[This is pre-release documentation and subject to change in future releases. This topic's current status is: Milestone-Ready]

Topic Last Modified: 2010-07-18

IM conferencing and Web conferencing capabilities always run on Front End Servers. A/V conferencing runs either on Front End Servers or on separate A/V Conferencing Servers. The hardware and software requirements for Front End Servers and A/V Conferencing Servers are identical.

This section details the hardware and software requirements for these servers, along with the supported collocation.

Hardware Requirements for Front End Servers and A/V Conferencing Servers

The hardware requirements for Front End Server are the same as for many other server roles in Microsoft Communications Server 2010 are outlined in the following table.

Hardware Requirements for Front End Servers and A/V Conferencing Servers

Hardware component Minimum requirement

CPU
  • Dual processor, quad-core 2.0 gigahertz (GHz)+

  • 4-way processor, dual-core 2.0 GHz+

Memory

12 gigabytes (GB)

Disk
  • 10K RPM hard disk drive (HDD) (multiple spindles recommended)

  • High-performance solid state drive (SSD) with performance equal to or better than 10K RPM HDD

Network
  • Dual 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) network adapters (recommended)

  • Single 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) network adapter (supported)

Software Requirements for Front End Servers and A/V Conferencing Servers

The Front End Server role can be deployed only on servers running Communications Server 2010 Enterprise Edition.

One of the following operating systems is required for all roles of Communications Server 2010 Enterprise Edition, including Front End Server, A/V Conferencing Server, Director, Mediation Server, Edge Server, Archiving Server, and Monitoring Server:

  • The 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 SP2 Standard, the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 SP2 Enterprise, or the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 SP2 Datacenter

  • The 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, or the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter

Note:
The Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are supported, but their use with Communications Server 2010 has not been fully tested by Microsoft.

Supported Collocation

The Front End Server role can be collocated with the following Communications Server 2010 roles: A/V Conferencing Server, Mediation Server, Monitoring Server, and Archiving Server. It cannot be collocated with Edge Server or Director.

If A/V Conferencing Server is separated into its own server pool, no other server roles can be collocated in that pool.