to

control each application sharing session. By default, this is set to 1.5 KB/second for each

session.

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If you do not want to enable application sharing but you do want document collaboration, you

can enable conferencing and use meeting policies to disable application sharing.

Do you want to enable A/V conferencing?

If so, you must enable conferencing for your Front End pool in the Lync Server 2010,

Planning Tool or in Topology Builder. Enabling conferencing enables both web conferencing

and A/V conferencing.

A/V conferencing requires and uses more network bandwidth than document collaboration. If

you do not want to enable A/V conferencing but you do want web conferencing, you can

enable conferencing and use meeting policies to disable A/V conferences.

If you do want to enable audio conferences but not video conferences, you can enable A/V

conferencing and use meeting policies to prevent video conferences. Alternatively, you can

enable A/V conferencing and enable only certain users to start or participate in A/V

conferences.

Note:

Enterprise Voice is not necessary for A/V conferencing-if you enable A/V

conferencing, your users can add audio to their conferences if they have audio

devices, even if you use a PBX for your telephone solution.

Do you want to enable users to join the audio portion of conferences when using a

PSTN phone?

If so, deploy and enable dial-in conferencing. Invited users, both inside and outside of your

organization, can then join the audio portion of conferences by using a PSTN phone.

Do you want to enable external users with Lync Server clients to join the types of

conferences that you have enabled?

If so, you should deploy Edge Servers. Allowing external participation in meetings maximizes

your investment in Lync Server. For example, users with laptops with Microsoft Lync 2010

can join conferences from wherever they are—at home, in the airport, or at customer sites.

Additionally, with Edge Servers deployed you can create federated relationships with other

organizations-such as your customers or vendors-and users from those organizations can

more easily collaborate with your users.

A/V Conferencing Network Bandwidth Requirements

To plan for A/V conferencing, you need to understand the network bandwidth required by the type

of A/V conferencing that your organization requires.

Before you enable users for A/V conferencing, you should ensure your network can handle the

resulting load. Without sufficient network bandwidth, the end-user experience may be severely

degraded.

When planning for bandwidth usage per scenario, use the following table, which describes the

average amount of bandwidth used per media type. These numbers are preliminary and will be

updated in future releases.

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Additionally, a new feature in Lync Server 2010, call admission control, can help you manage the

network bandwidth used by A/V Conferencing. For details, see Overview of Call Admission

Control.

Audio/Video Capacity Planning

Media Minimum bandwidth

(Kbps)

Average bandwidth

(Kbps)

Maximum bandwidth

(Kbps)

Peer-to-Peer Audio 40 60 90

Audio Conference 40 95 160

Audio Using Media

Bypass

80 95 160

Video (CIF) 50 210 250

Panoramic Video 50 280 350

Video (VGA) 350 500 600

Video (HD) 800 1200 1500

The network bandwidth numbers in this table represent one-way traffic only and take silence

suppression into account.

When you calculate the actual bandwidth usage for a certain scenario, it is important to

understand the actual media flows, which are as follows:

In a two-party scenario:

Users send audio streams only while they speak.

Both participants receive audio streams.

If video is used, both users send and receive video streams during the entire call.

In a Conferencing scenario (that is, a call with more than two participants):

Users send audio streams only while they speak.

All participants receive audio streams.

If video is used, only two participants upload a video stream at a time (that is, the active

speaker and the previous active speaker)

If video is used, all participants receive video streams.

If a Polycom CX5000 conferencing device is used, two participants upload a Polycom

CX5000 device panorama stream.

If a RoundTable device is used, all participants receive a Polycom CX5000 device panorama

stream.

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Client A/V Devices

If you deploy audio conferencing on your network, your users will need audio devices such as

headsets to participate. If you also deploy video conferencing, you will need to roll out video

devices, such as webcams for users and the Polycom CX5000 device for conference rooms.

We recommend that you use unified communications (UC) devices that are certified by Microsoft

for all device types, to ensure an optimal end-user experience. For details about UC-certified

devices, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=186185.

For either audio or video devices, device rollout and user training are important issues for you to

consider and plan for, to maximize your return on investment in conferencing.

Enabling External Participation in Conferences

You can greatly increase the benefits of your investment in Lync Server conferencing by enabling

external users to also participate in conferences when invited. External users can include:

Remote Users Your organization’s own users, when they are working outside your firewalls

and are using their laptops or other Lync Server devices.

