Topic Last Modified: 2013-11-22

One of the first steps required for migration to Lync Server 2013 is to deploy a pilot pool. The pilot pool is where you test coexistence of Lync Server 2013 with your Lync Server 2010 deployment. Coexistence is a temporary state that lasts until you have moved all users and pools to Lync Server 2013.

When you deploy a pilot pool, you use the Define New Front End Pool wizard. You should deploy the same features and workloads in your Lync Server 2013 pilot pool that you have in your Lync Server 2010 pool. If you deployed Archiving Server, Monitoring Server, or System Center Operations Manager for archiving or monitoring your Lync Server 2010 environment, and you want to continue archiving or monitoring throughout the migration, you need to also deploy these features in your pilot environment. The version you deployed to archive or monitor your Lync Server 2010 environment will not capture data in your Lync Server 2013 environment.

Note:
The following procedure discusses features and settings you should consider as part of your overall pilot pool deployment process. This section only highlights key points you should consider as part of your pilot pool deployment. For detailed steps, refer to the Deploying Lync Server 2013 deployment guide.
To deploy a Lync Server 2013 pilot pool

  1. Log on to the computer where Topology Builder is installed as a member of the Domain Admins group and the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group.

  2. Expand the tree until you reach Lync Server 2013 Enterprise Edition Front End pools.

  3. Right click Enterprise Edition Front End pools, and select New Front End Pool.

    Topology Builder Server pool selection submenu

  4. Enter the pool FQDN. When you define your pilot pool, you can choose to deploy an Enterprise Edition Front End pool or a Standard Edition server. Lync Server 2013 does not require that your pilot pool features match what was deployed in your legacy pool.

    Warning:
    The pool or server fully qualified domain name (FQDN) that you define for the pilot pool must be unique. It cannot match the name of the currently deployed Lync Server 2010 pool, or any other servers currently deployed.
    Define New Front End Pool Wizard FQDN page

  5. On the Select features page, select the check boxes for the features that you want on this Front End pool. For example, if you are deploying only instant messaging (IM) and presence features, you would select the Conferencing check box to allow multiparty IM, but would not select the Dial-in (PSTN) conferencing, Enterprise Voice, or Call Admission Control check boxes, because they represent voice, video, and collaborative conferencing features. For additional information on selecting features, see Define and Configure a Front End Pool or Standard Edition Server in the Deployment documentation.

    Front End Pool Select features page

  6. On the Select collocated server roles page, we recommend you collocate the Mediation Server in Lync Server 2013. When merging a legacy topology with Lync Server 2013, we require that you first collocate the Lync Server 2010 Mediation Server. After merging the topologies and configuring the Lync Server 2013 Mediation Server, you can decide whether to keep the collocated Mediation Server, or change it to a stand-alone server when you move the Mediation Server role to Lync Server 2013 later in the deployment process.

    Front End Pool Select collocated server roles page

  7. On the Associate server roles with this Front End pool page, during pilot pool deployment, do not choose the Enable an Edge pool to be used by the media component of this Front End pool option. This is a feature you will enable and bring online in a later phase of migration. Keep this setting cleared for now.

    Associate server roles with Front End pool page

  8. On the Select an Office Web Apps Server page, click New, and specify the FQDN of the application server.

    Define New Office Web Apps Server FQDN properties

  9. On the Define the Archiving SQL Server store page, when defining the SQL Server store for both Lync Server Archiving and Monitoring, select the SQL Server instance created earlier for Lync Server 2013.

    Define Archiving SQL Server store page

  10. To publish your topology, right-click the Lync Server node, and then click Publish Topology.

    Topology Builder displaying a configured topology

  11. When the publish process has completed, click Finish.

To install a local copy of the configuration store and start the required services, see Setting Up Front End Servers and Front End Pools in the Deployment documentation.