The RTCSrv.exe process is the core Office Communications Server 2007 R2 process. RTCSrv runs on every Standard Edition server and Front End instance of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. RTCSrv.exe hosts the User Services module, the server application programming interface (API), archiving and call detail recording (CDR), Quality of Experience (QoE), and the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Proxy. The User Services module, the server API, archiving and CDR, and QoE sit on top of the SIP Proxy. A message dispatcher mediates by sending messages between these components and the SIP Proxy.

The following figure shows the RTCSrv.exe process.

Figure 1. The RTCSrv.exe process

SIP Proxy

The SIP Proxy is the core protocol platform on which all other Office Communications Server 2007 R2 services are built. The SIP Proxy provides the basic structure for networking and security, and performs connection management, message header parsing, routing, authentication, and state management.

The SIP Proxy, also known as the SIP stack, forms the basis for all other Office Communications Server 2007 R2 services. Signaling connections, authentication, message routing, and state management all rely on the SIP Proxy.

User Services

User Services enables the instant messaging (IM), presence, and conferencing features of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. For details about the presence components of User Services, see Presence Components. User Services includes the Focus and Focus Factory, which are explained in more detail in Conferencing Components. The following table describes the functionality provided for User Services.

Table 1.   User Services

Component Function

User Replicator

User Replicator is the component of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 that is responsible for keeping the presence store in the SQL database synchronized with user and contact objects in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). User Replicator monitors the data in AD DS and then sends the data through RTCSrv.exe to the SQL database on the Back-End Database Server for storage. User Replicator also monitors user, contact, and group objects to provide content for the Address Book Server files.

RPC between Front End Servers

The User Services module on each Front End Server communicates with the same process running on other Front End Servers by using Remote Procedure Call (RPC).

ODBC-based Database Access Layer

The User Services module sends presence, registration, and conferencing data to the SQL Server running on the Back-End Database Server through a database queuing layer that uses the Microsoft Open Database Connectivity interface (ODBC). ODBC provides a standard API that Office Communications Server 2007 R2 uses to run SQL queries against the SQL Server back-end database.

Archiving, CDR, and QoE

The archiving and CDR components, are installed on every Front End Server when you deploy Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard Edition server or Enterprise Edition server. Similarly, QoE is installed on every Front End Server.

Archiving and CDR, and QoE connect to the Archiving Server and the Monitoring Server (that is, running in one of several possible physical topologies) using Message Queuing (previously known as MSMQ) technology. The Archiving Server receives instant messages from the archiving and CDR agent and stores the information in a SQL database. The Monitoring Server receives call data from the archiving and CDR agent, and QoE data from the QoE agent. For details about archiving and monitoring, see Archiving and Monitoring Drilldown.

See Also