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HPE Reference Configuration for Microsoft Skype for Business 2015 on HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blades

Reference Architecture

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Contents Executive summary ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Solution overview ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Solution components ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Skype for Business Server roles ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Software Defined Networking ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 10 HPE components........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Software used in this RC ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Capacity sizing ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 15 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18

Implementing a proof-of-concept .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 18 Appendix A: Bill of materials ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Resources and additional links ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 21

HPE resources .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 21 Microsoft resources ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 21


Executive summary This white paper describes deploying a highly available and disaster resilient, on-premises, Microsoft® Skype for Business Server 2015 (SfB) infrastructure using Hewlett Packard Enterprise server hardware and networking products.

Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 provides a simple yet powerful communications and collaboration platform which enables users to stay connected with their coworkers regardless of their physical location, and can result in significant cost savings for your organization. Designing and deploying Microsoft Skype for Business can be challenging. HPE is positioned to help you deploy a stable, flexible and highly available Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 infrastructure to serve your communications needs, with HPE products, solution design and implementation knowledge that are built on HPE’s extensive experience with their internal deployment of Skype for Business (SfB). HPE is also a premier System Integrator (SI) partner for SfB. By aligning with HPE experience and Microsoft Skype for Business best practices design, your time to deployment and overall implementation risk is minimized.

This paper serves as an example of an implementation using HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blades and HPE networking components. The HPE Gen9 server blades deliver improved performance over previous generations. HPE Intelligent Resilient Fabric (IRF) technology improves reliability by providing failover capability and dramatically enhances network availability by reducing failover recovery time and in turn reducing disruption for network sensitive real-time communication applications like Skype for Business. IRF creates a fabric by grouping physical switches into a single virtual switch which is managed through a single interface. Software Defined Network (SDN) improves the SfB user experience by dynamically prioritizing the user media traffic to enhance the call quality.

Skype for Business 2015 is deployed as a unified platform that provides different ways for people to communicate within a single client interface that is integrated into Microsoft Office applications.

SfB provides an integrated and unified communication experience to users by supporting the following main features: Instant Messaging and Presence (IM&P), Conferencing (web conferencing, audio and video (A/V) conferencing, dial-in conferencing, instant message (IM) conferencing) and VoIP. The main objective of this reference configuration is to discuss a sample deployment of Skype for Business on HPE server blade infrastructure for 10,000 users with the following features and functionality:

• High Availability (HA) at the server and service level

• Site resiliency in case of data center level failure

• Skype for Business and SDN integration using Aruba VAN SDN Controller and Aruba Network Optimizer

• Network implementation using HPE Intelligent Resilient Fabric (IRF) technology

• Back end server High Availability (HA) provided using the “SQL AlwaysOn Availability Groups” option

• Persistent chat in stretched pool architecture to provide High Availability (HA) and disaster resiliency

• Integration of SfB with Exchange Server for archiving of conversation history

The HPE products contained in this recommended configuration include:

• HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blades

• HPE D6000 disk enclosures

• HPE FlexFabric 5900CP, HPE FlexFabric 7904 and Aruba 5406R zl2 switches

The Microsoft products contained in this recommended configuration include:

• Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 Enterprise Edition

• Microsoft Windows Server® 2012 R2 Standard Edition

• Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise CU6 or later

Target audience: This white paper is intended for IT decision makers, architects and engineers involved in the planning, design and deployment of Skype for Business Server 2015 infrastructure using HPE ProLiant servers with HPE storage and networking components.


Document purpose: The purpose of this document is to describe a reference solution, highlighting recognizable benefits to technical audiences. This solution was developed based on subject matter expertise to address the described business challenge. This document does not provide installation and configuration guidance.

This white paper describes a project developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in May 2016.

Disclaimer: Products sold prior to the separation of Hewlett-Packard Company into Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company and HP Inc. on November 1, 2015 may have a product name and model number that differ from current models.

Solution overview Figure 1 depicts the Skype for Business Server paired pool architecture. The recommended configuration is designed to provide high availability and resiliency in the event of server, service, or site-level failure. This recommended configuration is based on HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blades, HPE D6000 shared DAS storage and HPE FlexFabric 5900CP and 7904 series data center switches. HPE Software Defined Networking (SDN) is deployed in this solution to optimize SfB network traffic over OpenFlow-compliant HPE networking components. Optimization of SfB network traffic is based on the particular type of communication in use during a conversation including Instant Messaging, Presence, Audio and Video Conferencing, and Application Sharing. HPE Intelligent Resilient Fabric (IRF) technology is used to link multiple switches in a fabric, which provides network resiliency and ease of administration. In case of the failure of one switch within the fabric, other switches continue to forward the traffic without any interruption.

