[AusNOG] Experience reports for MS Lync roll-outs wanted

[Bill Walker]

Hey Matt, 

Some of the info you have isn't accurate: 

-- You need
the following servers: 

 	* Front End Server and Back End Server
 	*
A/V Conferencing Server
 	* Edge Server
 	* Mediation Server
 	*
Monitoring Server
 	* Archiving Server
 	* Director

These roles can be
merged. You also don't need a director unless you have multiple front
end pools, so the minimum. with conferencing enabled is 4 servers: 


A/V Conferencing 

 Monitoring and Archiving 

 Edge 

 Front End 

SQL
can be run on one of these boxes, it all depends on number of users/load
etc. 

-- With Lync usually you don't use a hardware VoIP phone, but
just a headset on your PC, although vendors are selling compatible
phones. 

In most offices where we have full lync deployments we have
hardware phones for some users, we also have hardware phones for meeting
rooms, common spaces etc. 

-- Lync has a client for smartphones (iOS,
Android, Windows Phone, Symbian) which can be used to chat and make
phone calls. 

Lync 2010 client on iOS does not allow you to make calls
so if the user doesn't have enterprise voice enabled on their Lync
account, they cannot make voice calls from iOS. 

-- Traffic engineering
seems to be a problem, as the DSCP is set on the host, and switches seem
to have a hard time trusting the port. 

We have a Cisco L3 switch at
all our branches (180) and perform the tagging on that before the
traffic hits the WAN. LAN is fast enough not to worry. 

-- Lync servers
can be run on VMs (well, you need a lot of servers for the Enterprise
Edition), but then PSTN fallback becomes somewhat difficult. 

We are
moving away from PSTN. With SIP trunks we can fail them over to
different sites, in fact the core trunks will be failed over between our
DC's in the UK/US/NZ. Also instead of PSTN at branch sites for
survivability we are looking at a commodity internet connection with a
SIP trunk. This will allow users to keep working even with a WAN
failure. 

-- How do you get Emergency calls to work properly? With that
I mean again locate the caller. 

Lync has location awareness based on
IP address and built in capabilities for E911 

I can put you in touch
with one of the team that rolled this out to our company globally, we
have 180 sites, 4 datacentres, 8000 users. Ping me privately if
interested.... 

Cheers, 

Bill 

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:11:31 +0100,
Mattia Rossi wrote: 

