This article outlines the default folder structure and permissions created on the File Share when deploying a Lync 2013 Server Front End server or pool.  Optional Lync services (like Persistent Chat) can trigger the creation of additional folders in the directory but for the purposes of this article only the default folders for a Standard Edition server are covered.

The general guidance is to manually create a new file share on the desired server and then set the share permissions to grant Full Control to the Administrators group.  This will insure that the administrator account performing the Lync Server deployment will have sufficient rights to the file share and NTFS Access Control Lists (ACL) so that when publishing the Lync Topology the proper configuration is applied.

For the examples used in this article a single Standard Edition Lync 2013 Front End Server was deployed and the changes were captured to identify the default configuration for Lync.  Although Lync 2010 uses nearly the same configuration there are a few changes to the folder structure among the various Web Services subfolders.

Root Directory

Prior to publishing the initial configuration of the Lync Topology the pool or server file share in this example was created at the root of the C: drive on the desired server.  The Lync Front End server itself was used in this environment which is allowed only for Standard Edition servers, Enterprise Edition pool servers can not be collocated with the file share data as it must be hosed on a separate server or servers.

After every successful instance of publishing the topology (regardless of what has changed) Lync will refresh the correct permissions (if needed) on the directory structure throughout the file share.  Thus if any undesired changes are made to any of the file structure permissions simply re-publish the topology in Lync to repair the configuration.

The following Access Control Entries (ACE) are assigned to the root directory of the Lync file share, in addition to any rights which might already assigned to that specific folder or any inherited from a parent folder.

Principal	Access
NETWORK SERVICE	Change
RTCHSUniversalServices	Change
RTCComponentUniversalServices	Change
RTCUniversalServerAdmins	Change
RTCUniversalConfigReplicator	Change
RTC Local Administrators	Change
RTC Local Config Replicator	Change
RTC Server Local Group	Change
RTC Component Local Group	Change

The root of the file share contains three primary folder used to store shared Server Application data, Central Management configuration data, and data used by the various Web Services in Lync. 

These folder names are encapsulated in digits which denote the Site and Pool instance that each folder belongs to.  The folder naming convention is <Site ID>-<Service ID>-<Pool ID>. In the above example the minimum folder configuration would reflect a single Site (ID 1) and Pool instance.  If a Director server was later added to the existing site then a new folder would be automatically created as “1-WebServices-2” and if a second pool was deployed then that would be called “1-WebServices-3” and so on.  In the event that a second site was defined and any pools are deployed in that site then new folders starting with “2-“ would be instantiated as well.

Application Server

The “1-ApplicationServer-1” folder contains data utilized by Lync applications like Call Park, Response Groups, and Call Admission Control.  Within the child “AppServerFiles” folder the following three subfolders will exist be default.

• The CPS folder is used by the Call Park Service.
• The PDP folder name stands for Policy Decision Point and is used by Call Admission Control (CAC) to distribute policies defining some of the CAC rules.

• The Rgs folder is used by the Response Group Service to store common data like Music On Hold audio files (.wav) configured on a Hunt Group.  The “Rgs\Instances” and “Rgs\Queues” folders should contain a subfolder for each response group that is defined in the topology, but with nonsensical names reflecting a GUID associated to each one.  There may also exist an “Rgs\Temp” folder which seems to store the originally uploaded music file.

The AppServerFiles directory is configured when publishing the topology with the following file permissions.

• C:\LyncShare\1-ApplicationServer-1\AppServerFiles

Principal	Access	Applies To
NETWORK SERVICE	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTCComponentUniversalServices	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTCUniversalServerAdmins	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTC Server Local Group	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTC Component Local Group	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files

 

Central Management

The “1-CentralMgmt-1” folder is used by the Central Management Server to temporarily store replication data sent to and from other active replication partners defined in the topology in the form of data.zip files containing XML data.

Under various subfolder (e.g. replicas, working\fta, etc) will be a list of all the Computer objects defined in the Topology which are enabled for replication.  The following screenshots demonstrate how only the 4 objects enabled for replication will have an associated folder.

The CMSFileStore directory is configured when publishing the topology with the following file permissions.

