Monitoring Server Architecture

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will reach end of support on January 9, 2018. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

In Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, the Monitoring Server performs both Quality of Experience (QoE) data gathering and Call Detail Record (CDR) functionality. This consolidation simplifies deployment and management, and it reduces the cost of ownership.

QoE data collected includes metrics data about audio and video quality from the A/V Conferencing Server component of Front End Servers and Standard Edition servers, Mediation Server, and clients such as Office Communicator, Office Communicator Phone Edition, and Live Meeting. CDR data is usage information that is related to VoIP calls, IM messages, A/V conversations, meetings, application sharing, remote assistance, and file sharing, and it is collected for both peer-to-peer sessions and multiparty conferences.

The Monitoring Server architecture includes the following components:

• The Monitoring services, which run on the Monitoring Server and transfer collected data from the queues to the database. These include two services: the CDR service for CDR data, and the QoE service for media quality data.

• The Monitoring Server database, which runs on SQL Server and stores the captured data. The database can run on the same Monitoring Server as the Monitoring services, or on a different back-end server. The QoE database and CDR database are separate databases, but they always run in the same SQL Server instance on the same server.

• The Data Collection Agents, which are installed automatically on every Front End Server and Standard Edition server. The CDR agent intercepts SIP messages and uses them to send data to the destination queue on the Monitoring Server. The QoE agent receives QoE data reports from endpoints via SIP SERVICE requests, and sends the data to the destination queue on the Monitoring Server. Optionally, a third-party consumer can be configured to receive QoE reports via HTTP POST.

• Microsoft Message Queuing, which must run on each Monitoring Server and on each Front End Server and Standard Edition server that reports data to Monitoring Server.

• The Systems Center Operation Management (SCOM) pack is an optional component. In addition to server monitoring for the entire deployment, the SCOM pack uses Monitoring Server QoE data to generate a health model and generate near real-time alerts showing the health of the A/V Conferencing Server component on your Front End Servers, as well as the health of Mediation Servers and network locations.

  Note

  In Office Communications Server 2007, this functionality was delivered in a separate QoE Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) Pack. In Office Communications Server 2007 R2, it is incorporated into the overall Office Communications Server SCOM Pack.

• The Monitoring Server Report Pack is an optional component. You can use this component with SQL Server Reporting Services to generate detailed reports using Monitoring Server data. These reports provide trend, summary, and call list information to help you understand media quality on your network. Additionally, there are new CDR reports that help you understand overall peer-to-peer and conferencing usage of Office Communications Server.

As the following figure shows, the CDR Agent and QoE Agent both reside on each Front End Server. Each agent writes records to Microsoft Message Queuing (also known as MSMQ); these records are then read by Monitoring Server. Monitoring Server then writes the records to the CDR database or QoE database, as appropriate. Monitoring Server also sends the information to the SCOM Server for the monitoring of A/V health, if the SCOM Pack is deployed.

Figure 1. Monitoring Server topology