Server Specifications

Hypervisor Specifications

AnywhereNow is supported on both VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor platforms. AnywhereNow should be treated as any other Microsoft Skype-for-Business Server and therefore hypervisors should be configured in accordance to the “Planning a Lync Microsoft Lync (formerly Microsoft Office Communicator) is an instant messaging program designed for business use and is the successor of Windows Messenger. In order to use Lync, a Microsoft Lync Server is required. Server 2013 Deployment on Virtual Servers” technical whitepaper:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41936

Virtual Server Specification

The deployment of AnywhereNow in an active / standby configuration, requires two identically configured and resourced virtual servers. These should be located in the same VLAN and datacenter as the Skype-for-Business Front End Pool that they will be connected to. It is recommended to provision the AnywhereNow virtual servers on separate hypervisors. The following specification should be provisioned for each server.

Component	Specification
Virtual CPU	8 vCPUs (2.26GHz each)
Memory	32GB
Operating System Hard Drive	72GB SAS 15K or SSD (Read IOPs: 700, Write IOPs: 350)
Data Hard Drive	50GB SAS 15K or SSD (Read IOPs: 700, Write IOPs: 350)
Operating System	Windows 2012 R2 Standard or higher, fully patched

Best practices indicate that it is possible to handle up to 500 concurrent audio calls, or 200 concurrent audio calls if recording is enabled, when the recommended specifications are in place. The exact number of concurrent audio calls should be monitored using the AnywhereNow KPI “Concurrent AudioCalls” (summed for all instances). Please note that when adding any other dialogs like web chat on an UCC A Unified Contact Center, or UCC, is a queue of interactions (voice, email, IM, etc.) that are handled by Agents. Each UCC has its own settings, IVR menus and Agents. Agents can belong to one or several UCCs and can have multiple skills (competencies). A UCC can be visualized as a contact center “micro service”. Customers can utilize one UCC (e.g. a global helpdesk), a few UCC’s (e.g. for each department or regional office) or hundreds of UCC’s (e.g. for each bed at a hospital). They are interconnected and can all be managed from one central location. lowers the above numbers.

Skype for Business Infrastructure

AnywhereNow On-Premises is connected with Skype for Business using a Trusted Application Server (or Pool) and therefore should be integrated in the Skype for Business topology by adding the server(s) as a Skype for Business 2015, 2019 trusted application pool, in the intended Site

Application Server (for AnywhereNow UCCs)

The AnywhereNow application server is a separate (virtual) server that is added to the Skype for Business topology as a Trusted Application Server.

Skype for Business Server 2019

This Skype for Business Server 2019 should have the following specifications:

Component	Recommended
Operating System:	Minimum: Windows 2016 or higher with all required updates Recommended: Windows 2019 or higher with all required updates
Processor:	Minimum: 6 cores 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) or higher Intel Xeon E5-2673 v3 dual processor Recommended: 8 cores 2.26 gigahertz (GHz) or higher Intel Xeon E5-2673 v3 dual processor Warning Intel Itanium processors are not supported for Skype for Business Server 2019 roles.
RAM:	Minimum: 32 gigabytes (GB) Recommended: 32 gigabytes (GB)
Hard disk capacity:	Solid State Drives (SSD; with similar performance to 8 10000 RPM mechanical disk drives) 80 gigabytes (GB)

For latest information about the hardware, software and patching requirements for a Skype for Business server 2019 please visit the Docs website of Microsoft: Server requirements for Skype for Business Server 2015 - Skype for Business Server 2015 | Microsoft Learn

SharePoint Server

For the configuration of AnywhereNow UCC’s SharePoint is used. The end-users do not require access to SharePoint. The required knowledge for SharePoint is minimal and will be explained during the training. In case no SharePoint Enterprise version is available the free version SharePoint Foundation can be installed on a separate server or collocated on the AnywhereNow server.

The requirements for a standalone SharePoint Server are as follows:

Component	Recommended
SharePoint	SharePoint On-premises SharePoint Online (Office365)
Version (On-Premises only)	SharePoint Server 2016 or higher
Operating System (On-Premises only)	Windows 2016 or higher with all required updates
Processor	Minimum: 4 cores 2.26 gigahertz (GHz) or higher 64-bit dual processor Recommended: 8 cores 2.26 gigahertz (GHz) or higher 64-bit dual processor
RAM	Minimum: 16 gigabytes (GB) Recommended: 32 gigabytes (GB)
Hard disk	Solid State Drives (SSD; with similar performance to 8 10000 RPM mechanical disk drives) 80 gigabytes (GB)

For more information about the hardware requirements for a standalone SharePoint server please visit the Docs website of Microsoft: System requirements for SharePoint Servers 2016 and 2019 - SharePoint Server | Microsoft Learn

If Audio Recording is enabled (a Corporate License is required) these recordings can be stored on either a File Share (UNC Path) or in a SharePoint Document Library.