The HPE ProLiant server blades are required to support the Skype for Business Server functionality deployed for this highly available physical configuration. Figure 1 shows a two-site logical configuration with the representative SfB server roles. If a specific server role is depicted as a pool or farm, it has multiple servers and the recommended server count for production implementation can be found in the bill of materials section.


Figure 1. Logical solution diagram of a Skype for Business 2015 deployment with HA and Site Resiliency


This reference configuration incorporates commonly used Skype for Business 2015 features used by information workers in a corporate environment.

• Instant Messaging (IM): The IM feature allows real-time text-based communication among users within and outside the organization including remote users, federated partners and millions of Skype consumer client users. A two-party IM conversation can escalate to a conference where the presenter can have voice/video call, share PowerPoint presentations, applications or even the entire desktop without interrupting the conversation flow. IM conversations can also be stored for regulatory and compliance purpose.

• Presence: The presence feature provides information about a user’s current availability, location, and status with others. Presence status, such as Available, Busy, In-Conference, Away and Out of Office notification, is synchronized across various presence-aware Microsoft applications, such as Outlook, Office Applications, and SharePoint.

• Conferencing: Skype for Business provides a complete conferencing solution under one umbrella. It supports four conferencing modalities: web conferencing, audio and video (A/V) conferencing, dial-in conferencing, and instant message (IM) conferencing. Users can collaborate, share information, and coordinate their efforts in real time by scheduling SfB meetings. For each meeting the user can include audio and video capabilities and users can join a meeting from a desktop SfB client, web SfB client, mobile SfB clients like those on IOS, Android, or Windows® mobile devices and consumer versions of Skype clients.

– Web conferencing: The SfB web conferencing is used by information workers to collaborate and increase productivity. Live sharing of presentations and documents can sometimes be challenging without visual support. The web conferencing feature allows the presenter to share presentations, documents, conduct training sessions all in in real time with many co-workers, customers and partners located at geographically dispersed regions. Web conferencing allows multiple people to present at different intervals in that session.

– Audio and Video (A/V) conferencing: This feature allows peer to peer or multiple information workers from different locations to join and engage in discussion using both audio and video. This creates a more personal experience as people can see each other and communicate more effectively.

– Dial-in conferencing: This feature allows users to join the audio portion of a conference using a PSTN telephone connection. When a SfB meeting is scheduled, a conference code is generated and the meeting invite is populated with a conference code and a dial-in number for each country. Individuals can join the conference by calling the dial-in number and providing the conference ID.

– Instant message (IM) conferencing: This feature allows multiple users to participate and exchange text-based messages in real time. It allows basic text formatting and exchange of files as attachments.

• Persistent Chat: This is a chat room feature which enables users to create and discuss topics or projects important to them. The main advantage of persistent chat is, unlike instant messages, the conversation thread is contiguous and can be added to over time by multiple participants. The chat room is really helpful to new members who join the group. Instead of searching for old emails to learn about the project, the new member can simply log on to a chat room and gain access to all conversation, links and files shared from the beginning of the project. Persistent Chat can also be used in support situations to ensure that as a support case is handed from person to person or team to team, the previous information is available to whoever is working the case.

• Monitoring: The monitoring feature when deployed provides two types of reports for SfB administrators; CDR (call detail recording) and QoE (quality of experience). QoE provides reports on audio and video quality and CDR provides a detailed usage report for the various SfB call modalities (IM, app sharing, file transfer, A/V Conferencing, etc.). CDR tells us which features are used by whom and for how long. However CDR does not capture the actual data transmitted over the wire. The CDR and QoE services can be enabled independently and help administrators in troubleshooting issues, maintaining device inventory, identifying call quality issues and maintaining high call quality.

• Archiving: With increased regulatory and compliance requirement, it has become very important to save communications between peers and conferences within the organization or with customers and partners outside the organization. SfB data can be archived and stored both in SQL databases and in Microsoft Exchange (if deployed).

• Remote Access: This feature is useful for information workers working outside the organization’s firewall. Remote access enables users to enjoy services like IM, Presence and Conferencing when they are connecting to SfB from outside of the enterprise network. It allows users to connect and communicate with peers regardless of their location without needing to establish a VPN connection.


• Enterprise Voice: Skype for Business offers a complete Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution which is powerful, scalable and secure, and provides the full range of publicly switched telephone network (PSTN) services. The enterprise voice users use a headphone or VoIP enabled phone with their computer instead of traditional PSTN or PBX phone. In addition to voice, enterprise voice integrates with the SfB rich feature set to provide services like instant messaging, conferencing, Response Groups, Call Park, team calling, Group Call Pickup, and Enhanced Emergency E9-1-1 support which makes this feature a more attractive solution for enterprise customers.

