Exchange virtualization

Posted on January 13, 2010 by Michel de Rooij

A much asked question these days, is Exchange supported in a virtualized environment? As in many cases, the answer is “it depends”. Microsoft supports virtualized Exchange under the following conditions:

Hardware virtualization software used is one of the following products:
- For Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V, Hyper-V Server 2008 or Hyper-V Server 2008 R2;
- For Exchange 2003: Virtual Server 2005 R2;
- In general, any validated 3rd party hypervisor (check for ESX, XenServer versions etc.). Click here for the list.
Exchange guest
- Exchange 2003 SP2 (or later)
  - Virtual Machine Additions and Virtual Machine PCI SCSI driver required;
  - Exchange 2003 clusters aren’t supported;
- Exchange 2007 SP1 (or later)
  - is running on Windows Server 2008;
  - support for Windows Server 2008 R2 expected with Exchange Server 2007 SP3 (no date announced yet);
  - No Unified Messaging role (due to real-time requirements by UM role);
  - Meets all of the Exchange 2007 SP1 specific requirements (here).
- Exchange 2010
  - is running on Windows Server 2008 SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2;
  - No Unified Messaging role (due to real-time requirements by UM role);
  - Meets all of the Exchange 2010 specific requirements (here);
  - HA features (DAG) aren’t supported in combination with virtualization clustering or high-available solutions.
- Earlier versions of Exchange than Exchange 2003 are not supported

Exchange versions, builds and dates

Posted on January 13, 2010 by Michel de Rooij

(content moved to a dedicated page, located here)

HP Exchange 2010 Sizing Tool

Posted on January 9, 2010 by Michel de Rooij

HP has released their sizing tool for Exchange 2010. This successor to the Exchange 2007 Sizing tool does recommendations for deployment and sizing of servers and storage and includes a (HP) bill of materials. The tool supports multi-site deployments, Database Availability Groups (DAG), DAS or or SAN-based storage and high availability and client options.

As with the 2007 version it uses a combination of technical and business requirements and projects best practices for high available Exchange configurations (when applicable). The tool can update itself and the product information it uses.

You can download the HP Sizer for Exchange Server 2010 here.

Some numbers

Posted on January 9, 2010 by Michel de Rooij

After a post today from the Certified Master team I wondered, how does the number of Exchange MCA’s compare to the number of MCITP’s, MCTS’es etc. Finding any current information on the latter proves to be difficult. They used to be on this page of the Certification site, but now this redirects to the main portal. I don’t know why Microsoft doesn’t want to disclose this information since then.

I did find cached copies, someone who kept track of numbers until Augustus 2008 and a version on the Aussie pages of April 2nd, 2008; If someone has information about the blanks, contact me so I can update this information.

Certification	Jan 2008	Mar 2008	Aug 2008	Jan 2010
MCA Messaging 2003		61	65	67
MCA Messaging 2007				17
MCM Exchange 2003				146
MCM Exchange 2007				131
MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator		1468	2748
MCTS Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Configuration		4729	9069
MCSE Messaging 2003	9116	9719	10632
MCSA Messaging 2003	57972	64162	78041

Quick Start Guides for Outlook Voice Access 2010

Posted on January 4, 2010 by Michel de Rooij

Microsoft released the Quick Start Guides for Outlook Voice Access 2010 (OVA). Like the Quick Start Guide for Outlook Voice Access 2007 (available here), these PDF guides contain a reference sheet showing the Exchange 2010 Mailbox Unified Messaging navigation system and options. The PDF has two pages, one for Touchtone Access and one for Voice Access.

Because Exchange 2010 UM Voice Access understands several languages, some localized versions of these guides are also made available. At the moment guides are available for: Germany, Austria, UK, US, Spain, Mexico, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Brazil, Sweden, China and Taiwan.

You can download the guides from here.