Federated Users Users from companies you work with who also run Lync Server. To enable

your users to easily contact these users, you create federated relationships with these

companies.

Anonymous Users Any other external users who are invited specifically by your users to

join specific conferences. A meeting organizer in your company can send an email invitation

for a conference to an external user. The email includes a link that the outside user can click

to join the conference.

To enable any or all of these scenarios, you deploy an Edge Server to help enable secure

communications between your Lync Server deployment and external users. The Lync Server

solution using edge servers provides higher quality media than other solutions such as a virtual

private network (VPN). For details, see External User Access.

Additionally, whether or not you deploy Edge Servers, you can enable users (either inside or

outside your organization) to dial in from standard PSTN phones to join on-premise audio

conferences. This is accomplished by deploying Lync Server dial-in conferencing.

Compatibility Among Meeting Types and Client Versions

Lync Server 2010 includes many improvements and enhancements to conferencing capabilities.

For details about these changes, see New Conferencing Features.

However, these changes require you to be aware of some conferencing interoperability issues in

Lync Server 2010. If you are going to have Lync Server 2010 interoperate with previous versions

of Office Communications Server and its clients, you must be aware of the following issues:

Users using Lync 2010 cannot schedule Live Meeting online conferences, or modify any

migrated meetings of this type.

Users using Lync 2010 who need to attend Live Meeting online conferences hosted on

servers running Office Communications Server 2007 R2 must have the Live Meeting client

installed on their computer (in addition to Lync 2010) to attend these meetings.

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http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=186185


When Live Meeting online conferences are migrated to Lync Server 2010, meeting content

does not migrate. If this content is needed, it must be uploaded again.

Users who are migrated from previous versions of Office Communications Server to Lync

Server 2010 and who use Lync 2010 will receive a new assigned dial-in conference ID the

first time they schedule an assigned dial-in conference meeting. They can use this new

assigned dial-in conference ID to both schedule and attend meetings. Their old ID will

continue to work for attending meetings, but not for scheduling new meetings.

Users in federated organizations who are using Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 or

Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 clients cannot join Lync Server 2010 meetings in your

organization if those meetings are locked by the organizer.

Web Conferencing and A/V ConferencingOn-premises conferencing in Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software includes two

major capabilities:

Web conferencing, which enables users to view, share and collaborate on documents online,

and share their applications and desktops with each other.

A/V conferencing, which enables users to communicate online with real-time audio and video.

This section describes what is required to plan and deploy these conferencing features, including

the decision process, components, hardware and software requirements, and the deployment

process.

Features and Functionality of Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing

Topologies for Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing

Components for Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing

Requirements for Conferencing

Features and Functionality of Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing

With web conferencing, users can share and collaborate on documents, such as Microsoft

PowerPoint presentations, during their online conferences. Additionally, users can share all or

part of their desktop with each other in real time, making it seem as though the people in the

conference were gathered around the same table in the meeting.

A/V conferencing enables real-time audio and video communications between your users (that is,

provided they have appropriate client devices such as headsets for audio conferences, and

webcams for video conferences).

When you deploy conferencing, you can choose to enable and use both web conferencing and

A/V conferencing, or just web conferencing.

With all forms of conferencing enabled, your users can enjoy the richest possible conferencing

environment with any combination of instant messaging (IM), audio, video, desktop sharing, slide

presentations, sharing attachments, and sharing applications. Conferences can be scheduled or

unscheduled, and users can easily add forms of communication to a conference while it happens.

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For example, starting with IM, adding document collaboration, and then adding voice or video.

New participants can also be added to ongoing conferences in real time.

Policies and Bandwidth Management

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software enables administrators to set policies on

the type of meetings that can be organized. This helps you enforce your organization’s policies

and control bandwidth usage.

You can define a wide variety of meeting policies, and assign them to individual users and groups

of users. You can also set policies that govern peer-to-peer conversations.

Compliance Features

Lync Server 2010 provides features you can use if your organization must follow compliance

regulations. You can use the archiving abilities to archive content presented in meetings, as well

as the content of IM conversations and IM conferences. For details, see Archiving Server.

Additionally, the Monitoring Server feature can capture call detail records, which you can use to

track which users talk to which other users using Lync Server 2010. For details, see Planning for

Monitoring.

Topologies for Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing

The Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software topology you should choose for

conferencing depends on your network size.

Conferencing Topologies for Standard Edition

Conferencing Topologies for Enterprise Edition

Conferencing Topologies for Standard Edition

On a Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition server, all forms of conferencing are collocated

on the Standard Edition server.

