How Microsoft IT Architected and Deployed Unified Communications

Jonathan R. LewisSr. IT Manager, AustraliaMicrosoft Corporation

Microsoft IT PurposeMicrosoft IT Purpose• Be Microsoft’s first and best customer

• Ensure security of Microsoft’s digital assets

• Drive productivity of our customers, clients, and partners

• Run a world class information technology (IT) environment

November 20063

DublinDublin

SingaporeSingapore

120,000 e-mail server 120,000 e-mail server accountsaccounts

RedmondRedmond

3M+ e-mail messages 3M+ e-mail messages per day internally,per day internally,

10M externally; 8M 10M externally; 8M filtered outfiltered out

99.99% availability99.99% availability

92,000 end users92,000 end users

89 countries89 countries

300,000+ PCs and devices300,000+ PCs and devices

Single Instance Single Instance SAPSAP

(1.5Tb Db)(1.5Tb Db)

Silicon ValleySilicon Valley

7,000,000 remote 7,000,000 remote connections/monthconnections/month

Microsoft IT DataMicrosoft IT Data

MSIT supports over 400 MSIT supports over 400 sites globally; 25% sites globally; 25% Internet connected Internet connected onlyonly

Incident Mgmt• 90K help desk calls/month• 7K infrastructure Service Requests/month• 6K changes/month

Devices• 300K PCs• 10K data centre servers• 10K network devices

Apps• Single Instance SAP• 1,371LOB apps

Monthly Remote Access• 45K RAS• 49K OWA• 18K RPC over http

Before (Live Communication Server 2005)...

04/10/23

Central Resource Forest DesignCentral Resource Forest Design

5 PooledEnterprise EditionFront-end Servers

ClusteredSQL Server

Database Server

2 Internal DirectorServers

SAN

Applications Server N

etwork Load B

alancer

Standard Edition Pre-Production

Server

Redmond Corporate Central Resource Forest

Intranet Border

Intranet Users

Archiving Agent& Database Server

04/10/23

Remote User and Federated AccessRemote User and Federated Access

• Enhanced Federation

• Public IM Connection

• RemoteAccess (no VPN)

• Communicator Web Access

After (Office Communication Server 2K7)...

Microsoft Confidential

Regional Pool Topology

Microsoft Confidential

• LCS Corp deployment was a single EE Pool for all global users.

• Chose Regional model for OCS (Redmond, Dublin, Singapore)– Improved performance for regional users

• Especially for Audio and Video• Web Components and Conferencing• Remote Access• Provisioning Still Automated

– Also lays foundation for global business continuance and disaster recovery strategy

Business and IT BenefitsBusiness and IT Benefits• Information worker within Microsoft saves approx

68min (3%) per week thru use of OCS/Communicator

• High availability and low operating cost with Enterprise Edition pool-based regionally managed system– >99.9

– 3 dedicated FTE to support

– Low user/ticket ratio

• Single Identity management system using AD

• Secure IM – Single client for all IM contacts via PIC and Federation

– Intelligent IM Filter provides simple protection• Against malware, links, attachments

• Insure Intellectual Property stays internalNovember 200612

Microsoft Confidential

MS IT Deployment OverviewMS IT Deployment Overview• Regional Deployments• Exchange UM for voicemail• EE, CE and SE Topologies• Parallel OCS and LCS deployment• Not Just the Corp deployment

– Converting our MMS LCS Customers to OCS– New MMS customers will be hosted on OCS

UC Planning Considerations• Regional site PBX requirements

• Local dial plan interrogation

• Gateway requirements

• User Communication

• Exchange UM Integration

• UC Routing (Location Profiles)

• Network traffic planning

• Mediation Server placement

Microsoft Confidential

Site Selection Considerations

• Deploy to countries where regulatory and homologation hurdles are cleared for gateway and VoIP deployments.

• Site has adequate bandwidth for added UC users (Peer to Peer), and Client to Mediation Server.

