More Exchange 2010 Tested Solutions


Microsoft published additional technical solution papers:

  • Two Sites, 20,000 mailboxes
    Virtualized solution running Hyper-V on Dell R910 Servers, EMC CLARiiON Storage, and Brocade Network Solutions
  • Two sites, 15,000 mailboxes
    Virtualized solution running on Unisys ES7000 Servers and Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 Family

Note that I’ve added a seperate Tested Solutions page to the References section where I’ll try to keep track of these tested solutions.

Exchange 2010 Mailbox Role Calculator 14.4


Missed this one, but apparantly the Microsoft Exchange Team silently released a small update of the Exchange Mailbox Role Calculator, bringing it to version 14.4.

This version includes the following fixes since 14.2:

  • Fixed stretched DAG scenario that had one database copy in each datacenter not reporting results due to new copy validation check
  • Fixed secondary datacenter log disk calculations to correctly calculate the formatted disk space
  • Fixed Table headers in the Storage Design tab to show disk count / Secondary datacenter
  • Fixed two-node stretched DAG scenario that resulted in calculator not reporting results due to new copy validation check

You can download the calculator here, consult the changeblog here or read through the usage instructions here.

Exchange 2010 Mailbox Role Calculator 14.2


After releasing version 14.1 this week, the Microsoft Exchange Team released a small update of the Exchange Mailbox Role Calculator, bringing it to version 14.2.

This version includes the following fixes since 14.1:

  • Fixed two-node stretched DAG scenario that resulted in calculator not reporting results due to new copy validation check.

You can download the calculator here, consult the changeblog here or read through the usage instructions here.

Exchange 2010 Mailbox Role Calculator 14.1


The Microsoft Exchange Team released an important update of the Exchange Mailbox Role Calculator, bringing it to version 14.1.

This version includes the following fixes since 12.8:

  • Fixed the Activation Results Scenarios to no longer display #NAME when dealing with dedicated lagged copy servers;
  • Fixed 2 LUNs / Backup Set formula for the 11th database grouping set in the DB and Log LUN Design / Server table to display the correct number of databases in the grouping set;
  • Fixed “Number of Active Databases / SDC Server (After First PDC Server Failure)” calculations to take into account stretched Single DAG without dedicated DR servers;
  • Fixed “Number of Required Mailbox Processor Cores (Primary Datacenter)” formula to respect when site resilience is disabled and A/A (Single DAG) is selected;
  • Fixed formatting for scenario that resulted in more HA database copies being deployed in the secondary datacenter than in the primary datacenter and also improved validation checks;
  • Updated “Custom Number of Databases” (Input Section) and “Number of Databases” (Role Requirements section) text to indicate in standalone situations that the “Custom Number of Databases” is per server and “Number of Databases” is for the environment;
  • Fixed 2nd PDC failure formula to enable site resilient scenarios that have 3 copies in PDC to allow double server failure event;
  • Optimized Number of Mailboxes per Database (I/O Driven) to not round up odd numbers to the next even number;
  • Fixed text in various comment fields.

This version also contains the following enhancements:

  • Added conditional formatting for Exchange Native Data Protection input factor to alert when you are deploying with less than the recommended number of HA copies;
  • The calculator now includes the ability to select different disk types and capacities for the storage architecture being deployed in the secondary data center.

Consult the changeblog here.You can download the calculator here. Usage instructions can be found here.

MS publishes Exchange 2010 Tested Solutions


Microsoft published several technical solution papers on how to design, test and verify Exchange 2010 solutions for a certain number of mailboxes for a few vendors. The papers are as follows:

The documents walk you through the steps regarding design decisions, challenges while meeting customer requirements.