Planning Decisions

Initial Planning Decisions
The first part of the planning process is deciding which Microsoft Lync Server 2010 workloads and major features you want for your organization. 

1.     Do you want a physical or virtualized topology?   Microsoft Lync Server 2010 supports all workloads and server roles in both physical and virtualized topologies. User capacity in a virtualized topology is roughly 50 percent of the capacity in a physical topology. For details, see Running in a Virtualized Environment in the Planning documentation.
2.  Instant messaging (IM) and presence are always enabled.   In any Lync Server deployment, the instant messaging (IM) and presence workload is installed and enabled by default. IM enables your users to communicate with real-time text messages, and presence enables them to see the status of other users on the network. A user’s presence status provides information to help others decide whether they should try to contact the user, and by what means. For details, see Planning for IM and Presence in the Planning documentation.
3.  Do you want to deploy any modes of conferencing?   Conferencing is another core feature of Lync Server. Several modes of conferencing are supported. You can choose to deploy all supported types of conferencing, or just some of them. Web conferencing enables users to see a file, such as a slide deck created with Microsoft PowerPoint presentation graphics program, that is being presented. Application sharing enables users to share all or part of their desktop with each other in real time. With A/V conferencing, users can add audio (and possibly video) to their conferences and peer-to-peer communications. Dial-in conferencing enables users to use standard PSTN phones to join the audio portion of conferences hosted at your organization. For details, see Planning for Conferencing in the Planning documentation.
4.    If you deploy A/V conferencing, you should also monitor the audio quality of these conferences.   Many factors affect the audio and video quality of Lync Server A/V conferences. By using the A/V quality monitoring features provided by the Monitoring Server role, you can detect issues that affect media quality, and ensure that your users have the best possible media experience.

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Planning Process

High-Level Planning Process
We recommend the following general process for using both the documentation and the Planning Tool to plan your Lync Server deployment.

1. Run the Planning Tool to get a sense of the kind of questions you need to think about as you begin the planning process.
2.   Read New Server Features to familiarize yourself with the new features and requirements in Lync Server 2010.
3.   Read the other topics in this section: Topology Basics You Must Know Before Planning, Initial Planning Decisions, Clients for Lync Server 2010, and Reference Topologies.
4.   Now that you are more familiar with Lync Server features and the kinds of questions that must be answered, run the Planning Tool again and view the resulting topology and its details.
5. If there are particular workloads or features you are interested in or need to learn about, read the appropriate sections of Planning for Microsoft Lync Server 2010. 
6.   Run the Planning Tool again. You can start with the deployment you created in step 3 and modify the results, or start over from the beginning.

If needed, run the Planning Tool a third time and repeat until you are satisfied with the output.

1.  When you have finalized the topology plan, use the export feature of the Planning Tool to create an XML file that you can use with Topology Builder. Load that XML into Topology Builder and add final details such as IP addresses.
2.   Before you begin deployment, read Determining Your System Requirements and Determining Your Infrastructure Requirements to familiarize yourself with the prerequisites and necessary infrastructure for Lync Server. Additionally, be sure you have read all the sections of Planning for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 that apply to the workloads and features that you plan to deploy.

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