Topic Last Modified: 2012-09-05

In Microsoft Lync Server 2013, monitoring is used to collect usage information and Quality of Experience (QoE) data about the communication sessions that your users are involved in. A session is a generic term that covers a user’s connection to a:

Note:
Lync Server 2013 keeps track of information about each session: who called who; which endpoints were used in the session; how long did the session last; what was the perceived quality of the session; and so on. However, Lync Server does not record and store the actual call itself. That includes instant messaging sessions as well: although Lync Server records information about instant messaging sessions, it does not maintain a record of each instant message that was sent during the session.

The call detail information collected by Lync Server can be employed for any number of uses, including:

In addition to this basic call information, the Monitoring Server also provides a mechanism that allows SIP endpoints (such as Lync 2013) to provide troubleshooting information that the server would not otherwise have access to:

At the end of each call, SIP-compliant endpoints automatically transmit this information to the Front End server that facilitated the call. You don't have to do anything to get endpoints to transmit that information; that behavior is built into the SIP protocol. However, if you want to collect and store that information, then you need to install and enable monitoring. If you do install and enable monitoring, then call information is gathered by agents running on the Front End server and relayed to a pair of SQL Server databases.

Note that the process of installing and configuring monitoring has been simplified in Lync Server 2013. In prior versions of the software, monitoring required a separate Monitoring Server role, which typically meant a separate computer set aside for use as the Monitoring Server. In Lync Server 2013, however, the Monitoring Server role has been eliminated. Instead, the monitoring service (in the form of "unified data collection agents") has been collocated into all Front End servers. This has at least two major benefits. Collocation of the monitoring service:

For more information see the topic Deploying Monitoring in the Lync Server 2013 2013 deployment guide.