Topic Last Modified: 2010-08-24

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 includes some topology changes concerning the Director, Mediation Server, Archiving Server, and Monitoring Server:

• In Lync Server 2010, the Director is now a unique server role. In previous releases, you could configure a Front End Server as a Director, but internally it was deployed as a Front End Server and required you to take additional configuration steps to preserve its Director role. In Lync Server, when you deploy a server as a Director, you cannot home users on it. Its purpose as a next-hop server for connection requests and for the Edge Server will be preserved.
  
  The Director does not require a separate back-end database; instead, it uses a local version of the SQL Server Express Edition database software, which is installed automatically when you deploy a Director.
  
  A Director is not designated as either a Standard Edition server or an Enterprise Edition server; it does not require any type of Microsoft Lync Server 2010 license.
  
  
• A Mediation Server can be collocated on the Front End Server. Collocation is recommended if you are not using SIP trunking or Direct SIP.