• Article

Create the Pool

Topic Last Modified: 2009-07-20

Before you install files for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Enterprise Edition, you must create a pool. If you have access to the Back-End Database, we recommend that you create and configure the pool there. However, you can also create and configure the Enterprise pool from a Front End Server or another computer that is joined to the domain and running a 64-bit version operating system. When you add servers to the pool later, they must be in the same domain as the pool.

Important

Using a load balancer in the destination network address translation (DNAT) configuration is not supported.

Before running the Create Enterprise Pool wizard, you need to create a shared folder to store the information required for device and client updates. Device Update Service uses this shared folder for updating devices and the client version control mechanism uses it for updating Office Communicator clients. For details about the requirements for the shared folder, see the “Folders” section in the Storage Requirements topic, which is located in the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Planning and Architecture documentation.

To create an Enterprise pool

  1. Do one of the following:

    • If you are using a 64-bit version of SQL Server, log on to your Office Communications Server Back-end Database as a member of RTCUniversalServerAdmins and DomainAdmins group.
    • If you are using a 32-bit version of SQL Server, create the pool by using the computer that you plan to use as the Front End Server. Log on to this computer as a member of RTCUniversalServerAdmins and Domain Admins group and with user rights to create and modify SQL Server databases.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Insert the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 CD, and then click Enterprise Edition.
    • If you are installing from a network share, browse to the \setup\amd64\ folder on the network share, and then double-click setupEE.exe.

  3. In the deployment tool, click Prepare Environment.

  4. At Create Enterprise Pool, click Run.

  5. On the Welcome to the Create Enterprise Pool Wizard page, click Next.

  6. On the Pool Name, Domain, and Back-End page, do the following:

    • Click Pool name, and then type a name for the new pool. The pool name cannot be the same as the server name.

    • Verify that Domain shows the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the domain where you will install the Office Communications Server Enterprise Edition server roles.

    • Confirm that Pool FQDN is the pool name followed by the domain that you specified.

    • Click SQL Server instance, and then type the name of the SQL Server that will host the Office Communications Server Back-End Database and the name of the database instance. If you are using the default instance, specify only the name of the SQL Server. Otherwise, type the SQL Server name and instance by using the following syntax: <servername_or_serverFQDN>\<instance>.

      Note

      The SQL Server instance must already exist before you run this step.
      Furthermore, if your network is configured to disable network basic input/output system (NetBIOS) over TCP/IP, you must specify the server FQDN when you configure the SQL Server instance setting. If you specify the server name instead, remote administration may not function properly.

  7. Click Next.

  8. On the Web Farm FQDNs page, do one or more of the following:

    • In an Enterprise pool with multiple Enterprise Edition servers and one logical load balancer, click Internal Web farm FQDN, and then type the FQDN of the load balancer. This FQDN is used by internal users for client download of Web conferencing content, distribution group expansion, and Address Book information.

    • In an Enterprise pool with multiple Enterprise Edition servers and two logical load balancers, click Internal Web farm FQDN, and then type the FQDN of the load balancer that is used by the Web Components Server. This FQDN is used by internal users for client download of Web conferencing content, distribution group expansion, and Address Book information.

    • In an Enterprise pool with only one Enterprise Edition server and no load balancers, click Internal Web farm FQDN, and then type an internal FQDN. This FQDN is used by internal users for client download of Web conferencing content, distribution group expansion, and Address Book information. This FQDN must resolve to the IP address of this Enterprise Edition server. We recommend that you use a dedicated FQDN for this purpose, rather than using the FQDN of your Enterprise Edition server. Using a dedicated FQDN for this purpose allows you to scale your pool by adding a load balancer and additional servers, while keeping this URL unchanged.

    • If you enable external user access or federated user access to Web conferences, under External Web farm FQDN (optional), type the FQDN that resolves to the external IP address of your reverse proxy. This FQDN is used by external users for client download of Web conferencing content, distribution group expansion, and Address Book information. It is also used by anonymous and federated users to download Web conference content. For details about external user access, see the Planning for External User Access topic in the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Planning and Architecture documentation.

