Important points regarding Edge Servers

·         Deploy edge servers only after you have finished deploying Office Communications Server 2007 inside your organization, unless you are migrating from Microsoft® Office Live Communications Server 2005 with Service Pack 1 to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.

·         Deploy edge servers in a workgroup rather than a domain. Doing so simplifies installation and keeps the Active Directory® Domain Services out of the perimeter network. Locating Active Directory in the perimeter network can present a significant security risk

·         Deploy your edge servers in a staging or lab environment before deploying them in your production environment. Deploy the edge servers in your perimeter network only when you are satisfied that the test deployment meets your requirements and that it can be incorporated successfully in a production environment.

·         Deploy at least one Director to act as an authentication gateway for inbound external traffic.

·         Deploy edge servers on dedicated computers that do not run anything that is not required. This includes disabling unnecessary services and running only essential programs on the computer, such as programs embodying routing logic that are developed by using MSPL (Microsoft SIP Processing Language) and the Office Communications Server API.

·         Enable monitoring and auditing as early as possible on the computer.

·         Use a computer that has two network adapters to provide physical separation of the internal and external network interfaces.

·         Deploy the edge server between two firewalls (an internal firewall and an external firewall) to ensure strict routing from one network edge to the other.