• Device availability (Catalina or Tanjay)• PBX has spare QSIG T1/E1 ports for gateway

connectivity• Users

– Basic phone users with PSTN phone number

1604/10/23

Tanjay Catalina/Softphone

Best for deskbound workers

HIGH phone usage

Best for deskbound remote or mobile workers

LOW phone usage

Headset compatible Headset compatible

Device controls calls Communicator controls calls

Telephone independent of PC

Must be logged in to use your telephone or forwarded to another number, or using a simultaneous ring

Microsoft Confidential

Gateway + Mediation Servers• SIP Gateway

– Translate SIP/RTP to/from circuit switched telephony protocols• Mediation Server

– Interfaces with a SIP gateway– Intermediates SIP signaling interactions

• TLS/SRTP SIP/RTP– Transcoding of codec

• RT Audio G.711– Media flows between OCS 2007 network and the SIP gateway

• Deploy Gateway and Mediation Server at a 1:1 ratio• Install Reskit / Admin tools• Useful to have Netmon installed on server for troubleshooting

Microsoft Confidential

Mediation Server Deployment Datacenter vs Branch Office

• Data Center a good choice when…– High bandwidth w/ QoS between DC and

Branch Office

– Low Latency between DC and Branch office

– No server hardware support at Branch office

• Branch Office good choice when…

– 120 Kbps per call network bandwidth not available

– High number of users on system

Helpful UC Tools

Per user calculation

•Type of usage is important when planning

• Consider the whole path end to end

Other Network Considerations

• Delay– Engineer to less than a mean of 150 ms

• Loss– up to 10% can be handled without significant

problems

• Connectivity– The clients can connect through pretty well all

common networks

Microsoft Confidential

Troubleshooting ServersideTroubleshooting Serverside• Post Install Server Validation Wizard• OCS MOM Packs for Operations Manager 2005 and

2007• OCS Logging Tool

– Replacement for Flatfile logging

• Best Practice Analyzer• Perfmon for trending and quick health checks

Microsoft Confidential

Troubleshooting ClientsideTroubleshooting Clientside

• Install Client with Logging enabled where possible, especially during pilot– Very useful to understanding client issues– Some Privacy and Compliance concerns

• Steps to Isolate Voice Quality Issue:• Get a clear definition of the issue. Is it reproducible

consistently. • Did anything change recently – new devices, new

environment “Anything at all”• Which end is the problem• Network parameters to consider – Jitter, Packet loss,

Delay, Bandwidth • Touch points for Media

• Device (Hard phone/Soft phone)• Computer/Laptop• Mediation Server• Media Gateway• PSTN network/Mobile Operator

• Install Ethereal or Netmon on Mediation servers

Voice TroubleshootingVoice Troubleshooting

Microsoft Confidential

Lessons Learned• Important to drive synergies between all teams

(Networking, Telephony, Messaging and UC) early.• Lack of telephone number standardization caused

delays in enabling users. • Wireless can be problematic.• Live Meeting without wired power can cause issues. • Using voice from other enterprise locations causes

RTP to go over TCP, firewalls typically only allow 443 or 80 which causes audio to go over 443 via TCP.

• Legacy network hubs / switches can cause poor audio.

• Slower laptop CPU’s can be problematic with UC audio and RoundTable, especially when Recording.

Microsoft Confidential

Gateway Lessons Learned• Choose good partners• Provide site deployment plans early and often to

Gateway Vendor so that delays in homologation don’t hinder deployments.

• Bring up T1/E1 2 weeks prior to deployment • Standardize on tie line interfaces between the PBX

and UC (i.e. QSIG)

Microsoft Confidential

Deployment Challenges • Dial Plans are located in UC, PBX, Gateways

and Exchange UM• Not all Telco carriers are created equal

– Each country is different for T1/E1 configuration

– Variable length phone numbers– Outbound Caller ID variants– Inconsistent, inbound Caller ID can

impersonate internal users if it matches the length and range of an internal extension.

• Users that require advanced PBX features are impacted.

Best Practices• Infrastructure

– Standardize gateway hardware

– Deploy in phases

– Ensure a crisp and well thought out enablement process

• End User– Create strong communications package

– Standardize user devices

– Introduce users to the softphone concept

– End user training/preparation

– Helpdesk preparation

28September 07