Citrix NetScaler for Lync Server 2010

Citrix NetScaler for Lync Server 2010.

Microsoft® Lync™ ushers in a new connected user experience transforming every communication into an interaction that is more collaborative, engaging, and accessible from anywhere. Citrix® NetScaler® improves the Lync server performance and end user experience through its advanced Application Delivery Controller techniques such as Load Balancing, SSL Bridging & Offload, Advanced Health Monitoring, TCP & SSL Multiplexing, GSLB and High Availability. Deployed in front of the Lync Edge Servers in the DMZ and between the Lync Edge and Front End servers on the internal network, Citrix NetScaler enables a new level of scalability, performance, security, availability and ease of use for Microsoft Lync. At the same time, NetScaler reduces time to deployment, simplifies management and reduces the cost of operations.

Load Balancing

Citrix NetScaler’s advanced Multiplexing software distributes traffic across multiple Lync servers to improve performance and ensure availability. When a
Lync server goes down, Citrix NetScaler routes traffic around it to other servers that are up and running. Citrix NetScaler Load Balancing defaults to the
Least Connections algorithm, but can also be setup to use Round Robin, Least Response Time, Hash Method, Least Bandwidth, Custom Load and Token based algorithms among others.

SSL Bridging & SSL Offloading

SSL bridging enables the NetScaler to bridge all secure traffic directly to the Lync server, without having to import Certificates. When using SSL Briding,
NetScaler does not offload the Certificate processing from the Lync servers, enabling a new level of ease-of-deployment and ease-of-use.

A Citrix® NetScaler® appliance configured for SSL Offloacing accelerates SSL transactions by offloading SSL processing from the Lync servers. Configuring SSL offloading requires an SSL certificate and key pair. Other related SSL capabilities include managing certificates, CRLs, client authentication and SSL
Policies.

Advanced Health Monitoring

The Citrix NetScaler tracks the state of each Load Balanced Lync server in real-time, so that it can divert traffic from an unresponsive Lync server to a
server that is responding. Lync servers are removed from the list of available servers, until they become responsive again. Citrix NetScaler allows for the
creation of custom monitors specific tor Lync servers.

GSLB

The Citrix NetScaler provides Global Server Load Balancing for disaster recovery and ensures continuous availability of applications by protecting
against points of failure in a Wide Area Network (WAN). GSLB performs Load Balancing across geographically disparate data centers, by directing traffic to
the closest or best performing data center.

High Availability

Citrix NetScaler High Availability (HA) provides uninterrupted operation for Lync server traffic, by designating a Primary NetScaler and a Secondary
NetScaler. The Secondary NetScaler monitors the Primary, and if the Primary goes down, the Secondary takes over.

Microsoft Lync 2010 Details

To see the ports and protocols used in a Microsoft Lync Server 2010 environment, go here. A poster of the Lync Server 2010 workloads, describing the relationships and traffic flow can be found here. To download and use the Lync Server 2010 Topology Builder tool, go here

NetScaler for Lync Server 2010 Deployment Guide

Citrix have recently spent some time in Redmond, WA with Microsoft’s Lync 2010 team to certify the Citrix NetScaler for deployment with Lync 2010. The deployment guide walks the user through simple steps of configuring the Citrix NetScaler for Lync 2010. Additionally, the user can download the pre-built configuration for Lync Server 2010 used in the deployment guide and upload it to Citrix NetScaler to serve as an example.

Download the Deployment Guide – Citrix NetScaler for Lync Server 2010 here

Download the Citrix NetScaler configuration here.