Global Solutions Engineering has just completed a detailed study of Lync Server 2010 on Active System 800v. The content in this design and implementation guide is most useful for those seeking a validated design of Lync on this pre-configured set of resources. The results could also be of value to IT professionals who want Lync sizing information on VMware vSphere 5.1. This sizing study is an extension of the group’s previous effort that sized Lync Server 2010 on Microsoft Hyper-V using Windows Server 2008 R2.
The guide provides substantial amount of configuration detail and performance data to those seeking to leverage Active System 800v for Lync. A total of only eight virtual machines (VMs) are needed for a 5,000 user deployment. By using vSphere 5.1 features such as reservations and memory locking effectively, this pool of resources can be leveraged for other workloads without any performance compromise, and it is encouraged that customers do so. For Lync, two VMs are used for Front End, two for AV Conferencing, one for Back End SQL Server, one for Archiving+Monitoring, and two for a load balancer ha-pair. Validation was conducted not only for the Lync Front End and AV Conferencing Servers, but also for the Back End SQL Server. The design presented is for 5,000 users.
Those readers interested in converged networking will also find this guide of interest. Active System 800v uses 10GbE networking and a set of features enabled by Data Center Bridging (DCB) to eliminate segregated LAN/SAN networking within the datacenter. Specifically, for this deployment with Lync, EqualLogic PS6110X iSCSI SAN arrays are used to store the operating system + application and the SQL data stores. There is little or no performance impact by using a fewer networking gear as long as DCB is implemented properly. Customers will have a working configuration, including DCB parameters after the completion of a services engagement on the pre-racked and pre-configured Active System.
The performance study was done using the Lync Stress and Performance Tool. Please note that due to limitations of this tool, web and video conferencing were not validated. For detailed best practices, configuration guidelines, performance validation procedures, and results, please refer to Microsoft Lync Server 2010: Design and Implementation on Dell Active System 800v.
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