> Hi all,
> 
> having had some requests to publish
the insights about MS Lync here is what I got so far.
> Mostly I'll
refer to Lync 2010.
> 
> Lync Integrates perfectly in your Office
Environment, but it needs Office 2007 or higher to work
> Lync comes in
three flavours: Standard, Enterprise and Plus. These three flavours are
additive, meaning that for PLus you need the other two first too. 
>
These flavours are also only the Client Access Licenses (CAL) which
allow Clients to connect to the server. 
> The server software, which is
based on Win 2008 R2 server, has to be bought separately. 
> Lync
Standard edition can't do conference calls or conference video, only
peer to peer calls and video
> You can join conference calls though, if
they have been created somehow magically from an Enterprise edition
which is somehow magically connected...
> The Standard edition is rather
simple to deploy (1 server), rather cheap and supports 5000 users.
> The
Enterprise Edition becomes quite complex and gets also expensive:
> You
need the following servers:
> 
> * Front End Server and Back End
Server
> * A/V Conferencing Server
> * Edge Server
> * Mediation
Server
> * Monitoring Server
> * Archiving Server
> * Director
> 
>
Additionally you need an MS SQL Server, MS Exchange Server and AD DS
server.
> The Back End Server does all the codec work in software with
risks to run into resource issues.
> All of them have to be quite recent
versions, so take care.
> You need to buy Licenses for the Clients
too.
> Licenses are cheap if you fall into a category like Charity,
Education or something similar which MS supports.
> Otherwise not.
> The
desktop client is quite intuitive, and lets you share the desktop as
well as allowing remote desktop service. You can also share only a
single app. But not on Mac OS.
> With Lync usually you don't use a
hardware VoIP phone, but just a headset on your PC, although vendors are
selling compatible phones.
> Lync has a client for smartphones (iOS,
Android, Windows Phone, Symbian) which can be used to chat and make
phone calls. 
> 
> Calls from the smartphoneclient use VoIP only if
you're on WiFi. If you move from one WLAN AP to another within your
corporation, Lync relies on the Infrastructure to provide seamless
transition (You probably need some fancy Cisco setup anyways).
> If you
leave the WLAN, your call will end, and you'll have to call again using
2G/3G voice.
> No video conferencing support on the smartphone either.
>
If you're not on the LAN/WAN, and want to participate in a conference
call, you can dial-in to a conference.
> Lync can setup conference calls
with users which are on the move on 2G/3G, if you use a 3rd party
provider. It seems to be supported. People use JahJah, but reports say
that voice quality is terrible.
> The conference calls don't support
DTMF. So if you need a call center, you have a problem.
> You can't
record calls made from a Lync smartphone client outside the LAN to a
client, as it bypasses the server completely. If you need call recording
in any situation, don't use Lync. Try Blackberry MVS. Or
Cisco/Avaya/Siemens and have a big fat data plan for mobiles ready.
>
There is no such thing as call transfers from the mobile voice network
to the company VoIP network.
> Lync provides fallback to PSTN and an
appliance called a survivable branch appliance, which provides Lync
services to the branches and also includes PSTN fallback.
> High
availability deployments are possible, but not simple compared to Cisco,
Avaya and the like.
> Traffic engineering seems to be a problem, as the
DSCP is set on the host, and switches seem to have a hard time trusting
the port.
> Lync includes a bandwidth calculation tool, which allows you
to plan ahead for the required bandwidth. 
> A table about bandwidth
usage can be found here
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/library/gg413004%28v=ocs.14%29.aspx
[1]
> The proprietary codecs use little bandwidth, but make it
impossible to talk to non Lync clients (mostly a problem for Video
calls)
> Lync servers can be run on VMs (well, you need a lot of servers
for the Enterprise Edition), but then PSTN fallback becomes somewhat
difficult.
> Lync supports IPv6 (at least with Lync 2013). Got v6?
(Siemens OpenScape even supports calls from IPv4 to IPv6.. Personally I
think that's cool. But maybe others do as well)
> 
> Some generic UCC
problems I've also encountered so far and would be interested in hearing
answers are:
> How do you replace Pagers (for example in a Hospital) if
you deploy a UCC solution
> How do you track the location of employees
which are moving around a lot (Warehouse, Mine, Police, etc.)
> How do
you get Emergency calls to work properly? With that I mean again locate
the caller.
> How do you deal with phone numbers and renumbering?
> 
>
The last questions are things I haven't found a proper answer yet. They
are related to the problem, that you never know whether your VoIP call
is End to End or whether it's translated into PSTN at some point, losing
information.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Mat
> 
> (I apologise if this email is
out of the AusNOG scope) 
> 
> Am 29.10.2012 11:21, schrieb Mattia
Rossi: 
> 
>> Hi all, 
>> 
>> I'm currently investigating the
advantages/disadvantages of MS Lync 2010 as UCC solution for a large
enterprise with lots of branches. If anyone has any experience already
with the roll-out of MS Lync 2010 or any story where its use has been
envisaged but then dropped in favour of an Avaya or Cisco or other
solution, I'd be interested to hear about it. Positive stories are
welcome too of course. 
>> If anyone has any detailed info about real
bandwith usage (not planned bandwith, but real-life experience including
possible drawbacks) even better. 
>> 
>> Please contact me off list, as
this could become a lengthy discussion. I would really appreciate your
help. 
>> 
>> Cheers, 
>> 
>> Mat

  

Links:
------
[1]
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/library/gg413004%28v=ocs.14%29.aspx
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