Technical data

DATA CENTER and CAMPUS NETWORKS DEPLOYMENT GUIDE
Deploying Brocade Networks with Microsoft Lync Server 2010 30 of 52
and conferencing converging onto the network. Fabrikam has already standardized on Brocade Ethernet products for
its load balancing, switching, and routing needs, because the Brocade products deliver the highest performance,
lowest price, and lowest power consumptions on the market.
Goals
For a successful deployment, the Fabrikam network team wanted to verify that the network was properly configured
to meet the demands of Microsoft Lync Server 2010. The team decided to implement IM, presence, VoIP, and video.
The CEO and management team decided that voice and video were the most critical application within the company.
Given this, the team needed to put QoS in place to give priority over all other applications.
In addition, the network team wanted to be sure that its network was robust at all layers of the network: access,
aggregate, and core. By leveraging a tiered network architecture, Fabrikam can easily integrate Microsoft Lync Server
2010 non-disruptively in the network.
The network team set forth the following goals.
• Three-tiered network architecture for both the campus and data center LAN at the headquarters and in
the San Francisco and Austin offices. This means placing the following installations:
o Brocade FCX and ICX enabled with PoE+ at the campus LAN access layer
o Brocade FastIron
®
SX at the campus aggregation layer
o Brocade VDX, Brocade ServerIron
®
ADX, and Brocade SAN in the data center Brocade NetIron
®
MLX
®
at the network core
• Place 10 GbE 802.1ad LAGs between each switch and the upper layer (see Figures 7 and 8). This
provides complete redundancy in each layer.
• Provide complete redundancy in each layer.
• Purchase SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) LAGs from the ISP that allow the company to take advantage
of all the features of Microsoft Lync Server 2010 across all offices and mobile users.
• Honor the QoS configured on all switches. Create an 802.1p marking ACLs to change the default DSCP
value assigned by Microsoft Lync Server 2010, to provide higher priority for voice and video. In
addition, configure rate limiting so that voice and video do not take up all the bandwidth.
• Deploy Rapid Spanning Tree on each VLAN.
• Load balance Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Front-End, Edge, and Directory Servers to increase
performance and security and to provide redundancy if any one of the Front End Servers fails.
• Ensure that each office experiences a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) that is greater than 3.5 in all cases.
Network Architecture
The Fabrikam network team took a look at the requirements for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and deployed
the following network architecture.
Core
The core is the most critical element in the network. Since San Jose, Seattle, and Austin are the largest offices,
Fabrikam has standardized using the Brocade NetIron MLX at the core for both the data center and campus LAN.
The Brocade NetIron MLX Series of advanced routers provides industry-leading 10 GbE and 1 GbE port density, wire-
speed performance, and a rich set of IPv4, IPv6, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Virtual Private LAN Services
(VPLS), multi-VRF (Virtual Routing and Forwarding), and Carrier Ethernet capabilities.