• C:\LyncShare\1-CentralMgmt-1\CMSFileStore

Principal	Access	Applies To
NETWORK SERVICE	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTCUniversalConfigReplicator	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTC Local Config Replicator	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files

 

Web Services

From the introduction of web service applications in LCS to the latest release of Lync the amount of new features and functionality provided by IIS has grown steadily.  In Lync Server 2013 the following subfolders will appear by default under the “1-WebServices-1” folder.

• The ABFiles folder is probably the most familiar of all the web services as this folder stores the Lync Address Book files for distribution to many different Lync client types (e.g. Windows, Lync Phone Edition).  At minimum a singe subfolder will exist using the default msRTCSIP-TenantID of all zeros (00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000).  In a multi-tenant environment each unique tenant ID will have an associated folder of its own.  The next level down will include another folder name with a string of zeros for the msRTCSIP-GroupingID which is used to create different address book file groups within the same tenant ID.  Finally this folder will store the various *.lsabs and *.dabs files which are downloaded directly by Lync clients.  Additionally the Invalid_AD_Phone_Numbers.txt file can be found in this directory.

• The CollabContent, CollabJournal, and CollabMetadata folders are all used to store data associated with Lync multi-party conferences.  Any attachments or PowerPoint files which are uploaded by Lync or Lync Web App attendees are stored by the server in the CollabContent directory underneath a subdirectory associated with the specific conference’s Focus ID.

• The DataConf folder is new in Lync 2013 and stores conferencing data like whiteboarding information.

• The DeviceUpdateLogs folder contains various types of logs files for Lync Phone Edition devices.  The Client subfolder contains Windows CE (.clg1)  and Dr.Watson (.log & .kdmp) files which are uploaded from Lync Phone Edition devices.  These files are primarily meant to be used by Microsoft PSS as they require special tools (e.g. readlog.exe) to open and read.  The Server subfolder contains daily log files created by the RequestHandler web application which report whenever a device queries the server for any new potential firmware update files.

• The DeviceUpdateStore folder is where Lync saves any device update files which are published using the Import-CsDeviceUpdate cmdlet.  There are two potential subfolders names depending on if any updates have been imported for any Lync phones.  For all Lync Phone Edition devices the subfolder UCPhone is used to store each update package for every individual manufacturer, model, hardware revision, locale, and firmware version.  For Lync Qualified devices a subfolder called 3PIP will be automatically created when importing any updates for these devices. (3PIP is shorthand for Third Party Interoperability Program).

• The LMStaticData folder is another folder which can be used to store web conferencing related data.

• The StorageService folder is new in Lync 2013 and is used by the Lync Storage Service (LSS) to store data that it uses with Exchange Server 2013 for a back-end data store.

• The WebAuthStore folder stores copies of previously issued server certificates.

The following directories are configured when publishing the topology with the following file permissions.

• C:\LyncShare\1-WebServices-1\ABFiles

Principal	Access	Applies To
NETWORK SERVICE	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTCHSUniversalServices	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTCComponentUniversalServices	Read & Execute	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTC Server Local Group	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTC Component Local Group	Read & Execute	This folder, subfolders, and files

 

• C:\LyncShare\1-WebServices-1\DeviceUpdateLogs

Principal	Access	Applies To
NETWORK SERVICE	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTCComponentUniversalServices	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTCUniversalServerAdmins	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTC Server Local Group	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTC Component Local Group	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files

 

• C:\LyncShare\1-WebServices-1\DeviceUpdateStore

Principal	Access	Applies To
NETWORK SERVICE	Read & Execute	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTCComponentUniversalServices	Read & Execute	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTCUniversalServerAdmins	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTC Server Local Group	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTC Component Local Group	Read & Execute	This folder, subfolders, and files

 

• C:\LyncShare\1-WebServices-1\CollabContent
• C:\LyncShare\1-WebServices-1\CollabJournal
• C:\LyncShare\1-WebServices-1\CollabMetaData
• C:\LyncShare\1-WebServices-1\DataConf
• C:\LyncShare\1-WebServices-1\LMStaticData
• C:\LyncShare\1-WebServices-1\StorageService
• C:\LyncShare\1-WebServices-1\WebAuthStore

Principal	Access	Applies To
NETWORK SERVICE	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTCComponentUniversalServices	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files
RTC Component Local Group	Modify	This folder, subfolders, and files