ProLiant (DL) Gen8 rack-mount servers were selected to align with the focus on simplicity and cost efficiency for this project while delivering the best capability and power. ProLiant DL380p Gen8 servers are used to provide additional PCI slots and a higher number of internal hard drives, compared to the DL360p Gen8 servers.
Active Directory server – Quantity: 2
The Active Directory server provides infrastructure services including: Domain Controller (DC), Global Catalog (GC), Domain Name Services (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). The Active Directory and name services are critical to deploying and operating Lync Server 2013.
Table 11. Active Directory Domain Controller server configuration
Server Model DL360p Gen8
Operating System Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter – 64-bit
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 6 Core Intel® Xeon® E5-2640 (2.50 GHz) – Server 1 Two Processors – 4 Core Intel Xeon E5-2609 (2.40 GHz) – Server 2
Memory 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) – Server 1
16 GB (1 x 16 GB) – Server 2
Local Storage SAS Array A: 2 – 146 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 1) with 146 GB Usable Capacity
Storage Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (146 GB)
Network Controllers HP Ethernet 1GbE 4P 331FLR FIO Adapter and HP Ethernet 1GbE 4-port 331T Adapter
Storage Controller Smart Array P420i with 1GB FBWC
Hyper-Threading (HT) Enabled
Server Role Infrastructure roles: Domain Controller (DC), Global Catalog (GC), Domain Name Services (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Pfdrotocol (DHCP)
Lync Server 2013 Front End servers – Quantity: 3
The Lync Server 2013 Enterprise Edition server provides the Lync services required for organizations deploying highly available Lync solutions. The Lync Server Enterprise edition server provides the possibility to separate the roles onto multiple servers to meet a specific Service Level Agreement. The Lync 2013 Front End server is the most important server role because it runs most of the Lync functions. In this configuration, the Front End Server role was collocated with Lync Mediation server role, the Archiving server role and Monitoring server role. The Front End server pool consisted of three Front End servers that provided a High Availability (HA) configuration. Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition was the OS on each server. The storage used was internal to each server. The network interfaces were 1GbE.
Table 12. Lync Front End Server Enterprise configuration
Server Model DL380p Gen8
Operating System Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter – 64-bit
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 8 Core Intel Xeon E5-2690 (2.90 GHz)
Memory 192 GB (12 x 16 GB) – Server 1 and 2
64 GB (4 x 16 GB) – Server 3
Local Storage SAS Array A: 2 – 146 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 1) with 146 GB Usable Capacity SAS Array B: 4 – 900 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 10) with 1800 GB Usable Capacity
Storage Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (146 GB)
D:\ - Lync/SQL Express Real Time Communications (RTC) DB and Log volume (1800 GB)
Network Controllers HP Ethernet 1GbE 4P 331FLR FIO Adapter and HP Ethernet 1GbE 4-port 331T Adapter
Storage Controller Smart Array P420i with 1GB FBWC
Hyper-Threading (HT) Enabled
Server Role Lync Front End Server (Enterprise Edition with Mediation, Archiving and Monitoring roles collocated)
Lync Server 2013 Back End SQL servers – Quantity: 2
The SQL database servers hold the active and mirror copies of the databases for the Lync Monitoring roles. Deployment of a separate SQL server for the Lync Monitoring role is a Microsoft best practice.
Table 13. Lync Back End SQL server configuration
Server Model DL380p Gen8
Operating System Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter – 64-bit
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 12 Core Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 (2.70 GHz)
Memory 128 GB (8 x 16 GB)
Local Storage SAS Array A: 2 – 300 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 1) with 300 GB Usable Capacity SAS Array B: 4 – 900 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 10) with 1800 GB Usable Capacity
Storage Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (300 GB) D:\ - SQL Server DB and Log volume (1800 GB)
Network Controllers HP Ethernet 1GbE 4P 331FLR FIO Adapter and HP Ethernet 1GbE 4-port 331T Adapter
Storage Controller Smart Array P420i with 1GB FBWC
Hyper-Threading (HT) Enabled
Lync Server 2013 Persistent Chat servers – Quantity: 2
The Lync Server 2013 Enterprise Edition server provides the Lync services required for organizations deploying highly available Lync solutions. The Lync Server Enterprise edition server provides the possibility to separate the roles onto multiple servers to meet a specific Service Level Agreement.
