Start the Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool: Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Lync Server 2010, and then click Planning Tool.

After the Planning Tool has started, you are presented with the Welcome to the Planning Tool for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 page. Choose one of the following to begin your design:

• Option 1: Get Started   Clicking Get Started provides a specific series of interview questions with relevant selections to define the criteria. After you have finished the initial Get Started interview section, you proceed into Design Sites to define your site architecture. To complete this option, proceed to step 3.
  
  
• Option 2: Design Sites   Clicking Design Sites at the Welcome page bypasses the interview questions presented in the Get Started section. The information that would have been gathered by responding to the interview questions in Get Started section is set to its default values with this option. By clicking Design Sites, the experienced designer can bypass the initial interview and change the default values as needed on the Central Sites start page. To complete this option, skip over steps 3-5 and start at step 6.
  
  
• Option 3: Display Your Saved Topology   If you have already completed and saved a topology through a past use of the Planning Tool, you can skip over most of these steps and start by opening and displaying the topology. You can also make changes and updates to the topology, resave it, and then export it to Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Visio, or Topology Builder. To complete this option, skip over steps 3-12 and start at step 13.
  
  

Click Get Started to begin designing your Microsoft Lync Server 2010 topology.

Answer each section by selecting the appropriate criteria for your design, and then click Next to proceed to the next Wizard page. Click Back to change previous pages.

Tip:
Each page has a description of the selection criteria, and recommendations based on preferred practices and capacity planning. If you require additional details, click Learn more to read detailed information from the Lync Server 2010 Planning documentation on the Microsoft TechNet website. You must have Internet connectivity to access the Microsoft TechNet website.

Select the appropriate options for your design. After the initial criteria are defined, a page will confirm that your Features Overview is complete.

Click Design Sites to define your central site.

Note:
Each Lync Server 2010 topology will have at least one central site. Your design may have a single central site, a central site with a number of branch sites, a number of central sites, or a number of central sites with branch sites associated with each central site.

In Site Name, type the name that will identify this central site.

In Number of Users, type the expected number of concurrent users that will be homed in this central site.

Modify the selections for Online Collaboration, Users, Voice, Exchange Unified Messaging (UM), Additional Deployment Options, or Server Applications, as needed.

Important:

You can only select or clear options for your deployment at this point in the design. However, you can configure more options in a later phase of the Planning Tool. There are also options that are unavailable and cannot be cleared. In addition, you may have to clear one option in order to clear another. For example, if you clear the Enterprise Voice option under Voice, then the Response Group, Announcement Service, and Call Park Service options under Server Applications (all of which are features of Enterprise Voice) are also cleared.

After defining a site name and number of users, click Next.

The following pages ask for information about SIP domains, virtualization, voice settings and infrastructure, conference settings, Exchange UM, external user access, collocation options, and branch sites. Answer these questions as appropriate.

The final question asks if you want to create another central site. If you select Yes, then the Planning Tool returns to the Central Sites page. If you select No, the Planning Tool displays the high-level Global Topology view.

Click Display.

Click the .xml file that represents the previously saved topology, and then click Open.

The Planning Tool displays the Global Topology page. You can begin editing, updating, or changing the topology by using the tools available in the Planning Tool.