Module11

Voice Resiliency Features of Lync Server 2013

MVA Jump Start

Module Overview

• Voice Resiliency in Lync Server 2013

• Lync Pool Resilience
• Branch Office Resilience
Voice Resiliency in Lync Server 2013

• Overview of Voice Resiliency

• Voice Resiliency Enhancements
Overview of Voice Resiliency

• Native voice resiliency ensures voice functionality even in the event of a

data center or pool-level failure
• Voice resiliency in Lync Server 2013 builds on the resiliency functionality
introduced in Lync Server 2010, including:
– Backup Registrars & Registrar failover
– Limited Functionality mode
– Survivable Branch Appliances (SBA) that enable users to continue placing and
receiving voice calls in a remote branch site during a WAN failure
• Lync Server 2013 DR scenarios add voice resiliency across data centers
without reduced functionality
Voice Resiliency Enhancements

• DNS-based load balancing for internal pools:

– SIP traffic can be DNS load-balanced
– Hardware Load Balancing (HLB) required for HTTPS traffic
– Network Load Balancing (NLB) is not supported

• Draining: the ability to “drain” a server before taking the server down
• Session dialog resiliency for conferencing:
– User can still participate in a conference even if the Front End the user is
connected to goes down
• Client caches successful connections to Lync Server 2013:
– SIP Registrar, Media Relay Authentication Server (MRAS)/Media Relay (MR)
FQDN and IP
Lync Pool Resilience

• Lync Pool Challenges

• Improving Pool Resilience for PSTN
• Multiple Lync Front-End Pools
• Configuring Pool Resiliency
• User Experience When Pool Fails
• Client Registration and Failover
• Loss of Pool – Mediation Pool Fail Over
• Additional Mitigation Options for PSTN
Lync Pool Challenges

• Lync users depend on their pool for:

– Registration
– User services like Conferencing, Presence, Address Book, and so on
– PSTN functionality

• If (WAN) connectivity is lost or the pool is not available:

– Users can no longer sign in with their Lync client
– Lync User Services are no longer available
– Cannot receive calls or make calls over PSTN
Improving Pool Resilience for PSTN

• Install redundant WAN/MAN/LAN connections

• Avoid “Single Points of Failure”
• Install additional Lync Front-End Pools
• Install additional Lync Mediation Pools
Multiple Lync Front-End Pools

PSTN

Data Center (1) Data Center (2)

Pool
Pairing

WAN / MAN WAN / MAN

LAN LAN
Configuring Pool Resiliency
User Experience - Users signed in to pool with backup pool Registrar
• Client is signed in normally and has full functionality

• Pool Unavailable, client is informed about network or server issues

• Client automatically signs out and signs in at the backup registrar

• User Services are not available, client operates in

“Limited Functionality” mode

• Administrator invokes Pool Failover to backup pool,

User Services are restored

• Pool is available again, administrator invokes a Pool

Fail Back. The client signs out automatically

• Client signs in to its original home pool,

operation back to normal
• Client is signed in normally and has full functionality
Pool Failure
• Client is signed in normally and has full functionality

• Pool Unavailable, client is informed about network or server issues

• Client is signed in normally and has full functionality

• Pool Unavailable, client is informed about network or server issues

• Client automatically signs out and signs in at the backup registrar

• Client is signed in normally and has full functionality

• Pool Unavailable, client is informed about network or server issues

• Client automatically signs out and signs in at the backup registrar

• User Services are not available, client operates in

“Limited Functionality” mode
• Client is signed in normally and has full functionality

• Pool Unavailable, client is informed about network or server issues

• Client automatically signs out and signs in at the backup registrar

• User Services are not available, client operates in

“Limited Functionality” mode

• Administrator invokes Pool Failover to backup pool,

User Services are restored
• Client is signed in normally and has full functionality