• Integration with other Microsoft applications: Skype for Business 2015 integrates well with other Microsoft applications such as Exchange Server, and SharePoint. This integration gives SfB access to the information stored in these other applications.

Solution components Skype for Business site: A Skype for Business site is a well-connected, low-latency network in which Skype for Business core components are deployed. A SfB site consists of at least a Standard or an Enterprise Edition server. In this recommended configuration we have two sites, Central Site 1 and Central Site 2 connected with a high speed WAN link.

Skype for Business Enterprise Edition (EE) topology: EE front end topology provides HA and scalability by separating many of the Skype for Business Server 2015 roles that Standard Edition (SE) combines, thereby increasing the scalability options. Due to these characteristics, in general EE is fit for larger SfB deployments. EE can take advantage of SQL AlwaysOn Availability Groups for providing HA for back-end databases. Similarly, with EE the administrator is able to deploy SfB services into pools and spread the client load across the members of those pools. This provides for protection against a component or system failure and it provides a method to scale the performance of the infrastructure for large deployments. In this recommended configuration an EE pool is deployed at Central Site 1 and Central Site 2.

Skype for Business Server roles A Skype for Business 2015 Enterprise Edition topology consists of various core server roles which provide basic SfB functionality as described in the solution overview section. The following Skype for Business server roles are deployed in this solution:

• Front end server pool: The front end server role is the core role which runs many basic SfB functions and is responsible for the client connections. This role holds real time communication (RTC) data that is replicated among the members of the front end server pool using Windows Fabric functionality. The front end server pool communicates a portion of the data to the back end server role, which provides database services to the front end. The front end server pool provides the following functions:

– User authentication and registration

– Presence information and contact card

– Address book services

– Distribution list expansion

– IM functionality

– Web conferencing

– Application sharing

– Storage of conferencing response group data

The front end server can be deployed as a single server or in a pool where more scalability and failover capability is required. One of the pool members runs the Central Management Server (CMS) role which is responsible for managing and deploying configuration information to all SfB servers. Load balancing is achieved via an external load balancer (LB) to distribute the load evenly on the members of the pool. A pool consisting of three front end servers is deployed at Central Site 1 and another pool is deployed at Central Site 2. Both pools are paired with each other to provide disaster recovery support.

• Back end server: The SQL back end server provides database services for the front end pool. For most Skype for Business server deployments, a single database server is sufficient. In this recommended configuration for high availability and business continuity two SQL back end servers are configured and deployed in a SQL AlwaysOn Availability Group configuration at each site. Each SQL AlwaysOn Availability Group contains two failover partners known as primary and secondary replica. Each SQL AlwaysOn Availability Group is configured using synchronous-commit mode with the failover mode set to automatic on both the primary and secondary replicas. In case the primary replica becomes unavailable, then the SfB database availability group will automatically move to the secondary replica and vice versa.


• Office Web App server: This server role provides the functionality of presenting PowerPoint presentations with multiple participants in a conference. This server gives the attendees the ability to view the PowerPoint presentation and advance or review the slides independent of the slide the presenter is currently showing. Remote users who have joined the conference using a mobile SfB client can also view the presentation. This server role cannot be collocated with any Skype for Business or SQL server, and can be deployed on a standalone server depending upon the workload requirement. In this reference configuration, two Office Web App server farms, each consisting of two load balanced servers, are deployed and integrated with the front end servers at Central Site 1 and Central Site 2.

• Persistent Chat server: A persistent chat pool consists of two components: the front end and the back end. The front end server runs the chat service, which is the core component of the persistent chat server. It is responsible for functionalities like registering users, accepting and transmitting messages and searching content. The compliance service which also runs on the front end server is responsible for archiving chat contents for regulatory and compliance purpose. The SQL back end server stores the chat and the compliance data. The persistent chat server is paired with a SfB front end pool for routing messages. To achieve high availability and resiliency this persistent chat configuration is based on a stretched pool architecture, in which the pool is configured as one pool where the persistent chat servers are placed in two separate physical data centers. Persistent chat server 1 (active) and server 2 (idle) are deployed at Central site 1. Persistent chat server 3 (active) and server 4 (idle) are deployed at Central site 2. A SQL mirrored database is deployed at Central site 1, a witness server (collocated with the SDN Manager Host machine) is deployed for automatic failover. A backup SQL mirror database, which is the SQL log shipping target, is deployed at Central Site 2. A witness server (collocated with the SDN Manager Host machine) is deployed for automatic failover at Central Site 2.

