Define the Topology for a DNS Load Balanced Edge Pool

Topic Last Modified: 2011-05-16

You must use Topology Builder to build your internal and edge topology and you must set up at least one internal Front End pool or Standard Edition server before you can deploy any Edge Servers. Use the following procedure to define your edge topology for a 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 Edge Servers.

To successfully publish, enable, or disable a topology when adding or removing a server role, you must be logged in 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 do 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 pool or Standard Edition servers.

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

Start Topology Builder: Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Lync Server 2010, and then click Lync Server Topology Builder.
In the console tree, expand the site in which you want to deploy Edge Servers.
Right-click Edge Pools, and then click New Edge Pool.
In Define the New Edge Pool, click Next.

In Define the Edge pool FQDN, do the following:

In Pool FQDN, type the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the internal connection of the Edge pool.

Important:
The name you specify must be identical to the computer name configured on the server. By default the computer name of a computer that is not joined to a domain is a short name, not an FQDN. Topology Builder uses FQDNs, not short names. So, you must configure a DNS suffix on the name of the computer to be deployed as an Edge Server that is not joined to a domain. 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.

Important:

The name you specify must be identical to the computer name configured on the server. By default the computer name of a computer that is not joined to a domain is a short name, not an FQDN. Topology Builder uses FQDNs, not short names. So, you must configure a DNS suffix on the name of the computer to be deployed as an Edge Server that is not joined to a domain. 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 click Next.

In Select features, do the following:

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

If you plan to enable federation, select the Enable federation (port 5061) check box.

Note:
You can select this option, but only one Edge pool or Edge Server in your organization can 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.

Note:

You can select this option, but only one Edge pool or Edge Server in your organization can 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.

If you plan to use network address translation (NAT) for your public facing IP addresses, select the The external IP address of the Edge pool is translated by NAT check box.

Click Next.

In External FQDNs, do the following:

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 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). 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 example, 443) for all three services.

Note:

If you choose 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). 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 example, 443) for all three services.

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.

Click Next.
In Define the computers in this pool, click Add.

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:
The name you specify must be identical to the computer name configured on the server. By default, the computer name of a computer that is not joined to a domain is a short name, not an FQDN. Topology Builder uses FQDNs, not short names. So, you must configure a DNS suffix on the name of the computer to be deployed as an Edge Server that is not joined to a domain. 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.

Note:

The name you specify must be identical to the computer name configured on the server. By default, the computer name of a computer that is not joined to a domain is a short name, not an FQDN. Topology Builder uses FQDNs, not short names. So, you must configure a DNS suffix on the name of the computer to be deployed as an Edge Server that is not joined to a domain. 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.

Click Next.
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.
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.
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 you Edge pool.
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.
If you chose to use NAT, a dialog box appears. In Public IP address, type the public IP address to be translated by NAT, and then click Next.

Note:

This should be the external IP Address of the A/V Edge.
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.

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

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

Note:
This should be the external IP Address of the A/V Edge.

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.

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.

Click Finish.
Publish your topology.