Table 14. Lync Persistent Chat Server configuration
Server Model DL360p Gen8
Operating System Windows server 2012 R2 Datacenter – 64 bit
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 6 Core Intel Xeon E5-2640 (2.50 GHz)
Memory 32 GB (2 x 16 GB)
Local Storage SAS Array A: 2 – 146 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 1) with 146 GB Usable Capacity
Storage Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (146 GB)
Network Controllers HP Ethernet 1GbE 4P 331FLR FIO Adapter and HP Ethernet 1GbE 4-port 331T Adapter
Storage Controller Smart Array P420i with 1GB FBWC
Hyper-Threading (HT) Enabled
Server Role Lync Persistent Chat Server Pool
Lync Server 2013 Edge servers – Quantity: 2
The Lync Server 2013 Edge server provides support for external users to connect to Lync conferences. External users consist of company users connecting from the Internet, users at other companies and users with mobile clients which all connect to the Edge server. The Edge server also provides the ability for a Lync organization to connect to public Instant Messaging (IM) services.
Table 15. Lync Edge Server Enterprise configuration
Server Model DL360p Gen8
Operating System Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter – 64-bit
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 4 Core Intel Xeon E5-2609 (2.40 GHz)
Memory 16 GB (2 x 8 GB)
Local Storage SAS Array A: 2 – 146 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 1) with 146 GB Usable Capacity
Storage Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (146 GB)
Network Controllers HP Ethernet 1GbE 4P 331FLR FIO Adapter and HP Ethernet 1GbE 4-port 331T Adapter
Storage Controller Smart Array P420i with 1GB FBWC
Hyper-Threading (HT) Enabled
Lync Server 2013 Director servers – Quantity: 2
The Lync Server 2013 Enterprise Edition server provides the Lync services required for organizations deploying highly available Lync solutions. The Lync Server Enterprise edition server provides the possibility to separate the roles onto multiple servers to meet a specific Service Level Agreement.
Table 16. Lync Director Server configuration
Server Model DL360p Gen8
Operating System Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter – 64-bit
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 4 Core Intel Xeon E5-2609 (2.40 GHz)
Memory 16 GB (1 x 16 GB)
Local Storage SAS Array A: 2 – 146 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 1) with 146 GB Usable Capacity
Storage Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (146 GB)
Network Controllers HP Ethernet 1GbE 4P 331FLR FIO Adapter and HP Ethernet 1GbE 4-port 331T Adapter
Storage Controller Smart Array P420i with 1GB FBWC
Hyper-Threading (HT) Enabled
Server Role Lync Director Server Pool
Lync Server 2013 Office Web Apps servers – Quantity: 2
The Office Web Apps (OWA) Server provides access to Microsoft PowerPoint files from within a Lync web conference. The Office Web Apps Server is a new server role that was introduced with the Office 2013 products and is used across the organization to provide access to additional Microsoft Office file types.
Table 17. Lync Office Web Apps Server configuration
Server Model DL380p Gen8
Operating System Windows Server 2012 Standard – 64-bit
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 6 Core Intel Xeon E5-2640 (2.50 GHz)
Memory 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) – Server 1
16 GB (1 x 16 GB) – Server 2
Local Storage SAS Array A: 2 – 146 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 1) with 146 GB Usable Capacity
Storage Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (146 GB)
Network Controllers HP Ethernet 1GbE 4P 331FLR FIO Adapter and HP Ethernet 1GbE 4-port 331T Adapter
Storage Controller Smart Array P420i with 1GB FBWC
Hyper-Threading (HT) Enabled
HP Virtualized Application Network/SDN Controller server – Quantity: 1
The HP Virtualized Application Network (VAN) SDN Controller server provides the integration point between application servers like Lync that have the RESTful SDN API installed and the SDN Manager server in the configuration. The VAN SDN controller also works with the IMC to provide graphic views of the network devices, the ability to manage configurations including backup and restore of the configurations and works across multiple network device vendors.
Table 18. HP Virtualized Application Network Controller server configuration
Server Model WS460c Gen8
Operating System Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 6 Core Intel Xeon E5-2630 (2.30 GHz)
Memory 32 GB (2 x 16 GB)
Local Storage HDD : 300 GB (1 x 300 GB)
Storage Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (300 GB)
Network Controllers HP Flex-10 10Gb 2-port 530 FlexLOM
Storage Controller HP Smart Array P220i/P230i Controller with 512MB FBWC
Hyper-Threading (HT) Enabled
Server Role HP Virtualized Application Network Controller server
Note
WS460c Gen8 Blade Workstations were used in the SDN portion of the test setup for availability reasons. In an actual production environment HP recommends the use of ProLiant DL360p Gen8 or Gen9 for better performance. The bill of materials includes DL380p and DL360p Gen8 instead of WS460c Gen8.
