Step 10. Plan for High Availability and Fault Tolerance

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will reach end of support on January 9, 2018. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

High availability refers to a systems ability to minimize system down time while continuing normal operation in the event of disruptions due to hardware, software, or service requirements. Fault tolerance refers specifically to reducing the risk of service disruption in the event of system or component failure. Designing fault tolerance into your messaging infrastructure is essential for ensuring high availability for your Office Communications Server 2007 deployment.

Office Communications Server 2007 extends the high availability and fault tolerant architecture of Live Communications Server 2005 to provide the same high level of reliability for online conferencing as already exists for IM. Planning for high availability is critical to deploying Office Communications Server 2007, Enterprise Edition. This section discusses Office Communications Server 2007 features that support high availability and the various options and strategies that need to be considered before the first server is installed.