Conferencing Topologies for Enterprise Edition

When you use Topology Builder to deploy conferencing, you are asked whether to deploy the A/V

Conferencing Servers as a separate pool or to collocate this functionality on the Front End pool.

Deploying A/V Conferencing in a separate pool requires more physical servers, but improves A/V

performance and quality.

We recommend the following:

If you have fewer than 10,000 users at a site, you may collocate A/V conferencing with the

Front End Servers.

If you have more than 10,000 users at a site and you are deploying A/V conferencing, you

must deploy A/V Conferencing Servers in a separate pool. This pool should have one A/V

Conferencing Server for every 35,000 users at the site.

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Recommended topologies for A/V conferencing

Even if the site has multiple Front End pools, you need only one A/V Conferencing pool. There is

no limit on the number of servers in an A/V Conferencing pool.

If you are planning not to enable your users to use A/V Conferencing, then choose to collocate

the server functionality. Because there will be no such conferences, there will be no extra load on

the Front End Servers.

The server functionality for Data Conferencing is always located on the Front End Servers. The

load of data conferencing is included in the Front End Server guidelines. You can home up to

100,000 users per pool, and need to deploy one Front End Server for each 12,500 users homed

in the pool. A Front End pool can include up to 10 servers.

Components for Web Conferencing and A/V Conferencing

The Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software components required for conferencing

depend on your network size.

Conferencing Components for Standard Edition

Conferencing Components for Enterprise Edition

Conferencing Components for Standard Edition

On a Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition server, the server is the only component

necessary for web conferencing and A/V conferencing.

Conferencing Components for Enterprise Edition

Front End Servers, and A/V Conferencing Servers in larger sites, are the only components

required for web conferencing.

Data Conferencing capabilities are provided entirely by Enterprise Edition Front End Servers, and

Standard Edition servers.

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A/V Conferencing capabilities are provided by the A/V Conferencing Server, which is either

collocated with your Front End Server pool (for sites with fewer than 10,000 users) or separated

into its own A/V Conferencing pool (for sites with more than 10,000 users).

A/V Conferencing pools do not need to be load balanced.

Requirements for Conferencing

For Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software, instant messaging (IM) conferencing

and web conferencing capabilities always run on Front End Servers. A/V conferencing runs either

on Front End Servers or on separate A/V Conferencing Servers. The hardware and software

requirements for Front End Servers and A/V Conferencing Servers are identical.

This section details the hardware and software requirements for these servers, along with the

supported collocation.

Hardware Requirements for Front End Servers and A/V Conferencing Servers

The hardware requirements for Front End Server are the same as for many other server roles in

Lync Server 2010 are outlined in the following table.

Hardware Requirements for Front End Servers and A/V Conferencing Servers



(GHz)+



Disk 10K RPM hard disk drive (HDD) (multiple




10K RPM HDD



Single 1 Gbps network adapter (supported)

Software Requirements for Front End Servers and A/V Conferencing Servers

The Front End Server role can be deployed only on servers running Lync Server 2010 Enterprise

Edition.

Any of the following 64-bit Windows Server operating systems is required for all roles of Lync

Server 2010 Enterprise Edition, including Front End Server, A/V Conferencing Server, Director,

Mediation Server, Edge Server, Archiving Server, and Monitoring Server:

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Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise

Windows Server 2008 Standard with Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise with SP2

Supported Collocation

The Front End Server role can be collocated with A/V Conferencing Server and Mediation Server.

It cannot be collocated with Edge Server, Director, Monitoring Server, or Archiving Server.

If A/V Conferencing Server is separated into its own server pool, no other server roles can be

collocated in that pool.

Dial-In Conferencing in Lync Server 2010Dial-in conferencing is an optional component that you can set up when you deploy Microsoft

Lync Server 2010 communications software. You can deploy dial-in conferencing even if you do

not deploy Enterprise Voice, but you must deploy some Enterprise Voice components and

perform some Enterprise Voice configuration tasks. This section describes what is required to

deploy dial-in conferencing, including the components, hardware and software, and major steps

in the deployment process.

In This Section

Dial-In Conferencing Capabilities

Topologies Supporting Dial-In Conferencing

Components Used for Dial-In Conferencing

Requirements for Dial-In Conferencing

Planning for Dial-In Conferencing

Deployment Process for Dial-In Conferencing

Dial-In Conferencing Capabilities

If your organization has users who need to attend Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications

software on-premises conferences when they are out of the office or do not have access to a

computer, you can deploy dial-in conferencing so that they can join the conference by using a

public switched telephone network (PSTN) phone.