Lync Software Defined Networking Manager Host server – Quantity: 1
The Lync Software Defined Networking Manager (LSM) servers were installed and configured on virtual machines on the same physical Host server. For HA configuration, two SDN managers were used, while for non-HA three SDN Managers were used. All the LSM VMs had the same configuration. The configuration is described below:
Table 19. Lync Software Defined Networking Manager (LSM) Host server configuration
Server Model WS460c Gen8
Operating System Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition – 64 bit
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 6 Core Intel Xeon E5-2630 (2.30 GHz)
Memory 32 GB (2 x 16 GB)
Local Storage Single Drive: 900 GB (1 x 900 GB)
Storage Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (900 GB)
Network Controllers HP Flex-10 10Gb 2-port 530 FlexLOM
Storage Controller HP Smart Array P220i/P230i Controller with 512MB FBWC
Hyper-Threading (HT) Enabled
Note
WS460c Gen8 Blade Workstations were used in the SDN portion of the test setup for availability reasons. In an actual production environment HP recommends the use of ProLiant DL360p Gen8 or Gen9 for better performance. The bill of materials includes DL380p and DL360p Gen8 instead of WS460c Gen8.
Lync Software Defined Networking (SDN) Manager Virtual servers – Quantity: 2
The Lync Software Defined Networking (SDN) Manager servers were installed and configured on virtual machines on the same physical Host server. For HA configuration, two SDN Managers were used, while for non-HA three SDN Managers were used. All the LSM VMs had the same configuration. The configuration is described below.
Table 20. Lync Software Defined Networking Manager Virtual Machine configuration Operating System Windows 7 Enterprise Edition – (x64)
Processor/Cores One Processor – 6 Cores Intel Xeon E5-2630 (2.30 GHz)
Memory 2 GB
Local Storage 100 GB VHDX (allocated to each VM from Hyper-V host)
Storage Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (100 GB)
Network Controllers Ethernet 1 GbE
Storage Controller Hyper-V
Hyper-Threading (HT) Enabled
Virtualization Enabled
Server Role Microsoft Lync SDN Manager (LSM) Server Virtual Machines – (LSM Primary and Secondary server roles)
Lync Stress and Performance Tool servers – Quantity: 3
The Lync Stress and Performance Tool was configured on three servers. Microsoft recommends simulating a maximum of 4,500 Lync users per server.
The Lync Stress and Performance Tool server that generates the client traffic (for various workload types supported by Lync 2013) for the infrastructure consisted of three physical servers with the following specifications.
Table 21. Lync Stress and Performance Tool server configuration
Server Model DL360p Gen8
Operating System Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter – 64-bit
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 6 Core Intel Xeon E5-2640 (2.50 GHz) – Internal User Client 1 and Client 2 Two Processors – 4 Core Intel Xeon E5-2643 (3.30 GHz) – Remote User Client
Memory 32 GB (2 x 16GB) – Servers 1 and 2
64 GB (4 x 16GB) – Server 3
Local Storage SAS Array A: 2 – 146 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 1) with 146 GB Usable Capacity
Logical Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (146 GB)
Network Controllers HP Ethernet 1GbE 4P 331FLR FIO Adapter and HP Ethernet 1GbE 4-port 331T Adapter
Network Internal
Storage Controller Smart Array P420i with 1GB FBWC
The Lync Stress and Performance (LSP) tool servers are located in multiple network locations: one LSP server is on the 10.10.10.x network and is physically cabled to the first 3800 network switch. The second LSP server is on the 10.10.10.x network and is physically cabled to the second 3800 network switch. The third LSP server is on the 30.30.30.x network and is physically cabled to the 3800 network switch on VLAN 30 and simulates the external Lync users who connect through the Lync Edge server.
Media Gateways
Two routes were created for UC-PSTN calls. One route traversed the HP MSR50-60 Media Gateway to the Arcatech emutel | Harmony PSTN simulator. The E1 type of PSTN trunks were used to connect the Media Gateway and Arcatech emutel | Harmony PSTN simulator.
Please refer to the Bill Of Materials (BOM) for modules required for MSR50-60 to configure it as Media Gateway. Since the MSR50-60 in this configuration had 2X HP MSR 24-channel Voice processing Modules equipped, the max calls simulated were 46. The remaining UC-PSTN calls were routed onto the PSTN Media Gateway simulated by the Microsoft Stress and Performance Test tool with the following configuration.
Table 22. Lync Stress and Performance Tool server (for PSTN calls) configuration
Server Model WS460c Gen8
Operating System Windows 7 – 64-bit
Processor/Cores Two Processors – 6 Core Intel Xeon E5-2630 (2.30 GHz)
Memory 32 GB (4 x 8GB)
Local Storage SAS Array A: 2 – 300 GB SAS 15K RPM – (RAID 1) with 300 GB Usable Capacity
Logical Volumes C:\ - Operating System Boot volume (300 GB)
Server Role Microsoft Lync Stress and Performance Tool (PSTN Media Gateway)
Note:
A WS460c Gen8 Blade Workstation was used in for the Lync Stress and Performance Tool server (PSTN calls) due to availability in the lab.. In an actual production environment this functionality would be replaced by users performing the Lync tasks.