[This is pre-release documentation and subject to change in future releases.
This topic's current status is: Ready for Tech Review.]
Applies to: Exchange Server 2010
Before you install Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, we recommend that you review this topic to ensure that your network, hardware, software, clients, and other elements meet the requirements for Exchange 2010.
Network and Directory Servers
The following table lists the requirements for the network and the directory servers in your Exchange 2010 organization.
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Component
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Requirement
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Schema master (By default, the schema master runs on the first Windows 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domain controller installed in a forest.)
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The latest 32-bit or 64-bit edition of the Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise operating system or the latest 32-bit or 64-bit edition of the Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise operating system.
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Global catalog server
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In every Active Directory site where you plan to install Exchange 2010, you must have at least one global catalog server that is either the latest 32-bit or 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise or the latest 32-bit or 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise.
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Active Directory Forest
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Active Directory must be at least in Windows Server 2003 forest functionality mode.
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Directory Server Architecture
The use of 64-bit Active Directory domain controllers increases directory service performance. In previous versions of Exchange, we recommended a 4:1 ratio of Exchange processors to global catalog server processors, assuming that the processors are of similar models and speeds. This recommendation still applies in Exchange 2010.
Installing Exchange 2010 on Directory Servers
For security and performance reasons, we recommend that you install Exchange 2010 only on member servers and not on Active Directory directory servers. However, you can't run DCPromo on a computer running Exchange 2010. After Exchange 2010 is installed, changing its role from a member server to a directory server, or vice versa, isn't supported.
The recommended hardware requirements for Exchange 2010 servers vary depending on a number of factors including the server role(s) that are installed and the anticipated load that will be placed on the servers. For information about minimum, maximum, and recommended hardware configurations for Exchange 2010 servers see Performance and Scalability.
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Component
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Requirement
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Notes
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Processor
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x64 architecture-based computer with Intel processor that supports Intel 64 architecture (formerly known as Intel EM64T)
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AMD processor that supports the AMD64 platform
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Intel Itanium IA64 processors not supported
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Memory
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Varies depending on Exchange features that are installed.
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For detailed information about memory requirements for Exchange 2010, see Understanding Memory Configurations and Exchange Performance.
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Disk space
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At least 1.2 GB on the drive on which you install Exchange
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An additional 500 MB of available disk space for each Unified Messaging (UM) language pack that you plan to install
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200 MB of available disk space on the system drive
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A hard disk drive that stores the message queue database on an Edge Transport server or Hub Transport server with at least 500 MB of free space
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The minimum space requirements detailed here do not account for disk sub-system requirements for adequate performance. For detailed information about storage performance requirements, see Understanding Storage Configurations and Exchange Performance.
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Drive
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DVD-ROM drive, local or network accessible
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None.
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Screen resolution
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800 x 600 pixels or higher
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None.
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File format
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Disk partitions formatted as NTFS file systems, which applies to the following partitions:
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System partition
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Partitions that store Exchange binary files
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Partitions containing transaction log files
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Partitions containing database files
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Partitions containing other Exchange files
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None.
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For more information about planning your hardware for Exchange 2010, see the following topics:
The following table lists the supported operating systems for Exchange 2010.
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Component
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Requirement
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Operating system on a computer that has a 64-bit processor
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One of the following:
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64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Standard Service Pack 2
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64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Service Pack 2
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64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Standard R2
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64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise R2
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Operating system for installing the Exchange management tools on a computer that has a 64-bit processor
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One of the following:
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Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 or later for management tools only installation
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Microsoft supports Exchange 2010 in production on hardware virtualization software only when all the following conditions are true:
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The hardware virtualization software is running:
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Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V technology
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Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V technology
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Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008
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Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
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Any third-party hypervisor that has been validated under the Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program.
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The Exchange Server guest virtual machine:
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Is running Microsoft Exchange 2010.
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Is deployed on the Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.
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Does not have the Unified Messaging server role installed. All Exchange 2010 server roles, except for the Unified Messaging role, are supported in a virtualization environment.
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Meets all of the requirements set forth above in this topic.
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The storage used by the Exchange Server guest machine can be virtual storage of a fixed size (for example, fixed virtual hard drives (VHDs) in a Hyper-V environment), SCSI pass-through storage, or Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage. Pass-through storage is storage that is configured at the host level and dedicated to one guest machine. Pass-through volumes must be presented as block-level storage to the hardware virtualization software, because Exchange 2010 does not support using network attached storage (NAS) volumes.
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In a Hyper-V environment, each fixed VHD must be less than 2,040 gigabytes (GB). For supported third-party hypervisors, check with the manufacturer to see if any disk size limitations exist.