Figure 2. Logical solution diagram of Persistent Chat Stretched Pool architecture

Note At the time of writing this white paper, Persistent Chat HA is supported on SQL mirroring only.

Persistent Chat Frontend Server-1

Active

CENTRAL SITE 1 CENTRAL SITE 2

Persistent Chat DB Server in Mirror

Active

SQL Log Shipping

Frontend Pool (Paired)

Frontend Pool (Paired)

Persistent Chat DB Server in Mirror

Backup


Idle


Active


Idle

Witness Servercollocated with SDN Manager

Witness Servercollocated with SDN Manager

Persistent Chat

Stretched Pool

High BW Low Latency Site to Site Link


• Monitoring: The monitoring service, when enabled, collects statistical usage metrics of Skype for Business features like IM, conferencing, and Enterprise Voice by tracking call detail records (CDR). This service also collects information related to the quality of audio and video used in the infrastructure (QoE). Administrators run reports to track usage patterns, inventory devices and troubleshoot user issues. The monitoring service uses a back end SQL database to store usage metrics through the SQL reporting services. The monitoring service role does not require separate server hardware. It is installed by default on the front end servers but not enabled. In this reference configuration the monitoring service role is enabled on each front end server. The monitoring services database is collocated on the persistent chat database server but in a separate instance. Monitoring services are implemented at Central Sites 1 and 2.

• Archiving server: The archiving role in Skype for Business 2015 primarily serves the purposes of legal compliance. The archiving server role is able to archive uploaded content and communications, such as handouts, peer to peer and multiparty IM conferences. However there are a few content types, such as peer to peer file transfer, Audio/Video files, desktop and application sharing, that are not archived. Archiving agents are installed and enabled by default on the front end servers. However, archiving needs to be enabled in order to start archiving messages. In this reference configuration, Skype for Business is integrated with the Exchange server for storing archived data (IM and conferencing). As a prerequisite, all users are mailbox enabled and their mailboxes are put on In-Place Hold. The archived data is stored in the Recoverable items folder of the user mailbox, which is completely invisible to the users. The main advantage of integrating archiving with Exchange is using a single tool that an admin with appropriate privileges can search and retrieve both the Exchange and SfB data. The archiving role is enabled on the servers in each front end server pool in Central Sites 1 and 2.

• Director: The director role in Skype for Business 2015 is a specialized subset of the front end server, which provides pre-authentication and redirection services. Unlike a front end server, it is not possible to home user accounts on a Director pool, and it provides no user services to endpoints. The primary function is to pre-authenticate endpoints and “direct” users to the pool where their user account resides. The directors can be deployed as a single server or in a pool. In this architecture a director pool comprising two servers are deployed at each site.

• Mediation server: This server role provides signaling and transcoding and acts as an interface between the voice traffic from within the organization to the PSTN network. In Skype for Business 2015, it supports multiple trunks to same gateway or multiple trunks to multiple media gateways. SfB 2015 also provides a media bypass feature that allows SfB clients and phones to directly route media traffic, excluding SIP traffic, to the media gateway, without routing via the Mediation server. The Mediation server role is co-located on servers in the front end server pools in each of central sites.

• Edge server: The Skype for Business Edge server role is one of the most important server roles because it extends SfB functionality beyond the organization’s network. This role allows an organization’s SfB users working from remote locations to communicate with users inside the company’s network. It also allows outside users like customers, federated partners and anonymous users who may not have an account in the company’s Active Directory, to attend meetings and exchange instant messages. The functionality provided to external users by this role is IM and Presence, A/V and Web conferencing functionalities. Two edge servers are deployed in a pool for high availability in each central site and are located in the DMZ.

• File share: The Skype for Business 2015 server stores application, configuration and web services data in shared folders so that it can be accessed by servers across the topology. In this reference configuration the file share is created on an existing Distributed File System (DFS) infrastructure. DFS provides high availability and load sharing by allowing it to connect to a virtual name space while the actual folders could be located on multiple physical file servers which are transparent to the user.

