Other Topology Changes

Some other topology changes within Lync Server include changes to the Director role. In OCS 2007 and OCS 2007 R2, the Director was usually collocated with the Front End Server and required additional configuration steps to act as the Director. In Lync Server, the Director role is a unique server role. If a server is deployed as a Director, it cannot home users. It instead acts as a next-hop server for edge servers and connection requests.

Also new to Lync Server for the Director role is that it no longer requires a separate back-end database running SQL. Instead, the Director will utilize a locally installed version of SQL Server Express. This SQL Server Express component will install automatically when you deploy a Director.

Lync Server now allows the Mediation Server role to be collocated with the Front End Server role, no longer requiring a dedicated Mediation Server in sites where transcoding is needed.

Also new for small deployments is the capability to collocate the Archiving Server role and the Monitoring Server role with the Front End Server role. This is especially helpful for small deployments that might have a hard time justifying dedicated hardware for the Archiving and Monitoring roles.