Dial-in conferencing is an optional feature when you deploy Lync Server 2010 Conferencing.

Although dial-in conferencing uses some of the same Lync Server components that Enterprise

Voice uses, you can deploy dial-in conferencing even if you do not deploy Enterprise Voice.

Note:

If you deploy dial-in conferencing, you must deploy it in every pool where you deploy

Lync Server 2010 Conferencing. You do not need to assign access numbers in every

pool, but you must deploy the dial-in feature in every pool. This requirement supports the

recorded name feature when a user calls an access number from one pool to join a Lync

Server 2010 conference in a different pool.

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Conferences must be enabled for dial-in access in meeting policy. By default, conferences that

are enabled for dial-in access include the following information in the conference invitation:

A numeric conference ID. The ID identifies the conference.

One or more PSTN access numbers.

A link to a Dial-in Conferencing Settings Web page, which contains a complete list of access

numbers with their associated languages; a place to create, reset, or unblock personal

identification numbers (PINs); and other information, such as dual-tone multi-frequency

(DTMF) controls.

Dial-in conferencing supports both enterprise and anonymous users. Enterprise users have

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) credentials and Lync Server accounts within their

organization. Anonymous users do not have enterprise credentials within your organization. In the

dial-in conferencing context, a user in a federated partner’s organization who uses the PSTN to

connect to a conference is treated like an anonymous user.

Enterprise users or conference leaders who join a conference that is enabled for dial-in access

dial one of the conference access numbers and then are prompted to enter the conference ID. If

a leader has not yet joined the meeting, users can either enter their unified communications (UC)

extension (or full phone number) and PIN or wait to be admitted by a leader. Meeting organizers

can join the meeting as a leader by entering just their PIN. The Front End Server uses the

combination of full phone number or extension, and PIN, to uniquely map enterprise users to their

Active Directory credentials. As a result, enterprise users are authenticated and identified by

name in the conference. Enterprise users can also assume a conference role predefined by the

organizer.

Note:

Enterprise users who dial in from an office IP phone or from Lync 2010 or Lync 2010

Attendant are not prompted for their phone number because they are already

authenticated.

Anonymous users who want to join a dial-in conference dial one of the conference access

numbers and then they are prompted to enter the conference ID. Unauthenticated anonymous

users are also prompted to record their name. The recorded name identifies unauthenticated

users in the conference. Anonymous users are not admitted to the conference until at least one

leader or authenticated user has joined, and they cannot be assigned a predefined role.

Note:

Enterprise users who choose not to enter their phone number and PIN are not

authenticated and, thus, are prompted to record their name.

At schedule time, the meeting organizer can choose to restrict access to the meeting by making

the meeting closed or locked. In this case, dial-in users are requested to authenticate. If they fail

or choose not to authenticate, they are transferred to the lobby, where they wait until a leader

accepts or rejects them or they time out and are disconnected. Dial-in users hear music if they

are waiting to be admitted to the conference. After they are admitted to a conference, dial-in users

can participate in the audio portion of the conference and can exercise dual-tone multi-frequency

(DTMF) commands by using the phone keypad. Dial-in leaders can exercise DTMF commands to

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turn participants' ability to unmute on or off, lock or unlock the conference, admit people from the

lobby, and turn entry and exit announcements on or off. Leaders can also use a DTMF command

to admit everyone from the lobby, which changes the permissions of the meeting to allow anyone

who subsequently joins. All dial-in participants can exercise DTMF commands to hear Help, listen

to the conference roster, and mute themselves.

Dial-in participants (that is, whether or not they dial from the PSTN), hear personal

announcements during the conference, such as whether they have been muted or unmuted, the

meeting is being recorded, or someone is waiting in the lobby.

Note:

Participants who join the conference by clicking a link instead of dialing in do not hear

personal announcements.

Topologies Supporting Dial-In Conferencing

You can deploy dial-in conferencing in the following topologies and configurations:

On Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition

On Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Edition

In a separate A/V Conferencing pool

With or without Enterprise Voice

You can deploy Application service, Conference Attendant, and Conference Announcement in a

central site, but not in a branch site.