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Virtual disks that dynamically expand are not supported by Exchange.
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Virtual disks that use differencing or delta mechanisms (such as Hyper-V's differencing VHDs or snapshots) are not supported.
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Only management software (for example, antivirus software, backup software, virtual machine management software, etc.) can be deployed on the physical root machine. No other server-based applications (e.g., Exchange Server, SQL Server, Active Directory, SAP, etc.) should be installed on the root machine. The root machine should be dedicated to running guest virtual machines.
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Microsoft does not support combining Exchange high availability solutions (namely, database availability groups (DAGs)) with hypervisor-based clustering, high availability or migration solutions. DAGs are supported in hardware virtualization environments provided that the virtualization environment does not employ clustered root servers.
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Some hypervisors include features for taking snapshots of virtual machines. Virtual machine snapshots capture the state of a virtual machine while it is running. This feature enables you to take multiple snapshots of a virtual machine and then revert the virtual machine to any of the previous states by applying a snapshot to the virtual machine. However, virtual machine snapshots are not application-aware, and using them can have unintended and unexpected consequences for a server application that maintains state data, such as Exchange Server. As a result, making virtual machine snapshots of an Exchange guest virtual machine is not supported.
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Many hardware virtualization products allow you to specify the number of virtual processors that should be allocated to each guest virtual machine. The virtual processors located in the guest virtual machine share a fixed number of logical processors in the physical system. Exchange supports a virtual processor-to-logical processor ratio no greater than 2:1. For example, a dual processor system using quad core processors contains a total of 8 logical processors in the host system. On a system with this configuration, do not allocate more than a total of 16 virtual processors to all guest virtual machines combined.
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When calculating the total number of virtual processors required by the root machine, you must also account for both I/O and operating system requirements. In most cases, the equivalent number of virtual processors required in the root operating system for a system hosting Exchange virtual machines is 2. This value should be used as a baseline for the root operating system virtual processor when calculating the overall ratio of physical cores to virtual processors. If performance monitoring of the root operating system indicates you are consuming more processor utilization than the equivalent of 2 processors, you should reduce the count of virtual processors assigned to guest virtual machines accordingly and verify that the overall virtual processor-to-physical core ratio is no greater than 2:1.
Guest Virtual Machine Storage Requirements
The operating system for an Exchange guest machine must use a fixed sized disk that has a minimum size equal to 15 GB plus the size of the virtual memory that is allocated to the guest machine. This requirement is necessary to account for the operating system and paging file disk requirements. For example, if the guest machine is allocated 16 GB of memory, the minimum disk space needed for the guest operating system disk is 31 GB.
In addition, it's possible that guest virtual machines may be prevented from directly communicating with fibre channel or SCSI host bus adapters (HBAs) installed in the root machine. In this event, you must configure the adapters in the root machine's operating system and present the LUNs to guest virtual machines as either a virtual disk of fixed size or a pass-through disk.
Root Machine Storage Requirements
Each root machine has minimum disk space requirements that must be met:
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Root machines in some hardware virtualization applications may require storage space for an operating system and its components. For example, when running Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, you will need a minimum of 10 GB to meet the Windows Server 2008 System Requirements for the operating system. Additional storage space will also be required to support the operating system's paging file, management software, and crash recovery (dump) files.
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Some hypervisors maintain files on the root machine that are unique to each guest virtual machine. For example, in a Hyper-V environment, a temporary memory storage file (BIN file) is created and maintained for each guest machine. The size of each BIN file is equal to the amount of memory allocated to the guest machine. In addition, other files may also be created and maintained on the host machine for each guest machine.
Exchange Server Storage Requirements
Following are the requirements for storage connected to a virtualized Exchange server:
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Each Exchange Server guest machine must be allocated sufficient storage space on the root machine for the fixed disk that contains the guest's operating system, any temporary memory storage files in use, and related virtual machine files that are hosted on the host machine. In addition, for each Exchange guest machine, you must also allocate sufficient storage for the message queues on Hub Transport and Edge Transport servers and sufficient storage for the databases and log files on Mailbox servers.
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Storage used by Exchange should be hosted in disk spindles that are separate from the storage that is hosting the guest virtual machine's operating system.
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Configuring iSCSI storage to use an iSCSI initiator inside an Exchange guest virtual machine is supported. However, there will be reduced performance in this configuration because the network stack inside a virtual machine is not as full-featured as a non-virtualized network stack (for example, a virtual network stack does not support jumbo frames).
For more information about installing Exchange 2010, see the following topics: