Topologies and Components for Mobility
Topic Last Modified: 2012-09-11
To support Lync mobile applications on mobile devices, the cumulative update for Lync Server 2010: November 2011 provides three new services. This section briefly describes these components and identifies the Lync Server 2010 topologies that support mobility.
Important
If you are planning any external user connectivity (for example, federation, external user access, or mobility features), you must use Edge Servers with Standard Edition server and the Front End Server or Front End pool. The Standard Edition server and the Front End Server or Front End pool do not have the necessary components to allow external users to access your internal deployment, or for the internal deployment to communicate with your external users. For all scenarios that include external users collaborating or communicating with internal users, including mobility, you must deploy at least one Edge Server and one reverse proxy.
Push notification uses a type of federation to Lync Online services, which hosts the Push Notification Clearing House (PNCH). Push notification refers to the sound alerts, alerts on screen (text), and badges that are pushed by applications to the Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Windows Phone. PNCH receives push notifications from Lync Server. When PNCH receives a notification of a message, PNCH forwards a notification to mobile clients through either the Apple Push Notification Services or the Lync Server 2010 Push Notification Service, based on the mobile client that the message is intended for. PNCH is a required service for these mobile clients. To federate to Lync Online, PNCH uses Edge Servers, certificates to ensure confidentiality and authentication, policies, and correctly configured domain name system (DNS) records. Nokia Symbian and Android-based Lync 2010 Mobile clients do not use PNCH. For details about planning and deploying Edge Servers, see the links listed at the bottom of this topic.
Mobility Components
The new services that support mobility are as follows:
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Mobility Service This new service supports Lync 2010 functionality, such as instant messaging (IM), presence, and contacts, on mobile devices.
Note
For a complete list of supported Lync features on mobile devices, see Mobile Client Comparison Tables.
The Mobility Service is installed on every Front End Server in each pool that is to support Lync functionality on mobile devices.
When you install the Mobility Service, a new virtual directory (Mcx) is created under both the internal website and the external website on your Front End Servers.
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Autodiscover Service This new service identifies the location of the user and enables mobile devices to locate resources, such as the internal and external URLs for Lync Server Web Services and the URL for the new Mobility Service, regardless of network location. Automatic discovery uses hardcoded host names (lyncdiscoverinternal for users inside the network and lyncdiscover for users outside the network) and the SIP domain of the user. It supports client connections using either HTTP or HTTPS.
The Autodiscover Service is installed on every Front End Server and on every Director in each pool that is to support Lync functionality on mobile devices. When you install the Autodiscover Service, a new virtual directory (Autodiscover) is created under both the internal website and the external website on both Front End Servers and Directors.
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Push Notification Service This service is a cloud-based service that is located in the Lync Online data center. When the Lync mobile application on a supported Apple iOS device or Windows Phone is inactive, it cannot respond to new events, such as a new instant messaging (IM) invitation, a missed instant message, a missed call, or voice mail, because these devices do not support mobile applications running in the background. In such a case, a notification, called a push notification, for the new event is sent to the mobile device. The Mobility Service sends the notification to the cloud-based Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Push Notification Service, which then sends the notification either to the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) (for supported Apple iOS devices) or to the Microsoft Push Notification Service (MPNS) (for Windows Phone), which sends it on to the mobile device. The user can then touch the notification on the mobile device to activate the application.
Note
The Lync mobile application can run in the background on Android and Nokia devices, so push notifications are not required for these devices.
The following diagram illustrates how the Push Notification Service fits in with a Lync Server 2010 topology.
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Supported Topologies
You can deploy the mobility feature in the following topologies:
Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition
Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Edition
The Edge Server can be a Lync Server 2010 Edge Server, or it can be an Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 Edge Server if you are in the process of migrating to Lync Server 2010.
Important
The Mobility Service is not supported on Front End Servers that have a collocated Mediation Server role and where the Front End Server or Front End Servers are dual-homed (that is, the Front End Servers have more than one network interface for the purposes of separating the Front End Server traffic and Mediation Server traffic). Specifically, you cannot use this topology with Mobility Service if you define a Primary IP address and a public switched telephone network (PSTN) IP address in Topology Builder and register only the Primary IP address in Domain Name System (DNS).