Note:

If you deploy dial-in conferencing, you must deploy it in every pool where you deploy

Lync Server 2010 Conferencing. You do not need to assign access numbers in every

pool, but you must deploy the dial-in conferencing feature in every pool. This requirement

supports the recorded name feature when a user calls an access number from one pool

to join a Lync Server 2010 conference in a different pool.

Components Used for Dial-In Conferencing

The following Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software components are used for

dial-in conferencing:

Application service Application service provides a platform for deploying, hosting, and

managing unified communications (UC) applications. Dial-in conferencing uses two UC

applications that require Application service: Conferencing Attendant and Conferencing

Announcement. Application service is installed and activated by default on every Front End

Server in a Front End pool and on every Standard Edition server when you deploy a

conferencing workload and select the dial-in conferencing option.

Conferencing Attendant application Conferencing Attendant is a unified communications

application that accepts public switched telephone network (PSTN) calls, plays prompts, and

joins the calls to an A/V conference. Conferencing Attendant is installed and activated by

default when you deploy a Conferencing workload and select the dial-in conferencing option.

15


Conferencing Announcement application Conferencing Announcement is a unified

communications application that plays tones and prompts to PSTN participants on certain

actions, such as when participants join or leave a conference, participants are muted or

unmuted, someone enters the conference lobby, or the conference is locked or unlocked.

Conferencing Announcement also supports dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) commands

from the phone keypad. Conferencing Announcement is automatically installed and activated

by default when you deploy a Conferencing workload and select the dial-in conferencing

option.

Dial-in Conferencing Settings Web page The Dial-in Conferencing Settings Web page

displays conference dial-in numbers with their available languages, assigned conference

information (that is, for meetings that do not need to be scheduled), and in-conference DTMF

controls, and supports management of personal identification number (PIN) and assigned

conferencing information. The Dial-in Conferencing Settings Web page is automatically

installed as part of Web Services.

Lync Server 2010 Mediation Server and PSTN gateway Dial-in conferencing requires a

Mediation Server to translate signaling (and media, in some configurations) between Lync

Server and the PSTN gateway, and a PSTN gateway to translate signaling and media

between the Mediation Server and the PSTN. For dial-in conferencing, you must deploy at

least one Mediation Server and at least one of the following:

An IP-PSTN gateway

An IP-PBX

A Session Border Controller (SBC) for an Internet telephony service provider to which

you connect by configuring a SIP trunk

Note:

If you are also deploying Enterprise Voice, Mediation Servers and PSTN gateways

are part of the Enterprise Voice deployment. If you are not deploying Enterprise

Voice, you need to deploy at least one Mediation Server and at least one PSTN

gateway for dial-in conferencing.

File store File store is used for recorded name audio files. File Store is a standard

component in every Enterprise Edition or Standard Edition deployment.

User store User store is used to store user Lync Server 2010 PINs. PINs are encrypted.

The User store is a standard component in every Enterprise Edition or Standard Edition

deployment.

Lync Server Control Panel Some dial-in settings can be configured by using Lync Server

Control Panel.

Lync Server 2010 Management Shell All dial-in settings can be configured by using Lync

Server 2010 Management Shell cmdlets. Lync Server 2010 Management Shell cmdlets are

available for deploying, configuring, running, monitoring, and troubleshooting Conferencing

Attendant and Conferencing Announcement. For details about specific cmdlets, see Lync

Server 2010 Management Shell documentation.

16


Requirements for Dial-In Conferencing

Dial-in conferencing is a feature that comprises a variety of components. Some of the

components are specific to dial-in conferencing and some are Enterprise Voice components. This

section describes the requirements for the components that are specific to dial-in conferencing.

For details about Mediation Server and media gateway requirements, see "Mediation Server

Component" and "Components and Topologies for Mediation Server".

Hardware Requirements

Application service, Conferencing Attendant, and Conferencing Announcement have the same

server hardware requirements as Front End Servers. For details about hardware requirements,

see "Server Hardware Platforms" in the Supportability documentation.

Software Requirements

Application service, Conferencing Attendant, and Conferencing Announcement have the same

operating system requirements as Front End Servers. For details about software requirements,

see "Server and Tools Operating System Support" in the Supportability documentation.

Conferencing Attendant and Conferencing Announcement require that Windows Media Format

Runtime is installed on Front End Servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server

2008. The Windows Media Format Runtime is required to play Windows Media audio (WMA) files

that are used for music on hold, recorded names, and prompts. The Windows Media Format

Runtime is installed automatically when you run Setup, but you might need to restart the

computer. Therefore, it is recommended that you install Windows Media Format Runtime before

you run Setup.

