• Article

Define the Topology for a Hardware Load Balanced Edge Pool

 

Topic Last Modified: 2012-05-21

You must use Topology Builder to build your topology and you must set up at least one internal Front End pool or Standard Edition server before you can deploy your Edge Server. Use the following procedure to define the edge topology for a hardware load-balanced Edge pool, and then use the procedures in Publish Your Topology and Export Your Topology and Copy It to External Media for Edge Installation to publish the topology and make it available to your Edge Server.

Note

The internal Edge interface and external Edge interface must use the same type of load balancing. You cannot use DNS load balancing on one Edge interface and hardware load balancing on the other Edge interface.

To successfully publish, enable, or disable a topology when adding or removing a server role, you must be logged on as a user who is a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins and Domain Admins groups. You can also grant the administrator rights and permissions required for adding server roles to a user account. For details, see Delegate Setup Permissions in the Standard Edition server or Enterprise Edition server Deployment documentation. For other configuration changes, only membership in the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group is required.

If you defined your edge topology when you defined and published your internal topology, and no changes are required to the edge topology that you previously defined, you do not need to define it and publish it again. Use the following procedure only if you need to make changes to your edge topology. You must make the previously defined and published topology available to your Edge Servers, which you do by using the procedure in Export Your Topology and Copy It to External Media for Edge Installation.

Important

You cannot run Topology Builder from an Edge Server. You must run it from your Front End Server or Standard Edition servers.

To define the topology for a hardware load balanced Edge Server pool

  1. Start Topology Builder: Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Lync Server 2010, and then click Lync Server Topology Builder.

  2. In the console tree, expand the site in which you want to deploy Edge Servers.

  3. Right-click Edge Pools, and then select New Edge Pool.

  4. In Define the New Edge Pool, click Next.

  5. In Define the Edge pool FQDN, do the following:

    • In FQDN, type the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) you have chosen for the internal side of the Edge pool.

      Important

      Use only standard characters (including A–Z, a–z, 0–9, and hyphens) when assigning FQDNs of your Lync Servers, Edge Servers, and pools. Do not use Unicode characters or underscores. Nonstandard characters in an FQDN are often not supported by external DNS and public CAs (when the FQDN must be assigned to the SN in the certificate). For details about adding a DNS suffix to a computer name, see Configure DNS Records for Edge Support.

    • Click Multiple computer pool, and then Next.

  6. In Select features do the following:

    • If you plan to use a single FQDN and IP address for the SIP access service, Lync Server Web Conferencing service, and A/V Edge service, select the Use a single FQDN & IP Address check box.

      Important

      Using a single FQDN and IP address will reduce the number of IP addresses required, but will require a distinct and separate port for each interface, by default 5061 for the Access Edge, and 444 for the Web Conferencing Edge. External users who are behind a proxy or firewall that does not allow communication over ports such as port 5061 and 444 may not be able to connect to your deployment. It is recommended to use the multiple FQDN and IP address selection with port 443 assigned to each interface.

    • If you plan to enable federation, select the Enable federation for this Edge pool (Port 5061) check box.

      Note

      You can select this option, but only one Edge pool or Edge Server in your organization may be published externally for federation. All access by federated users, including public instant messaging (IM) users, go through the same Edge pool or single Edge Server. For instance, if your deployment includes an Edge pool or single Edge Server deployed in New York and one deployed in London and you enable federation support on the New York Edge pool or single Edge Server, signal traffic for federated users will go through the New York Edge pool or single Edge Server. This is true even for communications with London users, although a London internal user calling a London federated user uses the London pool or Edge Server for A/V traffic.

    Important

    Do Not select the The external IP address of the Edge pool is translated by NAT check box. Network address translation (NAT) is not supported when you are using hardware load balancing.

  7. Click Next.

  8. In External FQDNs, do the following:

    • If in Select features you did not chose to use a single FQDN and IP address, type the FQDN that you have chosen for your public facing side of the edge pool for in SIP Access. In Web Conferencing, type the FQDN you have chosen for your public facing side of the Edge pool. In Audio/Video, type the FQDN you have chosen for your public facing side of the Edge pool. Use the default ports. (By default, port 443) This is the recommended selection.

      Note

      These will be the publicly facing virtual IP (VIP) FQDNs for the pool. By selecting this option, you can help prevent potential connectivity issues and simplify the configuration because you can then use the same port number for all three services.

    • If in Select features you chose to use a single FQDN and IP address for the SIP access, Web Conferencing service, and A/V Edge service, type the external FQDN in SIP Access.

      Note

      If you choose to select this option, you must specify a different port number for each of the Edge services (recommended port settings: 5061 for Access Edge service, 444 for Web Conferencing Edge service, and 443 for A/V Edge service).

  9. Click Next.

  10. In Define the computers in this pool, click Add.

  11. In Internal FQDN and IP address, do the following:

    • In Internal IP address, type the IP address of the first Edge Server that you want to create in this pool.

    • In Internal FQDN, type the FQDN of the first Edge Server that you want to create in this pool.

      Note

      Use only standard characters (including A–Z, a–z, 0–9, and hyphens) when assigning FQDNs of your Lync Servers, Edge Servers, pools, and arrays. Do not use Unicode characters or underscores. Nonstandard characters in an FQDN are often not supported by external DNS and public CAs (when the FQDN must be assigned to the SN in the certificate). For details about adding a DNS suffix to a computer name, see Configure DNS Records for Edge Support.

  12. Click Next.

  13. In Define the external IP addresses, do the following:

    • If you chose to use a single FQDN and IP Address for the SIP access, Web Conferencing service, and A/V Edge service, type the external IP address of the Edge Server in SIP Access.

    • If you did not chose to use a single FQDN and IP Address for the SIP access, Web Conferencing service, and A/V Conferencing service, type the IP address that you have chosen for your public facing side of this Edge pool server for SIP Access. In Web Conferencing, type the IP address that you have chosen for your public facing side of this Edge pool server. In A/V Conferencing, type the IP address you have chosen for your public facing side of this Edge pool server.

  14. Click Finish.

    Note

    You will now see the first Edge Server you created in your pool in the Define the computers in this pool dialog box.

  15. In Define the computers in this pool, click Add, and then repeat steps 11 through 14 for the second Edge Server that you want to add to your Edge pool.

  16. After you repeat steps 11 through 14, click Next in Define the computers in this pool.

    Note

    At this point, you can see both of the Edge Servers in your pool.

  17. In Define the next hop, in the Next hop pool list, select the name of the internal pool, which can be either a Front End pool or a Standard Edition pool. Or, if your deployment includes a Director, select the name of the Director. Then, click Next.

  18. In Associate Front End pools, specify one or more internal pools, which can include Front End pools and Standard Edition servers, to be associated with this Edge Server, by selecting the names of the internal pool(s) that is to use this Edge Server for communication with supported external users.

    Note

    Only one load-balanced Edge pool or single Edge Server can be associated with each internal pool for A/V traffic. If you already have an internal pool associated with an Edge pool or Edge Server, a warning appears indicating that the internal pool is already associated an Edge pool or Edge Server. If you select a pool that is already associated with another Edge Server, it will change the association.

  19. Click Finish.

  20. Publish your topology.