      Important

      If you plan to deploy Edge Servers for external user access, we recommend that you configure the external URL during your Enterprise pool deployment. If you create this URL later, you need to use the LcsCmd.exe command-line tool. For details, see the “Before You Begin” section of the Configure a Reverse Proxy topic in the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Edge Server deployment documentation.

  9. Click Next.

  10. On the Reuse Existing Database page, click Next.

    Note

    We recommend that you leave this check box cleared. If you have an existing database and you select this option, you will lose existing data.

  11. On the Locations for Backend Databases page, to accept the default installation directories for the user database files and transaction log files, click Next.

    Note

    Setup automatically detects the best location for the files. If possible, place each database and transaction log file on a separate physical disk to improve performance. Do not place these files on the system disk or page file disk.

  12. On the Meeting Content and Archive Location page, do the following:

    • Under Meeting content location, type the address of the share that you created for storing Web conference presentations as described in the “Folders” section of Storage Requirements. Use the format \\<computer name>\<Presentation>. You must specify a remote Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path.

    • Under Meeting metadata location, type the address of the share that you created to store metadata used by the pool’s Web Conferencing Server for the pool. For details, see Storage Requirements. Use the format \\<computer name>\<Metadata>. You must specify a remote UNC path.

    • To enable archiving of Web conference data, select the Enable meeting archiving check box. Click Meeting archive location, and then type the address of the share that you created to store Web conference compliance information. For details, see Storage Requirements. Use the format \\<computer name>\<MeetingCompliance>. You must specify a remote UNC path.

      Note

      The Create Pool Wizard accesses these shares and attempts to give read/write permission to the service accounts and groups used by Office Communications Server. For a complete list of these permissions, see Permissions Created by the Create Pool Wizard. If for some reason, the wizard cannot access any of these shares or cannot grant the correct permissions, the wizard fails.
      If you encounter this issue, ensure that the account you are using has permissions to administer the shares. As a last resort, you can bypass this step by using LcsCmd.exe with the /force command-line option. If you do this, you must grant the appropriate permissions on these shares manually. For details, see the Command Line Reference documentation.

  13. Click Next.

  14. On the Specify Locations of Miscellaneous Server Stores page, type the UNC paths for the following three stores:

    • Click Address Book Server file store, and then type the UNC path of the share that you created for storing Address Book download files.

    • Click Application Data store, and then type the UNC path of the share that you created for storing application data.

    • Click Client Update Data store, and then type the UNC path of the share that you created for storing client and device update files.

      Note

      For details about the share that stores device update files and its requirements, see the Device Update Service topic in the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Planning and Architecture documentation.

    Note

    For the UNC paths, see Storage Requirements. Use the format \<computer name><EM><AddressBook>. You must specify a remote UNC path.
    In Office Communications Server 2007 R2, the Address Book Server is configured automatically. To change Address Book Server settings, see “Administering Address Book Servers" in the Office Communications Server Operations content.

  15. Click Next.

  16. On the Archiving, Call Detail Recording, and QoE Monitoring page, do the following:

    • To enable archiving, select the Archive instant messages check box.

      Note

      When you archive instant messages, archiving is enabled in critical mode, which will shut down the Office Communications Server service if messages cannot be archived. You can change this setting after setup by using the snap-in.

    • To enable call detail recording (CDR), select the Enable call detail recording check box.

    • To enable QoE monitoring, select the Enable QoE monitoring check box.

      Note

      For details about archiving, CDR, and QoE, see Archiving, CDR, and QoE Enhancements. For details about the Monitoring Server, which gathers both CDR and QoE data, see Monitoring Server Architecture. These topics are both located in the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Getting Started documentation.

  17. Click Next.

  18. On the Ready to Create Enterprise Pool page, review the settings that you specified, and then click Next.

  19. When the files have been installed and the wizard is complete, select the View the log when you click Finish check box, and then click Finish.

  20. In the log file, verify that <Success> appears under the Execution Result column for each task, and then close the log window.

To create additional pools, repeat these procedures.

For a summary of the permissions that are granted during pool creation, see Permissions Created by the Create Pool Wizard.