Lync designing & planning is intricate part and right decision can help organization to get better ROI. This article may help Solution Architects, Consultants and System Administrator to choose best Lync server/pool model. Number of Lync servers in a pool, collocated or distributed model of Lync roles typically depends on No. of Lync users, their activities and different geo locations.
| Lync 2013 Server Pools | Number of Servers | Supported No. of End users | Remarks |
| Lync 2013 Front End pool (Collocated with A/V conferencing, Mediation Server, A/M server) | 12 | 80,000 | Max. Conferences size is limited to 250 users, Media Bypass is required to support all users with condition of 60 % users are enable for EV and only 40% calls are UC-PSTN calls. |
| Lync 2013 Front End Pool (A/V only) | 2 | Large conferences b/w 250 – 1000 users | |
| Lync 2013 Mediation Pool | 12 | 80,000 | 100% users are enabled for EV and 80% calls are UC-PSTN calls. 12 servers are required if Media by pass in not enable/supported for deployed EV connectivity. No. of servers will reduce based on Media bypass configuration according to the %. |
| Lync 2013 Persistent Chat | 8 (4 active & 4 Passive) | 80,000 | 1, 50,000 users can be enabled for pChat and 80,000 users can use concurrent. Only pChat pool can be stretched b/w sites to achieve DR. For more details check Lync 2013 HA |
| Lync 2013 Edge Server | 4 – 8 | 80,000 | Depends on how many users will access Lync services simultaneously, 3-4 servers for 30-40% & 7-8 servers for 100% |
| Lync Director (optional) | 3 – 8 | 80,000 | Depends on remote users, 3 servers for 30% remote users and 8 servers for 100% remote users. |
| SQL Server | 2* | 80,000 | *2 for each backend databases |
Important: Above data has provided for physical servers, minor change can happen if you use virtualization as per MS guidelines. It does not take any accountability of DR plan/scenarios. If you are planning for DR also, please account overhead of DR users if available.
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