SIP Option from Mediation Server to Peer Gateway

1.1             Step 1

Lync Mediation server sends out SIP OPTIONS requests continuously to try to communicate with its next hop.

1.2             Step 2

Lync Room System ( LRS ) Configuration Guide

Microsoft has recently published document that guides you through provisioning Microsoft Lync Room System (Beta version) in Lync Server and Exchange Server

Click here to download it

Upgrading Polycom CX series phones for Lync Server

Step 1: Obtain the latest updates from Microsoft website, Store the .cab file in C:\Polycom
Step 2: Find the web server identity in pool

• Get-CsService

Step 3: Construct the command in notepad

Import-CsDeviceUpdate -Identity "service:xxxxxxxx" -FileName C:\Polycom\UCUpdates.cab

Step 4: Run it in Lync Server Management Shell

Step 5: Verify import in Lync control panel

Step 6: Approve it after hours.

The Device Update Process

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The device update process begins with you downloading an update from the Microsoft website, and then using the Lync Server 2010 Control Panel to test, approve, or reject the update. Approved updates become pending updates that devices retrieve by using the following process.
The first time a user starts an IP phone and signs in, the device gets information by using in-band provisioning from the server. The information contains the internal URL of the server running the Device Update Web service.
If the device is turned on, but no user signs in, and no user has ever signed in on the device, then the device sends a DNS lookup request to ucupdates-r2.<DNSDomainNameProvidedByDHCP>, and obtains the internal URL of the server running the Device Update Web service.
The device checks for updates every time it is turned on, every time the user signs in, and every 24 hours, by default. It checks by sending an HTTP request over port 443 to the Front End Server that hosts the Device Update Web service. The request includes the current version of software that the phone is running, and the response is determined by the device and whether there is a new update on the server to download.

Lync Edge Server - RSS configuration

One of the note on TechNet ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg615015(v=ocs.15).aspx) recommends following

To improve the performance of the A/V Conferencing Edge service on your Edge Servers, you should enable receive-side scaling (RSS) on the network adapters on your Edge Servers. RSS enables incoming packets to be handled in parallel by multiple processors on the server. For details, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=206013. For information on how to enable RSS, see your network adapter documentation.

Lync 2010 Server Version List

This is just copy/paste from one of the blog on TechNet I found very useful, ( Link to the blog
http://blogs.technet.com/b/hot/archive/2012/09/24/update-version-information-for-lync-server-2010.aspx)

Network Planning, Monitoring and Troubleshooting with Lync Server

Download Guide from Official Microsoft Download center

Lync Server 2013 is a real-time unified communications application that relies on an optimized network infrastructure to deliver high-quality media sessions. This guide provides a model for managing the network infrastructure for Lync Server 2013—planning, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

Provisioning Guide for Lync-Skype Connectivity

Download Provisioning Guide for Lync-Skype Connectivity from Official Microsoft Download Center.