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Forum Discussion

Gerald_Cheminan's avatar
Gerald_Cheminan
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Jan 14, 2016

Lync Server 2013 HLB

Hi all, At first I describe my environnement :   AD Local domain = internal.ad Public domain = SMTP domain = SIP domain = publicdomain.com Lync Server Enterprise Pool PoolEE.internal.ad FE01.i...
application delivery
BIG-IP
iApps
mikeshimkus_111's avatar
mikeshimkus_111
Historic F5 Account
Jan 19, 2016

That is correct, BIG-IP will load balance the first request to the Front End servers, but after that the clients will communicate directly to them.

 

mikeshimkus_111's avatar
mikeshimkus_111
Historic F5 Account
Oct 31, 2016

Sohaib, I am unable to locate any Microsoft documentation about this, but both HLB and DNS LB work similarly. When you resolve the Front End server's IP via DNS or connect to it via the VIP, it returns you a list of pool members which the client then uses to connect (and caches for future reference).

 

The only real difference here is that unlike DNS, the BIG-IP will NEVER forward the initial request to a Front End server that is not responding, which should improve response time and eliminate the need for manual updating of DNS records.

 

Hardware load balancing is only required for Lync/Skype web services, BTW.