If you choose to store the Recordings in a SharePoint Document Library, it depends on your SharePoint configuration whether the Recordings are stored in the SharePoint Content database or a file stream (Remote Blob Storage).

Below you find an indication per Audio Recording Format of the required Hard Disk capacity when Audio Recording is activated.

Additional hard disk capacity**:

Format WMA 16 kbps: ~ 128 kB / recorded minute (default) Format WMA 48 kbps: ~ 384 kB / recorded minute Format PCM 8 kHz: ~ 1 MB / recorded minute Format PCM 16kHz: ~ 2 MB / recorded minute

Database Server

AnywhereNow requires a Microsoft SQL Server 2016 (or higher) database to store CallDetailRecords (CDR Call Detail Records (CDR) are the meta data of a converstation: who talked to whom, at which time, for how long and with which identity among other things (skill, optional classification, etc) which gets stored in your SQL (analytical) database.) data and WebChat conversations.

We recommend a SQL database on a separate server from the AnywhereNow server. If you monitor capacity and load carefully it is OK to add the AnywhereNow database to an existing SQL Server. Optionally as a separate instance.

In case no SQL Server is available the free version SQL Server Express 2016 (or higher) can be installed on a separate server or collocated on the AnywhereNow server.

To present the CallDetailRecording (CDR) data in reports, Power BI is required.

Below you will find the requirements for a standalone SQL Server:

Component	Recommended
SQL	SQL Server On-premises Azure SQL
Version	2016 or higher Both Express version as well as Server version can be used. Server version is recommended, since Express version has limitations in storage capacity, memory- and CPU-usage
SQL Server Reporting Services	2016 or higher Optionally integrated with SharePoint
Processor:	Minimum: 4 cores 2.26 gigahertz (GHz) or higher Recommended: 8 cores 2.26 gigahertz (GHz) or higher
RAM:	Minimum: 16 gigabytes (GB) Recommended: 32 gigabytes (GB)
Hard disk (OS):	Solid State Drives (SSD; with similar performance to 8 10000 RPM mechanical disk drives) 80 gigabytes (GB)
Hard disk (Data):*	Solid State Drives (SSD; with similar performance to 8 10000 RPM mechanical disk drives) RAID: 10 Block-size: 64k Three separate disks: 100 gigabytes (GB) in total 1. Data: 60% 2. Log: 20% 3. Temp databases: 20%
Growing hard disk capacity**:	Database size after installation: ~5 mB Data per call: ~10 kB Data per 1000 calls: ~10 mB Data per webchat conversation: ~8 Mb Data per 1000 webchat conversation: ~8 Gb
Additional hard disk capacity***:	Format WMA 16 kbps: ~ 128 kB / recorded minute (default) Format PCM 8 kHz: ~ 1 MB / recorded minute Format PCM 16kHz: ~ 2 MB / recorded minute

* Required disk capacity for installing SQL

** Estimated growth of required disk capacity if Audio Recording is not activated

*** Additional estimated growth of required disk capacity if Audio Recording is activated and recordings are stored in the database

For more information about the hardware requirements for a standalone SQL server please visit the Docs website of Microsoft: SQL Server 2016 & 2017: Hardware & software requirements - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn

Collocation

Any of the three server roles can be collocated on a single server when Skype for Business server 2015 is used, in this case the specifications should be adjusted accordingly. When Skype for Business server 2019 is used the Application server cannot be collocated anymore because of diverting specifications. Furthermore, it is not our recommendation to collocate roles on a single server, if only to minimize impact of changes and errors on any of the three platforms on the others

Collocation of two Server Roles

If two server roles will be collocated the following specifications are advised (based on Microsoft’s advice on collocating SharePoint and SQL):

Component	Recommended
Processor:	Minimum: 6 cores 2.26 gigahertz (GHz) or higher 64-bit dual processor Recommended: 8 cores 2.26 gigahertz (GHz) or higher 64-bit dual processor
RAM:	Minimum: 24 gigabytes (GB) Recommended: 32 gigabytes (GB)
Hard disk capacity:	100 GB

Collocation of three Server Roles

Below you will find the advised specifications if all three server roles are collocated. However, all services should be monitored closely, and resources should be increased if the service is not performing as desired.

Component	Recommended
Processor:	Minimum: 8 cores 2.26 gigahertz (GHz) or higher 64-bit dual processor Recommended: 12 cores 2.26 gigahertz (GHz) or higher 64-bit dual processor
RAM:	Minimum: 32 gigabytes (GB) Recommended: 48 gigabytes (GB)
Hard disk capacity:	120 GB