In this post, I studied and researched Lync 2013 Monitoring. I discovered that in Lync 2013:

Transcription

1 Dean Suzuki Blog Title: Lync 2013 Monitoring Created: 12/24/2012 ; Updated (7/21/2013) Description: In this post, I studied and researched Lync 2013 Monitoring. I discovered that in Lync 2013: There isn t a dedicated monitoring or archiving server role (as it was the case in Lync 2010) Instead, the monitoring and archiving services are built into the front-end server A backend SQL database is still required and must be setup. The database can be SQL 2008 R2 or SQL Lync leverages SQL Reporting services to generate the reports and includes a Lync Report pack. For folks not familiar with the Lync Monitoring, this is a key capability that should be deployed with every Lync deployment. It allows us to understand how Lync is being used (how many IM, conferences, calls, etc.). Also, I would consider it a must for deployment when deploying Lync Voice. Lync Voice is Lync s capability to be used as a PBX. When deploying Lync Voice, I recommend conducting a small pilot and including participants at multiple locations across the company. Then, watch the Lync monitoring reports to analyze what the media quality. This will give us a preliminary understanding of the network conditions and identify areas where network remediation may be required (more bandwidith, network issues (packet loss, latency, areas with missing QoS, etc). (Update 7/21/2013) As mentioned earlier, the Monitoring and Archiving functions don t have a separate role. The features are built-in to the Front End server role. Thus, you don t have to build a separate monitoring/archiving server. The next question is: Can you leverage the same SQL database server for the monitoring/archiving database as the pool back-end database? The answer is Yes. From ( the following points are made: (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 1

2 If you require an Archiving database, the database can be collocated on the Monitoring database, persistent chat database, persistent chat compliance database, or on the Back End Server of a Front End pool Monitoring requires a database, but the database can be collocated with the Archiving database, persistent chat database, persistent chat compliance database, or on the Back End Server of an Enterprise Edition Front End pool. Thus, we don t have to setup a separate SQL server for the monitoring/archiving database as long as we size things appropriately. The steps to enable monitoring and archiving are: Enable monitoring in your topology and associate a monitoring store with a Front End pool Install SQL Server Reporting Services and the Lync Server Monitoring Reports. Monitoring Reports are preconfigured reports that provide different views into the information stored in a monitoring database. Configure call detail recording (CDR) and Quality of Experience (QoE) data collection. See for more information. A good deep dive presentation on how to use the Lync 2013 monitoring reports was given at Tech Ed 2013 and the recording can be found at: Review the articles below to learn more about Lync 2013 Monitoring. References: ; Planning for Monitoring ; Deploying Lync 2013 Monitoring Disclaimer: Contents of this blog and article represent the opinions of Dean Suzuki, and do not reflect the views of my employer. (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 2

3 Table of Contents 1 Pre-requisites Enable Monitoring in the Topology Create the Lync Monitoring Databases on the SQL Server Create Lync Report User and Report User Group Create a Lync Report User Create a Lync Report Group Install the Lync 2013 Monitoring Reports Access the Lync Monitoring Reports Pre-requisites This document assumes that you have already installed Lync 2013 Front End. Also, you will need a server with SQL server and SQL reporting services loaded on it. 2 Enable Monitoring in the Topology The first step is to enable the Lync monitoring and archiving capabilities in the topology. Go to the Front End Server, load the Lync Topology Builder. Go to the Front end server. Right-click and select Edit Properties. (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 3

4 Scroll down to the Archiving and Monitoring section. (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 4

5 Click the Monitoring button to enable it. Press New and specify a data store. Specify your SQL server. Mine is: lab2012-i3-db.contoso2012.com I am also going to enable Archiving and specify the same data store. (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 5

6 Publish the topology. Go to Action > Topology > Publish 3 Create the Lync Monitoring Databases on the SQL Server During the Topology publish process, the following dialog box appears. (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 6

7 Setup says that it is going to create the reporting database on the SQL server. (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 7

8 I got a warning and investigated it. The warning says that we need to change the startup mode of the SQL Server Agent to Automatic from Manual. Go to the SQL Server and change the SQL Server Agent service to Automatic. (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 8

9 Launch SQL Server Management Studio. Notice the Lync reporting databases (LcsCDR, LcsLog, QoEMetrics) have been created. 4 Create Lync Report User and Report User Group 4.1 Create a Lync Report User Go to the Domain Controller and create a new user (LyncReportUser). Go to the SQL database, launch SQL Management Studio and give the user System Admin rights on the SQL database. (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 9

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11 4.2 Create a Lync Report Group Create a group that will be allowed to access the Lync Reports. In my lab, I named the group LyncReportUsers. 5 Install the Lync 2013 Monitoring Reports Go to the SQL Server. Insert the Lync 2013 DVD. Launch the Lync 2013 Deployment Wizard Specify the SQL server (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 11

12 Specify the Lync Report User created earlier. Specify the Lync Report Group created earlier. (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 12

13 6 Access the Lync Monitoring Reports Go to: and navigate to the Lync Monitoring reports. In my lab, the URL is: (C) 2012 Dean Suzuki, All Rights Reserved 13