Port Requirements

The following table describes the ports that are used by dial-in conferencing. If you use a load

balancer, ensure that the load balancer is configured for the ports used by any applications that

will run in the pool.

Note:

All instances of the same application in a pool use the same SIP listening port.

Ports used by dial-in conferencing

Port number Description

5072 Used by Conferencing Attendant for SIP

listening requests

5073 Used by Conferencing Announcement for SIP

listening requests

Supported Clients for Dial-In Conferencing

You can use the following client to schedule on-premises conferences that support dial-in access:

17


Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Outlook 2010 (installed automatically when you install

Microsoft Lync 2010 or Lync 2010 Attendant)

Dial-in Conferencing Settings Web Page Requirements

The Dial-in Conferencing Settings Web page supports the combinations of operating systems and

Web browsers described in the following table.

Note:

32-bit and 64-bit versions of the operating systems are supported.

Supported Operating Systems and Web Browsers

Operating system Web browser

Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3) Microsoft nternet Explorer 6

Windows Internet Explorer 7

Windows Internet Explorer 8

Mozilla Firefox 3.x

Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 (SP2) Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 8

Firefox 3.x

Windows 7 Internet Explorer 8

Firefox 3.x

Windows Server 2008 Internet Explorer 8

Firefox 3.x

Audio File Requirements

Lync Server 2010 does not support customization of voice prompts and music for dial-in

conferencing. However, if you have a strong business need that requires you to change the

default audio files, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 961177, "How to customize voice

prompts or music files for dial-in audio conferencing in Microsoft Office Communications Server

2007 R2," available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=179684.

Conferencing Attendant and Conferencing Announcement have the following requirements for

music on hold, recorded name, and audio prompt files:

Windows Media Audio (WMA) file format

16-bit mono

48 kbps 2-pass CBR (constant bit rate)

Speech level at -24DB

18

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=179684


User Requirements

Dial-in conferencing users must have a unique phone number or extension assigned to their

account. This requirement supports authentication during dial-in. Enterprise users (that is, users

who have Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) credentials and Lync Server accounts within

your organization) enter their phone number (or extension) and a PIN to dial in to conferences as

an authenticated user.

Planning for Dial-In Conferencing

Before you start the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software deployment process

you need to plan for the following:

The configuration to use for connecting to the public switched telephone network (PSTN)

Your strategy for assigning dial-in conferencing regions to dial-in access numbers

Planning for Dial-in PSTN Connectivity

Dial-in conferencing requires at least one Mediation Server and at least one PSTN gateway.

You can deploy a Mediation Server in a central site or in a branch site. In a central site, you can

collocate a Mediation Server on a Front End pool or Standard Edition server, or you can deploy it

on a stand-alone server or pool. In a branch site, you can deploy a Mediation Server on a stand-

alone server or as a component of the Survivable Branch Appliance.

You can deploy a PSTN gateway in a central site or in a branch site. In a branch site, the PSTN

gateway can be stand-alone or a component of the Survivable Branch Appliance.

Note:

We recommend that you deploy a PSTN gateway that supports media bypass because

media bypass reduces resource utilization on the Mediation Server. PSTN gateways that

support media bypass handle only signaling, and not the media traffic.

For details about planning your configuration for Mediation Servers and PSTN gateways for dial-

in conferencing, see "Components and Topologies for Mediation Server".

Planning for Dial-in Conferencing Regions

During dial-in configuration, you create dial plans and dial-in conferencing access numbers. Dial

plans are sets of normalization rules that specify the number and pattern of digits in a phone

number and translate the phone number into the standard E.164 format for call routing. Dial-in

conferencing access numbers are the numbers participants call to join a conference.

Every dial-in conferencing access number must be associated with at least one dial plan. Dial-in

conferencing regions associate a dial-in conferencing access number with its dial plans. When

you set up a dial plan, you specify the dial-in conferencing region that applies to the dial plan.

Then when you create the dial-in access number, you select the regions that associate the

access number with the appropriate dial plans.

When you create a dial plan, you specify the scope of the dial plan: user scope, pool scope, or

site scope. Every user is assigned the dial plan from the narrowest scope that applies to the user.

For example, a user is assigned a user-level dial plan, if one applies. If a user-level dial plan does

not apply, the user is assigned a pool-level dial plan. If a pool-level dial plan does not apply, the

19


user is assigned a site-level dial plan. If a site-level dial plan does not apply, the user is assigned

the global dial plan.

