Step 1. Evaluate Your Organization's Requirements for Monitoring Server

[This is preliminary documentation and is subject to change. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

Monitoring Server is a server role in Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Monitoring Server collects two types of data:

Quality of Experience data that includes numerical data indicating the quality of your network media, and information about participants, device names, drivers, IP addresses, and call types involved in calls and sessions.
Call Detail Records (CDRs), which capture usage information related to VoIP calls, IM messages, audio/video conversations, meetings, file transfers, application sharing, remote assistance, and file transfers. CDR data is captured for both peer-to-peer and multi-party conferences. Note that the content of IM messages is not captured in CDR data; to preserve IM content for compliance reasons, use the Archiving Server feature of Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

Benefits of Using Monitoring Server

By deploying and using one or more Monitoring Servers, you can do the following:

Identify and isolate problems in your Office Communications Server deployment.
Set alerts that can notify you of server and network problems that impact the quality of audio and video.
Perform diagnostics and troubleshooting in response to end-user complaints about your deployment’s reliability or media quality.
Examine the media quality of real sessions, to assess current deployment quality and prepare for larger rollouts.
Gather session usage statistics for return-of-investment calculations, and view trends to plan for post-deployment growth.
Use several built-in standard reports that are ready to go as soon as Monitoring Server is up and running.