• Pool Unavailable, client is informed about network or server issues

• Client automatically signs out and signs in at the backup registrar

• User Services are not available, client operates in

“Limited Functionality” mode

• Administrator invokes Pool Failover to backup pool,

User Services are restored

• Pool is available again, administrator invokes a Pool

Fail Back. The client signs out automatically
• Client is signed in normally and has full functionality

• Pool Unavailable, client is informed about network or server issues

• Client automatically signs out and signs in at the backup registrar

• User Services are not available, client operates in

“Limited Functionality” mode

• Administrator invokes Pool Failover to backup pool,

User Services are restored

• Pool is available again, administrator invokes a Pool

Fail Back. The client signs out automatically

• Client signs in to its original home pool,

operation back to normal
Client Registration and Failover

Failover to Backup
Registrar
Data Center - 1 Data Center – 2

WAN

AD / DNS Director Pool 1 AD / DNS Pool 2

1 2 3 4 5 6
Loss of Pool – Mediation Pool Fail Over

Data Center Data Center

Pool
Pairing

Front End Front End

Pool Pool
PSTN

Mediation Pool
Additional Mitigation Options for PSTN

• Gateway deployment:
– Deploy multiple gateways for the same numbering plan
– Configure redundant trunks to eliminate single points of failure
– Configure routes and backup routes to gateways on the same location
or a different location
• PSTN connectivity:
– Deploy redundant PSTN connections, possible from multiple providers
– Consider SIP trunking and distributed termination
– Define multiple trunks though different Mediation Servers
Branch Office Resilience
• Branch Office Challenges
• Improving Branch Resilience
• Survivable Branch Appliances (SBA)
• SBA Functionality
• SBA Components
• Backup and Failover Relationship
• Branch Resiliency Options - Sizing
• Survivable Branch Server
• User Experience – Pool failure
• SBA - Branch Client Registration Scenarios
• Signaling & Media Paths – Normal
• Signaling & Media Paths – Failure Scenarios
• SBA - First Time Client Sign In
• Client Failover if the SBA Is Unavailable
• Client Sign-in in case of WAN failure
• Deploying the SBA to a Branch Office
• SBA – Centralized Management
Branch Office Challenges

Data Center

SIP SIP PSTN

WAN

Branch Office Branch Office

Improving Branch Resilience

• Installing redundant WAN connections:

– Does not address general WAN failures or loss of data center

• Deploying a Lync Pool on each branch site:

– High additional infrastructure cost, licenses, and server hardware
– Additional administrative overhead, IT staff on branch sites
– Cost of required infrastructure does not align with large numbers of small sites

• Deploying PSTN connectivity on each branch site:

– Requires Lync Pool and Mediation Server on site to function in case of WAN
failure
Survivable Branch Appliances (SBA)

Data Center

PSTN

Lync Pool Mediation Server Gateway

WAN

Branch Office
Survivable
Branch
Appliance
SBA Functionality

• Normal/Failure mode
• SIP Registrar
• SIP proxy and routing engine
• PSTN connectivity
• Voicemail routing
• PSTN rerouting
• Centrally provisioned
• Up to 1,000 users supported
SBA Components

Survivable Branch
Appliance

PSTN Gateway PSTN

Lync
Routing
Engine

Lync
Lync
Mediation
Registrar
Server

Lync
Core CMS

Microsoft
Windows Server
Backup and Failover Relationship

Data Center Data Center

Lync Pool Lync Pool

Branch Office

SBA

Direction of arrow indicates direction

of primary to backup failover
Branch Resiliency Options - Sizing
Users

Branch Office

Gateway
Survivable
Branch Server
1000

Data Center Branch Office

500
WAN
Gateway Survivable Branch
Mediation
Lync Pool Appliance
Server
25

Branch Office
Survivable Branch Server

Standard Edition
1:1
Server

Enterprise Pool Enterprise Pool

Survivable Branch
Applicance

1:n

Enterprise Pool Enterprise Pool

Survivable Branch
Server
User Experience - Users signed in to SBA with user services from Pool