Before you configure the dial plans, is it important to plan how you want to name and use regions.

The following considerations apply to dial-in conferencing regions:

A region is typically a geographical area that is associated with an office or group of offices.

Languages are associated with dial-in access numbers. If you support geographical areas

that have multiple languages, you should decide how you want to define regions to support

the multiple languages. For example, you might define multiple regions based on a

combination of geography and language, or you might define a single region based on

geography and have a different dial-in access numbers for each language.

When a user schedules a meeting, by default the meeting uses the region specified by that

user's dial plan.

By default, the first three dial-in access numbers for the region are included in the meeting

invitation.

It is important to name regions so that they are clearly recognizable. The user can use the

names of the regions to change a meeting's region so that different access numbers are

included in the invitation. (The user uses the Online Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Lync 2010

to change the region).

Regions should be designed so that any invitee who wants to dial into a conference can see

a local access number in the conference invitation.

You can configure the order in which access numbers within a region appear on the Dial-in

Conferencing Settings Web page (and, therefore, the order in which they appear in the

conference invitation) by using Lync Server 2010 Management Shell cmdlets.

Any user from any location can call any dial-in access number to join a conference.

See Also

Mediation Server Component

Dial Plans and Normalization Rules

Deployment Process for Dial-In Conferencing

The components required for dial-in conferencing are deployed when you deploy the

Conferencing workload. Before you can configure dial-in conferencing, you need to deploy either

Enterprise Voice or a Mediation Server and a public switched telephone network (PSTN)

gateway.

All the steps in the following table must be performed before users can dial in from the PSTN to

join an audio/video conference.

Note:

If you are migrating from Office Communications Server 2007 R2, you must apply at least

Cumulative Update 5 (CU5) to your Office Communications Server 2007 R2 environment

before deploying dial-in conferencing. CU5 supports participants dialing Office

Communications Server 2007 R2 access numbers to join Lync Server 2010 conferences.

20


Dial-in Conferencing Deployment Process

Phase Steps Permissions Documentation

Create a topology

that includes the

Conferencing

workload,

including a

Mediation Server

and PSTN

gateway, and

deploy the Front

End pool or

Standard Edition

server.

1. Run the Planning Tool to

configure your topology, and

export the topology into

Topology Builder. While

configuring the topology, select

the dial-in conferencing option.

2. Publish the topology and deploy

the Front End pool or Standard

Edition server.

3. If necessary, create a stand-

alone Mediation Server and

associate it with a PSTN

gateway.

Note:

This step is required

only if you do not deploy

Enterprise Voice and do

not collocate the

Mediation Server with

the Enterprise Edition

Front End Server or

Standard Edition server.

If you deploy Enterprise

Voice, you install and

configure Mediation

Servers and PSTN

gateways as part of the

Enterprise Voice

deployment. If you

collocate the Mediation

Server, you install and

configure the Mediation

Server as part of the

Front End pool or

Standard Edition server

deployment.

Domain Admins

group

RTCUniversalServe

rAdmins group

CsVoiceAdministrat

or

CsAdministrator

"Using the

Planning Tool

to Design the

Topology

(Optional) in

the

Deployment

documentation

"Deploying

Lync Server

2010 (Release

Candidate)" in

the

Deployment

documentation

To create a

stand-alone

Mediation

Server pool,

see

"Deploying

Mediation

Servers and

Defining

Gateway

Peers" in the

Deployment

documentation

Configure dial

plans

A dial plan is a set of phone number

normalization rules that translate

phone numbers dialed from a

specific location to a single standard

CsVoiceAdministrat

or

CsAdministrator

"Configure Dial

Plans for Dial-in

Conferencing"

in the

21



(E.164) format for purposes of

phone authorization and call routing.

The same phone number dialed

from different locations can, based

on the respective dial plans, resolve

to different E.164 numbers, as

appropriate to each location. If you

deploy Enterprise Voice, you set up

dial plans as part of that

deployment, and you need to ensure

that the dial plans also

accommodate dial-in conferencing.

If you do not deploy Enterprise

Voice, you need to set up dial plans

for dial-in conferencing.

Use the Microsoft Lync Server 2010

Control Panel or Lync Server 2010

Management Shell to set up dial

plans as follows:

1. Create one or more dial plans

for routing dial-in access phone

numbers.