Note Refer to this link for detailed Skype for Business 2015 planning https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/plan-your-deployment/plan-your-deployment

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/plan-your-deployment/plan-your-deployment


Software Defined Networking The Aruba Network Optimizer Software Defined Networking (SDN) Application for Microsoft Skype for Business enables automated provisioning of network policy and quality of service to provide an enhanced user experience. The Aruba Network Optimizer SDN Application dynamically provisions the end-to-end network path and Quality of Service (QoS) policy via the Aruba Virtual Application Network (VAN) SDN Controller, reducing the need for manual, device-by-device configuration via the CLI, which greatly simplifies policy deployment and reduces the likelihood of human errors. The SDN solution comprises the components shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Logical solution diagram of SDN control data

• Microsoft Skype SDN API: The SDN API is a Dialog Listener (DL) which is installed and runs as a service on all Skype for Business 2015 front end servers. When application sharing, voice or video communication is initiated between two SfB clients the front end server provides the session details via the SDN API to the Microsoft Skype SDN Manager. This session information includes source and destination IP address, protocol type, application ports, media type, codec and bandwidth requirements at the start and end of every call.

• Microsoft SDN Manager Server: The SDN manager collects and processes information received from all SfB dialog listeners. It parses quality information related to voice, video, application sharing and passes it on to the Aruba Network Optimizer/VAN Controller in an XML format. In this architecture the SDN Manager is installed on two virtual machines, for high availability a second Hyper-V server host can be installed to host additional SDN managers.

• Aruba Network Optimizer/VAN Controller: Aruba Network Optimizer/VAN SDN Controller software is the central point for control and automation of the SDN-enabled network. This application controls the SDN information and performs traffic prioritization by modifying the flow table on the network switches using OpenFlow. In the event that one controller fails, high availability is achieved through configuring a team of controllers. An Aruba VAN SDN Controller with Aruba Network Optimizer SDN Application is installed on a Ubuntu server.


HPE components Rack enclosure In this configuration, two 42U racks are used, one at each physical site. Each rack contains one HPE BladeSystem c7000 enclosure, sixteen HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blades, one Aruba 5406R zl2 switch, two HPE FlexFabric 7904 switches, and two HPE FlexFabric 5900CP switches.

Note A single HPE BladeSystem c7000 enclosure could be considered a single point of failure depending on your design requirement and service level agreements. Keeping cost in consideration a single enclosure is used at each site in the reference configuration.

Servers HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blades are used in this solution for hosting various core SfB server roles. Designed for a wide range of configuration and deployment options, the HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blade provides the flexibility to optimize your core IT applications with right-sized external storage for the right workload to achieve a lower TCO. All of this is managed by HPE OneView, the converged management platform that accelerates IT service delivery and boosts business performance. The server, combined with Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v3 processors and HPE DDR4 SmartMemory, provides improved performance as compared to the previous generations.

Figure 4. HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blade


Table 1. Server hardware used in the RC for front end servers (with collocated mediation, archiving and monitoring roles), SQL back end servers and Persistent Chat front end and SQL back end servers

Hardware Component Description

CPU 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2620 v3 (6-core, 2.4 GHz, 15MB, 85W) Memory 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 2400MT/s RDIMMs at 1.2V

Disk 2 x 300GB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in SC ENT HDD

Network HPE FlexFabric 10Gb 2P 536FLB Adapter

Table 2. Server hardware used in the RC for Edge servers, Office Web App servers, SDN Manager and Directors

Hardware Component Description

CPU 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2623 v3 (4-core, 3 GHz, 10MB, 105W)

Memory 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 2400MT/s RDIMMs at 1.2V

Disk 2 x 300GB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in SC ENT HDD

Network HPE FlexFabric 10Gb 2P 536FLB Adapter

Storage The 6 Gb/s SAS HPE D6000 disk enclosure is used for storing the SQL database and transaction log files for the SfB front end pool, SQL back end, Persistent Chat and Monitoring Server SQL back end roles. The HPE D6000 disk enclosure is a high capacity yet cost effective direct attach storage (DAS) solution ideal for HPE BladeSystem servers. Using user-friendly management software, disks are zoned and presented to individual server blades which sees them as local storage; this allows multiple servers to use a single disk enclosure with their own hard drives. Additional disks can be added to the zone to increase capacity of an existing server blade configuration. The HPE D6000 can hold a total of seventy large form factor (LFF) 3.5 inch hot pluggable drives. Those seventy drives are divided between two drawers of thirty-five drives each.

Figure 5. HPE D6000 disk enclosure

Note More information about the HPE D6000 is available at: hpe.com/us/en/product-catalog/storage/disk-enclosures.hits-12.html Information about deployment and cabling of the HPE D6000 is available at: https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c01956983

https://www.hpe.com/us/en/product-catalog/storage/disk-enclosures.hits-12.html

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c01956983


Network As depicted in Figure 1, Central Site 1 and Central Site 2 are comprised of three networks each:

• DMZ: This network sits in-between the firewalls and is used to connect the SfB edge and reverse proxy servers to the Internet.