• Client signs in normally and has full functionality

• The pool or WAN fails, and the client is informed about

network or server issues

• The client runs in “Limited Functionality” mode

• WAN connectivity is restored, and the

client signs out and in again

• Normal functionality is restored

• Client signs in normally and has full functionality
Pool Failure

• Client signs in normally and has full functionality

• The pool or WAN fails, and the client is informed about

network or server issues
• Client signs in normally and has full functionality

• The pool or WAN fails, and the client is informed about

network or server issues

• The client runs in “Limited Functionality” mode

• Client signs in normally and has full functionality

• The pool or WAN fails, and the client is informed about

network or server issues

• The client runs in “Limited Functionality” mode

• WAN connectivity is restored, and the

client signs out and in again
• Client signs in normally and has full functionality

• The pool or WAN fails, and the client is informed about

network or server issues

• The client runs in “Limited Functionality” mode

• WAN connectivity is restored, and the client

signs out and in again

• Normal functionality is restored

SBA - Branch Client Registration Scenarios

Data Center Data Center Data Center

WAN PSTN WAN PSTN WAN PSTN

Branch Office Branch Office Branch Office

SBA SBA SBA

Normal mode WAN down SBA down

Clients register at the No change, clients Clients register with
SBA remain registered at the associated
the SBA Backup Registrar Pool
Signalling in the data center
Signaling & Media Paths – Normal

Data Center Data Center Data Center

WAN PSTN WAN PSTN WAN PSTN

Branch Office Branch Office Branch Office

SBA SBA SBA

Intra-branch calls Intra-branch/HQ calls Branch PSTN calls

Signaling and media Signaling and media SBA gateway is used,
does not traverse WAN traverses the WAN WAN is not used
Media SBA routes the call to
Signalling the other cluster
Signaling & Media Paths – Failure Scenarios

Data Center Data Center Data Center

WAN PSTN WAN PSTN WAN PSTN

Branch Office Branch Office Branch Office

SBA SBA SBA

Intra-branch calls Intra-branch/HQ calls Branch PSTN calls

No impact on two-party voice,
video, IM, application sharing
Audio conferencing possible
(through PSTN)
No Presence or video
conferencing
SBA initiates PSTN Clients register with Backup
Registrar Pool in data center
rerouting No loss in functionality
Media is over PSTN
(only voice) Backup PSTN connection in the
domain controller is used
SBA - First Time Client Sign In

WAN
Branch Office Data Center

1
2
AD / DNS

3
4
5
6
Director
8
9

7
10
SBA Lync Pool
Client Failover if the SBA Is Unavailable

Data Center Branch Office

2
WAN

AD / DNS Director Lync Pool SBA

3 4 5 6 7 1
Client Sign-in in case of WAN failure

Branch Office Data Center

TLS to cached FQDN & IP

WAN
SIP Register (Cert Auth)

200 ok AD / DNS Director Lync Pool

SBA

Existing User – Signed in successfully once

Deploying the SBA to a Branch Office

Admin sets up a SBA is drop-shipped MAC Tech connects

computer account Admin adds the SBA to the Branch Office the SBA to the
for the SBA in Active to the Lync Topology with software network and PSTN
Directory installed infrastructure

The SBA is joined to IP address and other

SBA downloads MAC Tech connects
the Active Directory network settings are
topology and to the web-based
Domain Services (AD configured by
configuration GUI
DS) MAC Tech

Certificates are Data Center

Admin moves Branch The SBA is
requested and
Users the SBA operational
assigned Branch Site
SBA – Centralized Management

• The SBA is a full first class member of the Lync infrastructure

• The SBA has a local copy of the CMS
(Just like all other Lync servers)
• Configuration changes are automatically replicated to the SBA,
including:
– Normalization rules
– Routing
– Voiceand user policies
– Topology changes
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