2. Assign a default dial plan to

each pool. Set the Dial-in

conferencing region to the

geographic location to which the

dial plan applies. The region

associates the dial plan with

dial-in access numbers.

Deployment

documentation

Ensure that dial

plans are

assigned regions

Run the Get-CsDialPlan and Set-

CsDialPlan cmdlets to ensure that

all dial plans have a region

assigned.

CsVoiceAdministrat

or

CsAdministrator

"Ensure Dial

Plans Have

Assigned

Regions" in the

Deployment

documentation

(Optional) Verify

or modify user

personal

identification

number (PIN)

requirements.

Use Lync Server 2010 Control Panel

or Lync Server 2010 Management

Shell to view or modify the

Conferencing PIN Policy. You can

specify minimum PIN length,

maximum number of logon attempts,

CsAdministrator "(Optional)

Verify PIN

Policy Settings"

in the

Deployment

22



PIN expiration, and whether

common patterns are allowable.

documentation

Configure

conferencing

policy to support

dial-in

conferencing.



Shell to configure Conferencing

Policy settings. Specify whether:

PSTN conference dial-in is

enabled.

Users can invite anonymous

participants.

Unauthenticated users can join

a conference by using dial-out

phoning. With dial-out phoning,

the conference server calls the

user, and the user answers the

phone to join the conference.

CsAdministrator "Configure

Conferencing

Policy for Dial-

in" in the

Deployment

documentation

Configure dial-in

access numbers



Shell to set up dial-in access

numbers that users call to dial in to

a conference, and specify the

regions that associate the access

number with the appropriate dial

plans. The first three access

numbers for the region specified by

the organizer's dial plan are

included in the conference invitation.

All access numbers are available on

the Dial-in Conferencing Settings

Web page.

Note:

After you create dial-in

access numbers, you can

use the Set-

CsDialInConferencingAcc

essNumber cmdlet to

modify the display name of

the Active Directory contact

objects so that users can

more easily identify the

CsAdministrator "Configure Dial-

in Conferencing

Access

Numbers" in the

Deployment

documentation

23



correct access number.

(Optional) Verify

dial-in

conferencing

settings

Use the Get-

CsDialinConferencingAccessNum

ber cmdlet to search for dial plans

that have a dial-in conferencing

region that is not used by any

access number and for access

numbers that have no region

assigned.

CsAdministrator

CsViewOnlyAdminis

trator

CsServerAdministra

tor

CsHelpDesk

"(Optional)

Verify Dial-in

Conferencing

Settings" in the

Deployment

documentation

(Optional) Modify

key mapping of

DTMF commands

Use the Set-

CsDialinConferencingDtmfConfig

uration cmdlet to modify the keys

used for dual-tone multifrequency

(DTMF) commands, which

participants can use to control

conference settings (such as mute

and unmute or lock and unlock).


Modify Key

Mapping for

DTMF

Commands" in

the Deployment

documentation

(Optional) Modify

conference join

and leave

announcement

behavior

Use the Set-

CsDialinConferencingConfigurati

on to change how announcements

work when participants join and

leave conferences.


Enable and

Disable

Conference

Join and Leave

Announcement

s" in the

Deployment

documentation

(Optional) Test

dial-in

conferencing

Use the Test-

CsDialInConferencing cmdlet to

test that the access numbers for the

specified pool work correctly.

CsAdministrator "(Optional) Test

Dial-in

Conferencing"

in the

Deployment

documentation

Configure user

account settings



Shell to configure the telephony

Line URI as a unique, normalized

phone number (for example, tel:

+14255550200).

CsAdministrator

CsUserAdministrato

r

"Configure User

Account

Settings" in the

Deployment

documentation

Deploy Online Deploy the Online Meeting Add-in Administrators

24



Meeting Add-in for

Microsoft Lync

2010

for Microsoft Lync 2010 so that

users can schedule conferences

that support dial-in conferencing.

The Online Meeting Add-in for

Microsoft Lync 2010 is installed

automatically when you install

Microsoft Lync 2010.

group

(Optional)

Welcome users to

dial-in

conferencing and

set the initial PIN

Use the Set-

CsPinSendCAWelcomeMail script

to set users' initial PINs and send a

welcome email that contains the

initial PIN and a link to the Dial-in

Conferencing Settings Web page.

CsAdministrator

CsUserAdministrato

r

"(Optional)

Welcome Users

to Dial-in

Conferencing"

in the

Deployment

documentation

25

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