Microsoft Motorcycle Accessories 2005 User Manual

Deployment Guide

Deploying Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and the F5 BIG-IP L

TM System v9

Introducing the BIG-IP and Live Communications Server 2005 Enterprise Edition configuration

Microsoft® and F5 have collaborated on a highly effective way to intelligently direct traffic for Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Enterprise Edition with the F5 BIG-IP® application traffic management device. Microsoft and F5 Networks have conducted interoperability testing between the BIG-IP LTM system and Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005. Organizations using the BIG-IP LTM system benefit from mission-critical availability, intelligent traffic management, simple scalability, and enhanced security for Live Communications Server deployments.

Live Communications Server provides organizations with voice, video, chat, and an extensible platform that connects people, information, and business processes—enabling better decisions faster. With a familiar user experience integrated into Microsoft Office System programs, Live Communications Server allows people to communicate without the constraints of geography, office location, or time zone.

For more information on Live Communications Server, see http://www.microsoft.com/livecomm.

For more information on the BIG-IP LTM system, see

http://www.f5.com

/products/big-ip/.

Prerequisites and configuration notes

The following are prerequisites for this deployment:

◆ The BIG-IP LTM system must be running version v9.0 or later. For

versions 4.5.x - 4.6.x, see http://www.f5.com/pdf/deployment-guides/lcs-bigip45-dg.pdf.

◆ The Live Communications Server must be running the 2005 Enterprise

Edition.

◆ Briefly review the basic configuration tasks and the few pieces of

information, such as IP addresses, that you should gather in preparation for completing this configuration.

Note

This document is written with the assumption that you are familiar with both the BIG-IP LTM system version 9.0 and the Live Communications Server

2005. For more information on configuring these products, consult the appropriate documentation.

Deploying Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and the F5 BIG-IP LTM System v9

Configuration example

The Live Communications Server 2005 Enterprise Edition introduces the concept of a pool. Multiple Live Communications Servers communicate with a single back-end SQL Server (or cluster of servers). Pool is used to describe this collection of multiple Live Communications Servers tied to a single back-end. Users are now homed to a pool as opposed to individual Live Communications Servers. This allows users to login using any Live Communications Server in a pool. Pools allow flexibility by increasing the capacity of the service by adding more Live Communications Servers on the fly. Failure of one or more Live Communications Servers will have a minimal effect on service availability, as the load is balanced between the remaining Live Communications Servers.

This configuration example shows a typical configuration with a BIG-IP LTM system and Microsoft Live Communications Server. With multiple Live Communications Servers in a Pool there is now a need for distributing the incoming session requests among the Live Communications Servers. Figure 1 shows how a BIG-IP device is located in front of a pool of Live Communications Servers.

Tip

Although only one BIG-IP device is necessary for this configuration, we strongly recommend a redundant BIG-IP device for the highest level of availability.

Figure 1 BIG-IP Live Communications Server logical configuration

BIG-IP® Deployment Guide 2

Configuring the BIG-IP and Live Communications Server for deployment

To configure the BIG-IP and Live Communications Server for integration, you need to complete the following procedures:

• Connecting to the BIG-IP device

• Creating a VLAN

• Creating a self IP

• Configuring a health monitor

• Creating pools

• Creating a profile

• Creating virtual servers

• Creating a SNAT

• Synchronizing the BIG-IP configuration if using a redundant system

Tip

We recommend you save your existing BIG-IP configuration before you begin the procedures in this Deployment Guide. To save your BIG-IP configuration, see Appendix A: Backing up and restoring the BIG-IP system configuration, on page 30.

The BIG-IP LTM system offers both Web-based and command line configuration tools, so that users can work in the environment that they are most comfortable with. This Deployment Guide contains procedures to configure the BIG-IP LTM system using the BIG-IP Configuration utility only. Unless you are familiar with using the bigpipe command line interface, we recommend using the Configuration utility.

Connecting to the BIG-IP device

The first step in this configuration is to connect to the BIG-IP LTM system. You can connect to the BIG-IP LTM system using the Configuration utility. You can also connect to the BIG-IP LTM system using the command line, however this Deployment Guide only contains configuration procedures from the Configuration utility.

Use the following procedure to access the BIG-IP web-based Configuration utility using a Web browser.

To connect to the BIG-IP LTM system using the Configuration utility

1. In a browser, type the following URL:

https://<administrative IP address of the BIG-IP device>

A Security Alert dialog box appears, click Yes. The authorization dialog box appears.

Deploying Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and the F5 BIG-IP LTM System v9

Creating a VLAN

2. Type your user name and password, and click OK.

The Welcome screen opens.

Once you are logged onto the BIG-IP LTM system, the Welcome screen of the new Configuration utility opens. From the Configuration utility, you can configure and monitor the BIG-IP LTM system, as well as access online help, download SNMP MIBs and Plug-ins, and even search for specific objects.

A VLAN is a grouping of separate networks that allows those networks to behave as if they were a single local area network, whether or not there is a direct ethernet connection between them.

The next step in this configuration is to create a VLAN on the BIG-IP LTM system.

To create a VLAN

1. On the Main tab, expand Network, and then click VLANs.

The VLANs screen opens.

2. Click the Create button.

The new VLAN screen opens.

3. In the Name box, type a unique name for the VLAN. In our example we use lcs_vlan.

4. In the Resources section, select the interface that will have access to tagged traffic, and click the untagged >> button. In our example, we select 1.15. See Figure 2.

5. Click the Finished button.

Figure 2 Adding a VLAN in the BIG-IP Configuration utility

BIG-IP® Deployment Guide 4

Creating a self IP

Self IP addresses are the IP addresses owned by the BIG-IP LTM system that you use to access the internal and external VLANs. The next step in this configuration is to create a self IP address for the VLAN we created in the preceding procedure.

