Virtualization Support

Topic Last Modified: 2012-09-21

Lync Server 2013 supports virtualization topologies that support all major workloads, including instant messaging (IM) and presence, conferencing, and Enterprise Voice. Virtualization is supported only on the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system and Windows Server 2012 for all host and guest operating systems.

Lync Server 2013 supports virtualization of the following:

• Servers in Front End pools.   If you virtualize a Front End Server, you can also virtualize some or all of the other server roles in the pool.
  
• Standard Edition servers.   When deploying a virtualized Standard Edition server, the only server roles that can be deployed with it are Director and Edge Server, as well as Monitoring and Archiving, both of which run on the Standard Edition server.
  
• Edge Servers for Front End pools and Standard Edition servers.
  

Support includes both of the following:

• Microsoft Hyper-V technology
  
• VMWare