• Internal: This is the internal network containing the Skype for Business servers, clients and other infrastructure servers like Active Directory, Exchange, DFS, SDN Manager, Media Gateways for PSTN connectivity and the hardware load balancers controlling the traffic on the SfB internal pool environments.

• Management: This network is used for connecting the Aruba VAN SDN Controller.

Switches Central Site 1 and Central Site 2 consist of two IRF fabrics at each site. An IRF is created by grouping two or more physical switches; this grouping of switches is known as a fabric or domain. The details of the IRF configuration are distributed to every switch in the IRF fabric. In case of failure of the primary switch within the fabric, another switch takes over and becomes the primary switch, and continues to forward traffic without any interruption. All physical switches in the fabric appear as a single virtual switch to administrators.

Server access layer IRF fabric The server access layer IRF fabric is comprised of two HPE FlexFabric 5900CP switches with redundant 40 GbE connections between them and configured for IRF. Servers and equipment in the internal network are connected to this fabric. The HPE FlexFabric 5900CP switch provides a converged, top-of-rack, data center switch architecture that offers wire once for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) converged environments. With 48 converged ports that support 1/10GbE and 4/8Gbps FC, the HPE FlexFabric 5900CP delivers versatile convergence for connecting iSCSI and FC SANs. Resilience and ease of management come hand–in-hand with the HPE FlexFabric 5900CP switch. While IRF reduces management complexities by up to 88%, it also delivers less than 50 millisecond convergence time.

Figure 6. HPE FlexFabric 5900CP switch

Core layer IRF fabric The core layer IRF fabric is comprised of two HPE FlexFabric 7904 switches with redundant 40 GbE connections between them and configured for IRF. The server access layer switches are connected to the core layer switches through redundant 40 GbE connections using Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) and Bridge Aggregation Group (BAGG) functionality for resiliency. The HPE FlexFabric 7904 switches can be configured with four separate modules that can be selected based on the specific needs of your design.

HPE FlexFabric 7904 modular core switch is a compact modular data center core switch supporting virtualized data centers and evolutionary needs of private and public cloud deployments. Delivering unprecedented levels of performance, buffering, scale, and availability with high density 10GbE, 40GbE and 100GbE interfaces, using only a fraction of the footprint used by traditional chassis switches. The switch supports full Layer 2 and 3 features, including advanced features such as TRILL and HPE IRF, which enable scale-out, two-tier leaf-spine architecture.


Figure 7. HPE FlexFabric 7904 switch

Skype for Business Client access layer The SfB client access layer is comprised of one Aruba 5406R zl2 switch. SfB client endpoints in the internal network are connected to this switch. The Aruba 5400R zl2 switch series is an industry-leading mobile campus access solution with HPE Smart Rate multi-gigabit ports for high-speed connectivity and bandwidth for next wave 802.11ac devices. It brings enterprise-class resiliency and innovative flexibility and scalability to converged campus networks. Aruba’s portfolio of network devices includes wireless access points to support the proliferation of tablets and other mobile devices. They deliver consistent wired/wireless user experience with unified management tools such as ClearPass Policy Manager and Airwave Network Management. Aruba access points provide automatic configuration for wireless functionality, PoE priority, VLAN configuration, and rogue AP containment.

Leading switching ASIC technology, hitless failover, QoS, and security with full L3 features and flexible connectivity options including 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports and full PoE+, the 5400R switches require no add-on software licensing and are SDN ready with OpenFlow support.

Figure 8. Aruba 5406R zl2 switch

Software used in this RC Operating system Table 3. Operating system used in this RC

Product Update Vendor Licenses Required

Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition Latest Microsoft Yes


Application software Table 4. Application software used in this RC

Product Update Vendor Licenses Required

Skype for Business Server 2015 Enterprise Latest Microsoft Yes

Aruba Network Optimizer for Skype for Business Latest Aruba Yes

Skype for Business, SDN Manager Interface 2.2 NA Microsoft No

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Cumulative Update 6 or later Microsoft Yes

Office Web Apps Server 2013 Latest Microsoft Yes

Table 5. Solution components at a glance for both central sites

Qty Solution Component Description

6 Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 front end server

Three front end (HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9) servers in each pool for high availability and scalability at Central Site 1 and 2.

4 Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise back end server

Two SQL (HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9) Servers at each site. AlwaysOn Availability Group configured for high availability.

4 Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 Director server

Two Director (HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9) servers in each pool at Central Site 1 and 2. Redirects client traffic to their home front end pool.

