Archiving Topologies

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.

The Office Communications Server 2007 Archiving and CDR Service architecture consists of:

• One or more Office Communications Server servers, hosting an Archiving and CDR Agent, which captures both archiving and CDR details from each server.

• Message Queuing, which enables the Archiving and CDR Agent to communicate with Archiving Services.

• A SQL database for storing IM and meeting content captured by the Archiving and CDR Agent. You can install the database on a separate, dedicated SQL back-end computer that is attached to the server or servers running the Archiving and CDR Agent. Optionally, you can collocate the database on the computer running the Archiving and CDR Agent. The Archiving and CDR database must be a dedicated SQL database, and cannot be on the same computer as a back-end database of an Enterprise pool.

  Note

  Archiving interoperability is not supported. You must archive all Office Communications Server 2007 servers by using the Office Communications Server 2007 Archiving Service. Similarly, you must archive all Live Communications Server 2005 servers by using the Live Communications Server 2005 Archiving Service.
  If you have both Office Communications Server 2007 and Live Communications Server 2005 Archiving Services running in your organization, the default behavior is different for the different versions.

The Office Communications Server 2007 Archiving and CDR components previously described can be deployed in the several different supported topologies based upon which Office Communications Server servers are being archived and the configuration of the Archiving and CDR service which is largely informed by your performance and scalability requirements (the number of users targeted for archiving).

For any archiving and CDR deployment you can choose between two basic topologies:

• Single-tier in which the Archiving and CDR Service and the back-end archiving database reside on a single computer.

• Two-tier in which the Archiving and CDR Service resides on a dedicated computer and the back-end database resides on a different dedicated computer.

As a variation of either of these two topologies, you can configure multiple Archiving and CDR Services connecting to the same archiving and CDR back-end database.

The topology you choose depends on your compliance requirements and whether or not Office Communications Server is mission critical in your enterprise. For example, if your organization is required to meet compliance regulations, you will probably enable archiving and CDR in critical mode so that the Office Communications Server 2007 becomes unavailable if archiving is unavailable.

When archiving is enabled in critical mode, the availability of your entire Office Communications Server infrastructure depends on the availability of the Archiving and CDR Service. If IM and conferencing are not considered mission critical and do not need to be highly available, then a single tier Archiving and CDR topology may meet your needs and save hardware costs. However, if IM and conferencing are mission-critical, then you will want to consider using a two-tiered Archiving and CDR Service and possibly clustering the archiving and CDR database. For an Enterprise pool in the expanded configuration, you can also connect different front-ends to different Archiving and CDR Services. In this situation, if one of the Archiving and CDR Services becomes unavailable, the affected Front-End Servers will shut down, and users will be redirected to the Front-End Servers that are connected to the available Archiving and CDR Service.

The topologies shown in the following figures represent one or more Standard Edition Servers or Enterprise Pools connected to the Archiving and CDR Service, either in single-tier or two-tier configuration. A two-tier Archiving Service provides improved scalability and performance.

The following figure shows a single Standard Edition Server connected to a single-tier Archiving and CDR Service. One or more additional Standard Edition Servers can be configured to connect to the same Archiving Service.

Figure 39   Standard Edition Server connected to single-tier Archiving and CDR Service

The following figure shows an expanded Enterprise Pool and a second Enterprise Pool of unspecified configuration, both connected to a two-tier Archiving Service.

Figure 40   Two Enterprise Edition Pools connected to two-tier Archiving Service

The following figure shows a single Enterprise Edition Pool of where each Front-End Server uses a dedicated Archiving and CDR Service that is connected to a shared SQL database. In this situation, if one of the Archiving and CDR Services becomes unavailable, the affected Front-End Servers will shut down, and users will be redirected to the Front End Servers that are connected to an available Archiving and CDR Service.

Figure 41   A single Enterprise Edition Pool connected to multiple Archiving Services

The following figure shows an Enterprise pool in the expanded configuration connected two logical Archiving and CDR Services comprised of multiple Archiving and CDR Services that reside on separate physical computers and two SQL databases.

Figure 42   Enterprise Pool Connected to two Archiving and CDR Services