To create a self IP address using the Configuration utility

1. On the Main tab, expand Network, and then click Self IPs. The Self IP screen opens.

2. Click the Create button. The new Self IP screen opens.

3. In the IP Address box, type a static IP address in the VLAN you created in the preceding procedure. Note that this needs to be on the same network as the Live Communications Server devices. In our example, we use 10.10.10.1.

4. In the Netmask box, type the corresponding subnet mask. In our example, we use 255.255.255.0.

5. From the VLAN list, select the VLAN you created in the Creating a VLAN procedure. In our example, we select lcs_vlan.

6. Click the Finished button. The new self IP address appears in the list.

Figure 3 Adding a self IP address in the BIG-IP Configuration utility

Configuring a health monitor

The next step in this configuration is to configure a health monitor on the BIG-IP LTM system for the Live Communications Servers. We configure the health monitors first in version 9.0 and later, as health monitors are associated at the pool level. We use the template for the TCP monitor to create this monitor.

To configure a health monitor

1. On the Main tab, expand Local Traffic, and then click Monitors. The Monitors screen opens.

Deploying Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and the F5 BIG-IP LTM System v9

2. Click the Create button. The New Monitor screen opens.

3. In the Name box, type a name for the Monitor. In our example, we type lcs_monitor.

4. From the Type list, select TCP. The TCP Monitor configuration options appear.

5. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. The advanced configuration options appear.

6. In the Configuration section, in the Interval and Timeout boxes, type an Interval and Timeout. We recommend at least a 1:3 +1 ratio between the interval and the timeout. In our example, we use a Interval of 30 and a Timeout of 91.

7. In the Alias Service Port box, type 5061.

8. Click the Finished button.

Figure 4 Configuring the health monitor

Creating pools

The BIG-IP LTM system also uses the term pool for a group of devices. A BIG-IP pool is a set of devices grouped together to receive traffic according to a load balancing method. You must create a separate pool for each service on which there will be traffic. In this configuration, we configure two pools

BIG-IP® Deployment Guide 6

Creating the TLS pool

on the BIG-IP device that contain the Live Communications Servers, one for TLS (Transport Layer Security) traffic and one for RPC (Remote Procedure Call) traffic.

The first pool we create is for TLS traffic.

1. On the Main tab, expand Local Traffic, and then click Pools. The Pool screen opens.

2. In the upper right portion of the screen, click the Create button. The New Pool screen opens.

3. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. The advanced configuration options appear.

4. In the Name box, enter a name for your pool. In our example, we use tls_pool.

5. In the Health Monitors section, select the name of the monitor you created in the Configuring a health monitor section, and click the Add (<<) button. In our example, we select lcs_monitor.

6. From the Allow SNAT and Allow NAT lists, select No to disallow NAT and SNAT.

7. Complete the rest of the Configuration section as applicable for your deployment.

Figure 5 Configuration options for the TLS pool

Deploying Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and the F5 BIG-IP LTM System v9

8. In the Resources section, from the Load Balancing Method list, choose your preferred load balancing method (different load balancing methods may yield optimal results for a particular network).

For this configuration, we recommend selecting Least Connections. In Least Connections mode, the BIG-IP LTM system passes a new connection to the node that has the least number of current connections. Least Connections mode works best in environments where the servers or other equipment you are load balancing have similar capabilities. Using Live Communications Server, traffic from servers to clients is roughly the same on each connection.

9. In the New Members section, you add the Live Communications Servers to the pool.

a) In the Address box, type the IP address of the Live

Communications Server. In our example, we type 10.10.10.11.

b) In the Service Port box, type the service number you want to use

for this device, or specify a service by choosing a service name from the list (for example 5061). In our example, we type 5061, the port for TLS traffic.

c) Click the Add button to add the member to the list.

d) Repeat steps a-c for each Live Communications Server you want

to add to the pool. In our example, we repeat these steps twice for the other two Live Communications Servers (10.10.10.12 and

10.10.10.13). See Figure 6.

10. Click the Finished button.

Figure 6 Configuring the resources for the pool

BIG-IP® Deployment Guide 8

Creating the RPC pool

The next pool is for RPC traffic.

1. On the Main tab, expand Local Traffic, and then click Pools. The Pool screen opens.

2. In the upper right portion of the screen, click the Create button. The New Pool screen opens.

3. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. The advanced configuration options appear.

4. In the Name box, enter a name for your pool. In our example, we use rpc_pool.

5. In the Health Monitors section, from the Available list, select tcp and click the Add (<<) button.

6. From the Allow SNAT and Allow NAT lists, select No to disallow NAT and SNAT.

7. The other fields in the Configuration section are optional. Configure these fields as applicable for your network. (For additional information about configuring a pool, click the Help button.)

8. In the Resources section, from the Load Balancing Method list, choose your preferred load balancing method (different load balancing methods may yield optimal results for a particular network).

9. In the New Members section, you add the Live Communications Servers to the pool.

a) In the Address box, type the IP address of the Live

Communications Server. In our example, we type 10.10.10.11.

b) In the Service Port box, type the service number you want to use

for this device, or specify a service by choosing a service name from the list (for example 135). In our example, we type 135, the port for RPC.

c) Click the Add button to add the member to the list.

d) Repeat steps a-c for each Live Communications Server you want

to add to the pool. In our example, we repeat these steps twice for the other two Live Communications Servers (10.10.10.12 and

10.10.10.13). See Figure 6.

10. Click the Finished button.

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