4 Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 Persistent Chat server

Two Persistent Chat (HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9) servers in each pool configured in stretched pool configuration for high availability and scalability at Central Site 1 and 2. Enables users to participate in multiparty conversation which persist over time.

4 Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Persistent Chat database server

Two SQL (HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9) Servers at each site. Configured in mirror for high availability.

4 Office Web Apps server farm Two Office Web Apps server (HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9) servers in each farm at Central Site 1 and 2

Office Web Apps Server delivers PowerPoint for sharing in Skype for Business 2015.

4 Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 Edge server

Two Edge (HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9) servers in each pool at Central Site 1 and 2. Redirects client traffic to their home front end pool. This role allows an organization’s SfB users working from remote locations, home or hotel rooms to communicate with users inside the company’s firewalls.

2 Microsoft Skype for Business SDN Manager / Witness server

One SDN Manager (HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9) host server at each site. Two Microsoft Skype for Business SDN Manager 2.2 guest VM servers run on each host. The SDN Manager collects and processes information received from the front-end server SDN API and forwards the same to Aruba Network Optimizer SDN Application software.

2 Aruba Virtual Application Networks (VAN) SDN Controller

Two SDN controller (HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9) servers at each site. This application controls the SDN information and performs traffic prioritization by modifying the flow table on the network switches using OpenFlow.

4 HPE FlexFabric 5900CP switch Two IRF paired highly available top-of-rack (ToR) switches deployed at each site provide connectivity between SfB servers, clients and voice devices.

4 HPE FlexFabric 7904 switch Two IRF paired data center core switches deployed at each site provide high availability network connection to the other data center components outside the rack.

2 Aruba 5406R zl2 switch One Aruba 5406R zl2 switch at each central site provides connectivity to SfB client endpoints.

Capacity sizing In this reference configuration, the HPE Sizer for Microsoft Lync Server 2013 tool is used to design and size the Skype for Business 2015 implementation. The tool generates a bill of materials containing HPE server and storage components.

Note At the time of writing this paper, development of the HPE Sizer for Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 is in progress. Running Skype for Business 2015 on the same hardware as Lync 2013 may not support the same number of users for Skype for Business as for Lync 2013.


HPE Sizer for Microsoft Lync Server 2013 The HPE Sizer for Microsoft Lync Server 2013 provides an analysis of the HPE server and storage hardware needed to implement the features that are selected in the sizer. The site name and number of users homed in that site are entered and Lync features are selected with the use of checkboxes. The tool then allows the configuration of the Enterprise Voice feature and co-location configuration for roles. Once the tool has completed, a Bill of Materials (BOM) is generated that can be provided to your HPE sales specialist for quotation of the server and storage components. The HPE Sizer for Microsoft Lync Server 2013 is available from: hpe.com/solutions/microsoft/lync2013/sizer

Figure 9. HPE Sizer for Microsoft Lync Server 2013

http://www.hpe.com/solutions/microsoft/lync2013/sizer


Figure 10. Sample physical layout at each site


Summary Microsoft Skype for Business 2015 is a business-critical and real-time network-dependent application. Deploying a highly available, resilient and consistently performing enterprise-ready SfB solution can be a complex and time consuming process. This white paper helps simplify and expedite deployment of SfB solutions. It outlined the hardware and software necessary to support an on-premises SfB infrastructure to support 10,000 users with typically used workloads in an enterprise deployment. Some of the biggest challenges with deploying Skype for Business 2015 solutions that were addressed in this paper are:

• Determining an enterprise scale solution architecture and sizing

• A highly available and disaster resilient configuration to support the SfB solution at site, server, and service level

• Bandwidth limitation: multiple applications compete for the limited available bandwidth causing loss of quality

To address the above challenges, the SfB deployment was planned using HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 server blades. These servers use Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors, which deliver improved performance as compared to previous models. Aruba VAN SDN Controller provided centralized control and automation for the SDN network. The Aruba VAN SDN Controller controls policy and forwarding decisions, which are communicated to the OpenFlow-enabled HPE switches in the data center or campus network, dramatically enhancing the available bandwidth. The SfB deployment as described in this recommended configuration was planned using Microsoft best practices and HPE servers, storage, and networking platforms which make it stand apart from the rest.

Implementing a proof-of-concept As a matter of best practice for all deployments, HPE recommends implementing a proof-of-concept using a test environment that matches as closely as possible the planned production environment. In this way, appropriate performance and scalability characterizations can be obtained. For help with a proof-of-concept, contact an HPE Services representative (hpe.com/us/en/services/consulting.html) or your HPE channel partner.

Appendix A: Bill of materials

Note Part numbers are subject to change. The bill of materials does not include complete support options or other rack and power requirements. If you have questions regarding ordering, please consult with your HPE Reseller or HPE Sales Representative for more details. hpe.com/us/en/services/consulting.html

Table 6. Bill of materials (Central Site 1 and Central Site 2)

Qty Part Number Description

Rack

2 BW908A HPE 42U 600mm x 1200mm Enterprise Shock Rack

Blade enclosure

2 681844-B21 HPE BLc7000 CTO 3 IN LCD Plat Enclosure

4 BK764A HPE 6Gb SAS Switch Dual Pack for HPE BladeSystem c-Class

8 538113-B21 HPE BLc 10GbE Pass Thru Mod Opt Kit

2 456204-B21 HPE BLc7000 Onboard Administrator with KVM Option

Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 front end server

6 727021-B21 HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 CTO Server Blade

6 726995-L21 Intel Xeon E5-2620v3 (2.4 GHz/6-core/15MB/85 W) Processor Kit

6 726995-B21 Intel Xeon E5-2620v3 (2.4 GHz/6-core/15MB/85 W) Processor Kit

12 652564-B21 300GB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in SC ENT HDD

12 726719-B21 HPE 16GB 2Rx4 PC4-2133P-R Kit

6 766491-B21 HPE FlexFabric 10Gb 2P 536FLB FIO Adapter

http://www.hpe.com/us/en/services/consulting.html




6 761871-B21 HPE Smart Array P244br/1G FIO Controller

6 726782-B21 HPE Smart Array P741m/4GB FBWC 12Gb 4-ports Ext Mezzanine SAS Controller

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise back end server









Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 Director pool


4 726996-L21 Intel Xeon E5-2623v3 (3 GHz/4-core/10MB/105 W) Processor Kit

4 726996-B21 Intel Xeon E5-2623v3 (3 GHz/4-core/10MB/105 W) Processor Kit


8 726718-B21 HPE 8GB (1x8GB) Single Rank x4 DDR4-2133 CAS-15-15-15 Registered Memory Kit



Microsoft Skype for Business 2015 Persistent Chat server








Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Persistent Chat database server









Microsoft Office Web Apps server farm










Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 Edge server







4 700748-B21 HPE FlexFabric 10Gb 2P 534M Adptr


Microsoft Skype for Business SDN Manager Host







2 700748-B21 HPE FlexFabric 10Gb 2P 534M Adptr


Aruba Virtual Application Networks (VAN) SDN Controller

2 719064-B21 HPE DL380 Gen9 8SFF CTO Server



2 759208-B21 HPE 300GB 12G SAS 15K 2.5in SC ENT HDD

1 727060-B21 HPE FlexFabric 10Gb 2P 556FLR-SFP+ Adptr

1 749974-B21 HPE Smart Array P440ar/2G FIO Controller

2 647594-B21 HPE Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 331T Adapter

Network infrastructure

4 JG838A HPE FlexFabric 5900CP (48XG-4QSFP+) Switch

4 JG682A HPE FlexFabric 7904 Switch

2 J9821A Aruba 5406R zl2 Switch

Storage infrastructure

2 QQ695A HPE D6000 Disk Enclosure

8 716191-B21 HPE 2.0m External Mini SAS High Density to Mini SAS Cable

8 716189-B21 HPE 1.0m External Mini SAS High Density to Mini SAS Cable

54 516814-B21 HPE 300GB 6G SAS 15K rpm LFF (3.5-inch) Dual Port Enterprise 3yr Warranty Hard Drive


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© Copyright 2016-2018 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Microsoft, Windows Server, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Intel and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

4AA6-6088ENW, June 2018, Rev. 1

Resources and additional links HPE resources • HPE and Microsoft, hpe.com/partners/microsoft

• HPE Storage, hpe.com/storage

• HPE Servers, hpe.com/servers

• HPE Networking, hpe.com/networking

• Aruba Solutions for Microsoft Mobile UCC, arubanetworks.com/solutions/microsoft-mobile-ucc

• Aruba Network Optimizer SDN Application Series QuickSpecs, https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c04227647

• HPE Reference Architectures, hpe.com/info/ra

• HPE Sizers, hpe.com/info/sizers

• HPE Technology Consulting Services, hpe.com/us/en/services/consulting.html

Microsoft resources • Technical diagrams for Skype for Business Server 2015, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/technical-diagrams

• Plan for your Skype for Business Server 2015 deployment,https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/plan-your-deployment/plan-your-deployment

• Deploy Skype for Business Server 2015, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/deploy/deploy

• Install Skype for Business Server 2015, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/deploy/install/install

• Manage Skype for Business Server 2015, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/manage/manage

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