Topology Status

A relatively easy method of checking the health status of a Director server or pool exists through the Lync Server Control Panel. To check the status of a Director pool, perform the following steps:

1. Open the Lync Server Control Panel.

2. Click Topology.

3. Highlight the server in question, and click the Get service status button.

4. Double-click the server to drill down further and check the status of individual services such as the Registrar or web services. Figure 9.9 shows what the Lync Server Control Panel looks like.

Figure 9.9 Lync Server Control Panel Topology Status Example

Services Management

Managing the Lync Server services is the extent of administration involved with a Director after it is installed and configured. Administrators can start, stop, or drain the Director servers either from the Lync Server Control Panel or the Lync Server Management Shell. Stopping the services ends all user sessions, but draining the services enables existing connections to continue, but stop accepting new connections. This enables an administrator to prepare a server for maintenance without immediately impacting users.

To manage the Lync Server services, perform the following steps:

1. Open the Lync Server Control Panel.

2. Highlight the server to be modified.

3. Click Action and either select Start all services, Stop all services, or Prevent new connections for all services.

4. Alternatively, double-click the server to drill down further and manage the individual services.

Load-Balancer Drain

Draining a hardware load-balancer’s connections to a pool server is a task that should be done in conjunction with the Prevent new connections for all services option in the Lync Server Control Panel. The Lync Server services have no method of managing a hardware load balancer, so if one is used for the web services traffic, it must be started, stopped, and drained independently.