Step 6. Plan for External User Access
Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will reach end of support on January 9, 2018. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.
Edge servers enable your internal users and external users to communicate using Communicator or the Live Meeting 2007 client. Depending on your needs, you install edge servers in one or more of the following roles:
Access Edge Server
Web Conferencing Edge Server
A/V Edge Server
In addition to these Office Communications Server 2007 roles, you need to install an HTTP reverse proxy to allow external access to Address Book files, meeting content and distribution group expansion.
The following table provides an overview of how these servers are used.
Table 38 Edge server requirements overview
| Server | Required to Support | Corresponding Internal Server Required | Protocol |
|---|---|---|---|
Access Edge Server |
Any external user scenario, including public IM connectivity, remote user access, federation, external access to conferences, and external access to voice functionality |
Office Communications Server 2007 server or pool and, optionally, a Director |
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) |
Web Conferencing Edge Server |
External Web conferencing |
Web Conferencing Server |
Persistent Shared Object Model (PSOM) |
A/V Edge Server |
A/V conferences with external users Point-to-point A/V calls with external users |
A/V Conferencing Server |
RTP/RTCP, Simple Traversal of UDP through NAT (STUN)/ |
Reverse Proxy |
Group expansion, address book file download, and access to meeting content (such as slides) for Web conferencing |
Web Components Server (IIS) |
HTTP(s) |
Additional details about when you need each edge server are provided in the following sections.